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A  most  Interesting  and  Valuable  Work. 
SOUTHERN    HISTORY   OF   THE    WAR; 

*^i*.   S*^X*S^        ^iS—V^. 


EDWAED  £    POLLAED, 


Late    Editor    of    tlie    Rielmiond.    Examiner. 

ONE  VOL.,  8vo.;  1258  PAGES. 
*o»*^  Cloth,  $5.00.   Half  Calf,  library  binding,  $7.50 

WITH  SPLENDID  STEEL  PORTRAITS  OF 

Jefferson  Davis,  Gen.  Braxton  Bragg,  Gen.  John  P.  Hood, 

Alex.  H.  Stephens,  Gen.  R.  S.  Ewell,  Gen.  E.  Kirby  Smith, 

Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee,  Gen.  Leonidas  Polk,  Gen.  Sterling  Price, 

Gen.  Joseph  S.  Johnston,  Gen.  Wade  Hampton,  Gen.  W.  J.  Hardee, 

Gen.  T.  J.  Jackson,  Gen.  Samuel  Cooper,  Gen.  John  Morgan, 

Gen.  P.  G.  T.  Beauregard,  Gen.  James  Tjongstreet,  and  the  Author. 

Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill,    ^*^*^*vOi    >*»•* 

-       . 

A  recent  statement  of  Mr.  POLLARD  having  been  so  misunderstood  as  to  give  rise, 
in  some  quarters,  to  the  extraordinary  impression  that  he  (Mr.  POLLARD)  is  not  the 
author  of  "THE  SOUTHERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAR,"  now  published  by  me,  or  had 
not  authorized  its  publication,  the  inclosed  extracts  from  one  of  his  recent  letters  to 
me  are  published,  as  being  sufficient  to  set  the  matter  at  rest.  The  proof-sheets  he 
refers  to  are  those  of  the  last  year  of  the  war — his  concluding  chapters. 

The  Press  everywhere  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  this  admirable  and  interesting 
history,  and  its  immense  sale  in  every  section  of  the  country  attests  its  universal 
popularity.  It  is  for  sale  by  canvassing  agents  everywhere. 

C.  B.  RICHARDSON,  Publisher, 

540  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK. 


SOUTHERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAR, 


C  EN.  R.  E.  LEE 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY 


OF 


THE    WAR. 


E.  A.  POLLARD, 

tDiTOB    OF    THE    "BICHMOXD 


TWO  VOLUMES  IN  ONE. 


NEW  YOKE: 
CHAKLES    B.    HIGH  ARDSON, 


540  BROADWAY. 
1866. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  186<J, 
BT  CHARLES  B.  BICHAKDSON, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 
oi  New  York. 


PUBLISHERS  ANNOUNCEMENT. 


IN  issuing  in  the  convenient  form  of  two  volumes  the  South 
ern  History  of  the  War,  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Pollard,  of  Kichmond, 
the  actuating  motive  is  the  belief  that  this  work  is  one  of 
permanent  historical  value. 

Of  the  two  classes  of  historical  composition — namely,  that 
which  is  made  contemporaneously  with  the  transactions  re 
corded  and  that  which  is  made  after  the  interval  of  years — it 
must  always  happen  that  the  former  will  show  errors  of  fact, 
errors  in  the  interpretation  of  facts,  and  errors  in  the  correla 
tion  of  facts.  These  a  calm,  judicial  survey  will  readily 
avoid.  Yet  public  appreciation  accounts  such  faults  to  be 
fully  countervailed  by  the  life-like  interest  of  the  narrative,  by 
the  revelations  of  actual  motive  on  the  part  of  the  actors  and 
by  a  fone  and  color  of  reality  that  only  portraiture  from  the 
life  can  convey. 

The  work  of  Mr.  Pollard  belongs  to  the  former  category. 
That  many  things  are  now  known  more  justly  than  when  the 
author  poured  forth,  from  the  warm  feeling  of  the  moment, 
his  thoughts,  impressions,  and  aspirations,  it  is  easy  to  believe. 
There  is  also  much  in  the  tone,  of  the  book  that  now,  since  the 
close  of  the  war  and  the  failure  of  the  Secession  experiment, 
might  appropriately  be  changed. 

Yet  granting  all  these  drawbacks,  which  are  inseparable  from 
contemporaneous  composition,  the  work  of  Mr.  Pollard  remains 
one  of  marked  and  peculiar  value.  Living  at  the  centre  of  the 
Confederate  power,  Mr.  Pollard's  opportunities  for  penetrating 

248658 


6  PREFACE. 

the  real  springs  of  action  were  excellent.  Gifted  with  a  re 
mark  able  keen  ness  of  observation  and  analysis,  he  has  expressed 
with  pun  gent  power  the  judgments  of  a  mind  distinguished  for 
its  independence.  A  Secessionist  d  Voutrance,  believing  with 
all  the  strength  of  his  nature  in  the  Confederate  cause,  he  was 
yet  a  caustic  critic  of  the  Confederate  government  and  of  those 
charged  with  its  administration  and  the  conduct  of  the  war ; 
and  he  had  the  talent  to  express  these  views  in  a  style  of  ner 
vous  and  vigorous  eloquence. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  this  work  was 
composed  ;  and  its  pre-eminent  value  arises  from  the  fact  that 
it  photographs  the  events  of  the  war  in  the  circumstances  of 
their  actual  performance ;  the  motives  of  action  as  they  real!} 
revealed  themselves,  and  the  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the 
South  as  they  beat  in  the  breasts  of  living  men.  Doubtless 
some  things  in  this  history  might  be  corrected  ;  some  made 
to  conform  to  accomplished  facts.  But  this  would  be  to  take 
away  from  rather  than  to  add  to  its  essential  value,  which 
is  that  of  a  memoire pour  servir.  As  such,  it  must  always  re 
main  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  war ;  and 
from  the  side  of  the  South  it  is  the  only  complete  record  of  the 
momentous  four  years  during  which  Secession  was  fought  for 
and  lost. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Deltisive  Ideas  of  the  Union. — Administration  of  John  Adirns. — The  "  Strict  Con- 
Btructionists."— The  "State  Rights"  Men  in  the  North.— The  Missouri  Restriction.— 
General  Jackson  and  the  Nullification  Question. — The  Compromise  Measures  of  1850. 
—History  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Party.— The  "  Finckney  Resolutions."— The  Twenty- 
first  Rule. — The  Abolitionists  in  the  Presidential  Canvass  of  1852. — The  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill.— The  Rise*  and  Growth  of  the  Republican  Party.— The  Election  or 
President  Buchanan. — The  Kansas  Controversy. — "Lecompton"  and  "  Anti-Lecomp- 
ton." — Results  of  the  Kansas  Controversy. — The  John  Brown  Raid. — "  Helper's 
Book." — Demoralization  of  the  Northern  Democratic  Party. — The  Faction  of  Stephen 
A.  Douglas.— The  Alabama  Resolutions.— The  Political  Platforms  of  I860.— Election 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States. — Analysis  of  the  Vote. — Politico 
Condition  of  the  North.— Secession  of  South  Carolina. — Events  in  Charleston  Harbor. 
—Disagreements  in  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet. — The  Secession  Movement  in  Progress. 
— Peace  Measures  in  Congress. — The  Crittendcn  Resolutions. — The  Peace  Congress. — 
Policy  of  the  Border  Slave  States. — Organization  of  the  Confederate  States  Govern 
ment. — President  Buchanan. — incoming  of  the  Administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
— Strength  of  the  Revolution PAGE  17 


CHAPTER  II. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Journey  to  Washington. — Ceremonies  of  the  Inauguration. — The  In 
augural  Speech  of  President  Lincoln.— The  Spirit  of  the  New  Administration. — Its  Fi 
nancial  Condition. — Embassy  from  the  Southern  Confederacy. — Perfidious  Treatment 
of  the  Southern  Commissioners. — Preparations  for  War. — The  Military  Bills  of  the 
Confederate  Congress. — General  Beauregard. — Fortifications  of  Charleston  Harbor. — 
Naval  Preparations  of  the  Federal  Government. — Attempted  Reinforcement  of  Fort 
Sumter.— Perfidy  of  the  Federal  Government.— Excitement  in  Charleston.— Reduction 
of  Fort  Sumter  by  the  Confederate  Forces. — How  the  News  was  received  in  Wash 
ington. — Lincoln's  Calculation. — His  Proclamation  of  WAR. — The  "  Reaction"  in  the 
North. — Displays  of  Rancor  towards  the  South. — Northern  Democrats. — Replies  of 
Southern  Governors  to  Lincoln's  Requisition  for  Troops. — Spirit  of  the  South. — Seces 
sion  of  Virginia.— Maryland. — The  Baltimore  Riot. — Patriotic  Example  of  Missouri.— 
Lincoln's  Proclamation  blockading  the  Southern  Ports. — 'General  Lee. — The  Federals 
evacuate  Harper's  Ferry. — Burning  of  the  Navy  Yard  at  Norfolk. — The  Second 
Secessionary  Movement. — Spirit  of  Patriotic  Devotion  in  the  South. — Supply  of 
Arms  in  the  South. — The  Federal  Government  and  the  State  of  Maryland. — The  Pros 
pect ..PAGK47 


CONTENTS. 


OHAPTEK  III. 

Confidence  )f  the  North.— Characteristic  Boasts.— "  Crushing  out  the  Rebellion."- 
Volunteering  in  the  Northern  Cities. — The  New  York  "Invincibles." — Misrepresenta 
tions  of  the  Government  at  Washington. — Mr.  Seward's  Letter  to  the  French  Govern 
ment. — Another  Call  for  Federal  Volunteers.  —Opening  Movements  of  the  Campaign* 
—The  Federal  Occupation  of  Alexandria.— Death  of  Col.  Ellsworth.— Fortress  MCT>- 
roe. — The  BATTLE  OF  BETHEL. — Eesults  of  this  Battle. — Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston.— 
The  Upper  Potomac. — Evacuation  and  Destruction  of  Harper's  Ferry. — The  Move 
ments  in  the  Upper  Portion  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia. — Northwestern  Virginia. — The 
BATTLE  OF  KICH  MOUNTAIN. — Carrock's  Ford. — The  Ketreat  of  the  Confederates. — 
General  McClellan. — Meeting  of  the  Federal  Congress. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Message. — 
Kentucky.-*- Western  Virginia. — Large  Eequisitions  for  Men  and  Money  by  the  Fed 
eral  Government. — Its  Financial  Condition. — Financial  Measures  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy. — Contrast  between  the  Ideas  of  the  Eival  Governments. — Conserva 
tism  of  the  Southern  Revolution.-^-Despotic  Excesses  of  the  Government  at  Wash 
ington , PAGE  76 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

* 

The  "Grand  Army"  of  the  North.— General  McDowell.— The  Affair  of  Bull  Rim.— 
An  Artillery  Duel. — THE  BATTLE  OF  MANASSAS. — "  On  to  Richmond." — Scenery  of  the 
Battle-field.— Crises  in  the  Battle.— Devoted  Courage  of  the  Confederates.— THE  ROUT 
— How  the  News  was  received  in  Washington. — How  it  was  received  in  the  South. — 
General  Bee. — Colonel  Bartow. — The  Great  Error. — General  Johnston's  Excuses  for 
not  advancing  on  Washington. — INCIDENTS  OF  THE  MANASSAS  BATTLE PAGE  101 

CHAPTER  Y. 

Results  of  the  Manassas  Battle  in  the  North.— General  Scott.— McClellan,  "  the 
Young  Napoleon." — Energy  of  the  Federal  Government. — The  Bank  Loan. — Events 
in  the  West. — The  MISSOURI  CAMPAIGN. — Governor  Jackson's  Proclamation. — Sterling 
Price. — The  Affair  of  Booneville. — Organization  of  the  Missouri  forces. — The  BATTLE 
OF  CAKTHAGE. — General  McCulloch. — The  BATTLE  OF  OAK  HILL. — Death*  of  General 
Lyon. — The  Confederate  Troops  leave  Missouri. — Operations  in  Northern  Missouri. — 
General  Harris. — General  Price's  march  towards  the  Missouri. — The  Affair  at  Dry- 
wood  Creek.. — The  BATTLE  OF  LEXINGTON. — The  Jayhawkers. — The  Victory  of  "  the 
Five  Hundred." — General  Price's  Achievements. — His  Retreat,  and  the  necessity  for 
it. — Operations  of  General  Jeff.  Thompson  in  Southeastern  Missouri. — The  Affair  of 
Fredericktown. — General  Price's  passage  of  the  Osage  River. — Secession  of  Missouri 
from  the  Federal  Union. — Fremont  superseded.— The  Federal  forces  in  Missouri  de 
moralized. — General  Price  at  Springfield. — Review  of  his  Campaign. — SKETCH  o* 
GENERAL  PRICE. — Coldness  of  the  Government  towards  him PACK  130 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

The  Campaign  in  Western  Virginia. — General  Wise's  Command. — Political  Influ 
nces  in  Western  Virginia. — The  Affair  of  Scary  Creek. — General  Wise's  Retreat  to 
Lewisburg. — General  Floyd's  Brig'ade. — The  Affair  at  Cross  Lanes. — Movements  oa 
ihe  Gauley.— The  Affair  of  Carnifax  Ferry.— Disagreement  between  Generals  Floy 


CONTENTS.  9 

and  Wise.— The  Tyrees.— -  A  Patriotic  Woman.— Movement*,  in  Northwestern  Vir 
ginia. — General  Lee. — The  Enemy  intrenched  on  Cheat  Mountain. — General  Rose- 
crans. — Failure  of  General  Lee's  Plan  of  Attack. — He  removes  to  the  Kanawha  Re 
gion. — The  Opportunity  of  a  Decisive  Battle  lost. — Retreat  of  Rosecrans. — General 
H.  R.  Jackson's  Affair  on  the  Greenbrier. — The  Approach  of  Winter. — The  Campaign 
in  Western  Virginia  abandoned. — The  Affair  on  the  Alleghany. — General  Floyd  a 
Cotton  Hill. — His  masterly  Retreat. — Review  of  the  Campaign  in  Western  Virginia.— 
Some  of  its  Incidents. — Its  Failure  and  unfortunate  Results. — Other  Movements  i» 
Virginia. — The  Potomac  Line. — The  BATTLE  OF  LEESBUKO. — Overweening  Confidence 
of  the  South. . .  PAGE  165 


CHAPTEE  YIL 

The  Position  and  Policy  of  Kentucky  in  the  War. — Kentucky  Chivalry. — Reminis 
cences  of  the  "  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground." — Protection  of  the  Northwest  by  Ken 
tucky. — How  the  Debt  of  Gratitude  has  been  repaid. — A  Glance  at  the  Hartford 
Convention. — The  Gubernatorial  Canvass  of  1859  in  Kentucky. — Division  of  Parties. — 
Other  Causes  for  the  Disloyalty  of  Kentucky. — The  "Pro-Slavery  and  Union"  Resolu 
tions.— The  "  State  Guard."— General  Buckner.— The  Pretext  of  "  Neutrality,"  and 
what  it  meant. — The  Kentucky  Refugees. — A  Reign  of  Terror. — Judge  Monroe  ia 
Nashville. — General  Breckinridge. — Occupation  of  Columbus  by  General  Polk. — The 
Neutrality  of  Kentucky  first  broken  by  the  North. — General  Buckner  at  Bowling 
Green.— Camp  "  Dick  Robinson."— The  "  Home  Guard."— The  Occupation  of  Colum 
bus  by  the  Confederates  explained. — Cumberland  Gap. — General  Zollicoffer's  Procla 
mation.— The  Affair  of  Barboursville.— "  The  Wild-Cat  Stampede."— The  Virginia 
and  Kentucky  Border.— The  Affair  of  Piketon.— Suffering  of  our  Troops  at  Pound 
Gap.— The  "Union  Party"  in  East  Tennessee.— Keelan,  the  Hero  of  Strawberry 
Plains. — The  Situation  on  the  Waters  of  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee. — THE  BATTLE  OB- 
BELMONT. — Weakness  of  our  Forces  in  Kentucky. — General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston. — 
Inadequacy  of  his  Forces  at  Bowling  Green. — Neglect  and  Indifference  of  the  Con 
federate  Authorities. — A  Crisis  imminent. — Admission  of  Kentucky  into  the  Southern 
Confederacy PAGE  189 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

Prospects  of  European  Interference.— The  selfish  Calculations  of  England.— Effects 
of  the  Blockade  on  the  South. — Arrest  by  Capt.  Wilkes  of  the  Southern  Commission 
ers.— The  Indignation  of  England.— Surrender  of  the  Commissioners  by  the  Lincoln 
Government. — Mr.  Seward's  Letter. — REVIEW  OF  AFFAIRS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  YEAR 
1861.— Apathy  and  Improvidence  of  the  Southern  Government. — Superiority  of  the 
North  on  the  Water. — The  Hatteras  Expedition. — The  Port  Royal  Expedition. — The 
Southern  Privateers. — Their  Failure. — Errors  of  Southern  Statesmanship. — "King 
Cotton."— Episodes  of  the  War.— The  Affair  of  Santa  Rosa  Island.— The  Affair  of 
Dranesville. — Political  Measures  of  the  South. — A  weak  and  halting  Policy. — The 
Spirit  of  the  War  in  the  North. — Administration  of  the  Civil  Polity  of  the  Southern 
Army.— The  Quarter-master's  Department.— Hygiene  of  the  Camps.— Ravages  of  the 
Southern  Army  by  Disease.— The  Devotion  of  the  Women  of  the  South PAGE  212 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

Prospects  of  the  Year  1862.— The  Lines  of  the  Potomac.— General  Jackson's  Expe 
dition  to  Winchester.— The  BATTLE  OF  MILL  Srnnras  IN  KENTUCKY.— General  Grit 


10  CONTENTS. 

tenden. — Death  of  General  Zollicoffer. — Sufferings  of  Crittenden's  Army  en  th€ 
Eetreat. — Comparative  Unimportance  of  the  Disaster. — The  BATTLE  OF  RGANOK* 
ISLAND. — Importance  of  the  Island  to  the  South. — Death  of  Captain  Wise. — Causes  of 
the  Disaster  to  the  South. — Investigation  in  Congress. — Censure  of  the  Government. — 
Interviews  of  General  Wise  with  Mr.  Benjamin,  the  Secretary  of  War. — Mr.  Benjamin 
censured  by  Congress,  but  retained  in  the  Cabinet. — His  Promotion  by  President 
Davis. — Condition  of  the  Popular  Sentiment PAGE  226 


CHAPTEK  X. 

The  Situation  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky. — The  affair  at  Woodsonville. — Death  of 
Colonel  Terry. — The  Strength  and  Material  of  the  Federal  Force  in  Kentucky. — Con 
dition  of  the  Defences  on  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland  Elvers. — The  Confederate 
Congress  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy. — The  Fall  of  Fort  Henry. — Fort  Donelson 
threatened. — The  Army  of  General  A.  S.  Johnston. — His  Interview  with  General 
Beauregard. — Insensibility  of  the  Confederate  Government  to  the  Exigency. — General 
Johnston's  Plan  of  Action. — BATTLE  OF  FOET  DONELSON. — Carnage  and  Scenery  of  the 
Battle-field. — The  Council  of  the  Southern  Commanders. — Agreement  to  surrender. 
—Escape  of  Generals  Floyd  and  Pillow. — The  Fall  of  Fort  Donelson  develops  the 
Crisis  in  the  West.— The  Evacuation  of  Nashville.— The  Panic.— Extraordinary 
Scenes. — Experience  of  the  Enemy  in  Nashville. — The  Adventures  of  Captain  John 
Morgan. — General  Johnston  at  Murfreesboro. — Organization  of  a  New  Line  of  Defence 
South  of  Nashville. — The  Defence  of  Memphis  and  the  Mississippi. — Island  No.  10. — 
Serious  Character  of  the  Disaster  at  Donelson. — Generals  Floyd  and  Pillow  "  re 
lieved  from  Command." — General  Johnston's  Testimony  in  favor  of  these  Officers. — 
President  Davis's  Punctilio. — A  sharp  Contrast. — Negotiation  for  the  Exchange  of 
Prisoners. — A  Lesson  of  Yankee  Perfidy. — Mr.  Benjamin's  Kelease  of  Yankee 
Hostages PAGE  241 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Organization  of  the  permanent  Government  of  the  South. — The  Policy  of  England. 
— Declaration  of  Earl  Russell.— Onset  of  the  Northern  Forces. — President  Davis's 
Message  to  Congress. — The  Addition  of  New  States  and  Territories  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy. — Our  Indian  Allies. — The  Financial  Condition,  North  and  South. — De 
ceitful  Prospects  of  Peace.— Effect  of  the  Disasters  to  the  South. — Action  of  Congress. 
— The  Conscript  Bill. — Provisions  vs.  Cotton. — Barbarous  Warfare  of  the  North. — The 
Anti-slavery  Sentiment. — How  it  was  unmasked  in  the  War. — Emancipation  Measures 
in  the  Federal  Congress. — Spirit  of  the  Southern  People. — The  Administration  of  Jef 
ferson  Davis. — His  Cabinet. — The  Defensive  Policy. — The  NAVAL  ENGAGEMENT  IN 
HAMPTON  ROADS. — Iron-clad  Vessels. — What  the  Southern  Government  might  have 
done. — The  Narrative  of  General  Price's  Campaign  resumed. — His  Retreat  into  Ar 
kansas. — The  BATTLE  OF  ELK  HORN. — Criticism  of  the  Result. — Death  of  General  Mc- 
Culloch. — Th<3  BATTLE  OF  VALVERDE. — The  Foothold  of  the  Confederates  in  New 
Mexico. — Change  of  the  Plan  of  Campaign  in  Virginia.  —Abandonment  of  the  Potoma« 
Line  by  the  Confederates. — The  BATTLE  OF  KERNSTOWN. — Colonel  Turner  Ashby.— 
Appearance  of  McClellan's  Army  on  the  Peninsula.— Firmness  of  General  Magruder 
—The  New  Situation  of  the  War  in  Virginia. — Recurrence  of  Disasters  to  the  South 
on  the  Water.— The  Capture  of  Newbern.— Fall  of  Fort  Pulaski  and  Fort  Macon.— 
>Common  Sense  vs.  "  West  Point." PA«  2&* 


CONTENTS.  11 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Campaign  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. — Bombardment  of  Island  No.  10. — Fruits 
of  the  Northern  Victory.— Movements  of  the  Federals  on  the  Tennessee  River.— THE 
BATTLE  OF  SHILOH. — Death  of  General  Johnston. — The  Federal  Expeditions  into 
North  Alabama. — Withdrawal  of  the  Confederate  Forces  from  the  Trans-Mississippi 
District.— THE  FALL  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.— The  Flag.— Major-General  Butler.. PAGE  297 


CHAPTER  XHI. 

The  Extremity  of  the  South. — The  Campaign  in  Virginia. — Jackson's  Campaign  in 
the  Valley.— Sketch  of  the  Battles  around  Richmond.— Effect  of  McClellan's  Defeat 
upon  the  North— President  Davis's  congratulatory  Order.— General  Pope's  Military 
Orders. — Summary  of  the  War  Legislation  of  the  Northern  Congress. — Retaliation 
on  the  part  of  the  Confederacy. — The  Cartel. — Prospects  of  European  Interference. 
— Progress  of  the  War  in  the  West. — The  Defence  of  Vicksburg. — Morgan's  great 
Raid.— The  Tennessee- Virginia  Frontier.— The  Confederate  Congress.— The  Cam 
paign  in  Virginia  again. — The  signal  Victory  of  the  Thirtieth  of  August  on  the  Plains 
of  Manassas.—A.  Review  of  its  Military  Results PAGE  328 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

The  New  Orleans  Disaster. — Its  Consequences  and  Effects. — Public  Opinion  in 
Europe. — Execution  of  Mumford. — Change  in  the  Fortunes  of  the  Confederacy. — 
The  Conscription  Law. — Governor  Brown  of  Georgia. — Reorganization  of  the  Army. 
— Abandonment  of  Frontier  Defences. — Concentration. — First  Movements  of  the 
Summer  Campaign  in  Virginia. — Retreat  from  Yorktown. — Evacuation  of  Norfolk. — 
Destruction  of  the  "Virginia." — Commodore  Tatuall's  Report. — The  Engagement 
of  Williamsburg. — The  Affair  of  Barhamsville. — McClellan's  Investment  of  the  Lines 
of  the  Chickahominy. — Alarm  in  Richmond. — The  Water  Avenue  of  the  James. — 
Consternation  in  the  President's  House. — President  Davis  and  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia. — Noble  Resolutions  of  the  Legislature. — Response  of  Richmond. — The 
Bombardment  of  Drewry's  Bluff. — Renewal  of  Public  Confidence. — JACKSON'S  CAM 
PAIGN  IN  THE  VALLEY. — The  Engagement  of  McDowell. — The  Surprise  at  Front 
Royal.— Banks'  Retreat.— Port  Republic.— Results.— Sufferings  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Shenandoah. — MEMOIR  OF  TURNER  ASHBY.  . . ,  .  .PAGE  367 


CHAPTER  XY. 

Strategic  Importance  of  Richmond. — THE  BATTLE  OF  SEVEN  PINES. — Miscarriage 
of  General  Johnston's  Plans. — THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  CHICKAHOMINY. — Storming  o 
the  Enemy's  Intrench ments. — McClellan  driven  from  his  Northern  Line  of  Defences. 
—The  Affair  of  Savage  Station.— The  Battle  of  Frazier's  Farm.— Battle  of  Malvern 
Hill. — The  Enemy  in  Communication  with  his  Gunboats. — The  Failure  to  cut  him  off. 
— Glory  and  Fruits  of  our  Victory. — Safety  of  Richmond. — Other  Parts  of  the  Con 
federacy.— Engagement  of  Secessionville.— The  Campaign  of  the  West.— The  Evac 
uation  of  Corinth.— Capture  of  Memphis.— Siege  of  Vicksburg.— Morgan's  Raid  into 
Kentucky. — The  Tennessee  and  Virginia  Frontier PAGE  409 


12  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Effect  of  McClollan's  Defeat  in  the  North.— Call  for  more  Troops.— Why  tLa  Ncrth 
was  not  easily  dispirited. — The  War  as  a  Money  Job. — Note:  Gen.  Washington' 
Opinion  of  New  England. — The  Yankee  Finances. — Exasperation  of  Hostilities. — The 
Yankee  Idea  of  a  "Vigorous  Prosecution  of  the  War." — Ascendancy  of  the  Radicals. 
— War  Measures  at  Washington. — Anti-Slavery  Aspects  of  the  War. — Brutality  of  the 
Yankees. — The  .rfeensibility  of  Europe. — Yankee  Chaplains  in  Virginia. — Seizures  of 
Private  Property. — Pope's  Orders  in  Virginia. — Steinwehr's  Order  respecting  Host 
ages. — The  Character  and  Services  of  Gen.  John  Pope. — The  u  Army  of  Virginia."— 
Irruption  of  the  Northern  Spoilsmen.— The  Yankee  Trade  in  Counterfeit  Confederate 
Notes. — Pope's  "  Chasing  the  Rebel  Hordes." — Movement  against  Pope  by  "  Stone 
wall"  Jackson. — BATTLE  OF  CEDAR  MOUNTAIN. — McClellan  recalled  from  the  Penin 
sula. — The  Third  Grand  Army  of  the  North. — Jackson's  Surprise  of  the  Enemy  at 
Manassas. — A  Rapid  and  Masterly  Movement. — Change  of  the  Situation. — Attack  by 
the  Enemy  upon  Bristow  Station  and  at  Manassas  Junction. — Marshalling  of  the 
Hosts. — Longstreet's  Passage  of  Thoroughfare  Gap. — The  Plans  of  Gen.  Lee. — Spirit 
of  our  Troops.— Their  Painful  Marches.— THK  SKOOND  BATTLE  OF  MANASSAS.— A  ter 
rible  Bayonet  Charge. — Rout  of  the  Enemy. — A  hideous  Battle-field. — Gen.  Lee  and 
the  Summer  Campaign  of  Virginia,— Jackson's  Share  in  it.— Extent  of  the  Great 
Victory  of  Manassas. — Excitement  in  Washington. — The  Yankee  Army  falls  back 
upon  Alexandria  and  Washington. — Review  of  the  Situation. — Rapid  Change  in  our 
Military  Fortunes. — What  the  South  had  accomplished. — Comparison  of  Material 
Strength  between  North  and  South. — Humiliating  Result  to  the  Warlike  Reputation 
of  the  North. . .  . .  .PAGE  432 


OHAPTEK  XYII. 

Rescue  of  Virginia  from  the  Invader.— Gen.  Loring's  Campaign  in  the  Kanawha 
Valley. — A  Novel  Theatre  of  the  War. — Gen.  Lee's  Passage  of  the  Potomac. — Ilia 
Plans. — Disposition  of  ou^  Forces. — McClellan  again  at  the  Head  of  the  Yankee 
Army. — THE  BATTLE  OF  BOONSBORO'. — THE  CAPTURE  OF  HARPER'S  FERRY. — Its  Fruits 
— THE  BATTLE  OF  SHARPSBURG. — Great  Superiority  of  the  Enemy's  Numbers. — Fury 
of  the  Battle.— The  Bridge  of  Antietam.— A  Drawn  Battle.— Spectacles  of  Carnage.— 
The  Unburied  Dead. —  Gen.  Lee  retires  into  Virginia. — McClellan's  Pretence  oi 
Victory. — The  Affair  of  Shepherdstown. — Charges  against  McClellan. — His  Disgrace. 
— Review  of  the  Maryland  Campaign. — Misrepresentations  of  Gen.  Lee's  Objects.— 
His  Retreat.— Comment  of  the  New  York  "  Tribune."— The  Cold  Reception  of  the 
Confederates  in  Maryland.— Excuses  for  the  Timidity  of  the  Marylanders.— Wlu.t 
was  accomplished  by  the  Summer  Campaign  of  1862.— The  Outburst  of  Applause  in 
Europe.— Tribute  from  the  London  "  Times."— Public  Opinion  in  England.— Dis 
tinction  between  the  People  and  the  Government. — The  Mask  of  England.— OUR  Fou- 
KION  RELATIONS  IN  THE  WAR. — An  Historical  Parallel  of  Secession. — Two  Remarks  on 
the  "Neutrality"  of  Europe. — The  Yankee  Blockade  and  the  Treaty  of  Paris. — The 
Confederate  Privateers.—  Temper  of  the  South.— Fruits  of  the  Blockade PAGE  473 


CHAPTER  XVILL 

Movements  in  the  West. — The  splendid  Programme  of  the  Yankees.— Kentucky 
the  critical  Point. — Gen.  Kirby  Smith's  Advance  into  Kentucky. — THK  BATTLE  0* 
RICHMOND. — Re  option  of  the  Confederates  in  Lexington.— Expectation  of  an  Attnofe 


CONTENTS.  13 

on  Cincinnati. — Gen.  Bragg's  Plans. — Smith's  Movement  to  Bmgg's  Lines. — Escape 
of  the  Yankee  Forces  from  Cumberland  Gap. — Afi'air  of  Munfordsville. — Gen.  Bragg 
between  the  Enemy  and  the  Ohio. — An  Opportunity  for  a  decisive  Blow. — Buell'a 
Escape  to  Louisville. — The  Inauguration  of  Governor  at  Frankfort. — An  idle  Cere 
mony. — Probable  Surprise  of  Gen.  Bragg. — THE  BATTLE  OF  PERRYVILLB. — Its  Im 
mediate  Results  in  our  Favor. — Bragg's  failure  to  concentrate  his  Forces. — His  Reso 
lution  of  Retreat. — Scenes  of  the  Retreat  from  Kentucky. — Errors  of  the  Campaign. — 
A  lame  Excuse.— Public  Sentiment  in  Kentucky.— The  Demoralization  of  that 
State.— The  Lessons  of  Submission PAGE  498 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Our  Lines  in  the  Southwest. — Gen.  Breckenridge's  Attack  on  Baton  Souge.— De 
struction  of  the  Ram  Arkansas.— Gen.  Price's  Reverse  at  luka.— Desperate  Fighting.— 
THE  BATTLE  OF  CORINTH. — Van  Dorn's  hasty  Exultations. — The  Massacre  of  College 
Hill.— Wild  and  terrible  Courage  of  the  Confederates.— Our  Forces  beaten  Back.— 
Our  Lines  of  Retreat  secured. — The  Military  Prosyects  of  the  South  overshadowed. 
— THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. — Romance  of  the  War  in  Missouri. — 
Schofield's  Order  calling  out  the  Militia. — Atrocities  of  the  Yankee  Rule  in  Missouri. 
—Robbery  without  "  Red  Tape."— The  Guerrilla  Campaign.— The  Affair  of  Kirks- 
ville. — Execution  of  Col.  McCullough. — The  Affair  of  Lone  Jack. — Timely  Reinforce 
ment  of  Lexington  by  the  Yankees. — The  Palmyra  Massacre. — The  Question  of  Re 
taliation  with  the  South. — THE  MILITARY  AND  POLITICAL  SITUATION. — Survey  of  the 
Military  Situation.— Capture  of  Galveston  by  the  Yankees.— The  Enemy's  Naval 
Power. — His  Iron-clads. — Importance  of  Foundries  in  the  South. — Prospect  in  the 
Southwest. — Prospect  in  Tennessee. — Prospect  in  Virginia. — Stuart's  Raid  into  Penn 
sylvania. — Souvenirs  of  Southern  Chivalry. — The  "Soft-mannered  Rebels." — Political 
Complexion  of  the  W/r  in  the  North. — Lincoln's  "  Emancipation  Proclamation." — 
History  of  Yankee  Legislation  in  the  War. — Political  Error  of  the  Emancipation  Proc 
lamation. — Its  Effect  on  the  South. — The  Decay  of  European  Sympathy  with  the 
Abolitionists. — What  the  War  accomplished  for  Negro  Slavery  in  the  South. — Yankee 
Falsehoods  and  Bravadoes  in  Europe.— Delusion  of  Conquering  the  South  by  Starva 
tion. — Caricatures  in  the  New  York  Pictorials. — The  noble  Eloquence  of  Hunger  and 
Rags. — Manners  in  the  South. — Yankee  Warfare. — The  Desolation  of  Virginia. — 
The  Lessons  of  harsh  Necessity.  —  Improvement  of  the  Civil  Administration  of 
the  Confederacy. — Ordnance,  Manufacturing  Resources,  Quartermasters'  Supplies, 
etc ...PAGE  514 


CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Heroism  of  Virginia.— Her  Battle-fields.— Burnside's  Plan  of  Campaign.— 
Calculations  of  his  Movement  upon  Fredericksburg. — Failure  to  surprise  Gen.  Lee. — 
THE  BATTLE  OF  FREDERICKSBURG. — The  Enemy  crossing  the  River. — Their  Bombard 
ment  of  the  Town. — Scenes  of  Distress. — The  Battle  on  the  Right  Wing. — The  Story 
of  Marye's  Heights.— Repulse  of  the  Enemy.— The  old  Lesson  of  barren  Victory.— 
Death  of  Gen.  Cobb. — Death  of  Gen.  Gregg. — Romance  of  the  Story  of  Fredericks- 
burg.— Her  noble  Women.— Yankee  Sacking  of  the  Town.— A  Specimen  of  Yankee 
Warfare  in  North  Carolina.— Designs  of  the  Enemy  in  this  State.— The  Engagement* 
of  Kinston.— Glance  at  other  Theatres  of  the  War.— Gen.  Hindman's  Victory  ut 
Prairie  Grove.— Achievements  of  our  Cavalry  in  the  West.— The  Affair  of  Harts- 
ville.— Col.  Clarkson's  Expedition.— Condition  of  Events  at  the  Close  of  the  Year 
1862 1>AGE  537 


14  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Tha  eastern  Portion  of  Tennessee. —  Its  Military  Importance. —  Cocr.pos  tion  o 
Bragg' s  Army. — THE  BATTLE  OF  MURFREESBORO'. — The  Eight  Wing  of  the  Euem/> 
routed.— Bragg's  Exultations.— The  Assault  of  the  2d  of  January.—"  The  bloody 
crossing  of  Stone  River." — The  Confederates  fall  back  to  Tullahoma. — Review  of  the 
Battle-field  of  Murfreesboro'.— Repulse  of  the  Enemy  at  Vicksburg.— THE  RECAP 
TURE  OF  GALVESTON. — The  Midnight  March. — Capture  of  the  "  Harriet  Lane."— 
Arkansas  Post  taken  by  the  Yankees. — Its  Advantages. — The  affair  of  the  Rams  in 
Charleston  Harbor. — Naval  structure  of  the  Confederacy. — Capture  of  the  Yankee 
gunboat  "  Queen  of  the  West."— Heroism  of  George  Wood.— Capture  of  the  "  In- 
dianola."—  The  War  on  the  Water.— The  Confederate  Cruisers.— Prowess  of  the 
"  Alabama." PAGE  554 

CHAPTEE  XXII. 

An  extraordinary  Lull  in  the  War. — An  Affair  with  the  Enemy  on  the  Black- 
water. — Raids  in  the  West. — Van  Dorn's  Captures. — THE  MEETING  OF  CONGRESS. — 
Character  of  this  Body. — Its  Dulness  and  Servility. — Mr.  Foote  and  the  Cabinet. — 
Two  Popular  Themes  of  Confidence. — Party  Contention  in  the  North. — Successes  of 
the  Democrats  there. — Analysis  of  the  Party  Politics  of  the  North. — The  Interest  of 
New  England  in  the  War. — How  the  War  affected  the  Northwestern  Portions  of  the 
United  States. — Mr.  Foote' s  Resolutions  respecting  the  Northwestern  States. — How 
they  were  received  by  the  Southern  Public. — New  War  Measures  at  Washington. — 
Lincoln  a  Dictator. — Prospect  of  Foreign  Interference. — Action  of  the  Emperor  Na 
poleon. — Suffering  of  the  Working  Classes  in  England. — Tho  Delusions  of  an  early 
Peace. — The  Tasks  before  Congress. — Prostrate  Condition  of  the  Confederate  Fi 
nances. — President  Davis's  Blunder. — The  Errors  of  our  Financial  System. — The 
Wealth  of  the  South. — The  Impressment  Law  of  Congress. — Scarcity  of  Supplies. — 
Inflated  Prices. — Speculation  and  Extortion  in  the  Confederacy. — Three  Remarks 
about  these.— The  Verdict  of  History PAGE  575 

CHAPTEE  XXIII. 

Character  of  Military  Events  of  the  Spring  of  1863. — Repulse  of  tho  Enemy  at  Fort 
McAllister. — THE  SIEGE  OF  VICKSBURG. — The  Yazoo  Pass  Expedition. — Confederate 
Success  at  Fort  Pemberton. — The  Enemy's  Canals,  or  "Cut-offs." — Their  Failure. — 
BOMBARDMENT  OF  PORT  HUDSON.— Destruction  of  "The  Mississippi."— A  Funeral 
Pyre. — Happy  Effects  of  our  Victory. — A  Review  of  the  line  of  inland  Hostilities. — 
Hooker's  hesitation  on  the  Rappahannock.— The  Assignment  of  Confederate  com 
mands  west  of  the  Mississippi.— The  Affair  of  Kelly's  Ford.— Death  of  Major  Pel- 
ham.— NAVAL  ATTACK  ON  CHARLESTON.— Destruction  of  "The  Keokuk."— Scenery  of 
the  Bombardment.— Extent  of  the  Confederate  Success.— Events  in  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky.— Pegram's  Reverse.— The  Situation  of  Hostilities  at  the  close  of  April, 
1862 PAGE  588 

CHAPTEE  XXIY. 

Close  of  the  Second  Year  of  the  War.  Propriety  of  an  Outline  of  some  succeed 
ing  Events. — Cavalry  Enterprises  of  the  Enemy. — The  raids  in  Mississippi  and  Vir 
ginia.— SKETCH  OF  THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  RAPPASANNOCK.— The  Enemy's  Plan  of  AtUck 


CONTENTS.  15 

—The  Fight  at  Chancellorsville.— The  Splendid  Charge  of"  Stonewall"  Jackson.— 
The  Fight  at  Fredericksburg.— The  Fight  at  Salem  Church.— Summary  of  our  Victory 
— DEATH  OF  "  STONEWALL"  JACKSON.— His  Character  and  Services PAGE  604 


CHAFTEK  XXV. 

A  Period  of  Disasters. — DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. — Grant's  March  upon 
Vicksburg.— Its  Steps  and  Incidents.— The  Engagement  of  Port  Gibson.— The  Evacu 
ation  of  Jackson.— The  Battle  of  Baker's  Creek.— Pemberton's  Declarations  as  to  the 
Defence  of  Vicksburg.— A  grand  Assault  upon  the  "  Heroic  City."— Itii  Repulse.— 
The,  Final  Surrender  of  Vicksburg.— Rovr  the  Public  Mind  of  the  South  was  shocked. 
—Consequences  of  the  Disaster.— How  it  involved  affairs  on  the  Lower  Mississippi. 

Other  Theatres  of  the  War. — THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  MARYLAND. — 

Hooker  manoeuvred  out  of  Virginia.— The  Recapture  of  Winchester.— The  Second 
Invasion  of  the  Northern  Territory. — The  Alarm  of  the  North.— Gen.  Lee's  object  in 
the  Invasion  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania.— His  Essays  at  Conciliation.— The  Er 
ror  of  such  Policy.— The  advance  of  his  Lines  into  Pennsylvania.— The  Battle  of 
Gettysburg.— The  Three  Days'  Engagements.-^Death  of  Barksdale.— Pickett's  splen 
did  Charge  on  the  Batteries. — Repulse  of  the  Confederates. — Anxiety  and  Alarm  in 
Richmond. — Lee's  safe  Retreat  into  Virginia. — Mystery  of  his  Movement. — Recovery 

of  the  Confidence  of  the  South Review  of  the  Present  Aspects  of  tha 

War.— Comparison  between  the  Disasters  of  1862  and  those  of  1863.— The  Vitals  of 
the  Confederacy  yet  untouched.— Review  of  the  Civil  Administration.— Presided 
Davis,  his  Cabinet,  and  his  Favorites. — His  private  Quarrels. — His  Deference  to  Euro 
pean  Opinion. — Decline  of  the  Finances  of  the  Confederacy. — Reasons  of  their  Decline 
The  Confederate  Brokers.— The  Blockade  Runners.— The  Disaffections  of  Property 
holders. — The  Spirit  of  the  Army. — The  Moral  Resolution  of  the  Confederacy. — How 
the  Enemy  has  strengthened  it. — The  Prospects  of  the  Future PAGE  619 


CHAPTER  XXYI. 

REVIEW POLITICAL   IDEAS    IN   THE    NORTH,    &C. 

The  Dogma  of  Numerical  Majorities. — Its  Date  in  the  Yankee  Mind. — Demoraliza 
tion  of  the  Idea  of  the  Sovereignty  of  Numbers. — Experience  of  Minorities  in  Ameri 
can  Politics. — Source  of  the  Doctrine  of  "  CONSOLIDATION." — The  Slavery  Question  the 
logical  Result  of  Consolidation. — Another  Aspect  of  Consolidation  in  the  Tariff. — 
Summary  of  the  Legislation  on  the  Tariff. — A  Yankee  Picture  of  the  Poverty  of  tha 
South.— John  C.  Calhoun.— President  Davis's  Opinion  of  his  School  of  Politioe.— 
"Nullification,"  as  a  Union  Measure. — Mr.  Webster's  "Four  Exhaustive  Proposi 
tions."— The  True  Interpretation  of  the  Present  Struggle  of  the  South.— The  North 
ern  Idea  of  the  Sovereignty  of  Numbers. — Its  Results  in  this  War. — President  Lin 
coln's  Office. — The  Revenge  of  the  Yankee  Congress  upon  the  People. — The  easy 
Surrender  of  their  Liberties  by  the  Yankees. — Lincoln  and  Cromwell. — Explanation 
of  the  Political  Subserviency  in  the  North. — Superficial  Political  Education  of  th« 
Yankee.— His  "  Civilization."— The  Moral  Nature  of  the  Yankee  unmasked  by  the 
War.— His  new  Political  System.— Burnside's  "  Death  Order."— A  Bid  for  Confeder 
ate  Scalps. — A  new  Interpretation  of  the  War. — The  North  as  a  Parasite. — The  Fouu 
dations  of  the  National  Independence  of  the  South. — Present  Aspects  of  the  War. — 
Its  external  Con  ^ition  and  Morals. — The  Spirit  of  the  South  and  the  Promises  of  the 
Future ...PAGE  648 


SOUTHERN  HISTOI1Y  OF  THE  WAil 


THE  FIRST  YEAR. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Delusive  Ideas  of  the  Union. — Administration  of  John  Adams. — The  "Strict  Con 
structioriists." — The  "State  Rights"  Men  in  the  North. — The  Missouri  Restriction.— 
General  Jackson  and  the  Nullification  Question. — The  Compromise  Measures  of  1850, 
—History  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Party. — The  "Pinckney  Resolutions." — The  Twenty- 
first  Rule.— The  Abolitionists  in  the  Presidential  Canvuss  of  1352.— The  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill. — The  Rise  and  Growth  of  the  Republican  Party. — The  Election  of 
President  Buchanan. — The  Kansas  Controversy. — "  Locompton"  and  "  Anti-Lecomp- 
fcon." — Results  of  the  Kansas  Controversy. — The  John  Brown  Raid. — "  Helper's 
Book." — Demoralization  of  the  Northern  Democratic  Party.— The  Faction  of  Stephen 
A.  Douglas. — The  Alabama  Resolutions. — The  Political  Platform^  of  1860. — Election 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States. — Analysis  of  the  Vote. — Political 
Condition  of  the  North. — Secession  of  South  Carolina. — Events  in  Charleston  Harbor 
— Disagreements  in  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet. — The  Secession  Movement  in  Progress 
—Peace  Measures  in  Congress. — The  Crittenden  Resolutions. — The  Peace  Congress.— 
Policy  of  the  Border  Slave  States. — Organization  of  the  Confederate  States  Govern 
ment.— President  Buchanan.— Incoming  of  the  Administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
— Strength  of  the  Revolution. 

THE  American  people  of  the  present  generation  were  born 
in  the  belief  that  the  Union  of  the  States  was  destined  to  be 
perpetual.  A  few  minds  rose  superior  to  this  natal  delusion ; 
the  early  history  of  the  Union  itself  was  not  without  premoni 
tions  of  decay  and  weakness ;  and  yet  it  may  be  said  that  the 
belief  in  its  permanency  was,  in  the  early  part  of  the  present 
generation,  a  popular  and  obstinate  delusion,  that  embraced 
the  masses  of  the  country. 

The  foundations  of  this  delusion  had  been  deeply  laid  in  the 
early  history  of  the  country,  and  had  been  sustained  by  a  false, 
but  ingenious  prejudice.  It  was  busily  represented,  especially 
bv  demagogues  in  the  North,  that  the  Union  was  the  fruit  of 
ine  "Revolution  of  1776,  and  had  been  purchased  by  the  blood 
of  our  forefathers.  ISTo  fallacy  could  have  been  more  errone 
ous  in  fa<?t  more  insidious  in  its  display,  or  more  effective  in 


18  SOUTHERN   HISTORY   OF  THE   WAR. 

addressing  the  passions  of  the  multitude.  The  Revolution 
achieved  our  national  independence,  and  the  Union  had  n 
connection  with  it  other  than  consequence  in  point  of  time. 
It  was  founded,  as  any  other  civil  institution,  in  the  exigencies 
and  necessities  of  a  certain  condition  of  society,  and  had  no 
other  claim  to  popular  reverence  and  attachment,  than  what 
might  he  found  in  its  own  virtues. 

But  it  was  not  only  the  captivating  fallacy  that  the  Union 
was  hallowed  by  the  blood  of  a  revolution,  and  this  false  in 
spiration  of  reverence  for  it,  that  gave  the  popular  idea  of  its 
power  and  permanency.  Its  political  character  was  misunder 
stood  by  a  large  portion  of  the  American  people.  The  idea 
predominated  in  the  North,  and  found  toleration  in  the  South, 
that  the  Revolution  of  '76,  instead  of  securing  the  independ 
ence  of  thirteen  States,  had  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a 
grand  consolidated  government  to  be  under  the  absolute  con 
trol  of  a  numerical  majority.  The  doctrine  was  successfully 
inculcated ;  it  had  some  plausibility,  and  brought  to  its  sup 
port  an  array  of  revolutionary  names ;  but  it  was,  nevertheless, 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  terms  of  the  Constitution — the  bond 
of  the  Union — which  defined  the  rights  of  the  States  and  the 
limited  powers  of  the  General  Government. 

The  first  President  from  the  North,  John  Adams,  asserted 
and  essayed  to  put  in  practice  the  supremacy  of  the  "Na 
tional"  power  over  the  States  and  the  citizens  thereof.  He 
was  sustained  in  his  attempted  usurpations  by  all  the  New 
England  States  arid  by  a  powerful  public  sentiment  in  each  of 
the  Middle  States.  The  "strict  constructionists"  of  the  Con 
stitution  were  not  slow  in  raising  the  standard  of  opposition 
against  a  pernicious  error.  With  numbers  and  the  most  con- 
spicuor-s  talents  in  the  country  they  soon  effected  the  organi 
zation  of  a  party ;  and,  under  the  leadership  of  Jefferson  and 
Madison,  they  rallied  their  forces  and  succeeded  in  overthrow 
ing  the  Yankee  Administration,  but  only  after  a  tremendous 
struggle. 

From  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  1801,  the  Federal 
Government  continued  uninterruptedly  in  Southern  hands  for 
the  space  of  twenty-four  years.  A  large  proportion  of  the  active 
politicians  of  the  North  pretended  to  give  in  their  adhesion  to 
the  State  Rights  school  of  politics;  but,  like  all  the  alliances 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  19 

jif  Northern  politicians  with  the  South — selfish,  cunning,  ex 
travagant  of  professions,  carefully  avoiding  trials  of  its  fidelity 
unhealthy,  founded  on  a  sentiment  of  treachery  to  its  own 
section,  and  educated  in  perfidy — it  was  a  deceitful  union,  and 
could  not  withstand  the  test  of  a  practical  question 

While  acting  with  the  South  on  empty  or  accidental  issues, 
the  "State  Eights"  men  of  the  North  were,  for  all  practical 
purposes,  the  faithful  allies  of  the  open  and  avowed,  consolida- 
tionists  on  the  question  that  most  seriously  divided  the  country 
— that  of  negro  slavery.  Their  course  on  the  admission  o^ 
Missouri  afforded  early  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  secret 
disposition  of  all  parties  in  the  North.  With  very  few  excep 
tions,  in  and  out  of  Congress,  the  North  united  in  the  original 
demand  of  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  new  State  as  the 
indispensable  condition  of  the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the 
Union  ;  although  the  people  of  Missouri,  previous  to  their 
application  to  Congress,  had  decided  to  admit  within  its  juris 
diction  the  domestic  institution  of  the  South.  The  result  of  the 
contest  was  equally  unfavorable  to  the  rights  of  the  South 
&nd  to  the  doctrine  of  the  constitutional  equality  of  the  States 
in  the  Union.  The  only  approach  that  the  North  was  willing 
to  make  to  this  fundamental  doctrine  was  to  support  a  "  com 
promise,"  by  which  slavery  was  to  be  tolerated  in  one  part  of 
the  Missouri  Territory  and  to  be  forever  excluded  from  the 
remaining  portion.  The  issue  of  the  controversy  was  not  only 
important  to  the  slave  interest,  but  afforded  a  new  develop 
ment  of  the  Northern  political  ideas  of  consolidation  and  the 
absolutism  of  numerical  majorities.  The  North  had  acted  on 
the  Missouri  matter  as  though  the  South  had  no  rights  guaran 
teed  in  the  bond  of  the  Union,  and  as  though  the  question  at 
issue  was  one  merely  of  numerical  strength,  where  the  defeated 
party  had  no  alternative  but  submission.  "The  majority  must 
govern"  was  the  decantatum  on  the  lips  of  every  demagogue, 
and  passed  into  a  favorite  phrase  of  Northern  politics. 

The  results  of  the  acquiescence  of  the  South  in  the  wrong  of 
the  Missouri  Restriction  could  not  fail  to  strengthen  the  idea 
in  the  North  of  the  security  of  the  Union,  and  to  embolden  its 
people  to  the  essay  of  new  aggressions.  Many  of  their  poli 
ticians  did  not  hesitate  to  believe  that  the  South  was  prepared 
to  pledge  herself  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  Urr>n  rmon 


20  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

terms.  The  fact  was,  that  she  had  made  a  clear  concession  o* 
principle  for  the  sake  of  the  Union ;  and  the  inference  wn 
plain  and  logical,  that  her  devotion  to  it  exceeded  almost 
every  other  political  trust,  and  that  she  would  be  likely  to 
prefer  any  sacrifice  rather  than  the  irreverent  one  of  the  Union 
of  the  States. 

The  events  of  succeeding  years  confirmed  the  Northern 
opinion  that  the  Union  was  to  be  perpetuated  as  a  consolidated 
goVernment.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  consolidationists 
derived  much  comfort  from  the  course  of  President  Jackson, 
in  the  controversy  between  the  General  Government  and  the 
State  of  South  Carolina,  that  ensued  during  the  second  term 
of  his  administration.  But  they  were  hasty  and  unfair  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  speeches  of  a  choleric  and  immoderate 
politician.  They  seized  upon  a  sentiment  offered  by  the  Presi 
dent  at  the  Jefferson  anniversary  dinner,  in  the  second  year  of 
his  first  term — "  The  Federal  Union — it  must  ~be  preserved" — 
to  represent  him  as  a  " coerrionist"  in  principle;  and,  indeed, 
they  found  reason  to  contend  that  their  construction  of  these 
words  was  fully  sustained  in  General  Jackson's  famous  procla 
mation  arid  official  course  against  Nullification. 

General  Jackson  subsequently  explained  away,  in  a  great 
measure,  the  objectionable  doctrines  of  his  proclamation ;  and 
his  emphatic  declaration  that  the  Union  could  not  be  preserved 
by  force  was  one  of  the  practical  testimonies  of  his  wisdom 
that  he  left  to  posterity.  But  the  immediate  moral  and  political 
effects  of  his  policy  in  relation  to  South  Carolina  were,  upon 
the  whole,  decidedly  unfavorable  to  the  State  Eights  cause. 
His  approval  of  the  Force  Bill  gave  to  the  consolidationists 
the  benefit  of  his  great  name  and  influence  at  a  most  import 
ant  juncture.  The  names  of  "Jackson  and  the  Union"  be 
came  inseparable  in  the  public  estimation ;  and  the  idea  was 
strongly  and  vividly  impressed  upon  the  public  mind,  that  the 
great  Democrat  was  "  a  Union  man"  at  all  hazards  and  to  the 
last  extremity. 

The  result  of  the  contest  between  South  Carolina  and  the 
General  Government  is  well  known.  The  Palmetto  State 
came  out  of  it  with  an  enviable  reputation  for  spirit  and 
chivalry  ;  but  the  settlement  of  the  question  contributed  to 
the  previous  popular  impressions  of  the  power  and  penna 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  21 

ficncy  of  the  Union.  The  idea  of  the  Union  oecame  what  it 
continued  to  be  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  theieafter— extrav 
agant  and  sentimental.  The  people  were  unwilling  to  stop  to 
analyze  an  idea  after  it  had  once  become  the  subject  of  enthu 
siasm  ;  and.  the  mere  name  of  the  "  Union,"  illustrating,  as  it 
did,  the  power  of  words  over  the  passions  of  the  multitude, 
remained  for  years  a  signal  of  the  country's  glory  and  of 
course  the  motto  of  ambitious  politicians  and  the  favorite 
theme  of  demagogues.  This  unnatural  tumor  was  not  pecu 
liar  to  any  party  or  any  portion  of  the  country.  It  was  deeply 
planted  in  the  Northern  mind,  but  prevailed  also,  to  a  consid 
erable  extent,  in  the  South.  Many  of  the  Southern  politicians 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  could  best  succeed  in  their 
designs  as  advocates  and  eulogists  of  what  was  paraphrased  as 
u  the  glorious  Union ;"  and  for  a  long  time  the  popular  voice 
of  the  South  seemed  to  justify  their  conclusion. 

The  settlement  of  the  sectional  difficulties  of  1850,  which 
grew  out  of  the  admission  of  the  territory  acquired  by  the 
Mexican  War,  was  but  a  repetition  of  the  "  Compromise"  of 
1820,  so  far  as  it  implied  a  surrender  of  the  rights  of  the 
South  and  of  the'  principle  of  constitutional  equality.  The 
appeals  urged  in  behalf  of  the  Union  had  the  usual  effect  of 
reconciling  the  South  to  the  sacrifice  required  of  her,  and 
embarrassed  any  thing  like  resistance  on  the  part  of  her  rep 
resentatives  in  Congress  to  the  "  compromise  measures"  of 
1850.  South  Carolina  was  the  only  one  of  the  Southern 
States  ready  at  this  time  to  take  the  bold  and  adventurous 
initiative  of  Southern  independence.  In  justice,  however,  to 
the  other  States  of  the  South,  it  must  be  stated,  that  in  agree 
ing  to  what  was  called,  in  severe  irony  or  in  wretched  igno 
rance,  the  "  Compromise"  of  1850,  they  declared  that  it  was 
the  last  concession  they  would  make  to  the  North  ;  that  they 
took  it  as  a  "  finality,"  and  that  they  would  resist  any  further 
aggression  on  their  rights,  even  to  the  extremity  of  the  rupture 
of  the  Union. 

This  declaration  of  spirit  was  derided  by  the  North.  The 
anti-slavery  sentiment  became  bolder  with  success.  Stimu 
lated  by  secret  jealousies  and  qualified  for  success  by  the  low 
and  narrow  cunning  of  fanaticism,  it  had  grown  up  by  indirec 
tion,  and  aspired  to  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  peculiar 


22  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

institution  that  had  distinguished  the  people  of  the  South  from 
those  of  the  North,  by  a  larger  happiness,  greater  ease  of  life, 
and  a  superior  tone  of  character.  Hypocrisy,  secretiveness, 
a  rapid  and  unhealthy  growth,  and  at  last  the  unmasked  spirit, 
of  defiance,  were  the  incidents  of  the  history  of  the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  in  the  North,  from  the  beginning  of  ita 
organization  to  the  last  and  fatal  strain  of  its  insolence  and 
power. 

^  /  Until  a  comparatively  recent  period,  the  Northern  majority 
"t  disavowed  all  purpose  of  abolishing  or  interfering  in  any 
way  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  any  State,  Territory, 
or  District  where  it  existed.  On  the  contrary,  they  declared 
their  readiness  to  give  their  "Southern  brethren"  the  most 
satisfactory  guaranties  for  the  security  of  their  slave  property. 
They  cloaked  their  designs  under  the  disguise  of  the  Eight  of 
Petition  and  other  concealments  equally  demagogical.  From 
the  organization  of  the  government,  petitions  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  signed  in  every  instance  by  but  a  few  persons,  and 
„  most  of  them  women,  had,  at  intervals,  been  sent  into  Con 
gress  ;  but  they  were  of  such  apparent  insignificance  that  they 
failed  to  excite  any  serious  apprehensions  on  the  part  of  tht> 
South.  In  the  year  1836,  these  petitions  were  multiplied,  and 
many  were  sent  into  both  Houses  of  Congress  from  all  parts 
of  the  North.  An  excitement  began,  On  motion  of  Mr. 
II.  L.  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina,  a  resolution  was  adopted 
by  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  to  refer  to  a  select  commit 
tee  all  anti-slavery  memorials  then  before  that  body,  or  that 
might  thereafter  be  sent  in,  with  instructions  to  report  against 
the  prayers  of  the  petitioners  and  the  reasons  for  such  con 
clusion. 

On  the  18th  of  May,  1836,  the  committee  made  a  unanimous 
report,  through  Mr.  Pinckney,  its  chairman,  concluding  with  a 
series  of  resolutions,  the  last  of  which  was  as  follows  : 

"  Resolved,  That  all  petitions,  memorials,  resolutions,  propositions,  or  papers 
relating,  in  any  way,  or  to  any  extent  whatever,  to  the  subject  of  slavery,  or 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  shall,  without  being  either  printed  or  referred,  be  laid 
npon  the  table,  and  that  no  further  action  whatever  shall  be  had  thereon." 

The  resolutions  were  carried  by  a  vote  of  117  yeas  .to  68 
nays.  A  majority  of  the  Northern  members  voted  against  the 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  23 

resolution,  alth  mgh  there  was  then  scarcely  an  avowed  Aboli 
tionist  among  them.  They  professed  to  be  in  favor  of  pro 
tecting  the  slaveholder  in  his  right  of  property,  and  yet  de 
clared  by  their  votes,  as  well  as  by  their  speeches,  that  the 
right  of  petition  to  rob  him  of  his  property  was  too  sacred  to 
be  called  in  question. 

The  passage  of  the  "Pinckney  resolutions,"  as  they  were 
called,  did  not  silence  the  anti-slavery  agitation  in  the  House. 
In  the  month  of  December,  183T,  a  remarkable  scene  was 
enacted  in  that  body,  during  the  proceedings  on  a  motion  of 
Mr.  Slade,  of  Vermont,  to  refer  two  memorials  praying  the 
al/oiition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  to  a  select 
committee.  Mr.  Slade,  in  urging  his  motion,  was  violent  in 
his  denunciations  of  slavery,  and  he  spoke  for  a  considerable 
time  amid  constant  interruptions  and  calls  to  order.  At  length, 
Mr.  Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  called  upon  the  entire  delega 
tion  from  all  the  slaveholding  States  to  retire  from  the  hall, 
and  to  meet  in  the  room  of  the  Committee  on  the  District  of 
Columbia.  A  large  number  of  them  did  meet  for  consultation 
in  the  room  designated.  The  meeting,  however,  resulted  in 
nothing  but  an  agreement  upon  the  following  resolution  to  be 
presented  to  the  House  : 

"  Resolved,  That  all  petitions,  memorials,  and  papers  touching  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  or  the  buying,  selling,  or  transferring  of  slaves  in  any  State,  Dis 
trict,  or  Territory  of  the  United  States,  be  laid  on  the  table  without  being 
debated,  printed,  read,  or  referred,  and  that  no  further  action  whatever  shall 
be  had  thereon." 

Tli is  resolution  was  presented  to  the  House  by  Mr.  Patton, 
of  Virginia,  and  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  122  to  74. 

In  the  month  of  January,  1840,  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  on  motion  of  Mr.  "W".  Cost  Johnson,  of  Maryland, 
adopted  what  was  known  as  the  "Twenty-first  Rule,"  which 
prohibited  the  reception  of  all  Abolition  petitions,  memorials, 
and  resolutions. 

The  Twenty-first  Rule  was  rescinded  in  December,  1844,  on 
motion  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  by  a  vote  of  108  to  80.  Sev 
eral  efforts  were  afterwards  made  to  restore  it,  but  without 
success.  The  Northern  people  would  not  relinquish  what  they 
termed  a  "  sacred  right" — that  of  petitioning  the  government, 


24r  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

through   tlieir  representatives   in   Congress,   to   deprive    the 
Southern  people  of  their  property. 

During  the  agitation  in  Congress  upon  the  right  of  petition, 
there  was,  as  before  stated,  but  very  few  open  and  avowed 
Abolitionists  in  either  House,  and  the  declaration  was  repeat 
edly  made  by  members  that  the  party  was  contemptibly  small 
in  every  free  State  in  the  Union.  Mr.  Pierce,  of  New  Hamp 
shire  (afterwards  President  of  the  United  States),  declared,  in 
1837,  in  his  place  in  Congress,  that  there  were  not  two  hun 
dred  Abolitionists  in  his  State ;  and  Mr.  Webster,  about  the 
same  time,  represented  their  numbers  in  Massachusetts  as  quite 
insignificant.  Mr.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  with  charac 
teristic  sagacity,  replied  to  these  representations,  and  predicted 
that  "  Mr.  Webster  and  all  Northern  statesmen  would,  in  a  few 
years,  yield  to  the  storm  of  Abolition  fanaticism  and  be  over 
whelmed  by  it."  The  prophecy  was  not  more  remarkable  than 
the  searching  analysis  of  Northern  "  conservatism"  with  which 
the  great  South  Carolinian  accompanied  his  prediction.  He 
argued  that  such  a  consequence  was  inevitable  from  the  way 
in  which  the  professed  "  conservatives"  of  the  North  had  in 
vited  the  aggressions  of  the  Abolitionists,  by  courteously 
granting  them  the  right  of  petition,  which  was  indeed  all  they 
asked  ;  that  the  fanaticism  of  the  North  was  a  disease  which 
required  a  remedy,  and  that  palliatives  would  not  answer,  as 
Mr.  Webster  and  men  like  him  would  find  to  their  cost. 

In  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  that  assembled  in  December, 
184:9  the  "D^ofessed  Abolitionists  numbered  about  a  dozen 
members.  They  held  the  balance  of  power  between  the  Dem 
ocratic  and  Whig  parties  in  the  House,  and  delayed  its  organ 
ization  for  about  a  month.  Both  the  Whig  and  Democratic 
parties  then  claimed  to  be  conservative,  and?  of  course,  the 
opponents  of  the  anti-slavery  agitation. 

In  the  Presidential  canvass  of  1852,  both  Pierce  and  Scott 
were  brought  out  by  professed  national  parties,  and  were  sup 
ported  in  each  section  of  the  Union.  John  P.  Hale,  who  ran 
upon  what  was  called  the  "  straight-out"  Abolition  ticket,  did 
not  receive  the  vote  of  a  single  State,  and  but  175,296  of 
the  popular  vote  of  the  Union.  The  triumphant  election  ot 
Pierce,  who  was  a  favorite  of  the  State  Rights  Democracy  oi 
the  South,  was  hailed  by  the  sanguine  friends  of  the  Union  as 


THE    FIRST    YEAH.  25 

a  fair  indication  of  the  purpose  of  the  North  to  abide,  in  good 
t'aith,  by  the  Compromise  of  1850.  But  in  this  they  were  de 
ceived,  as  the  sequel  demonstrated. 

During  the  first  session  of  the  first  Congress  under  Mr 
Fierce's  administration,  the  bill  introduced  to  establish  a  terri 
torial  government  for  Nebraska,  led  to  an  agitation  in  Con 
gress  and  the  country,  the  consequences  of  which  extended  to 
the  last  period  of  the  existence  of  the  Union.  The  Committee 
on  Territories  in  the  Senate,  of  which  Mr.  Douglas,  of  Illinois, 
was  chairman,  reported  the  bill,  which  made  two  territories — 
Nebraska  and  Kansas — instead  of  one,  and  which  declared 
that  the  Missouri  Compromise  act  was  superseded  by  the  Com 
promise  measures  of  1850,  and  had  thus  become  inoperative. 
.The  phraseology  of  the  clause  repealing  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise  was  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Douglas,  and  was  not  supposed  at 
the  time  to  be  liable  to  misconstruction.  It  held,  that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  act,  "  being  inconsistent  with  the  prin 
ciples  of  non-intervention  by  Congress  with  slavery  in  the 
States  and  Territories,  as  recognized  by  the  legislation  of  1850, 
commonly  called  the  Compromise  Measures,  is  hereby  declared 
inoperative  and  void ;  it  being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of 
this  act  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor 
to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  per 
fectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in 
their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution -of  the  United 
States."  The  clause  here  quoted,  as  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Doug 
las,  was  incorporated  into  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  in  the 
Senate  on  the  loth  of  February,  1854.  The  bill  passed  the 
House  at  the  same  session. 

The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  caused  the  deepest 
excitement  throughout  the  North.  The  Abolitionists  were 
wild  with  fury.  Douglas  was  hung  in  effigy  at  different  places, 
ind  was  threatened  with  personal  violence  in  case  of  his  per 
sistence  in  his  non-intervention  policy.  The  rapid  develop 
ment  of  a  fanatical  feeling  in  every  free  State  startled  many 
who  had  but  recently  indulged  dreams  of  the  perpetuity  of  the 
Constitutional  Union.  Abolitionism,  in  the  guise  of  "  Repub 
licanism^  swept  almost  every  thing  before  it  in  the  North  and 
Northwest  in  the  elections  of '1854  and  1855.  But  few  pro 
fessed  conservatives  were  returned  to  the  Thirty -first  Congress  ; 


26  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

not  enough  to  prevent  the  election  of  Nathaniel  Banks,  an  ob 
jectionable  Abolitionist  of  the  Massachusetts  school,  to  the 
Speakership  of  the  House. 

The  South  had  supported  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com 
pronjv?  *  ^cause  it  restored  her  to  her  rightful  position  oc 
equauty  in  the  Union.  It  is  true,  that  her  representatives  in 
Congress  were  well  aware  that,  under  the  operations  of  the 
new  act,  their  constituents  could  expect  to  obtain  but  little  if 
any  new  accessions  of  slave  territory,  while  the  North  would 
necessarily,  from  the  force  of  circumstances,  secure  a  number 
of  new  States  in  the  Northwest,  then  the  present  direction  of 
our  new  settlements.  But  viewed  as  an  act  of  proscription 
against  her,  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  justly  offensive  to 
the  South  ;  and  its  abrogation,  in  this  respect,  strongly  recom 
mended  itself  to  her  support. 

The  ruling  party  of  the  North,  calling  themselves  "  Repub 
licans,"  had  violently  opposed  the  repeal  of  the  act  of  1820, 
in  the  same  sentiment  with  which  it  was  fiercely  encountered 
by  the  Abolitionists.  The  two  parties  were  practically  identi 
cal  ;  both  shared  the  same  sentiment  of  hostility  to  slavery ; 
and  they  differed  only  as  to  the  degree  of  indirection  by  which 
their  purposes  might  best  be  accomplished. 

The  election  of  Mr.  Buchanan  to  the  Presidency,  in  1856, 
raised,  for  a  time,  the  spirits  of  many  of  the  true  friends  of 
the  Constitutional  Union.  But  there  was  very  little  in  an 
analysis  of  the  vote  to  give  hope  or  encouragement  to  the  pa 
triot.  Fremont,  who  ran  as  the  anti-slavery  candidate,  re 
ceived  1,341,812  votes  of  the  people,  and  it  is  believed  would 
have  been  elected  by  the  electoral  college,  if  the  anti-Buchanan 
party  in  Pennsylvania  had  united  upon  him. 
.  The  connection  of  events  which  we  have  sought  to  trace, 
brings  us  to  the  celebrated  Kansas  controversy,  and  at  once  to 
the  threshold  of  the  dissensions  which  demoralized  the  only 
conservative  pa^ty  in  the  country,  and  in  less  than  four  years 
culminated  in  the  rupture  of  the  Federal  Union.  A  severe 
summary  of  the  facts  of  this  controversy  introduces  us  to  the 
contest  of  1860,  in  which  the  Republican  party,  swollen  with 
its  triumphs  in  Kansas,  and  infecting  the  Democratic  leaders 
in  the  North  with  the  disposition  to  pander  to  the  lusts  of  a 


THE    FIBST    YEAK.  27 

growing  power,  obtained  the  control  of  the  government,  and 
seized  the  sceptre  of  absolute  authority. 

"When  Mr.  Buchanan  came  into  office,  in  March,  1857,  ho 
flattered  himself  with  the  hope  that  his  administration  would 
settle  the  disputes  that  had  so  long  agitated  and  distracted  the 
country  ;  trusting  that  such  a  result  might  be  accomplished  by 
the  speedy  admission  of  Kansas  into  the  Union,  upon  the 
principles  which  had  governed  in  his  election.  Such,  at  least, 
were  his  declarations  to  his  friends.  But  before  the  meeting 
of  Congress,  in  December,  he  had  abundant  evidence  that  his 
favorite  measure  would  be  opposed  by  a  number  of  Senators 
and  Eepresentatives  who  had  actively  supported  him  in  his 
canvass ;  among  them  the  distinguished  author  of  the  Kansas 
Nebraska  bill,  Mr.  Douglas. 

In  the  month  of  July,  1855,  the  Legislature  of  the  Territory 
of  Kansas  had  passed  an  act  to  take  the  sense  of  the  people 
on  the  subject  of  forming  a  State  government,  preparatory  to 
admission  into  the  Union.  The  election  took  place,  and  a 
large  majority  of  the  people  voted  in  favor  of  holding  a  con 
vention  for  the  purpose  of  adopting  a  Constitution.  In  pur 
suance  of  this  vote,  the  Territorial  Legislature,  on  the  19tji  of 
February,  1857,  passed  a  law  to  take  a  census  of  the  people, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  registry  of  the  voters,  and  to  elect 
delegates  to  the  Convention.  Mr.  Geary,  then  Governor  of 
Kansas,  vetoed  the  bill  for  calling  the  Convention,  for  the 
reason  that  it  did  not  require  the  Constitution,  when  framed, 
to  be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  for  adoption  or  rejec 
tion.  The  bill,  however,  was  reconsidered  in  each  House,  and 
passed  by  a  two-thirds'  vote,  and  thus  became  a  binding  law 
in  the  Territory,  despite  the  veto  of  the  Governor. 

On  the  20th  of  May,  1857,  Mr.  F.  P.  Stan  ton,  Secretary 
and  acting  Governor  of  Kansas  Territory,  published  his  proc 
lamation,  commanding  the  proper  officers  to  hold  an  election 
on  the  third  Monday  of  June,  1857,  as  directed  by  the  act  re 
ferred  to. 

The  election  was  held  on  the  day  appointed,  and  the  Con 
vention  assembled,  according  to  law,  on  the  first  Monday  of 
September,  1857.  They  proceeded  to  form  a  Constitution,  and 
having  finished  their  work,  adjourned  on  the  7th  [November 


*28  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  entire  Constitution  was  not  submitted  to  the  popular  vote* 
but  the  Convention  took  care  to  submit  to  the  vote  of  tho 
people,  for  ratification  or  rejection,  the  clause  respecting  sla 
very.  The  official  vote  resulted :  For  the  Constitution,  with 
Slavery,  6,226 ;  for  the  Constitution,  without  Slavery,  509. 

The  Abolitionists,  or  "Free  State"  men,  as  they  called  them- 
sel  ves,  did  not  generally  vote  in  this  or  any  other  election  held 
under  the  regular  government  of  the  Territory.  They  defied  the 
authority  of  this  government  and  that  of  the  United  States, 
and  acted  under  the  direction  of  Emigrant  Aid  Societies,  or 
ganized  by  the  fanatical  Abolitionists  of  the  North,  to  colonize 
the  new  territory  with  voters.  The  proceedings  of  this  evil 
and  bastard  population  occasioned  the  greatest  excitement,  and 
speedily  inaugurated  an  era  of  disorder  and  rebellion  in  this 
distant  portion  of  the  Federal  territory. 

The  Free  State  party  assembled  at  Topeka,  in  September, 
1855,  and  adopted  what  they  called  a  "  Constitution"  for  Kan 
sas.  This  so-called  Constitution  was  submitted  to  the  people, 
and  was  ratified,  of  course,  by  a  large  majority  of  those  who 
voted;  scarcely  any  but  Abolitionists  going  to  the  polls.  Un- 
dc¥  their  Topeka  Constitution,  the  Free  State  party  elected  a 
Governor  and  Legislature,  and  organized  for  the  purpose  of 
petitioning  Congress  for  the  admission  of  Kansas  into  the 
TJnion.  The  memorial  of  the  Topeka  insurgents  was  presented 
to  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress.  It  met  with  a  favorable  re 
sponse  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  a  majority  of  that 
body  being  anti-slavery  men  of  the  New  England  school ;  but 
found  but  a  poor  reception  in  the  Senate,  where  there  was  still 
a  majority  of  conservative. and  law-abiding  men. 

On  the  2d  of  February,  1858,  Mr.  Buchanan,  at  the  request 
of  the  President  of  the  Lecompton  Convention,  transmitted  to 
Congress  an  authentic  copy  of  the  Constitution  framed  by  that 
body,  with  a  view  to  the  admission  of  Kansas  into  the  Union. 
The  message  of  the  President  took  stiong  and  urgent  position 
for  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  this  Constitution ;  he  de 
fended  the  action  of  the  Convention  in  not  submitting  the 
entire  ^esult  of  their  labors  to  a  vote  of  the  people;  he  ex 
plained  that,  when  he  insti  ncted  Governor  Walker,  in  general 
terms,  in  favor  of  submitting  the  Constitution  to  the  people, 
he  had  no  other  object  in  view  beyond  the  all-absorbing  topic 


THE    FIRST    YEAB.  29 

of  slavery;  lie  considered  that,  under  the  organic  act,  the 
Convention  was  bound  to  submit  the  all-important  question  oi 
slavery  to  the  people;  he  added,  that  it  was  never  his  opinion, 
however,  that,  independently  of  this  act,  the  Convention  would 
be  bound  to  submit  any  portion  of  the  Constitution  to  a  popu 
lar  vote,  in  order  to  give  it  validity ;  and  he  argued  the  fallacy 
and  unreasonableness  of  such  an  opinion,  by  insisting  that  it 
was  in  opposition  to  the  principle  which  pervaded  our  institu 
tions,  and  which  was  every  day  carried  into  practice,  to  the 
effect  that  the  people  had  the  right  to  delegate  to  representa 
tives,  chosen  by  themselves,  sovereign  power  to  frame  Consti 
tutions,  enact  laws,  and  perform  many  other  important  acts, 
without  the  necessity  of  testing  the  validity  of  their  work  by 
popular  approbation.  The  Topeka  Constitution  Mr.  Buchanan 
denounced  as  the  work  of  treason  and  insurrection. 

It  is  certain  that  Mr.  Buchanan  would  have  succeeded  in 
effecting  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  Con 
stitution,  if  he  could  have  secured  to  the  measure  the  support 
of  all  the  Northern  Democrats  who  had  contributed  to  his 
election.  These,  however,  had  become  disaffected  ;  they  op 
posed  and  assailed  the  measure  of  the  Administration,  acting 
under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Douglas ;  and  the  long-continued  and 
bitter  discussion  which  ensued,  perfectly  accomplished  the  divi 
sion  of  the  Democratic  party  into  two  great  factions,  mustered 
under  the  names  of  "  Lecompton"  and  "  Anti-Lecompton." 

The  latter  faction  founded  their  opposition  to  the  Adminis 
tration  on  the  grounds,  that  the  Lecompton  Constitution  was 
not  the  act  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  and  did  not  express  their 
will ;  that  only  half  of  the  counties  of  the  Territory  were  rep 
resented  in  the  Convention  that  framed  it,  the  other  half  being 
disfranchised,  for  no  fault  of  their  own,  but  from  failure  of  the 
officers  to  register  the  voters,  and  entitle  them  to  vote  for 
delegates ;  and  that  the  mode  of  submitting  the  Constitution 
to  the  people  for  "ratification  or  rejection"  was  unfair,  embar 
rassing,  and  prescriptive. 

In  reply,  the  friends  of  the  Administration  urged  that  twen 
ty-one  out  of  the  thirty-four  organized  counties  of  Kansas  were 
embraced  in  the  apportionment  of  representation ;  that,  of  the 
thirteen  counties  not  embraced,  nine  had  but  a  small  population, 
as  sh')wn  by  the  fact  that,  in  a  succeeding  election,  to  which 


30  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  Anti-Lecomptonitcs  had  referred  as  an  indication  of  public 
sentiment  in  Kansas,  they  polled  but  ninety  votes  in  the  aggre 
gate;  that,  in  the  remaining  four  counties,  the  failure  to  register 
the  voters,  and  the  consequent  loss  of  their  representation,  were 
due  to  the  Abolitionists  themselves,  who  refused  to  recognize 
all  legal  authority  in  the  Territory ;  and  that  the  submission 
of  the  Constitution,  as  provided  by  the  Lecornpton  Convention, 
afforded  a  complete  expression  of  the  popular  will,  as  the 
slavery  question  was  the  only  one  about  which  there  was  any 
Controversy  in  Kansas. 

The  bill  for  the  admission  of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton 
Constitution,  was  passed  by  the  Senate.  In  the  House,  an 
amendment,  offered  by  Mr.  Montgomery,  of  Pennsylvania,  was 
adopted,  to  the  effect  that,  as  it  was  a  disputed  point  whether 
the  Constitution  framed  at  Lecompton  was  fairly  made,  or  ex 
pressed  the  will  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  her  admission  into 
the  Union  as  a  State  was  declared  to  be  upon  the  fundamental 
condition  precedent,  that  the  said  constitutional  instrument 
should  first  be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  of  Kansas, 
and  assented  to  by  them,  or  by  a  majority  of  the  voters,  at  an 
election  to  be  held  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  question 
of  the  ratification  or  rejection  of  the  instrument. 

The  Senate  insisted  upon  its  bill ;  the  IJouse  adhered  to  its 
amendment;  and  a  committee  of  conference  was  appointed. 
The  result  of  the  conference  was  the  report  of  a  bill  for  the 
admission  of  Kansas,  which  became  a  law  in  June,  1858,  and 
substantially  secured  nearly  all  that  the  North  had  claimed  in 
the  controversy. 

The  bill,  as  passed,  rejected  the  Land  Ordinance  contained 
in  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  and  proposed  a  substitute. 
Kansas  was  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing, 
in  all  respects,  with  the  original  States,  but  upon  the  funda 
mental  condition  precedent,  that  the  question  of  admission, 
along  with  that  of  the  Land  substitute,  be  submitted  to  a  vote 
of  the  people;  that,  if  a  majority  of  the  vote  should  be 
against  the  proposition  tendered  by  Congress,  it  should  be 
concluded  that  Kansas  did  not  desire  admission  under  the  Lo 
compton  Constitution,  with  the  condition  attached  to  it ;  and 
that,  in  such  event,  the  people  were  authorized  to  form  for 
themselves  a  Constitution  and  State  government,  and  might 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  31 

elect  delegates  for  that  purpose,  after  a  census  taken  to  de 
monstrate  the  fact,  that  the  population  of  the  Territory  equal 
led  or  exceeded  the  ratio  of  representation  for  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives. 

Thus  ended  the  six  months'  discussion  of  the  Kansas  question 
in  Congress  in  1858.  The  substitute  to  the  Land  Ordinance 
was  rejected  by  the  voters  of  the  Territory ;  and  Kansas  did 
not  come  into  the  Union  until  nearly  three  years  afterwards — 
just  as  the  Southern  States  were  going  out  of  it.  She  came  in 
under  an  anti-slavery  constitution,  and  Mr.  Buchanan  signed 
the  bill  of  admission. 

The  discussions  of  the  Kansas  question,  as  summed  in  the 
preceding  pages,  had  materially  weakened  the  Union.  The4 
spirit  of  those  discussions,  and  the  result  itself  of  the  contro 
versy,  fairly  indicated  that  the  South  could  hardly  expect, 
under  any  circumstances,  the  addition  of  another  Slave  State 
to  the  Union.  The  Southern  mind  was  awakened  ;  the  senti 
mental  reverences  of  more  than  half  a  century  were  decried ; 
and  men  began  to  calculate  the  precise  value  of  a  Union 
which,  by  its  mere  name  and  the  paraphrases  of  demagogues, 
had  long  governed  their  affections. 

Some  of  these  calculations,  as  they  appeared  in  the  newspa 
per  presses  of  the  times,  were  curious,  and  soon  commenced  to 
interest  the  Southern  people.  It  was  demonstrated  to  them 
that  their  section  had  been  used  to  contribute  the  bulk  of  the 
revenues  of  the  Government ;  that  the  North  derived  forty  to 
fifty  millions  of  annual  revenue  from  the  South,  through  the 
operations  of  the  tariff;  and  that  the  aggregate  of  the  trade 
of  the  South  in  Northern  markets  was  four  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  a  year.  It  was  calculated  by  a  Northern  writer, 
that  the  harvest  of  gain  reaped  by  the  North  from  the  Union, 
from  unequal  taxations  and  the  courses  of  trade  as  between 
the  two  sections,  exceeded  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  per 
year. 

These  calculations  of  the  commercial  cost  of  the  "  glorious 
Union"  to  the  South,  only  presented  the  question  in  a  single 
aspect,  however  striking  that  was.  There  were  other  aspects 
no  less  important  and  no  less  painful,  in  which  it  was  to  be 
regarded.  The  swollen  and  insolent  power  of  Abolitionism 
threatened  to  carry  every  thing  before  it ;  it  had  already  bro- 


32  SOUTHEEN    HI3TOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ken  the  vital  principle  of  tilt  Constitution — that  of  the  equal 
Uy  of  its  parts;  and  to  injuries  already  accomplished,  it  added 
the  bitterest  threats  and  the  most  insufferable  insolence. 

While  the  anti-slavery  power  threatened  never  to  relax  ita 
•rforts  until,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Seward,  a  senator  from 
JSrew  York,  the  "  irrepressible  conflict"  between  slavery  and 
freedom  was  accomplished,  and  the  soil  of  the  Carolinas  dedi 
cated  to  the  institutions  of  Newr  England,  it  affected  the  inso 
lent  impertinence  of  regarding  the  Union  as  a  concession  on 
the  part  of  the  North,  and  of  taunting  the  South  with  the 
disgrace  which  her  association  in  the  Union  inflicted  upon  the 
superior  and  more  virtuous  people  of  the  Northern  States. 
The  excesses  of  this  conceit  are  ridiculous,  seen  in  the  light  of 
subsequent  events.  It  was  said  that  the  South  was  an  inferior 
part  of  the  country ;  that  she  was  a  spotted  and  degraded  sec 
tion  ;  that  the  national  fame  abroad  was  compromised  by  the 
association  of  the  South  in  the  Union  ;  and  that  a  New  Eng 
land  traveller  in  Europe  blushed  to  confess  himself  an  Ameri 
can,  because  half  of  the  nation  of  that  name  were  slavehold 
ers.  Many  of  the  Abolitionists  made  a  pretence  of  praying 
that  the  Union  might  be  dissolved,  that  they  might  be  cleared, 
by  the  separation  of  North  and  South,  of  any  implication  in 
the  crime  of  slavery.  Even  that  portion  of  the  party  calling 
themselves  "Republicans"  affected  that  the  Union  stood  in 
the  way  of  the  North.  Mr.  Banks,  of  Massachusetts,  who 
had  been  elected  Speaker  of  the  House  in  the  Thirty -first  Con 
gress,  had  declared  that  the  designs  of  his  party  wrere  not  to  be 
baffled,  and  was  the  author  of  the  coarse  jeer — "Let  the  Union 
slide"  The  New  York  Tribune  had  complained  that  the 
South  '"  could  not  be  kicked  out  of  the  Union."  Mr.  Seward, 
the  great  Republican  leader,  had  spread  the  evangel y  of  a  nat 
ural,  essential,  and  irrepressible  hostility  between  tnVtwo  sec 
tions  ;  and  the  North  prepared  to  act  on  a  suggestion,  the  only 
uractical  result  of  which  could  be  to  cleave  the  Union  apart, 
and  to  inaugurate  the  horrors  of  civil  war. 

The  raid  into  Virginia  of  John  Brown,  a  notorious  Aboli 
tionist,  whose  occupations  in  Kansas  had  been  those  of  a  horse 
*hief  and  assassin,  and  his  murder  of  peaceful  and  unsuspect 
ing  citizens  at  Harper's  Ferry  in  the  month  of  October,  1859 
was  a  practical  illustration  of  the  lessons  of  the  Northern  Re 


THE    FIEST    TEAK.  33 

pub-icans,  and  of  their  inevitable  and,  in  fact,  logrcal  conclu 
sion  in  civil  war.  Professed  conservatives  in  the  North  pre 
dicted  that  this  outrage  would  be  productive  of  real  good  in 
their  section,  in  opening  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  what  were 
well  characterized  as  "  Black  Republican"  doctrines.  This 
prediction  was  not  verified  by  succeeding  events.  The  North 
ern  elections  of  the  next  month  showed  no  diminution  in  the 
Black  Republican  vote.  The  manifestations  of  sympathy  for 
John  Brown,  who  had  expiated  his  crime  on  a  gallows  in  Vir 
ginia,  were  unequivocal  in  all  parts  of  the  North,  though  com 
paratively  few  openly  justified  the  outrage.  Bells  were  tolled 
in  various  towns  of  New  England  on  the  day  of  his  execution^ 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  local  authorities,  and  in  some  in 
stances,  through  their  co-operation  ;  and  not  a  few  preachers 
from  the  pulpit  alloted  him  an  apotheosis,  and  consigned  his 
example  to  emulation,  as  one  not  only  of  public  virtue,  but  of 
particular  service  to  God. 

The  attachment  of  the  South  to  the  Union  was  steadily 
weakening  in  the  historical  succession  of  events.  The  nomi 
nation  in  December,  1859,  to  the  Speakership  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  who  had  made  him 
self  especially  odious  to  the  South  by  publicly  recommending, 
in  connection  with  sixty-eight  other  Republican  members,  a 
fanatical  document  popularly  known  as  "  Helpers  Book"* 


*  The  tone  of  this  book  was  violent  in  the  extreme.  We  add  a  few  ex 
tracts,  which  will  enable  the  reader  to  form  a  correct  opinion  of  the  character 
and  object  of  the  work — 

"  Slavery  is  a  great  moral,  social,  civil,  and  political  evil,  to  be  got  rid  of  at 
the  earliest  practical  period." — (Page  168.) 

"Three-quaijteis  of  a  century  hence,  if  the  South  retains  slavery,  which 
tlod  forbid !  she  will  be  to  the  North  what  Poland  is  to  Russia,  Cuba  to  Spain, 
and  Ireland  to  England."— (P.  103.) 

"Our  own  banner  is  inscribed — No  co-operation  with  slaveholders  in 
politics ;  no  fellowship  with  them  in  religion ;  no  affiliation  with  them  in 
society ;  no  recognition  of  pro-slavery  men,  except  as  ruffians,  outlaws,  and 
criminals." — <P  156.) 

"  We  believe  it  i?  as  it  ought  to  be,  the  desire,  the  determination,  and  the 
destiny  of  the  Republican  party  to  give  the  death-blow  to  slavery." — (P.  234.) 

"  In  any  event,  come  what  will,  transpire  what  may,  the  institution  of 
slavery  must  be  abolished." — (P.  180.) 

"  We  are  determined  to  abolish  slavery  at  all  hazards— in  defiance  cf  all 
the  opposition,  of  whatever  nature,  it  is  possible  for  the  slaveocrats  to  bring 

3 


S4:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

from  the  name  of  the  author,  and  which  openly  defended  atd 
sought  itself  to  excite  servile  insurrections  in  the  South,  pro 
duced  a  marked  effect  in  Congress,  and  was  encountered  by 
the  Southern  members  with  a  determined  spirit  of  opposition 
The  entire  Southern  delegation  gave  warning  that  they  wrould 
regard  the  election  of  Mr.  Sherman,  or  of  any  man  with  hia 
record,  as  an  open  declaration  of  war  upon  the  institutions  of 
the  South  ;  as  much  so,  some  of  the  members  declared,  as  if 
the  Brown  raid  were  openly  approved  by  a  majority  of  the 
House  of  Representatives.  The  Black  Republican  party  de 
fiantly  nominated  Sherman,  and  continued  to  vote  for  him  for 
near  two  months,  giving  him  within  four  votes  of  a  majority 
upon  every  trial  of  his  strength.  Although  he  was  finally 
withdrawn,  and  one  of  his  party,  not  a  subscriber  to  the 
Helper  Book,  was  elected,  yet  the  fact  that  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  the  entire  Northern  delegation  had  adhered  to  Mr. 
Sherman  for  nearly  two  months  in  a  factious  and  fanatical 
spirit,  produced  a  deep  impression  on  the  minds  of  Southern 
members  and  of  their  constituents.  The  early  dissolution  of 
the  Union  had  come  to  be  a  subject  freely  canvassed  among 
members  of  Congress. 

With  the  unveiling  of  the  depth  of  the  designs  of  the  Black 
Kepublicanp^rty,  another  danger  was  becoming  manifest  to 
the  South.  ^  It  wa.s  the  demoralization  of  the  Northern  Demo 
cratic  party  on  the  slavery  question.  This  whole  party  had 
been  an  unhealthy  product ;  its  very  foundation  was  a  princi 
ple  of  untruth,  and  false  to  its  own  section,  it  could  not  be  ex 
pected  to  adhere  to  friends  whom  it  had  made  from  interest 
and  who  had  fallen  into  adverse  circumstances.  It  had  united 
with  the  South  for  political  power.  In  the  depression  of  that 
power,  and  the  rapid  growth  of  the  anti-slavery  party  in  the 

against  us.  Of  this  they  may  take  due  notice,  and  govern  themselves  accord- 
ingly."— (P.  149.) 

"  It  is  our  honest  conviction  that  all  the  pro-slavery  slaveholders  deserve 
at  once  to  be  reduced  to  a  parallel  with  the  basest  criminals  that  lie  fettered 
within  tVe  cells  of  our  public  prisons." — (P.  158.) 

"  Shall  we  pat  the  bloodhounds  of  slavery  ?  Shall  we  fee  the  curs  of 
slavery  ?  Shall  we  pay  the  whelps  of  slavery  ?  No,  never."— (P.  329.) 

"  Our  purpose  is  as  firmly  fixed  as  the  eternal  pillars  of  heaven  ;  we  hava 
determined  to  abolish  slavery,  and,  so  help  us  God!  abolish  it  we  will."— 
P.  187.) 


THE    FIRST    YEAB.  35 

North,  it  had  no  hesitation  in  courting  and  conciliating  the 
ruling  element.  This  disposition  was  happily  accommodated 
by  the  controversy  which  had  taken  place  between  Mr.  Doug 
las  and  the  administration  of  Mr.  Buchananj  The  anti-slavery 
sentiment  in  the  North  was  conciliated  by  the  partisans  of  the 
Illinois  demagogue,  in  adopting  a  new  principle  for  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  Territories,  which  was  to  allow  the  people  to 
determine  the  question  of  slavery  in  their  territorial  capacity, 
without  awaiting  their  organization  as  a  State,  and  thus  to 
risk  the  decision  of  the  rights  of  the  South  on  the  verdict  of  a 
few  settlers  on  the  public  domain.  This  pander  to  the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  of  the  North  was  concealed  under  the  dem 
agogical  name  of  "popular  sovereignty,"  and  was  imposed 
upon  the  minds  of  not  a  few  of  the  Southern  people  by  the 
artfulness  of  its  appeals  to  the  name  of  a  principle,  which  had 
none  of  the  substance  of  justice  or  equality.  The  conceal 
ment,  however,  was  but  imperfectly  availing.  The  doctrine 
of  Mr.  Douglas  was  early  denounced  by  one  of  the  most  vigi 
lant  statesmen  of  the  South  as  "  a  short  cut  to  all  the  ends  of 
Black  Republicanism  ;"  and  later  in  time,  while  the  "  Helper 
Book"  controversy  was  agitating  the  country,  and  other  ques 
tions  developing  the  union  of  all  the  anti-slavery  elements  for 
war  upon  the  South,[a  senator  from  Georgia  was  found  bold 
enough  to  denounce,  in  his  place  in  Congress,  the  entire  Dem 
ocratic  party  of  the  North  as  unreliable  and  "  rotten.^ 

The  State  Eights  party  of  the  South  had  co-operated  with 
the  Democracy  of  the  North  in  the  Presidential  canvass  of 
1856,  upon  the  principles  of  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Na 
tional  Democratic  Convention,  assembled  in  Cincinnati,  in 
June  of  that  year.  They  expressed  a  willingness  to  continue 
this  co-operation  in  the  election  of  1860,  upon  the  principles 
of  the  Cincinnati  platform ;  but  demanded,  as  a  condition  pre 
cedent  to  this,  that  the  question  of  the  construction  of  this 
platform  should  be  satisfactorily  settled.  To  this  end,  the 
State  Rights  Democratic  party  in  several  of  the  Southern 
States  defined  the  conditions  upon  which  their  delegates  should 
hold  seats  in  the  National  Convention,  appointed  to  meet  at 
Charleston  on  the  23d  of  April,  1860.  The  Democracy  in  Al 
abama  moved  first.  On  the  llth  of  January,  1860,  they  met 
in  convention  at  Montgomery,  and  adopted  a  series  of  resolu 


36  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tions,  from  which  the  following  are  extracted,  as  presenting  a 
summary  declaration  of  the  rights  of  the  South,  a  recapitula 
tion  of  the  territorial  question,  and  a  definition  of  those  issue* 
on  which  the  contest  of  1860  was  to  be  conducted  : 


Resolved,  by  the  Democracy  of  the  State  of  Alabama  in  Convention  assem 
bled,  That  holding  all  issues  and  principles  upon  which  they  have  heretofore 
affiliated  and  acted  with  the  National  Democratic  party  to  be  inferior  in  dig 
nity  and  importance  to  the  great  question  of  slavery,  they  content  themselves 
with  a  general  reaffirmance  of  the  Cincinnati  platform  as  to  such  issues, 
and  also  indorse  said  platform  as  -to  slavery,  together  with  the  following 
resolutions : 


Resolved,  That  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  is  a  compact  between 
sovereign  and  co-equal  States,  united  upon  the  basis  of  perfect  equality  of 
rights  and  privileges. 

Resolved,  further,  That  the  Territories  of  the  United  States  are  common 
property,  in  which  the  States  have  equal  rights,  and  to  which  the  citizens  of 
any  State  may  rightfully  emigrate,  with  their  slaves  or  other  property 
recognized  as  such  in  any  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  or  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

Resolved,  further,  That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  no  power  to 
abolish  slavery  in  the  Territories,  or  to  prohibit  its  introduction  into  any  of 
them. 

Resolved,  further,  That  the  Territorial  Legislatures,  created  by  the  legisla 
tion  of  Congress,  have  no  power  to  abolish  slavery,  or  to  prohibit  the  intro 
duction  of  the  same,  or  to  impair  by  unfriendly  legislation  the  security  and 
full  enjoyment  of  the  same  within  the  Territories ;  and  such  constitutional 
power  certainly  does  not  belong  to  the  people  of  the  Territories  in  any  capa 
city,  before,  in  the  exercise  of  a  lawful  authority,  they  form  a  Constitution, 
preparatory  to  admission  as  a  State  into  the  Union ;  and  their  action  in  the 
exercise  of  such  lawful  authority  certainly  cannot  operate  or  take  effect  before 
their  actual  admission  as  a  State  into  the  Union. 

Resolved,  further,  That  the  principles  enunciated  by  Chief  Justice  Taney, 
in  his  opinion  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  deny  to  the  Territorial  Legislature  the 
power  to  destroy  or  impair,  by  any  legislation  whatever,  the  right  of  property 
in  slaves,  and  maintain  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government,  in  all  of 
its  departments,  to  protect  the  rights  of  the  owner  of  such  property  in  the 
Territories ;  and  the  principles  so  declared  are  hereby  asserted  to  be  the  rights 
of  the  South,  and  the  South  should  maintain  them. 

Resolved,  further,  That  we  hold  all  of  the  foregoing  propositions  to  contain 
"  cardinal  principles" — true  in  themselves — and  just  and  proper  and  neces 
sary  for  the  safety  of  all  that  is  dear  to  us  ;  and  we  do  hereby  instruct  our 
delegates  to  the  Charleston  Convention  to  present  them  for  the  calm  con 
sideration  and  approval  of  that  body — from  whose  justice  and  patriotism  we 
anticipate  their  adoption. 

Resolved,  further,  That  our  delegates  to  the  Charleston  Convention  are 
hereby  expressly  instructed  to  insist  that  ouid  Convention  shall  adopt  a  plat 


THE    j?iftST    TEAR.  37 

form  of  principles,  recognizing  distinctly  the  rights  of  the  South  as  asserted 
In  the  foregoing  resolutions ;  and  if  the  said  National  Convention  shall  refuse 
to  adopt,  in  substance,  the  propositions  embraced  in  the  preceding  resolutions, 
prior  to  nominating  candidates,  our  delegates  to  said  Convention  are  hereby 
positively  instructed  to  withdraw  therefrom. 

Under  these  resolutions  the  delegates  from  Alabama  re 
ceived  their  appointment  to  the  Charleston  Convention.  The 
delegates  from  some  of  the  other  Cotton  States  were  appointed 
under  instructions  equally  binding.  Anxious  as  were  the 
Southern  delegates  to  continue  their  connection  with  the  Con 
vention,  and  thus  to  maintain  the  nationality  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  they  agreed  to  accept,  as  the>  substance  of  the 
Alabama  platform,  either  of  the  two  following  reports  which 
had  been  submitted  to  the  Charleston  Convention  by  the  ma 
jority  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions — this  majority  not 
only  representing  that  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  but  the  only 
States  at  all  likely  to  be  carried  by  the  Democratic  party  in 
the  Presidential  election : 

I. 

Resolved,  That  the  platform  at  Cincinnati  be  reaffirmed  with  the  following 
resolutions : 

Resolved,  That  the  Democracy  of  the  United  States  hold  these  cardinal 
principles  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  Territories :  First,  that  Congress 
has  no  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  Territories.  Second,  that  the  Territo 
rial  Legislature  has  no  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  any  Territory,  nor  to 
prohibit  the  introduction  of  slaves  therein,  nor  any  power  to  exclude  slavery 
therefrom,  nor  any  power  to  destroy  and  impair  the  right  of  property  in 
slaves  by  any  legislation  whatever. 


IL 

Resolved,  That  the  platform  adopted  by  the  Democratic  party  at  Cincinnati 
be  affirmed,  with  the  following  explanatory  resolutions  : 

First.  That  the  government  of  a  Territory,  organized  by  an  act  of  Congress, 
is  provisional  and  temporary ;  and,  during  its  existence,  all  citizens  of  the 
United  States  have  an  equal  right  to  settle  with  their  property  in  the  Terri 
tory,  without  their  rights,  either  of  person  or  property,  being  destroyed  or  im 
paired  by  congressional  or  territorial  legislation. 

Second.  That  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government,  in  all  its  depart 
ments,  to  protect,  when  necessary,  the  rights  of  persons  and  property  in  the 
Territories  and  wherever  else  its  constitutional  authority  extends. 

Third.  That  when  the  settlers  in  a  Territory  having  an  adequate  popula 
tion  form  a  State  Constitution,  the  right  of  sovereignty  commences,  and 


38  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

being  consummated  by  admission  into  the  Union,  they  stand  on  an  equa* 
footing  with  the  people  of  other  States  ;  and  the  State  thus  organized,  ough 
to  be  admitted  into  the  Federal  Union,  whether  its  Constitution  prohibits  or 
ecognizes  the  institution  of  slavery. 

The  Convention  refused  to  accept  either  of  the  foregoing 
resolutions,  and  adopted,  by  a  vote  of  165  to  138,  the  follow 
ing  as  its  platform  on  the  slavery  question : 

1.  Resolved,  That  we,  the  Democracy  of  the  Union,  in  Convention  assem 
bled,  hereby  declare  our  affirmance  of  the  resolutions  unanimously  adopted 
and  declared  as  a  platform  of  principles  by  the  Democratic  Convention  at 
Cincinnati,  in  the  year  1856,  believing  that  Democratic  principles  are  un 
changeable  in  their  nature,  when  applied  to  the  same  subject-matters ;  and 
we  recommend  as  the  only  further  resolutions  the  following : 

Inasmuch  as  differences  of  opinion  exist  in  the  Democratic  party  as  to  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  powers  of  a  Territorial  Legislature,  and  as  to  the 
powers  and  duties  of  Congress  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
over  the  institution  of  slavery  within  the  Territories  : 

2.  Resolved,  That  the  Democratic  party  will  abide  by  the  decisions  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  on  the  questions  of  constitutional  law. 

The  substitution  of  these  resolutions  for  those  which  were 
satisfactory  to  the  South,  occasioned  the  disruption  of  the 
Convention,  after  a  session  of  more  than  three  weeks,  and  its 
adjournment  to  Baltimore,  on  the  18th  of  June.  The  Cotton 
States,  all,  withdrew  from  the  Convention ;  but  the  Border 
Slave  States  remained  in  it,  with  the  hope,  of  effecting  some 
ultimate  settlement  of  the  difficulty.  The  breach,  however, 
widened.  The  reassembling  of  the  Convention  at  Baltimore 
resulted  in  a  final  and  embittered  separation  of  the  opposing 
delegations.  The  majority  exhibited  a  more  uncompromising 
spirit  than  ever ;  and  Virginia  and  all  the  Border  Slave  States, 
with  the  exception  of  Missouri,  withdrew  from  the  Convention, 
and  united-  with  the  representatives  of  the  Cotton  States,  then 
assembled  in  Baltimore,  in  the  nomination  of  candidates  repre 
senting  the  views  of  the  South.  Their  nominees  were  John  C. 
Breckinridge  of  Kentucky  for  President,  and  Joseph  Lane  of 
Oregon  for  Vice-Presideiit. 

The  old  Convention,  or  what  remained  of  it,  nominated  Ste 
phen  A.  Douglas  of  Illinois  for  President,  and  Benjamin 
I1  itzpatrick  of  Alabama  for  Vice-President.  The  latter  declin- 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  39 

ing,  Herschel  Y.  Johnson  of  Georgia  was  substituted  on  the 
ticket. 

The  Southern  Democracy  and  the  Southern  people  of  all 
parties,  with  but  few  exceptions,  sustained  the  platform  de 
manded  by  the  Southern  delegates  in  the  Convention,  and  jus« 
tified  the  course  they  had  pursued.  They  recognized  in  the 
platform  a  legimate  and  fair  assertion  of  Southern  rights 
In  view,  however,  of  the  conservative  professions  and  glozed 
speeches  of  a  portion  of  the  Northern  Democracy,  a  respecta 
ble  number  of  Southern  Democrats  were  induced  to  support 
their  ticket.  Mr.  Douglas  proclaimed  his  views  to  be  in  favor 
of  non-intervention  ;  he  avowed  his  continued  and  unalterable 
opposition  to  Black  Republicanism ;  his  principles  were  pro 
fessed  to  be  "held  subject  to  the  decisions  of  the  Supremo 
Court" — the  distinction  between  judicial  questions  and  politi 
cal  questions  being  purposely  clouded ;  and  his  friends,  with 
an  ingenious  sophistry  that  had  imposed  upon  the  South  for 
thirty  years  with  success,  insisted  that  the  support  of  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  was  a  support  of  the  party  in  the  North  which  had 
stood  by  the  South  amid  persecution  and  defamation.  In  con 
sequence  of  these  and  other  protestations,  tickets  were  got  up 
for  Mr.  Douglas  in  most  of  the  Southern  States.  The  great 
majority,  however,  of  the  Democracy  of  the  slave-holding 
States,  except  Missouri,  supported  Breckinridge. 

A  Convention  of  what  is  called  the  "  Constitutional  Union" 
party  met  in  Baltimore  on  the  9th  of  May,  1860,  and  nomi 
nated  for  President  and  Yice-President,  John  Bell  of  Tennes 
see  and  Edward  Everett  of  Massachusetts.  Their  platform 
consisted  of  a  vague  and  undefined  enumeration  of  their  polit 
ical  principles;  as,  "The  Constitution  of  the  Country,  the 
Union  of  the  States,  and  Enforcement  of  the  Laws." 

The  National  Convention  of  the  Black  Republican  party 
was  held  at  Chicago,  in  the  month  of  June.  It  adopted  a  plat 
form  declaring  freedom  to  be  the  "  normal  condition"  of  the 
Territories ;  but  ingeniously  complicating  its  position  on  the 
slavery  question  by  a  number  of  vague  but  plausible  articles, 
such  as  the  maintenance  of  the  principles  of  the  Constitution, 
and  especial  attachment  to  the  Union  of  the  States. 

The  Presidential  ticket  nominated  by  the  Convention  was 
Abral  am  Lincoln  of  Illinois  for  President,  and  Hannibal 


\ 

4:0  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Hamlin  of  Maine  for  Yice-President.     Governed  by  the  nar 
row  considerations  of  party  expediency,  the  Convention  had 
adopted  as  their  candidate  for  President  a  man  of  scanty  po 
litical  record — a  Western  lawyer,  with  the  characteristics  01 
that  profession — acuteness,  slang,  and  a  large  stock  of  jokes- 
and  who  had  peculiar  claims  to  vulgar  and  demagogical  popu 
larity,  in  the  circumstances  that  he  was  once   a  captain  oi' 
volunteers  in  one  of  the  Indian  wars,  and,  at  some  anterior  pe 
riod  of  his  life,  had  been  employed,  as  report  differently  said, 
in  splitting  rails,  or  in  rowing  a  flat-boat. 

The  great  majority  of  the  Southern  Democracy  supported 
the  Breckinridge  ticket ;  it  was  the  leading  ticket  in  all  the 
Slave  States,  except  Missouri ;  but  in  the  North  but  a  small 
and  feeble  minority  of  the  Democratic  party  gave  it  their  sup 
port.  In  several  States,  the  friends  of  Douglas,  of  Breckin 
ridge,  and  of  Bell  coalesced,  to  a  certain  extent,  with  a  view  to 
the  defeat  of  Lincoln,  but  without  success,  except  in  New  Jer 
sey,  where  they  partially  succeeded. 

The  result  of  the  contest  was,  that  Abraham  Lincoln  re 
ceived  the  entire  electoral  vote  of  every  free  State,  except  New 
Jersey,  and  was,  of  course,  elected  President  of  the  United 
States,  according  to  the  forms  of  the  Constitution. 

The  entire  popular  vote  for  Lincoln  was  1,858,200 ;  that 
for  Douglas,  giving  him  his' share  of  the  fusion  vote,  1,276,780; 
that  for  Breckinridge,  giving  him  his  share  of  the  fusion  vote, 
812,500 ;  and  that  for  Bell,  including  his  proportion  of  the  fu 
sion  vote,  735,504.  The  whole  vote  against  Lincoln  was  thus 
2,824,874-,  showing  a  clear  aggregate  majority  against  him  of 
nearly  a  million  of  votes. 

During  the  canvass,  the  North  had  been  distinctly  warned 
by  the  conservative  parties  of  the  country,  that  the  election  of 
Lincoln  by  a  strictly  sectional  vote  would  be  taken  as  a  decla 
ration  of  war  against  the  South.  This  position  was  assumed 
on  the  part  of  the  South,  not  so  much  on  account  of  the 
declaration  of  the  anti-slavery  principles  in  the  Chicago  plat 
form,  as  from  the  notorious  animus  of  the  party  supporting 
Lincoln.  The  Chicago  Convention  had  attempted  to  conceal 
the  worst  designs  of  Abolitionism  under  professions  of  advan 
cing  the  cause  of  freedom  in  strict  accordance  with  the  Const! 
tution  and  the  laws.  The  South,  however,  could  not  be  igno 


THE    FIKST    YEAK.  41 

rant  of  the  fact,  or  wanting  in  appreciation  of  it,  that  Lincoln 
had  been  supported  by  the  sympathizers  of  John  Brown,  the 
indorsers  of  the  "  Helper  Book,"  the  founders  of  the  Kansas 
Emigrant  Aid  Societies,  and  their  desperate  abetters  and 
agents,  "  Jim"  Lane  and  others,  and  by  the  opponents  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  law.  It  was  known,  in  a  word,  that  Lincoln 
owed  his  election  to  the  worst  enemies  of  the  Soi.th,  and  that 
he  would  naturally  and  necessarily  select  his  counsellors  from 
among  them,  and  consult  their  views  in  his  administration  of 
the  government. 

Threats  of  resistance  were  proclaimed  in  the  South.  It  is 
true  that  a  few  sanguine  persons  in  that  section,  indulging  nar 
row  and  temporizing  views  of  the  crisis,  derived  no  little 
comfort  and  confidence  from  the  large  preponderance  of  the 
popular  vote  in  the  Presidential  contest  in  favor  of  the  con 
servative  candidates ;  and  viewed  it  as  an  augury  of  the  speedy 
overthrow  of  the  first  sectional  administration.  But  those 
whose  observations  were  larger  and  comprehended  the  progress 
of  events,  took  quite  a  different  view  of  the  matter.  They 
could  find  no  consolation  or  encouragement  from  the  face  of 
the  record.  The  anti-slavery  party  had  organized  in  1840, 
with  about  seven  thousand  voters;  and  in  1860  had  succeeded 
in  electing  the  President  of  the  United  States*  The  conserva 
tive  party  in  the  North  had  been  thoroughly  corrupted.  They 
were  beaten  in  every  Northern  State  in  1860,  with  a  single 
exception,  by  the  avowed  enemies  of  the  South,  who,  but  a  few 
years  ago  had  been  powerless  in  their  midst.  The  leaders  of 
the  Northern  Democratic  party  had  in  1856  and  in  1860 
openly  taken  the  position  that  freedom  would  be  more  certainly 
secured  in  the  Territories  by  the  rule  of  non-intervention  than 
by  any  other  policy  or  expedient.  This  interpretation  of  their 
policy  alone  saved  the  Democratic  party  from  entire  annihila 
tion.  The  overwhelming  pressure  of  the  anti-slavery  senti 
ment  had  prevented  their  acceding  to  the  Southern  platform  in 
the  Presidential  canvass.  Nothing  in  the  present  or  in  the  fu 
ture  could  be  looked  for  from  the  so-called  conservatives  of  the 
North ;  and  the  South  prepared  to  go  out  of  a  Union,  which 
no  longer  afforded  any  guaranty  for  her  rights  or  any  perma 
nent  sense  of  security,  and  which  had  brought  her  under  the 
domination  of  a  growing  fanaticism  in  the  North,  the  senti- 


42  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ments  of.  which,  if  carried  into  legislation,  would  destroy  her 
institutions,  confiscate  the  property  of  her  people,  and  even 
involve  their  lives. 

The  State  of  South  Carolina  acted  promptly  and  vigorous 
ly,  with  no  delay  for  argument,  and  but  little  for  prepara 
tion.  Considering-  the  argument  as  fully  exhausted,  she  de 
termined,  by  the  exercise  of  her  rights  as  a  sovereign  State,  to 
separate  herself  from  the  Union.  Her  Legislature  called  a 
Convention  immediately  after  the  result  of  the  Presidential 
election  had  been  ascertained.  The  Convention  met  a  few 
weeks  thereafter,  and  on  the  20th  day  of  December,  1860,  for 
mally  dissolved  the  connection  of  South  Carolina  with  the 
Union,  by  an  ordinance  of  Secession,  which  was  passed  by  a 
unanimous  vote. 

On  the  same  day  Major  Anderson,  who  was  in  command  of 
the  Federal  forces  in  Charleston  harbor,  evacuated  Fort 
Moultrie,  spiking  the  guns  and  burning  the  gun-carriages,  and 
occupied  Fort  Sumter,  with  a  view  of  strengthening  his  po 
sition.  On  the  30th  of  December,  John  B.  Floyd,  Secretary  of 
War,  resigned  his  office,  because  President  Buchanan  refused 
to  order  Major  Anderson  back  to  Fort  Moultrie — Mr.  Floyd 
alleging  that  he  and  the  President  had  pledged  the  authorities 
of  South  Carolina  that  the  existing  military  status  of  the  United 
States  in  that  State  should  not  be  changed  during  the  expiring 
term  of  the  Democratic  administration. 

The  withdrawal  of  South  Carolina  from  the  Union  produced 
some  sensation  in  the  North,  but  the  dominant  party  treated  it 
lightly.  Many  of  these  jeered  at  it ;  their  leaders  derided  the 
'£  right  of  secession  ;'?  and  their  newspapers  prophesied  that 
the  "rebellion"  in  South  Carolina  would  be  reduced  to  the 
most  ignominious  extremity  the  moment  the  "paternal  govern 
ment"  of  the  United  States  should  resolve  to  have  recourse 
from  peaceful  persuasions  to  the  chastisement  of  "a  spoilt- 
child."  The  events,  however,  which  rapidly  succeeded  the 
withdrawal  of  South  Carolina,  produced  a  deep  impression 
upon  all  reflecting  minds,  and  startled,  to  some  extent,  the 
masses  of  the  North,  who  would  have  been  much  more  alarmed 
but  for  their  vain  and  long-continued  assurance  that  the  South 
had  no  means  or  resources  for  making  a  serious  resistance  to 
the  Federal  authority ;  and  that  a  rebellion  which  could  at  any 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  43 

time  be  crushed  on  short  notice,  might  be  pleasantly  humored 
or  wisely  tolerated  to  any  extent  short  of  the  actual  com 
mencement  of  hostilities. 

On  the  9th  day  of  January,  1861,  the  State  of  Mississipp 
seceded  from  the  Union.  Alabama  and  Florida  followed  on 
the  llth  day  of  the  same  month ;  Georgia  on  the  20th ; 
Louisiana  on  the  26th;  and  Texas  on  the  1st  of  February.  Thus, 
in  less  than  three  months  after  the  announcement  of  Lincoln's 
election,  all  the  Cotton  States,  with  the  exception  of  Alabama, 
had  seceded  from  the  Union,  and  had,  besides,  secured  every 
Federal  fort  within  their  limits,  except  the  forts  in  Charles 
ton  harbor,  and  Fort  Pickens,  below  Pensacola,  which  were 
retained  by  United  States  troops. 

The  United  States  Congress  had,  at  the  beginning  of  its  ses 
sion  in  December,  1860,  appointed  committees  in  both  houses 
to  consider  the  state  of  the  Union.  Neither  committee  was 
able  to  agree  upon  any  mode  of  settlement  of  the  pending  issue 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  The  Republican  members 
in  both  committees  rejected  propositions  acknowledging  the 
right  of  property  in  slaves,  or  recommending  the  division  of 
the  territories  between  the  slaveholding  and  non-slaveholding 
States  by  a  geographical  line.  In  the  Senate,  the  propositions, 
commonly  known  as  Mr.  Crittenden's,  were  voted  against  by 
every  Republican  senator /  and  the  House,  on  a  vote  of  yeas 
and  nays,  refused  to  consider  certain  propositions,  moved  by 
Mr.  Etheridge,  which  were  even  less  favorable  to  the  South 
than  Mr.  Crittenden's. 

A  resolution,  giving  a  pledge  to  sustain  the  President  in  the 
use  of  force  against  seceding  States,  was  adopted  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  by  a  large  majority;  and,  in  the  Senate, 
every  Republican  voted  to  substitute  for  Mr.  Crittenden's 
propositions,  resolutions  offered  by  Mr.  Clarke,  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  declaring  that  no  new  concessions,  guaranties,  or  amend 
ments  to  the  Constitution  were  necessary;  that  the  demands  of 
the  South  were  unreasonable,  and  that  the  remedy  for  the 
present  dangers  was  simply  to  enforce  the  laws — in  other 
words — coercion  and  war. 

On  the  19th  day  of  January,  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
of  Virginia  had  passed  resolutions  having  in  view  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  the  questions  which  threatened  the  Union,  and 


44  SOUTHERN    If] STORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

suggesting  that  a  National  Peace  Conference  slioul  J  oe  held  in 
Washington  on  the  4th  of  February.  This  suggestion  met  with 
a  favorable  response  from  the  Border  Slave  States  and  from 
professed  conservatives  in  the  North.  The  Conference  met  on 
the  day  designated,  and  Ex-President  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  was 
called  to  preside  over  its  deliberations.  It  remained  in  session 
several  days,  and  adjourned  without  agreeing  upon  any  satis 
factory  plan  of  adjustment. 

Most  of  the  delegates  from  the  Border  Slave  States  indicated 
a  willingness  to  accept  the  few  and  feeble  guaranties  contained 
in  the  resolutions  offered,  a  short  time  before,  in  the  Senate  by 
Mr.  Crittenden.  These  guaranties,  paltry  and  ineffectual  as 
they  were,  would  not  be  conceded  by  the  representatives  of 
the  Northern  States.  The  Peace  Conference  finally  adopted 
what  was  called  the  Franklin  Substitute  in  lieu  of  the  propo 
sitions  offered  by  Mr.  Outline,  of  Kentucky — a  settlement  less 
favorable  to  the  South-  than  that  proposed  by  Mr.  Crittenden. 
It  is  useless  to  recount  the  details  of  these  measures.  Neither 
the  Crittenden  propositions,  the  Franklin  Substitute,  nor  any 
plan  that  pretended  to  look  for  the  guaranty  of  Southern 
rights,  received  a  respectful  notice  from  the  Republican  ma 
jority  in  Congress. 

Shortly  after  its  assemblage  in  January,  the  Virginia  Legis 
lature  had  called  a  Convention  of  the  people  to  decide  upon 
the  course  proper  to  be  pursued  by  the  State,  with  reference 
to  her  present  relations  to  the  Union  and  the  future  exigencies 
of  her  situation.  The  election  was  held  on  the  4th  of  February, 
and  resulted  in  the  choice  of  a  majority  of  members  opposed 
to  unconditional  secession.  Subsequently,  Tennessee  and  North 
Carolina  decided  against  calling  a  Convention — the  former  by 
a  large,  the  latter  by  a  very  small  majority.  These  events 
greatly  encouraged  the  enemies  of  the  South,  but  without 
cause,  as  they^really  indicated  nothing  more  than  the  purpose 
of  the  Border  Slave  States  to  await  the  results  of  the  peace 
propositions,  to  which  they  had  committed  themselves.' 

In  the  mean  time,  the  seceding  States  were  erecting  the 
structure  of  a  government  on  the  foundation  of  a  new  Con 
federation  of  States.  A  convention  of  delegates  from  the  six 
Beceding  States  assembled  in  Congress  at  Montgomery,  Ala 
bama,  on  the  4th  of  February,  1861,  for  the  purpose  of  organ- 


••••• 


C  .  B  .  Hidiaidson,   Publisher . 


THE    FIKST    YEAB.  45 

izing  a  provisional  government.  This  body  adopted  a  Consti 
tution  for  the  Confederate  States  on  the  8th  of  February.  On 
the  9th  of  February,  Congress  proceeded  to  the  election  of  a 
President  and  Vi-ce-President,  and  unanimously  agreed  upon 
Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  for  President,  and  Alexander 
H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  for  Yice-President.  Mr.  Davis  was 
inaugurated  Provisional  President  on  the  18th  of  February, 
and  delivered  an  address,  explaining  the  revolution  as  a  change 
of  the  constituent  parts,  but  not  the  system,  of  the  government, 
and  referring  to  the  not  unreasonable  expectation  that,  with  a 
Constitution  differing  only  from  that  of  their  fathers,  in  so  far 
as  it  was  explanatory  of  their  well-known  intent,  freed  from 
sectional  conflicts,  the  States  from  which  they  had  recently 
parted  might  seek  to  unite  their  fortunes  to  those  of  the  new 
Confederacy. 

President  Buchanan  had,  in  his  message  to  Congress,  de 
nounced  Secession  as  revolutionary,  but  had  hesitated  at  the 
logical  conclusion  of  the  right  of  "  coercion,"  on  the  part  of 
the  Federal  Government,  as  not  warranted  by  the  text  of  the 
Constitution.  Timid,  secretive,  cold,  and  with  no  other  policy 
than  that  of  selfish  expediency,  the  remnant  of  his  administra 
tion  was  marked  by  embarrassment,  double-dealing,  and  weak 
and  contemptible  querulousness.  He  had  not  hesitated,  under 
the  pressure  of  Northern  clamor,  to  refuse  to  .)rder  Major 
Anderson  back  to  Fort  Moultrie,  thus  violating  the  pledge 
that  xhe  had  given  to  the  South  Carolina  authorities,  that  the 
military  status  of  the  United  States  in  Charleston  harbor 
should  not  be  disturbed  during  his  administration.  He  added 
to  the  infamy  of  this  perfidy  by  a  covert  attempt  to  reinforce 
Fort  Sumter,  under  the  specious  plea  of  provisioning  a  "starv 
ing  garrison ;"  and  when  the  Federal  steamship,  the  Star  of 
the  West,  which  was  sent  on  this  mission,  was,  on  the  9th  of 
January,  driven  off  Charleston  harbor  by  the, South  Carolina 
batteries  on  Morris  Island,  he  had  the  hardihood  to  affect 
surprise  and  indignation  at  the  reception  given  the  Federal 
reinforcements,  and  to  insist  that  the  expedition  had  been 
ordered  with  the  concurrence  of  his  Cabinet,  including  Mr. 
Thompson,  of  Mississippi,  then  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  who 
repelled  the  slander,  denounced  the  movement  as  underhanded, 
and  as  a  breach  not  only  of  good  faith  towards  South  Carolina, 


4:6  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

but  of  personal  confidence  between  the  President  and  his  ad 
visers,  and  left  the  Cabinet  in  disgust. 

On  the  incoming  of  the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
on  the  4th  of  March,  the  rival  government  of  the  South  had 
perfected  its  organization;  the  separation  had  been  widened 
and  envenomed  by  the  ambidexterity  and  perfidy  of  President 
Buchanan ;  the  Southern  people,  however,  still  hoped  for  a 
peaceful  accomplishment  of  their  independence,  and  deplored 
war  between  the  two  sections,  as  "  a  policy  detrimental  to  the 
civilized  world."  The  revolution  in  the  mean  time  had  rapidly 
gathered,  not  only  in  moral  power,  but  in  the  means  of  war 
and  the  muniments  of  defence.  Fort  Moultrie  and  Castle 
Pinckney  had  been  captured  by  the  South  Carolina  troops; 
Fort  Pulaski,  the  defence  of  the  Savannah,  had  been  taken ; 
the  arsenal  at  Mount  Yernon,  Alabama,  with  20,000  stand  of 
arms,  had  been  seized  by  the  Alabama  troops ;  Fort  Morgan, 
in  Mobile  Bay,  had  been  taken  ;  Forts  Jackson,  St.  Philip, 
and  Pike,  near  New  Orleans,  had  been  captured  by  the  Louis 
iana  troops;  the  Pensacola  Navy- Yard  and  For*.s  Barrancas 
and  Mcllae  had  been  taken,  and  the  siege  of  Fort  Pickens 
commenced ;  the  Baton  Rouge  Arsenal  had  been  surrendered 
to  the  Louisiana  troops ;  the  New  Orleans  Mint  and  Custom- 
House  had  been  taken;  the  Little  Hock  Arsenal  had  been 
seized  by  tL  Arkansas  troops ;  and,  on  the  16th  of  February, 
General  Twiggs  had  transferred  the  public  property  in  Texas 
to  the  State  authorities.  All  of  these  events  had  been  accom 
plished  without  bloodshed.  Abolitionism  and  Fanaticism  had 
not  yet  lapped  blood.  But  reflecting  men  saw  that  the  peace 
was  deceitful  and  temporizing ;  that  the  temper  of  the  North 
was  impatient  and  dark ;  and  that,  if  all  history  was  not  a  lie, 
the  first  incident  of  bloodshed  would  be  the  prelude  to  a  war 
of  monstrous  proportions. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR. 


CHAPTER  II 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Journey  to  Washington.— Ceremonies  of  the  Inauguration.— The  ln- 
angural  Speech  of  President  Lincoln.— The  Spirit  of  the  New  Administration.— Its  Fi 
nancial  Condition.— Embassy  from  the  Southern  Confederacy. — Perfidious  Treatment 
of  the  Southern  Commissioners.— Preparations  for  War.— The  Military  Bills  of  the 
Confederate  Congress. — General  Beauregard. — Fortifications  of  Charleston  Harbor. — 
Naval  Preparations  of  the  Federal  Government. — Attempted  Reinforcement  of  Fort 
Sumter. — Perfidy  of  the  Federal  Government. — Excitement  in  Charleston. — Reduction 
of  Fort  Sumter  by  the  Confederate  Forces.— How  the  News  was  received  in  Wash 
ington. — Lincoln's  Calculation. — His  Proclamation  of  WAR. — The  u  Reaction"  in  the 
North. — Displays  of  Rancor  towards  the  South. — Northern  Democrats. — Replies  of 
Southern  Governors  to  Lincoln's  Requisition  for  Troops. — Spirit  of  the  South. — Seces 
sion  of  Virginia.— Maryland. — The  Baltimore  Riot. — Patriotic  Example  of  Missouri. — 
Lincoln's  Proclamation  blockading  the  Southern  Ports. — General  Lee. — The  Federals 
evacuate  Harper's  Ferry. — Burning  of  the  Navy  Yard  at  Norfolk. — The  Second  Seces- 
sionary  Movement. — Spirit  of  Patriotic  Devotion  in  the  South. — Supply  of  Arms  in 
the  South. — The  Federal  Government  and  the  State  of  Maryland. — The  Prospect. 

THE  circumstances  of  the  advent  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  Wash 
ington  were  not  calculated  to  inspire  confidence  in  his  courage 
or  wisdom,  or  in  the  results  of  his  administration.  His  party 
had  busily  prophesied,  and  sought  to  innoculate  the  North  with 
the  conviction,  that  his  assumption  of  the  Presidential  office 
would  be  the  signal  of  the  restoration  of  peace ;  that  by  some 
mysterious  ingenuity  he  would  resolve  the  existing  political 
complication,  restore  the  Union,  and  inaugurate  a  season  of 
unexampled  peace,  harmony,  and  prosperity.  These  weak  and 
fulsome  prophecies  had  a  certain  effect.  In  the  midst  of  anx 
iety  and  embarrassment,  in  which  no  relief  had  yet  been 
suggested,  the  inauguration  of  a  new  administration  of  the 
government  was  looked  to  by  many  persons  in  the  North,  out 
side  the  Republican  party,  with  a  vague  sense  of  hope,  which 
was  animated  by  reports,  quite  as  uncertain,  of  the  vigor, 
decision,  and  individuality  of  the  new  President.  For  months 
since  the  announcement  of  his  election,  Mr.  Lincoln's  lips  had 
been  closed.  He  had  been  studiously  silent;  expectations  were 
raised  by  what  was  thought  to  be  an  indication  of  a  mysteri 
ous  wisdom ;  and  the  North  impatiently  waited  for  the  hour 
when  the  oracle's  lips  were  to  be  opened. 

These  vague  expectations  were  almost  ludicrously  disap 
pointed.  On  leaving  his  home,  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  for 


48  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Washington,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  at  last  opened  his  lips.  In  the 
speeches  with  which  he  entertained  the  crowd  that  at  different 
points  of  the  railroad  watched  his  progress  to  the  capital,  he 
amused  the  whole  country,  even  in  the  midst  of  a  great  public 
anxiety,  with  his  ignorance,  his  vulgarity,  his  flippant  conceit, 
and  his  Western  phraseology.  The  North  discovered  that  the 
new  President,  instead  of  having  nursed  a  masterly  wisdom  in 
the  retirement  of  his  home  at  Springfield,  and  approaching 
the  capital  with  dignity,  had  nothing  better  to  offer  to  an 
agonized  country  than  the  ignorant  conceits  of  a  low  Western 
politician,  and  the  flimsy  jests  of  a  harlequin.  His  railroad 
speeches  were  characterized  by  a  Southern  paper  as  illustrating 
"  the  delightful  combination  of  a  Western  county  lawyer  with 
a  Yankee  bar-keeper."  In  his  harangues  to  the  crowrds  which 
intercepted  him  in  his  journey,  at  a  time  when  the  country  was 
in  revolutionary  chaos,  when  commerce  and  trade  were  pros 
trated,  ar.d  when  starving  women  and  idle  men  were  among  the 
yery  audiences  that  listened  to  him,  he  declared  to  them  in  his 
peculiar  phraseology  that  " nobody  was  hurt"  that  " all  would 
come  out  rig  Jit"  and  that  there  wras  "nothing  going  wrong" 
Nor  was  the  rhetoric  of  the  new  President  his  only  entertain 
ment  of  the  crowds  that  assembled  to  honor  the  progress  of  his 
journey,  to  Washington.  He  amused  them  by  the  spectacle 
of  kissing,  on  a  public  platform,  a  lady-admirer,  who  had  sug 
gested  to  him  the  cultivation  of  his  whiskers;  he  measured 
heights  with  every  tall  man  he  encountered  in  one  of  his  public 
receptions,  and  declared  that  he  was  not  to  be  "  overtopped ;" 
and  he  made  public  exhibitions  of  his  wife — "  the  little  woman,'* 
he  called  her — whose  chubby  figure,  motherly  face,  and  fond 
ness  for  finery  and  colors  recommended  her  to  a  very  limited 
and  very  vulgar  portion  of  the  society  of  her  sex. 

Tiiese  jests  and  indecencies  of  the  demagogue  who  was  to 
take  control  of  what  remained  of  the  Govern  merit  of  the  United 
States,  belong  to  history.  Whatever  their  disgrace,  it  was 
surpassed,  however,  by  another  display  of  character  on  the  part 
of  tiie  coining  statesman.  While  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania, 
and  intending  to  proceed  from  there  to  Baltimoie,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  alarmed  by  a  report,  which  was  either  silly  or  jocose,  that 
a  baud  of  assassins  were  awaiting  him  in  the  latter  city. 
Frightened  beyond  all  considerations  of  dignity  and  decency 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  4-0 

the  new  President  of  the  United  States  left  Ilarrisburg  at 
night,  on  a  different  route  than  that  through  Baltimore;  and  in 
a  motley  disguise,  composed  of  a  Scotch  cap  and  military  cloak 
stole  to  the  capital  of  his  government.  The  distinguished 
fugitive  had  left  his  wife  and  family  to  pursue  the  route  on 
which  it  was  threatened  that  the  cars  were  to  be  thrown  down 
a  precipice  by  Secessionists,  or,  if  that  expedient  failed,  the 
work  of  assassination  was  to  be  accomplished  in  the  streets  of 
Baltimore.  The  city  of  Washington  was  taken  by  surprise  by 
the  irregular  flight  of  the  President  to  its  shelter  and  protec 
tion.  The  representatives  of  his  own  party  there  received  him 
with  evident  signs  of  disgust  at  the  cowardice  which  had  hur 
ried  his  arrival  in  Washington  ;  but  as  an  example  of  the  early 
prostitution  of  the  press  of  that  parasitical  city  to  the  incom- 
*ng  administration  that  was  to  feed  its  venal  lusts,  the  escapade 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  was,  with  a  shamelessness  almost  incredible, 
exploited  as  an  ingenious  and  brilliant  feat,  and  entitled,  in 
the  newspaper  extras  that  announced  his  arrival,  as  "  another 
Fort  Moulirie  coup  de  main" — referring  to  the  fraud  by  which 
the  government  had  stolen  a  march  by  midnight  to  the  supposed 
impregnable  defences  of  Fort  Sumter. 

But  Mr.  Lincoln's  fears  for  his  personal  safety  evidently  did 
not  subside  with  his  attainment  of  the  refuges  of  Washington. 
A  story  was  published  seriously  in  a  New  York  paper,  that  at 
the  moment  of  his  inauguration  he  was  to  be  shot  on  the  Cap 
itol  steps,  by  an  air-gun,  in  the  hands  of  a  Secessionist  selected 
for  this  desperate  and  romantic  task  of  assassination.  The 
President,  with  nerves  already  shattered  by  his  flight  from 
Karrisburg,  was  easily  put  in  a  new  condition  of  alarm.  An 
armed  guard  was  posted  around  Willard's  hotel,  where  he  had 
taken  temporary  quarters.  Preparations  were  busily  made  to 
organize  a  military  protection  for  the  ceremony  of  the  inaugu 
ration.  The  city  of  Washington  had  already  been  invested 
with  large  military  forces,  under  the  immediate  command  ol 
General  Scott,  whose  vanity  and  weak  love  of  public  sensations^ 
had  easily  induced  him  to  pretend  alarm,  and  to  make  a  mili 
tary  display,  more  on  his  own  account  than  for  the  ridiculous 
and  absurd  object  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal  security.  For 
weeks  the  usually  quiet  city  had  been  filled  with  Federal 
bayonets ;  the  bugle's  reveille,  the  roll  of  drums,  and  the  tramp 


50  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  armed  guards  startled,  in  every  direction,  the  civilian  ol 
Washington,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  nothing  more  war 
like  than  parades  at  the  Navy  Yard  and  rows  in  Congress: 
companies  of  flying  artillery  daily  paraded  the  streets  and 
thundered  over  its  pavements ;  and  no  form  of  ostentation  was 
omitted  by  the  senile  and  conceited  general  in  command,  to 
give  the  Federal  metropolis  the  appearance  of  a  conquered 
city. 

The  hour  of  the  inauguration — the  morning  of  the  fourth  of 
March — at  length  arrived.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  dressed  in  a  suit 
of  black  for  the  occasion,  and,  at  the  instance  of  his  friends, 
had  submitted  to  the  offices  of  a  hair-dresser.  He  entered  the 
barouche  that  was  to  convey  him  to  the  Capitol,  with  a  nervous 
agitation  and  an  awkwardness,  that  were  plainly  evident  to  the 
crowd.  His  person  attracted  the  curiosity  of  the  mob.  Of 
unusual  height,  the  effect  of  his  figure  was  almost  ludicrous, 
from  a  swinging  gait  and  the  stoop  of  his  shoulders;  a  cadav 
erous  face,  whose  expression  was  that  of  a  sort  of  funereal  hu 
mor;  long,  swinging  arms,  with  the  general  hirsute  appearance 
of  the  Western  countryman,  made  up  the  principal  features  of 
the  new  President. 

The  inauguration  ceremony  was  attended  by  a  most  extraor 
dinary  military  display,  under  the  immediate  direction  of  Gen 
eral  Scott;  who,  to  give  it  an  appearance  of  propriety,  and  to 
increase  its  importance,  affected  the  most  uneasy  alarms.  Pre 
vious  to  inanguration  day,  the  vaults  of  the  Capitol  were  ex 
plored  for  evidences  of  a  gunpowder  plot  to  hurry  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  his  satellites  into  eternity.  In  the  procession  along  Penn 
sylvania  Avenue,  the  President  was  hid  from  public  view  in  a 
hollow  square  of  cavalry,  three  or  four  deep.  The  tops  of  the 
houses  along  the  route  were  occupied  by  soldiery  watching  for 
signs  of  tumult  or  assassination.  Artillery  and  infantry  com 
panies  were  posted  in  different  parts  of  the  city ;  officers  were 
continually  passing  to  and  tro;  and  as  the  procession  ap 
proached  the  Capitol,  Gen.  Scott,  who  was  in  constant  commu 
nication  with  all  quarters  of  the  city,  was  heard  to  exclaim,  in 
a  tone  of  relief,  "  every  thing  is  going  on  peaceably ;  thank 
God  Almighty  for  it."  The  expression  of  relief  was  simply 
ridiculous.  The  ceremony  was  disturbed  by  but  a  single  inci 
dent:  as  the  procession  neared  the  portico  of  the  Capitol,  a 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  51 

drunken  man,  who  had  climbed  up  one  of  the  trees  on  the 
avenue,  amused  himself  by  striking  with,  a  staff  the  boughs  of 
the  tree  and  shouting  to  the  crowd.  13xG  thought  flashed  upon 
the  minds  of  the  special  police,  that  he  might  be  the  identical 
assassin  with  the  air-gun ;  he  was  instantly  seized  by  a  dozen 
of  them,  and  hurried  from  the  scene  of  the  ceremony  with  a 
rapidity  and  decision  that  for  a  moment  alarmed,  and  then 
amused,  the  crowd.  Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  his  inaugural  from 
the  East  portico  of  die  Capitol,  to  an  audience  huddled  within 
the  lines  of  the  District  militia,  and  with  a  row  of  bayonets 
glittering  at  his  feet. 

The  inaugural  wras  intended  to  be  ambiguous;  it  proposed  to 
cozen  the  South  by  a  cheap  sentimentalism,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  to  gratify  the  party  that  had  elevated  Mr.  Lincoln,  by  a 
sufficient  expression  of  the  designs  of  the  new  administration. 
These  designs  were  sufficiently  apparent.  Mr.  Lincoln  pro 
tested  that  he  should  take  care  that  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  were  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States ;  he  declared 
that  in  doing  this,  there  was  no  necessity  for  bloodshed  or  vio 
lence,  "unless  it  was  forced  upon  the  national  authority."  He 
promised  that  the  power  confided  to  him  would  be  used  to 
hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  forts  and  places  belonging  to  the 
government,  "but,"  continued  the  ambidexterous  speaker, 
44 'ley <ond  what  may  be  necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will 
be  no  invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  any  people 
anywhere." 

In  the  South,  the  inaugural  was  generally  taken  as  a  premo 
nition  of  war.  There  were  other  manifestations  of  the  spirit 
of  the  new  administration.  Violent  Abolitionists  and  men 
whose  hatred  of  the  South  was  notorious  and  unrelenting,  were 
placed  in  every  department  of  the  public  service.  William  H. 
Seward  was  made  Secretary  of  State ;  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury;  and  Montgomery  Blair,  Postmaster- 
general.  Anson  Burlingame  was  sent  as  representative  to 
Austria;  Cassias  M.  Clay,  to  Russia;  Carl  Shurz,  to '  Spain ; 
James  E.  Harvey,  to  Portugal ;  Charles  F.  Adams,  to  Eng 
land;  and  Joshua  E.  Giddings,  to  Canada.  In  the  Senate, 
which  was  convened  in  an  extra  session  to  confirm  executive 
appointments  and  to  transact  other  public  business,  Charles 
S'unner  was  appointed  Chairman  of  Foreign  Eolations ;  Wil 


52  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

Ham  P.  Fessenden,  of  Finance ;  and  Pleniy  Wilson,  of  ^  j- 
tary  Affairs.  A  portion  of  the  time  of  this  extra  session  was 
consumed  in  discussing  the  policy  of  the  administration.  &Ir. 
Douglas,  who  had  represented  the  Northern  Democracy  in  the 
Presidential  contest,  and  still  claimed  to  represent  it,  and  who 
had  already  courted  the  new  administration  of  his  rival — had 
held  Mr.  Lincoln's  hat  at  the  inauguration  ceremony,  and  en 
acted  the  part  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's  cavalier  at  the  inauguration 
ball — essayed  to  give  to  the  President's  inaugural  a  peace  in 
terpretation,  and  to  soften  what  had  been  foreshadowed  of  his 
policy.  The  efforts  of  the  demagogue  were  ill-timed  and 
paltry.  Senators  from  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Ken 
tucky,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and  North  Carolina,  who  still  con 
tinued  in  the  councils  of  the  government,  remained  long  enough 
to  witness  the  subversion  of  all  the  principles  that  had  before 
contributed  to  the  prosperity  and  stability  of  the  American 
Government ;  to  learn,  as  far  as  possible,  the  course  the  gov 
ernment  would  pursue  towards  the  Confederate  States ;  and  to 
return  home  to  prepare  their  people  for  the  policy  of  discord, 
conflict,  and  civil  war  which  had  been  inaugurated. 

The  financial  condition  of  the  government  at  the  time  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  accession  was  by  no  means  desperate.  There  was  a 
balance  in  the  Treasury  of  six  millions,  applicable  to  current 
expenses ;  the  receipts  from  customs  were  estimated  at  eighty 
thousand  dollars  per  day;  and  it  was  thought  that  a  loan 
would  not  be  called  for  for  some  time,  should  there  be  a  happy 
continuation  of  peace. 

The  Confederate  States  government  at  Montgomery  had 
shown  nothing  of  a  desperate  or  tumultuous  spirit ;  it  had  not 
watched  events  with  recklessness  as  to  their  conclusion ;  it  was 
anxious  for  peace ;  and  it  gave  a  rare  evidence  of  the  virtue 
and  conservatism  of  a  new  government,  which  was  historically 
the  fruit  of  a  revolution,  by  the  most  sedulous  efforts  to  avoid 
all  temptations  to  violence,  and  to  resist  the  consequence  of 
\var.  Soon  after  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  it  had  de 
puted  an  embassy  of  commissioners  to  Washington,  authorized 
to  negotiate  for  the  removal  of  the  Federal  garrisons  from 
Forts  Pick  ens  and  Sumter,  and  to  provide  for  the  settlement 
of  all  claims  of  public  property  arising  out  of  the  separation  oi 
the  States  from  the  Union.  Two  oi  the  commissioners,  Martin 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  53 

Crawford,  of  Georgia,  and  John  Forsythe,  of  Alabama,  at 
tended  in  Washington,  and  addressed  a  communication  to  Mr, 
Seward,  which  explained  the  functions  of  the  embassy  and  its 
purposes. 

Hr.  Seward  declined  for  the  present  to  return  an  official 
answer  to  the  commissioners,  or  to  recognize  in  an  official  light 
their  humane  and  amicable  mission.  His  government  had  re 
solved  on  a  policy  of  perfidy.  The  commissioners  were  amused 
from  week  to  week  with  verbal  assurances  that  the  government 
was  disposed  to  recognize  them ;  that  to  treat  with  them  at  the 
particular  juncture  might  seriously  embarrass  the  administra 
tion  of  Mr.  Lincoln ;  that  they  should  be  patient  and  confident ; 
and  that  in  the  mean  time  the  military  status  of  the  United 
States  in  the  South  would  not  be  disturbed.  Judge  Campbell, 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  had  consented  to  be  the  intermediary 
of  these  verbal  conferences.  "When  the  sequel  of  the  perfidy 
of  the  administration  was  demonstrated,  he  wrote  two  notes  to 
Mr.  Seward,  distinctly  charging  him  with  overreaching  and 
equivocation,  to  which  Mr.  Seward  never  attempted  a  defence 
or  a  reply. 

The  dalliance  with  the  commissioners  was  not  the  only  de 
ceitful  indication  of  peace.  It  was  given  out  and  confidently 
reported  in  the  newspapers,  that  Fort  Sumter  ^was  to  be  evacu 
ated  by  the  Federal  forces.  The  delusion  was  continued  for 
weeks.  The  Black  Republican  party,  of  course,  resented  this 
reported  policy  of  the  government;  but  a  number  of  their 
newspapers  endeavored  to  compose  the  resentment  by  the 
arguments  that  the  evacuation  would  be  ordered  solely  on  the 
ground  of  military  necessity,  as  it  would  be  impossible  to  rein 
force  the  garrison  without  a  very  extensive  demonstration  of 
force,  which  the  government  was  not  then  prepared  to  make ; 
that  the  purposes  of  the  administration  had  not  relaxed,  and 
that  the  evacuation  of  Sumter  was,  as  one  of  the  organs  of  the 
administration  expressed  it,  but  "  the  crouch  of  the  tiger  be 
fore  he  leaped." 

It  was  true  that  the  condition  of  the  garrison  of  Fort  Sumter 
had  been  a  subject  of  Cabinet  consultation ;  but  it  was  after 
wards  discovered  that  all  that  had  been  decided  by  the  advisers 
of  the  President,  among  whom  General  Scott  had  been  admit 
ted,  was  that  military  reinforcement  of  the  fort  was,  under  the 


64  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

circumstances,  impracticable.  There  never  was  an  intention  to 
evacuate  it.  The  embarrassment  of  the  government  was,  to 
avoid  the  difficulty  of  military  reinforcements  by  some  artifice 
that  would  equally  well  answer  its  purposes.  That  artifice 
continued  for  a  considerable  time  to  be  the  subject  of  secret 
and  sedulous  consultation. 

While  a  portion  of  the  public  were  entertained  in  watching 
the  surface  of  events,  and  were  imposed  upon  by  deceitful 
signs  of  peace,  discerning  men  saw  the  inevitable  consequence 
in  the  significant  preparations  made  on  both  sides  for  war. 
These  preparations  had  gone  on  unremittingly  since  the  inau 
guration  of  the  Lincoln  government.  The  troops  of  the  United 
States  were  called  from  the  frontiers  to  the  military  centres  \ 
the  Mediterranean  squadron  and  other  naval  forces  were  or 
dered  home ;  and  the  city  of  Washington  itself  was  converted 
into  a  school  where  there  were  daily  and  ostentatious  instruc 
tions  of  the  soldier.  On  the  other  hand,  the  government  at 
Montgomery  was  not  idle.  Three  military  bills  had  been  passed 
by  the  Confederate  Congress.  The  first  authorized  the  raising 
of  one  hundred  thousand  volunteers  when  deemed  necessary  by 
the  President ;  the  second  provided  for  the  Provisional  Army 
of  the  Confederate  States,  which  was  to  be  formed  from  the 
regular  and  volunteer  forces  of  the  different  States ;  and  the 
third  provided  for  the  organization  of  a  Regular  Army,  which 
was  to  be  a  permanent  establishment.  But  among  the  strong 
est  indications  of  the  probability  of  war,  in  the  estimation  of 
men  calculated  to  judge  of  the  matter,  and  among  the  most 
striking  proofs,  too,  of  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  South,  was 
the  number  of  resignations  from  the  Federal  army  and  navy 
on  the  part  of  officers  of  Southern  birth  or  association,  and 
their  prompt  identification  with  the  Confederate  service.  These 
resignations  had  commenced  during  the  close  of  Mr.  Buchan 
an's  administration.  On  the  accession  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Adjutant- 
general  Cooper  had  immediately  resigned  ;  and  the  distinguish 
ed  example  was  followed  by  an  array  of  names,  which  had 
been  not  a  little  illustrious  in  the  annals  of  the  Federal  service. 

"While  the  South  was  entreating  peace,  and  pursuing  its 
accomplishment  by  an  amicable  mission  to  Washington,  a 
strong  outside  pressure  was  being  exerted  upon  the  adminis 
tration  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  hurrv  it  to  the  conclusion  of  war 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  55 

He  had  been  visited  by  a  number  of  governors  of  the  North 
ern  States.  They  offered  him  money  and  men ;  but  it  was 
understood  that  nothing  would  be  done  in  the  way  of  calling 
out  the  State  militia  and  opening  special  credits,  until  the 
Southern  revolutionists  should  be  actually  in  aggression  to  the 
authority  of  the  Federal  government.  Another  appeal  was 
still  more  effectively  urged.  It  was  the  argument  of  the  par 
tisan.  The  report  of  the  intended  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter, 
and  the  apparent  vacillation  of  the  administration,  were  pro 
ducing  disaffection  in  the  Black  Republican  party.  This  party 
had  shown  a  considerable  loss  of  strength  in  the  municipal 
elections  in  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati,  and  other  parts  of  the  "West ; 
they  had  lost  two  congressmen  in  Connecticut  and  two  in 
Rhode  Island.  The  low  tariff,  too,  of  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
brought  into  competition  with  the  high  protective  tariff  which 
the  Black  Republican  majority  in  Congress  had  adopted,  and 
which  was  popularly  known  as  "the  Merrill  Tariff,"  was 
threatening  serious  disaster  to  the  interests  of  New  England 
and  Pennsylvania,  and  was  indicating^he  necessity  of  the 
repeal  of  a  law  which  was  considered  as  an  indispensable  party 
measure  by  the  most  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  constituents. 

For  weeks  the  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  taxed  to 
devise  some  artifice  for  the  relief  of  Fort  Sumter,  short  of 
open  military  reinforcements  (decided  to  be  impracticable), 
and  which  would  have  the  effect  of  inaugurating  the  war  by  a 
safe  indirection  and  under  a  plausible  and  convenient  pretence. 
The  device  was  at  length  hit  upon.  It  was  accomplished  by 
the  most  flagrant  perfidy.  Mr.  Seward  had  already  given 
assurances  to  the  Southern  commissioners,  through  the  inter 
mediation  of  Judge  Campbell,  that  the  Federal  troops  would 
be  removed  from  Fort  Sumter.  Referring  to  the  draft  of  a 
letter  which  Judge  Campbell  had  in  his  hand,  and  proposed  to 
address  to  President  Davis,  at  Montgomery,  he  said,  "before 
that  letter  reaches  its  destination,  Fort  Sumter  will  have  been 
evacuated."  Some  time  elapsed,  and  there  was  reason  to  dis 
trust  the  promise.  Colonel  Lamon,  an  agent  of  the  Washington 
government,  was  sent  to  Charleston,  and  was  reported  to  be 
authorized  to  make  arrangements  with  Governor  Pickens,  01 
South  Carolina,  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  Federal  troops  from 
Fort  Sumter.  lie  returned  without  any  accomplishment  oi 


56  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

bis  reported  mission.  Another  confidential  agent  of  Mr.  Lin 
coin,  a  Mr.  Fox,  was  permitted  to  visit  Fort  Sumter,  and  was 
discovei  ed  to  have  acted  the  part  of  a  spy  in  carrying  concealed 
dispatches  to  Major  Anderson,  and  collecting  information  with 
reference  to  a  plan  for  the  forcible  reinforcement  of  the  fort. 
On  the  7th  of  April,  Judge  Campbell,  uneasy  as  to  the  good 
faith  of  Mr.  Seward's  promise  of  the  evacuation  of  Sumter 
addressed  him  another  note  on  the  subject.  To  this  the 
emphatic  and  laconic  reply  was :  "  Faith  as  to  /Sumter  fully 
kept — wait  and  see"  Six  days  thereafter  a  hostile  fleet  was 
menacing  Charleston,  the  Lincoln  government  threw  down 
the  gauntlet  of  war,  and  the  battle  of  Sumter  was  fought. 

On  the  day  succeeding  the  inauguration  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  General  P.  G.  Toutant  Beauregard*  was  put  in  command 
of  the  Confederate  troops  besieging  Fort  Sumter.  His  mili 
tary  record  was  slight,  but  gave  evidence  of  genius.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  wealthy  and  influential  Louisiana  planter.  He 
had  graduated  at  the  military  academy  at  West  Point,  taking 
the  second  honors  in.j^is  class,  and  had  served  in  the  Mexican 
war  with  distinction,  being  twice  brevetted  for  gallant  and 
meritorious  conduct  in  the  field — the  first  time  as  captain  for 
the  battles  of  Contreras  and  Cherubusco,  and  again  as  major 
for  the  battle  of  Chapultepec.  He  was  subsequently  placed 
by  the  Federal  government  in  charge  of  the  construction  of 
the  mint  and  custom-house  at  New  Orleans.  He  had  been  or 
dered  by  Mr.  Buchanan  to  West  Point  as  superintendent  of 
the  military  academy.  The  appointment  was  revoked  within 
forty-eight  hours  for  a  spiteful  reason — the  family  connection 
of  the  nominee  with  Mr.  Slidell,  of .  Louisiana ;  and  Major 
Beauregard,  resigning  his  commission  at  once,  received  higher 
rank  in  the  army  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

*  Beauregard  is  forty  years  of  age.  He  is  small,  brown,  thin,  extremely 
rigorous,  although  his  features  wear  a  dead  expression,  and  his  hair  has 
whitened  prematurely.  Face,  physiognomy,  tongue,  accent — every  thing  about 
him  is  French.  He  is  quick,  a  little  abrupt,  but  well  educated  and  distin- 
guished  in  his  manners.  He  does  not  care  to  express  the  manifestation  of  an 
ardent  personality  which  knows  its  worth.  He  is  extremely  impassioned  in 
the  defence  of  the  cause  which  he  serves.  At  least  he  takes  less  pains  to  con 
ceal  his  passion  under  a  calm  and  cold  exterior  than  do  most  of  his  comrade* 
in  the  army.  The  South  found  in  him  a  man  of  an  uncommon  ardor,  a  cease 
'ess  activity,  and  an  indomitable  power  of  will. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  57 

On  taking  command  of  the  Confederate  forces  fit  Charleston, 
General  Beauregard  at  once  gave  the  benefit  of  his  eminent 
skill  as  a  military  engineer,  which  merit  had  been  recognized 
in  him  before,  and  had  procured  his  elevation  to  the  importan 
and  critical  command  in  front  of  Fort  Sumter,  to  the  con 
struction  of  works  for  the  reduction  of  the  fort,  and  the  de 
fence  of  the  entrances  to  the  harbor.  At  the  time  of  Major 
Anderson's  removal  to  Sumter,  the  approaches  to  the  harbor 
were  only  defended  by  the  uninjured  guns  at  Fort  Moultrie, 
and  three  24-pounder  guns  mounted  en  barbette  on  a  hastily 
constructed  and  imperfect  earthwork  on  Mori-is'  Island.  The 
injured  guns  were  replaced,  and  all,  amounting  to  thirty-eight 
in  number,  of  various  calibres,  were  protected  by  well-con 
structed  merlons;  lines  of  batteries  were  constructed  on  the 
east  and  west  on  Sullivan's  Island ;  at  Cummings'  Point  on 
Morris'  Island,  the  nearest  land  to  Fort  Sumter,  batteries  of 
mortars  and  columbiads  were  erected,  protected  by  an  iron 
fortification  of  novel  and  formidable  construction  ;  and  another 
novelty  in  iron  fortifications  was  perfected  by  the  skilful  and 
practical  genius  of  the  commander  in  a  floating  battery,  con 
structed  of  the  peculiarly  fibrous  palmetto  timber,  sheathed 
with  plate  iron,  and  embrasured  for  and  mounting  four  guns 
of  heavy  calibre. 

Notwithstanding  the  extent  and  skill  of  the  besiegers'  works, 
Fort  Sumter  was  declared,  by  a  number  of  military  critics,  to 
be  impregnable.  It  certainly  had  that  appearance  to  the  un 
scientific  eye.  The  fortification,  a  modern  truncated  pentag 
onal  fort,  rose  abruptly  out  of  the  water  at  the  mouth  of 
Charleston  harbor,  three  and  a  half  miles  from  the  city.  It 
was  built  on  an  artificial  island,  having  for  its  base  a  sand  and 
mud  bank,  which  had  been  made  secure  by  long  and  weary 
labors  in  firmly  imbedding  in  it  refuse  blocks  and  chips  from 
the  granite  .quarries  of  the  Northern  States.  The  foundation 
alone  had  cost  the  government  half  a  million  of  dollars,  and 
had  occupied  ten  years  in  its  construction.  At  the  time  oi 
Major  Anderson's  occupation  of  the  fortification,  it  was  so 
nearly  completed  as  to  admit  the  introduction  of  its  armament 
The  walls  were  of  solid  brick  and  concrete  masonry,  sixty  feet 
high  and  from  eight  to  twelve  feet  in  thickness,  and  pierced 
for  three  tiers  of  guns  on  the  northern,  eastern,  and  western 


58  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

exterior  sides,  They  were  built  close  to  the  edge  of  the  water 
and  without  a  berme. 

The  advantages  of  delay  which  the  Lincoln  government  had 
obtained  by  the  pretence  of  the  evacuation  of  Surater,  and  the 
adroitness  of  Mr.  Seward  with  the  commissioners,  had  been 
profitably  employed  by  it  in  naval  and  other  preparations  for 
its  meditated  blow  on  the  Southern  coasts.  Unusual  activity 
was  perceptible  in  all  the  dock-yards,  armories,  and  military 
depots  throughout  the  North.  The  arsenals  of  Troy  and  Wa 
tertown  were  constantly  occupied,  and  the  creaking  of  blocks, 
the  clang  of  hammers,  and  the  hum  of  midnight  labor  re 
sounded  through  every  manufactory  of  arms.  Numerous 
large  transports  were  employed  by  the  government  for  the  con 
veyance  of  soldiers  and  war  material,  and  the  signs  of  the 
times  betokened  that  the  administration  was  preparing  for  a 
long  and  bloody  struggle.  Within  ten  days  from  the  first  of 
April,  over  eleven  thousand  men  were  sent  from  Fort  Hamil 
ton  and  Governor's  Island.  The  recruiting  offices  in  New  York 
were  daily  engaged  in  enrolling  men  for  the  Federal  service 
On  the  6th  of  April,  the  frigate  Powhatan  was  ready  for  sea^ 
and,  with  her  armament  of  ten  heavy  guns  and  four  hundred 
men,  prepared  as  convoy  to  the  transports  Atlantic,  Baltic,  and 
Illinois.  On  the  8th,  the  Atlantic  sailed  with  Barry's  battery 
(four  guns  and  ninety-one  men),  four  hundred  soldiers  and  a 
large  store  of  supplies.  The  same  morning  the  steam-cutter 
Harriet  Lane,  Captain  J.  Faunce,  eight  guns  and  one  hundred 
men,  sailed  for  Charleston  harbor.  Late  at  night,  the  trans 
port  Baltic,  with  twenty  surf-boats,  stores,  and  two  hundred 
recruits  from  Governor's  Island,  and  the  transport  Illinois, 
with  five  hundred  cases  of  muskets,  stores,  three  hundred  sol 
diers,  and  the  steam-tug  Freeborn,  sailed  from  New  York  har 
bor.  On  the  whole,  besides  the  Powhatan,  eleven  vessels 
were  ordered  to  be  got  in  readiness,  with  an  aggregate  force 
of  285  guns  and  2-100  men.  There  was  now  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  the  first  blow  of  the  rival  forces  would  be  struck 
at  Sumter.  The  fleet  dispatched  to  Charleston  harbor  con 
sisted  of  the  sloop-of-war  Pawnee,  the  sloop-of-war  Powhatan, 
and  the  cutter  Harriet  Lane,  witli  three  steam  transports. 

No  sooner  was  the  hostile  fleet  of  the  Federal  government 
safely  on  its  way  to  the  South  err  coasts,  than  the  perfidy  o/ 


THE    FIRST    YEAK.  59 

Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  advisers  was  openly  and  shamelessly 
consummated.  The  mask  was  dropped.  The  Southern  com 
missioners  who  had  been  so  long  cozened,  were  distinctly  re 
buffed  ;  and  simultaneously  with  the  appearance  of  the  Fed 
eral  fleet  in  the  offing  of  the  Charleston  harbor,  an  official 
message,  on  the  8th  day  of  April,  was  conveyed  to  Governor 
Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  by  Lieutenant  Talbot,  an  author 
ized  agent  of  the  Lincoln  government,  announcing  the  deter 
mination  of  that  government  to  send  provisions  to  Fort  Sum- 
ter,  "  peaceably  if  they  can,  forcibly  if  they  must."  The  mes 
sage  was  telegraphed  by  General  Beauregard  to  Montgomery, 
and  the  instructions  of  his  government  asked.  He  was  an 
swered  by  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Walker,  the  Secretary  of  Wai*, 
instructing  him  to  demand  the  evacuation  of  the  fort,  and,  if 
that  was  refused,  to  proceed  to  reduce  it.  The  demand  was 
made;  it  was  refused.  Major  Anderson  replied  that  he  re 
gretted  that  his  sense  of  honor  and  of  his  obligations  to  his 
government  prevented  his  compliance  with  the  demand. 
Nothing  was  left  but  to  accept  the  distinct  challenge  of  the 
Lincoln  government  to  arms. 

The  most  intense  excitement  prevailed  in  Charleston.  "No 
sooner  had  the  official  message  of  Mr.  Lincoln  been  received, 
than  orders  were  issued  to  the  entire  military  force  of  the  city 
to  proceed  to  their  stations.  Four  regiments  of  one  thousand 
men  each,  were  telegraphed  for  from  the  country.  Ambu 
lances  for  the  wounded  were  prepared  ;  surgeons  were  ordered 
to  their  posts,  and  every  preparation  made  for  a  regular  battle. 
Among  the  portentous  signs,  the  community  was  thrown  into 
a  fever  of  excitement  by  the  discharge  of  seven  guns  from  the 
Capitol  Square,  the  signal  for  the  assembling  of  all  the  re 
serves  ten  minutes  afterwards.  Hundreds  of  men  left  their 
beds,  hurrying  to  and  fro  towards  their  respective  locations. 
In  the  absence  of  sufficient  armories,  the  corners  of  the  streets, 
the  public  squares,  and  other  convenient  points  formed  places 
of  meeting.  All  night  long  the  roll  of  the  drum  and  the 
steady  tramp  of  the  military  and  the  gallop  of  the  cavalry,  re- 
ou n ding  through  the  city,  betokened  the  progress  of  prepara 
tion  for  the  long-expected  hostilities.  The  Home  Guard  corps 
of  old  gentlemen,  who  occupied  the  position  of  military  ex 
empts,  rode  through  the  city,  arousing  the  soldiers  and  doing 


60  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

other  duty  required  at  the  moment.  Hundreds  of  the  citizens 
were  up  all  night.  A  terrible  thunder-storm  prevailed  until 
a  late  hour,  but  iii  nowise  interfered  with  the  ardor  of  the 
eoldiers. 

On  the  12th  day  of  April,  at  half-past  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  fire  was  opened  upon  Fort  Sumter.  The  firing  was 
deliberate,  and  was  continued,  without  interruption,  for  twelve 
hours.  The  iron  battery  at  Cumming's  Point  did  the  most 
effective  service,  perceptibly  injuring  the  walls  of  the  fortifica 
tion,  while  the  floating  battery  dismounted  two  of  the  parapet 
guns.  The  shell  batteries  were  served  with  skill  and  effect, 
shells  being  thrown  into  the  fort  every  twenty  minutes.  The 
fort  had  replied  steadily  during  the  day.  About  dark,  its  fire 
fell  off,  while  ours  was  continued  at  intervals  during  the  night. 
The  contest  had  been  watched  during  the  day  by  excited  and 
anxious  citizens  from  every  available  point  of  observation  in 
Charleston — the  battery,  the  shipping  in  the  harbor,  and  the 
steeples  of  churches — and,  as  night  closed,  the  illuminations 
of  the  shells,  as  they  coursed  the  air,  added  a  strange  sublimity 
to  the  scene  to  men  who  had  never  before  witnessed  the  fiery 
splendors  of  a  bombardment.  The  next  morning,  at  seven 
o'clock,  the  fort  resumed  its  fire,  doing  no  damage  of  conse 
quence.  A  short  while  thereafter,  the  fort  was  discovered  to 
be  on  fire,  and  through  the  smoke  and  glare,  its  flag  was  dis 
covered  at  half  mast,  as  a  signal  of  distress.  The  Federal 
fleet,  which  was  off  the  bar,  contrary  to  all  expectations,  re 
mained  quietly  where  it  was  ;  they  did  not  remove  from  their 
anchorage  or  fire  a  gun.  In  the  mean. time,  the  conflagration, 
which  had  seized  upon  the  officers'  quarters  and  barracks  at  the 
fort,  continued ;  it  no  longer  responded  to  our  fire,  which  was 
kept  up  with  an  anxious  look-out  for  tokens  of  surrender;  its 
garrison,  black  and  begrimed  with  smoke^  were  employed  in 
efforts  to  extinguish  the  conflagration,  and  in  some  instances 
had  to  keep  themselves  lying  upon  their  faces  to  avoid  death 
from  suffocation.  During  the  height  of  the  conflagration,  a 
boat  was  dispatched  by  General  Beauregard  to  Major  Ander 
son,  with  offers  of  assistance  in  extinguishing  the  fire.  Beforo 
it  could  reach  the  fort,  the  long-expected  flag  of  truce  had 
been  hoisted  ;  and  the  welcome  event  was  instantly  announced 
in  every  part  of  the  city  by  the  ringing  of  bells,  the  pealing 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  61 

of  cannon,  the  shouts  of  couriers  dashing  through  the  streets, 
and  by  every  indication  of  general  rejoicing.  Major  Ander 
son  agreed  to  an  unconditional  surrender,  as  demanded  of  him  ; 
he  received  of  his  enemy  in  return,  the  most  distinguished 
marks  of  lenity  and  consideration  :  his  sword  was  returned  to 
him  by  General  Beauregard ;  himself  and  garrison  allowed  t( 
take  passage,  at  their  convenience,  for  New  York;  and,  on 
leaving  the  fort,  he  was  permitted  to  salute  his  flag  with  fifty 
guns,  the  performance  of  which  was  attended  with  the  melan 
choly  occurrence  of  mortal  injuries  to  four  of  his  men  by  the 
bursting  of  two  cannon.  There  was  no  other  life  lost  in  the 
whole  affair. 

Thus  ended  the  bombardment  of  Sumter.  It  had  continued 
during  two  days  ;  it  was  estimated  that  two  thousand  shots 
had  been  fired  in  all ;  a  frowning  fortification  had  been  reduced 
to  a  blackened  mass  of  ruins ;  and  yet  not  a  life  had  been  lost, 
or  a  limb  injured  in  the  engagement. 

The  news  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  when  it  was  received  in 
Washington,  did  not  disturb  President  Lincoln.  He  received 
it  with  remarkable  calmness.  The  usual  drawing-room  enter- 

o 

tainment  at  the  White  House  was  not  intermitted  on  the  even 
ing  of  the  day  of  the  commencement  of  civil  war.  The  same 
evening  the  President  turned  to  a  Western  Senator  and  asked, 
"  Will  your  State  sustain  me  with  military  power  ?"  He  made 
no  other  comment  on  the  news,  which  was  agitating  every  part 
of  the  country,  to  its  foundation. 

The  fact  was  that  the  President  had  long  ago  calculated  the 
result  and  the  effect,  on  the  country,  of  the  hostile  movements 
which  he  had  directed  against  the  sovereignty  of  South  Car 
olina.  He  had  procured  the  battle  of  Sumter ;  he  had  no  de 
sire  or  hope  to  retain  the  fort :  the  circumstances  of  the  battle 
and  the  non-participation  of  his  fleet  in  it,  were  sufficient  evi 
dences,  to  every  honest  and  reflecting  mind,  that  it  was  not  a 
contest  for  victory,  and  that  u  the  sending  provisions  to  a 
starving  garrison"  was  an  ingenious  artifice  to  commence  the 
war  that  the  Federal  Government  had  fully  resolved  upon, 
under  the  specious  but  shallow  appearance  of  that  government 
being  involved  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  rather  than  by 
its  own  volition,  in  the  terrible  consequence  of  civil  war. 

On  the  14th  day  of  April,  Mr.  Lincoln  published  his  proc 


32  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

lamation  of  war.  He  acted  to  the  last  in  a  sinister  spirit 
He  had  just  assured  the  commissioners  from  Virginia,  who  had 
been  deputed  to  ascertain  the  purposes  of  his  government,  that 
he  would  modify  his  inaugural  only  so  far  as  to  "perhaps  cause 
the  United  States  mails  to  be  withdrawn"  from  the  seceded 
States.  The  following  proclamation  was  the  "  modification" 
of  the  inaugural : 

"  Whereas  the  laws  of  the  United  States  have  been  for  some  time  past,  and 
now  are,  opposed,  and  the  execution  thereof  obstructed  in  the  States  of  Soutb 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas,  by 
combinations  too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary  course  of  judicial 
proceeding,  or  by  the  powers  vested  in  the  Marshals  by  law — 

"  Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  in 
virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws)  have 
thought  fit  to  call  forth,  and  hereby  do  call  forth  the  militia  of  the  several 
States  of  the  Union,  to  the  aggregate  number  of  seventy-five  thousand,  in 
order  to  suppress  said  combinations,  and  to  cause  the  laws  to  be  duly  executed. 
The  details  for  this  object  will  be  immediately  communicated  to  the  State  au 
thorities  through  the  War  Department. 

"  I  appeal  to  all  loyal  citizens  to  favor,  facilitate,  and  aid  this  effort  to  main 
tain  the  honor,  the  integrity,  and  the  existence  of  our  National  Union,  and 
the  perpetuity  of  popular  government,  and  to  redress  wrongs  already  long 
enough  endured. 

"  I  deem  it  proper  to  say  that  the  first  service  assigned  to  the  forces  hereby 
called  forth,  will  probably  be  to  repossess  the  forts,  places,  and  property  which 
have  been  seized  from  the  Union  ;  and  in  every  event  the  utmost  care  will  be 
observed,  consistently  with  the  objects  aforesaid,  to  avoid  any  devastation  and 
destruction  of,  or  interference  with  property,  or  any  disturbance  of  peaceful 
Citizens  in  any  part  of  the  country.  And  I  hereby  command  the  persons  com 
posing  the  combinations  aforesaid,  to  disperse  and  retire  peaceably  to  their  re- 
upective  abodes  within  twenty  days  from  this  date. 

******#*# 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 

The  trick  of  the  government,  to  which  we  have  referred,  in 
its  procurement  of  the  battle  of  Sumter,  is  too  dishonest  and 
shallow  to  account  for  the  immense  reaction  of  sentiment  in 
the  North  that  ensued.  That  reaction  is  certainly  to  be  attrib 
uted  to  causes  more  intelligent  and  permanent  than  the  weak 
fallacy  that  the  Lincoln  government  was  not  responsible  for 
the  hostilities  in  Charleston  harbor,  and  that  the  South  itsel 
had  dragged  the  government  and  people  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
unwillingly  into  the  inauguration  of  war.  The  problem  ol 
this  reaction  may  be  more  justly  served.  In  fact,  it  involved 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  63 

no  new  fact  01  principle  The  Northern  people,  including  all 
ptirties,  secretly  appreciated  the  value  of  the  Union  to  them 
selves  ;  they  knew  that  they  would  be  ruined  by  a  permanent 
secession  of  the  Southern  States ;  many  of  them  had  sought 
to  bring  the  dissatisfied  States  back  into  the  Union  by  the  ok1 
resource  of  artful  speeches  and  fine  promises ;  and  finding,  at 
last,  that  the  South  was  in  earnest,  and  was  no  longer  to  be 
seduced  by  cheap  professions,  they  quickly  and  sharply  deter 
mined  to  coerce  what  they  could  not  cozen.  This  is  the  wholo 
explanation  of  the  wonderful  reaction.  The  North  discovered, 
by  the  fiery  denouement  in  Charleston  harbor,  that  the  South 
was  in  earnest,  and  itself  became  as  instantly  in  earnest.  The 
sudden  display  of  Northern  rancor  was  no  reaction ;  it  was 
no  new  fact ;  it  revealed  what  was  already  historical,  and  had 
been  concealed  only  for  purposes  of  policy — the  distinct  and 
sharp  antipathy  between  the  two  sections,  of  which  war  or 
separation,  at  some  time,  was  bound  to  be  the  logical  conclu 
sion. 

The  crusade  against  the  South  mvolved  all  parties,  and 
united  every  interest  in  the  North  by  the  common  bond  of  at 
tachment  to  the  Union.  That  attachment  had  its  own  reasons. 
The  idea  of  the  restoration  of  the  Union  was  conceived  in  no 
historical  enthusiasm  for  restoring  past  glories;  it  was  ani 
mated  by  no  patriotic  desires  contemplating  the  good  of  the 
whole  country  ;  the  South  was  to  be  "  whipped  back  into  the 
Union,"  to  gratify  either  the  selfishness  of  the  North,  or  its 
worse  lusts  of  revenge  and  fanaticism.  The  holiness  of  the 
crusade  against  the  South  was  preached  alike  from  the  hustings 
and  the  pulpit.  The  Northern  Democratic  party,  which  had 
so  long  professed  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  Southern  States, 
and  even  sympathy  with  the  first  movements  of  their  secession, 
rivalled  the  Abolitionists  in  their  expressions  of  fury  and  re 
venge  ;  their  leaders  followed  the  tide  of  public  opinion  :  Mr. 
Edward  Everett,  of  Massachusetts,  who  some  months  before 
had  declared  in  a  public  speech  that  if  the  seceded  States  were 
"  determined  to  separate,  we  had  better  part  in  peace,"  lecamo 
a  rhetorical  advocate  of  the  war ;  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  of 
New  York,  rivalled  the  Abolition  leaders  in  his  State  in  in 
flaming  the  public  mind ;  and  in  the  city  of  New  York,  where 
but  a  few  months  before  it  had  been  said  that  the  Southern 


64:  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Confederacy  would  be  able  to  recruit  several  regiments  for  ita 
military  service,  demagogues  in  the  ranks  of  the  "National 
Democracy,"  such  as  John  Cochrane,  harangued  the  multi 
tude,  advising  them  to  "crush  the  rebellion,"  and,  if  need  be. 
to  drown  the  whole  So  Hh  in  one  indiscriminate  sea  of  blood 
Old  contentions  and  present  animosities  were  forgotten  ;  Dem 
ocrats  associated  with  recreants  and  fanatics  in  one  grand 
league  for  one  grand  purpose  ;  foreigners  from  Europe  were 
induced  into  the  belief  that  they  were  called  upon  to  tight  for 
the  "  liberty"  for  which  they  had  crossed  the  ocean,  or  for  the 
"  free  homesteads"  which  were  to  be  the  rewards  of  the  war  ; 
and  all  conceivable  and  reckless  artifices  were  resorted  to  to 
swell  the  tide  of  numbers  against  the  South.  New  England, 
which  had  been  too  conscientious  to  defend  the  national  honor 
in  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  poured  out  almost  her  whole 
population  to  aid  in  the  extermination  of  a  people  who  had 
given  to  the  nation  all  the  military  glory  it  had  achieved.* 

*  In  the  war  of  1812,  tlie  North  furnished  58,552  soldiers-?  the  South, 
96,812— making  a  majority  of  37,030  in  favor  of  the  South.  Of  the  numbei 
furnished  by  the  North — 

Massachusetts  furnished 3,110 

New  Hampshire     "         897 

Connecticut  "         387 

Elhode  Island          "        637 

Vermont  *         181 

5,102 

While  the  little  State  of  South  Carolina  furnished  5,696. 
In  the  Mexican  war, 

Massachusetts  furnished 1,047 

New  Hampshire     "         1 

The  other  New  England  States 0,000 

1,048 

The  whole  number  of  troops  contributed  by  the  North  to  the  Mexican  wai 
was  23,054;  while  the  South  contributed  43,630,  very  nearly  double,  and,  iu 
proportion  to  her  population,  four  times  as  many  soldiers  as  the  North. 

When  a  resolution  was  introduced  into  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts 
tendering  a  vote  of  thinks  to  the  heroic  Lawrence  for  his  capture  of  the  Pea 
cock,  that  pious  State  refused  to  adopt  it,  and  declared — 

"That  in  a  war  like  the  present,  waged  without  justifiable  cause,  and  proa 
ecuted  in  a  manner  indicating  that  conquest  and  ambition  are  its  real  motives 
it  is  not  becoming  a  moral  and  religious  people  to  express  any  approbation  01 
military  and  nav  al  exploits  not  directly  connected  with  the  defence  of  our  sea 
coast  and  our  soil." 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  65 

The  effect  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation  at  the  South  was 
no  less  decisive  than  at  the  North.  It  remains  a  problem, 
which  facts  were  never  permitted  to  decide,  but  the  solution  of 
which  may  at  least  be  approached  by  the  logical  considerations 
of  history,  to  what  extent  the  Border  Slave  States  might  have 
been  secured  to  the  Union  by  the  policy  of  peace,  and  the  sim 
ple  energy  of  patience  on  the  part  of  the  government  at 
Washington.  As  it  was,  the  proclamation  presented  a  new  is 
sue  ;  it  superseded  that  of  the  simple  policy  of  secession  ;  and 
it  inaugurated  the  second  secessionary  movement  of  the  South 
ern  States  on  a  basis  infinitely  higher  and  firmer,  in  all  its 
moral  and  constitutional  aspects,  than  that  of  the  first  move 
ment  of  the  Cotton  States. 

The  proclamation  was  received  at  Montgomery  with  derisive 
laughter  ;  the  newspapers  were  refreshed  with  the  Lincolniana 
of  styling  sovereign  States  "  unlawful  combinations,"  and 
warning  a  people  standing  on  their  own  soil  to  return  within 
twenty  days  to  their  "  homes ;"  and,  in  Virginia,  the  Seces 
sionists  were  hugely  delighted  at  the  strength  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  unwittingly  or  perversely  contributed  to  their  cause.  One 
after  the  other  of  the  Border  States  refused  the  demands  foi 
their  quotas  in  terms  of  scorn  and  defiance.  Governor  Rector, 
of  Arkansas,  repudiated  the  proclamation  with  an  expression 
of  concentrated  defiance ;  Governor  Magoffin,  of  Kentucky, 
replied,  that'  that  State  would  "  furnish  no  troops  for  the 
wicked  purpose  of  subduing  her  sister  Southern  States ;" 
Governor  Ellis,  of  North  Carolina,  telegraphed  to  Washing 
ton,  "  I  can  be  no  party  to  this  wicked  violation  of  the  laws  of 


Subsequently  the  famous  Hartford  Convention  was  called.  It  assembled 
In  the  city  of  Hartford,  on  the  15th  of  December,  1814,  and  remained  in  sea 
sion  twenty  days.  It  made  a  report  accompanied  by  a  series  of  resolutions 
The  following  is  a  part  of  the  report,  as  adopted  : 

"  In  cases  of  deliberate,  dangerous,  and  palpable  infractions  of  the  Const! 
tution,  affecting  the  sovereignty  of  a  State  and  the  liberties  of  the  people,  it 
is  not  only  tlw  right,  but  the  duty,  of  each  State  to  interpose  its  authority  for  their 
protection  in  the  manner  best  calculated  to  secure  that  end.  When  emergencies 
occur  which  are  either  beyond  the  reach  of  judicial  tribunals,  or  too  pressing 
to  admit  of  the  delay  incident  to  their  forms,  States,  which  have  no  common 
umpire,  must  be  their  own  judges  and  execute  tJteir  onm  decisions" 

This  is  the  doctrine  which  the  South  had  always  held  from  the  beginning, 
and  for  which  the  South  is  now  pouring  out  her  blood  and  treasure 

5 


66  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

this  country,  and  especially  to  this  war  which  is  being  wageii 
upon  a  free  and  independent  pec  pie  ;"  Governor  Jackson,  ol 
Missouri,  replied  directly  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  Tour  requisition 
In  jny  judgment,  is  illegal,  unconstitutional,  and  revolutionary 
and,  in  its  objects,  inhuman  and  diabolical ;"  and  even  the 
unspirited  governor  of  Virginia,  John  Letcher,  constrained  by 
the  policy  of  the  time-server  to  reflect  the  changes  which  had 
become  apparent  to  him  in  the  uprising  indignation  of  the 
people,  ventured  upon  a  remonstrance  to  President  Lincoln, 
reminding  him  that  his  proclamation  was  "  not  within  the 
purview  of  the  Constitution  or  the  act  of  1795."  The  only 
Southern  governor  that  signified  any  degree  of  submission  to 
the  proclamation  was  the  notorious  Thomas  Holladay  Hicks, 
of  Maryland  ;  he  gave  verbal  assurances  to  Mr.  Lincoln  that 
that  State  would  supply  her  quota  and  give  him  military  sup 
port  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  with  an  art  and  effrontery  that 
only  a  demagogue  could  attain,  he  published  a  proclamation  to 
the  people  of  Maryland,  assuring  them  of  his  neutrality,  and 
promising  that  an  opportunity  would  be  given  them,  iu  the 
election  of  congressmen,  to  determine,  of  their  own  free  wil\ 
whether  they  would  sustain  the  old  Union,  or  assist  the  South 
ern  Confederacy. 

On  the  17th  day  of  April,  the  Virginia  Convention  passed 
an  ordinance  of  secession.  It  was  an  important  era  in  the 
history  of  the  times.  It  gave  the  eighth  State  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy.  The  position  of  Virginia  was  a  commanding 
one  with  the  other  Border  States ;  she  started,  by  her  act  of 
secession,  the  second  important  movement  of  the  revolution ; 
and  she  added  to  the  moral  influence  of  the  event  by  the  fact, 
that  she  had  not  seceded  on  an  issue  of  policy,  but  on  one  of 
distinct  and  practical  constitutional  right,  and  that  too  in  the 
face  of  a  war,  which  had  become  absolutely  inevitable  and  was 
frowning  upon  her  own  borders. 

Virginia  had  been  chided  for  her  delay  in  following  the 
Cotton  States  out  of  the  Union,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  when 
she  did  secede,  she  was  charged  by  the  Northern  politicians 
with  being  inconsistent  and  having  kept  bad  faith  in  her  rela 
tion?  with  the  Federal  government.  Both  complaints  were 
equally  without  foundation.  The  record  of  the  State  was 
singularly  explicit  and  clear. 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  67 

The  Virginia  Resolutions  of  '98  and  '99  had  for  sixty  yeara 
constituted  the  text-book  of  the  State  Rights  politicians  of  the 
South.  The  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty  was  therein  vindi 
cated  and  maintained,  and  the  right  and  duty  of  States,  suf 
fering  grievances  from  unjust  and  unconstitutional  Federal 
legislation,  to  judge  of  the  wrongs,  as  well  as  of  "  the  mode 
and  measure  of  redress,"  were  made  clear.  The  Virginia  plat 
form,  as  thus  laid  down  in  the  elder  Adams'  time,  was  adopted 
by  the  u  Strict  Constructionist"  party  of  that  day,  and  has 
been  reasserted  ever  since.  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  founder  of  the 
Democratic  party  in  this  country,  was  elected  upon  this  plat 
form,  and  his  State  Rights  successors  all  acknowledged  its 
orthodoxy.  Whenever  there  arose  a  conflict  between  Federal 
and  State  authority,  the  voice  of  Virginia  was  the  first  to  be 
heard  in  behalf  of  State  Rights.  In  1832-33,  when  the  Tariff 
and  Nullification  controversy  arose,  Virginia,  though  not 
agreeing  with  South  Carolina  as  to  the  particular  remedy  to 
which  she  resorted,  yet  assured  that  gallant  State  of  her  sym 
pathy,  and,  at  the  same  time,  reasserted  her  old  doctrines  of 
State  Rights.  Her  gallant  and  patriotic  governor,  John  Floyd, 
the  elder,  declared  that  Federal  troops  should  not  pass  the 
banks  of  the  Potomac  to  coerce  South  Carolina  into  obedience 
to  the  tariff  laws,  unless  over  his  dead  body.  Her  Legislature 
was  almost  unanimously  opposed  to  the  coercion  policy,  and  a 
majority  of  that  body  indicated  their  recognition  of  the  right 
of  a  State  to  secede  from  the  Union.  The  voice  of  Virginia 
was  potential  in  settling  this  controversy  upon  conditions  to 
which  the  Palmetto  State  could  agree  with  both  honor  and 
consistency.  At  every  stage  of  the  agitation  of  the  slavery 
question  in  Congress  and  in  the  Northern  States,  Virginia 
declared  her  sentiments  and  her  purposes  in  a  manner  not  to 
be  misunderstood  by  friend  or  foe.  Again  and  again  did  she 
enter  upon  her  legislative  records,  in  ineffable  characters,  the 
declaration  that  she  would  resist  the  aggressive  spirit  of  the 
Northern  majority,  even  to  the  disruption  of  the  ties  that 
bound  her  to  the  Union. 

With  almost  entire  unanimity,  Virginia  had  resolved  in 
legislative  council,  in  1848,  that  she  would  not  submit  to  the 
passage  of  the  Wilmot  proviso,  or  any  kindred  measure.  From 
the  date  of  the  organization  of  the  Anti-Slavery  party,  hei 


68  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

people,  of  all  parties,  had  declared  that  the  election  of  an 
Abolitionist  to  the  Presidency  would  be  a  virtual  declaration 
of  war  against  the  South  on  the  part  of  the  North,  and  that 
Virginia  and  every  other  Slave  State  ought  to  resist  it  as  such. 
The  Legislature  that  assembled  a  few  weeks  after  Lincoln's 
election  declared  in  effect,  with  only  four  dissenting  voices, 
that  the  interests  of  Virginia  were  thoroughly  identified  with 
those  of  the  other  Southern  States,  and  that  any  intimation, 
from  any  source,  that  her  people  were  looking  to  any  combi 
nation  in  the  last  resort  other  than  union  with  them,  was  un 
patriotic  and  treasonable. 

The  sovereign  Convention  of  Virginia,  elected  on  the  4th  ot 
February,  1861,  for  a  long  time  lingered  in  the  hope  that  the 
breach  that  had  taken  place  in  the  Union  might  be  repaired 
by  new  constitutional  guaranties.  Nevertheless,  that  body, 
before  it  had  yet  determined  to  pass  an  ordinance  of  secession 
— while  it  was,  in  fact,  hopeful  that  the  Union  would  be  saved 
through  the  returning  sanity  of  the  Northern  people — adopted 
unanimously  the  following  resolution : 

"  The  people  of  Virginia  recognize  the  American  principle,  that  government 
is  founded  in  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  the  right  of  the  people  of  the 
several  States  of  this  Union,  for  just  cause,  to  withdraw  from  their  associ 
ation  under  the  Federal  government,  with  the  people  of  the  other  States, 
and  to  erect  new  governments  for  their  better  security;  and  they  never 
will  consent  that  the  Federal  power,  which  is,  in  part,  their  power,  shall  be 
exerted  for  the  purpose  of  subjugating  the  people  of  such  States  to  the  Federal 
authority." 

The  entire  antecedents  of  Virginia  were  known  to  Mr.  Lin 
coln  and  his  Cabinet.  They  knew  -that  she  was  solemnly 
pledged,  at  whatever  cost,  to  separate  from  the  Union  in  the 
very  contingency  they  had  brought  about — namely,  the  at 
tempt  to  subjugate  her  sister  States  of  the  South.  They  knew 
that  the  original  "  Union  men,"  as  well  as  the  original  Seces 
sionists,  were  committed  beyond  the  possibility  of  recantation 
to  resistance  to  the  death  of  any  and  every  coercive  measure  of 
the  Federal  government.  Nevertheless,  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his 
advisers  had  the  temerity  to  make  a  call  upon  the  State  of 
Virginia  to  furnish  her  quota  of  seventy-five  thousand  men  to 
subjugate  the  seceded  States.  They  had  but  little  right  to  be 
surprised  at  the  course  taken  by  the  State,  and  still  less  to 
charge  it  with  inconsistency  or  perfidy. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  U 

It  was  expected  that  Maryland  might  follow  the  heroic 
course  of  Virginia,  and  but  two  days  after  the  secession  of  the 
latter  State,  there  were  indications  in  Maryland  of  a  spirit  of 
emulation  of  the  daring  and  adventurous  deeds  that  had  "been 
enacted  South  of  the  Potomac.  On  the  19th  of  April  the 
passage  of  Northern  volunteers,  on  their  way  to  "Washington, 
was  intercepted  and  assailed  by  the  citizens  of  Baltimore,  and 
for  more  than  two  weeks  the  route  through  that  city  was  effect 
ually  closed  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  mercenaries.  The  Baltimore 
"  riot,"  as  it  was  called,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  col 
lisions  of  the  times.  A  number  of  Massachusetts  volunteers, 
passing  through  Baltimore  in  horse  cars,  found  the  track  bar 
ricaded  near  one  of  the  docks  by  stones,  sand,  and  old  anchors 
thrown  upon  it,  and  were  compelled  to  attempt  the  passage  to 
the  depot,  at  the  other  end  of  the  city,  on  foot.  They  had  not 
advanced  fifteen  paces  after  leaving  the  cars  when  they  found 
their  passage  blocked  by  a  crowd  of  excited  citizens,  who 
taunted  them  as  mercenaries,  and  flouted  a  Southern  flag  at 
the  head  of  their  column.  Stones  were  thrown  by  a  portion  of 
the  crowd,  when  the  troops  presented  arms  and  fired.  The 
crowd  was  converted  into  an  infuriated  mob ;  the  fire  was  re 
turned  from  a  number  of  revolvers ;  the  soldiers  were  attacked 
with  sticks,  stones,  and  every  conceivable  weapon,  and  in  more 
than  one  instance  their  muskets  were  actually  wrung  from 
their  hands  by  desperate  and  unarmed  men.  Unable  to  with 
stand  the  gathering  crowd,  and  bewildered  by  their  mode  of 
attack,  the  troops  pressed  along  the  street  confused  and  stag 
gering,  breaking  into  a  run  whenever  there  was  an  opportunity 
to  do  so,  and  turning  at  intervals  to  fire  upon  the  citizens  who 
pursued  them.  As  they  reached  the  depot  they  found  a  crowd 
already  collected  there  and  gathering  from  every  point  in  the 
city.  The  other  troops  of  the  Massachusetts  regiment  who  had 
preceded  them  in  the  horse  cars  had  been  pursued  by  the 
people  along  the  route,  and  the  soldiers  did  not  hesitate  to 
stretch  themselves  at  full  length  on  the  floors  of  the  cars,  to 
avoid  the  missiles  thrown  through  the  windows.  The  scene 
that  ensued  at  the  depot  was  terrific.  Taunts,  clothed  in  the 
most  fearful  language,  were  hurled  at  the  troops  by  the  panting 
crowd  who,  almost  breathless  with  running,  pressed  up  to  the 
windows,  presenting  knives  and  revolvers,  and  cursing  up  in 


70  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR, 

the  faces  of  the  soldiers.  A  wild  cry  was  raised  on  the  plat 
form,  and  a  dense  crowd  rushed  out,  spreading  itself  along  the 
railroad  track,  until  for  a  mile  it  was  black  with  the  excited, 
rushing  mass.  The  crowd,  as  they  went,  filled  the  track  with 
obstructions ;  the  police  who,  throughout  the  whole  affair,  had 
contended  for  order  with  the  most  devoted  courage,  followed 
in  full  run  removing  the  obstructions ;  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach  the  track  was  crowded  with  the  pur&uers  and  pursued,  a 
struggling  and  shouting  mass  of  human  beings.  In  the  midst 
of  the  excitement  the  train  moved  off;  and  as  it  passed  from 
the  depot  a  dozen  muskets  were  fired  by  the  soldiers  into  the 
people  that  lined  the  track,  the  volley  killing  an  estimable 
citizen  who  had  been  drawn  to  the  spot  only  as  a  spectator. 
The  results  of  the  riot  were  serious  enough :  two  of  the  soldiers 
were  shot ;  several  of  the  citizens  had  been  killed,  and  more 
than  twenty  variously  wounded. 

The  excitement  in  Baltimore  continued  for  weeks ;  the 
bridges  on  the  railroad  to  the  Susquehanna  were  destroyed  j 
the  regular  route  of  travel  broken  up,  and  some  twenty  or 
twenty-five  thousand  Northern  volunteers,  on  their  way  to 
Washington,  detained  at  Havre  de  Grace,  a  portion  of  them 
only  managing  to  reach  their  destination  by  the  way  of  Annap 
olis.  On  the  night  of  the  day  of  the  riot,  a  mass-meeting  was 
held  in  Monument  Square,  and  was  addressed  by  urgent  ap 
peals  for  the  secession  of  Maryland,  and  speeches  of  defiance 
to  the  Lincoln  government.  Governor  Hicks,  alarmed  by  the 
display  of  public  sentiment,  affected  to  yield  to  it.  He  ad 
dressed  the  crowd  in  person,  condemning  the  coercive  policy 
of  the  government,  and  ending  with  the  fervid  declaration,  "  I 
will  suffer  my  right  arm  to  be  torn  from  my  body  before  I  will 
raise  it  to  strike  a  sister  State."  The  same  man,  in  less  than  a 
month  thereafter,  when  Maryland  had  fallen  within  the  grasp 
of  the  Federal  government,  did  not  hesitate  to  make  a  call 
upon  the  people  for  four  regiments  of  volunteers  to  assist  that 
government  in  its  then  fully  declared  policy  of  a  war  of  inva 
sion  and  fell  destruction  upon  the  South. 

In  the  city  of  St.  Louis  there  were  collisions  between  the 
citizens  and  soldiery  as  well  as  in  Baltimore;  but  in  Missouri 
the  indications  of  sympathy  with  the  South  did  not  subside  or 
allow  themselves  to  be  choked  by  spectral  fears  of  the  "  crucial 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  71 

experiment  of  secession" — they  grew  and  strengthened  in  the 
face  of  all  the  Foderal  power  could  do. 

The  riots  in  Maryland  and  Missouri  were,  however,  only  inci 
dents  in  the  history  of  the  period  in  which  they  occurred 
That  history  is  occupied  with  far  more  important  and  general 
events,  indicating  the  increased  and  rapid  preparations,  North 
and  South,  for  war ;  the  collection  of  resources,  and  the  policy 
and  spirit  in  which  the  gathering  contest  was  to  be  conducted. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had,  on  the  19th  of  April,  published  his  proc 
lamation,  declaring  the  ports  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  in 
a  state  of  blockade,  and  denouncing  any  molestation  of  Federal 
vessels  on  the  high  seas  as  piracy.  The  Provisional  Congress 
at  Montgomery  had  formerly  recognized  the  existence  of  wai 
with  the  North,  and  letters  of  marque  had  been  issued  by  the 
Confederate  authority.  The  theatre  of  the  war  on  land  was 
indicated  in  Virginia.  General  Lee,  who  had  resigned  a  com 
mission  as  colonel  of  cavalry  in  the  old  United  States  army, 
was  put  in  command  of  all  the  Confederate  States  forces  in 
Virginia. 

That  State  was  the  particular  object  of  the  rancor  of  the 
government  at  Washington,  which  proceeded  to  inaugurate 
hostilities  on  her  territory  by  two  acts  of  ruthless  vandalism. 
On  the  19th  day  of  April  the  Federals  evacuated  Harper's 
Ferry,  after  an  attempt  to  destroy  the  buildings  and  machine- 
shops  there,  which  only  partially  succeeded — the  armory  build 
ings  being  destroyed,  but  a  train  to  blow  up  the  machine- 
shop  failed,  and  a  large  quantity  of  valuable  machinery  was 
uninjured.  On  the  succeeding  day,  preparations  were  made 
for  the  destruction  of  the  Navy  Yard  at  Norfolk,  while  Federal 
reinforcements  were  thrown  into  Fortress  Monroe.  The  work 
of  vandalism  was  not  as  fully  completed  as  the  enemy  had  de 
signed,  the  dry-dock,  which  alone  cost  several  millions  of  dol 
lars,  being  but  little  damaged  ;  but  the  destruction  of  property 
was  immense,  and  attended  by  a  terrible  conflagration,  which 
at  one  time  threatened  the  city  of  Norfolk. 

All  the  ships  in  the  harbor,  excepting  the  old  frigate  the 
United  States,  were  set  fire  to  and  scuttled.  They  were  the 
Pennsylvania,  the  Columbus  and  Delaware,  the  steam-frigate 
Merrimac  (she  was  only  partially  destroyed),  the  sloops  Ger- 
mantown  and  Plymouth,  the  frigates  Raritan  and  Columbia, 


72  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

and  the  brig  Dolphin.  The  Germantown  was  lying  at  the 
wharf  under  a  large  pair  of  shears,  which  w<  re  thrown  across 
her  decks  by  cutting  loose  the  guys.  The  ship  was  nearly  cut 
in  two  and  sunk  at  the  wharf.  About  midnight  an  alarm  was 
given  that  the  Navy  Yard  was  on  fire.  A  sickly  blaze,  thai 
seemed  neither  to  diminish  nor  increase,  continued  fv  several 
hours.  Men  were  kept  busy  all  night  transferring  every  tiling 
of  value  from  the  Pennsylvania  and  Navy  Yard  to  the  Pawnee 
and  Cumberland,  and  both  vessels  were  loaded  to  their  lower 
ports.  At  length  four  o'clock  came,  and  with  it  flood-tide. 
A  rocket  shot  up  from  the  Pawnee,  and  then,  almost  in  an  in 
stant,  the  whole  front  of  the  Navy  Yard  seemed  one  vast 
sheet  of  flame.  The  next  minute  streaks  of  flame  flashed 
along  the  rigging  of  the  Pennsylvania  and  the  other  doomed 
ships,  and  soon  they  were  completely  wrapped  in  the  devouring 
element.  The  harbor  was  now  one  blaze  of  light.  The  re 
motest  objects  were  distinctly  visible.  The  surging  flames 
leaped  and  roared  with  mad  violence,  making  their  hoarse 
wrath  heard  at  the  distance  of  several  miles.  The  people  of 
Hampton,  even  those  who  lived  beyond,  saw  the  red  light, 
and  thought  all  Norfolk  was  on  fire.  It  was  certainly  a  grand 
though  terrible  spectacle  to  witness.  In  the  midst  of  the 
brilliance  of  the  scene,  the  Pawnee  with  the  Cumberland  in 
tow,  stole  like  a  guilty  thing  through  the  harbor,  fleeing  from 
the  destruction  they  had  been  sent  to  accomplish. 

The  Lincoln  government  had  reason  to  be  exasperated  to 
wards  Virginia.  The  second  secession ary  movement,  com 
menced  by  that  State,  added  three  other  States  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy.  Tennessee  seceded  from  the  Union,  the  6th  of 
May ;  on  the  1 8th  day  of  May,  the  State  of  Arkansas  was 
formally  admitted  into  the  Southern  Confederacy ;  and  on  the 
21st  of  the  same  month,  the  sovereign  Convention  of  North 
Carolina,  without  delay,  and  by  a  unanimous  vote,  passed  an 
ordinance  of  secession. 

The  spirit  of  the  rival  governments  gave  indications  to  dis 
cerning  minds  of  a  civil  war  of  gigantic  proportions,  infinite 
consequences,  and  indefinite  duration.  In  every  portion  of  the 
South,  the  most  patriotic  devotion  was  exhibited.  Transporta 
tion  companies  freely  tendered  the  use  of  their  lines  for  trans 
portation  and  supplies.  The  presidents  of  the  Southern  rail 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  73 

roads  consented  not  only  to  reduce  their  rates  for  mail  ser 
vice  and  conveyance  for  troops  and  munitions  of  war,  but  vol 
untarily  proffered  to  take  their  compensation  in  bonds  of  the 
Confederacy,  for  the  purpose  of  leaving  all  the  resources  01 
the  government  at  its  disposal  for  the  common  defence.  Un 
der  the  act  of  the  Provisional  Congress  authorizing  a  loan,  pro 
posals  issued  for  the  subscription  of  five  millions  of  dollars 
were  answered  by  the  prompt  subscription  of  more  than  eight 
millions  by  its  own  citizens;  and  not  a  bid  was  made  under 
par.  Requisitions  for  troops  were  met  with  such  alacrity  that 
the  number  in  every  instance,  tendering  their  services,  ex 
ceeded  the  demand.  Under  the  bill  for  public  defence,  one 
hundred  thousand  volunteers  were  authorized  to  be  accepted 
by  the  Confederate  States  government  for  a  twelve  months' 
term  of  service.  The  gravity  of  age  and  the  zeal  of  youth  ri 
valled  each  other  to  be  foremost  in  the  public  service ;  every 
village  bristled  with  bayonets;  large  forces  were  put  in  the 
field  at  Charleston,  Pensacola,  Forts  Morgan,  Jackson,  St. 
Philip,  and  Pulaski ;  while  formidable  numbers  from  all  parts 
of  the  Confederacy  were  gathered  in  Virginia,  on  what  was 
now  becoming  the  immediate  theatre  of  the  war.  On  the  20th 
day  of  May,  the  seat  of  government  was  removed  from  Mont 
gomery,  Alabama,  to  Richmond,  Virginia,  and  President 
Davis  was  welcomed  in  the  latter  city  with  a  burst  of  genuine 
joy  and  enthusiasm,  to  which  none  of  the  military  pageants  of 
the  North  could  furnish  a  parallel. 

It  had  been  supposed  that  the  Southern  people,  poor  in  man 
ufactures  as  they  w^ere,  and  in  the  haste  of  preparation  for  the 
mighty  contest  that  was  to  ensue,  would  find  themselves  but 
illy  provided  with  arms  to  contend  with  an  enemy  rich  in  the 
means  and  munitions  of  war.  This  disadvantage  had  been 
provided  against  by  the  timely  act  of  one  man.  Mr.  Floyd, 
of  Virginia,  when  Secretary  of  War  under  Mr.  Buchanan's 
administration,  had  by  a  single  order  effected  the  transfer  of 
115,000  improved  muskets  and  rifles  from  the  Springfield  ar 
mory  and  Watervliet  arsenal  to  different  arsenals  at  the  South. 
Adding  to  these  the  number  of  arms  distributed  by  the  Fed 
eral  government  to  the  States  in  preceding  years  of  our  history, 
and  those  purchased  by  the  States  and  citizens,  it  was  safely 
estimated  that  the  South  entered  upon  the  war  with  one  hun 


74  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    T1IK    WAR. 

dred   and   fifty  thousand   small-arms   of  the  most   approved 
modern  pattern  and  the  best  in  the  world. 

The  government  at  AYasliington  rapidly  collected  in  that  city 
ftBt  and  motley  army.  Baltimore  had  been  subdued;  tho 
route  through  it  was  restored;  and  sueh  were  the  facilities  <»f 
Northern  transportation,  that  it  was  estimated  that  not,  less 
than  four  or  live  thousand  volunteers  were  transported  through 
the  former  Thermopylae  of  Baltimore  in  a  single  day.  The 
first  evidences  of  the  despotic  purposes  of  the  Lincoln  govern- 
•nient  were  exhibited  in  Maryland,  and  the  characteristics  of 
the  war  that  it  had  commenced  on  the  South  were  first  dis 
played  in  the  crushing  weight  of  tyranny  and  oppression  it 
laid  upon  a  State  which  submitted  before  it  was  conquered. 

The  Legislature  of  Maryland  did  nothing  practical.  It  was 
unable  to  arm  the  State,  and  it  made  no  attempt,  to  improve 
the  spirit  of  the  people,  or  to  make  preparations  for  any  future 
opportunity  of  action.  It  assented  to  the  attitude  of  submis 
sion  indefinitely.  It  passed  resolutions  protesting  against  the 
military  occupation  of  the  State  by  the  Federal  government, 
and  indicating  sympathy  with  the  South,  but  concluding  with 
the  declaration:  "under  existing  circumstances,  it  is  inexpe 
dient  to  call  a  sovereign  Convention  of  the  State  at  this  time, 
or  take  any  measures  for  the  immediate  organization  or  arming 
of  the  militia."  The  government  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not 
a  government  to  spare  submission  or  to  be  moved  to  magna 
nimity  by  the  helplessness  of  a  supposed  enemy.  The  submis 
sion  of  Maryland  was  the  signal  for  its  persecution.  By  the 
middle  of  May,  her  territory  was  occupied  by  thirty  thousand 
Federal  troops;  her  quota  of  troops  to  the  war  was  demanded 
at  Washington,  and  was  urged  by  a  requisition  of  her  obsequi 
ous  governor ;  the  city  of  Baltimore  was  invested  by  General 
Butler  of  Massachusetts,  houses  and  stores  searched  for  c-'«n- 
eealod  arms,  and  the  liberties  of  the  people  violated,  with  ev^ry 
possible  addition  of  mortification  and  insult. 

In  a-fe\v  weeks  the  rapid  and  aggravated  progression  of  arts 
of  despotism  on  the  part  of  the  Lincoln  government  reached 
its  height  in  Maryland.  The  authority  of  the  mayor  and  j  o- 
lice  board  of  the  city  of  Baltimore  was  superseded,  and  th-  ir 
per-  B  -  -  d  and  imprisoned  in  a  military  fortr  \v  t 

of  habeas  corjpus  was  suspended  by  the  single  and 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  75 

lional  authority  of  the  President;  the  houses  oi  suspected 
citizens  were  searched,  and  they  themselves  arrested  by  mill 
tary  force,  in  jurisdictions  where  the  Federal  courts  were  in 
uninterrupted  operation  ;  blank  warrants  were  issued  for  domi 
ciliary  visits;  and  the  sanctity  of  private  correspondence  was 
violated  by  seizing  the  dispatches  preserved  for  years  in  the 
telegraph  offices  of  the  North,  and  making  them  the  subject  of 
inquisition  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  and  punishing  as 
traitors  men  who  had  dared  to  reproach  the  Northern  govern 
ment  for  an  unnatural  war,  or  had  not  sympathized  with  its 
rancor  and  excesses. 

Such  was  the  inauguration  of  "  the  strong  government"  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  in  Maryland,  and  the  repetition  of  its  acts 
was  threatened  upon  the  "  rebel"  States  of  the  South,  with  the 
addition  that  their  cities  were  to  be  laid  in  ashes,  their  soil 
sown  with  blood,  the  slaves  freed  and  carried  in  battalions 
against  their  masters,  and  "the  rebels"  doomed,  after  their 
subjection,  to  return  home  to  find  their  wives  and  children  in 
rags,  and  gaunt  Famine  sitting  at  their  firesides. 


76  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Confidence  of  tre  North. — Characteristic  Boasts. — "  Crushing  out  the  Rebellion." — 
Volunteering  in  the  Northern  Cities. — The  New  York  "  Invincibles." — Misrepresenta 
tions  of  the  Government  at  Washington. — Mr.  Seward's  Letter  to  the  French  Govern 
ment. — Another  Call  for  Federal  Volunteers.— Opening  Movements  of  the  Campaign. — 
The  Federal  Occupation  of  Alexandria. — Death  of  Col.  Ellsworth. — Fortress  Monroe. — 
The  BATTLE  OF  BETHEL.— Results  of  this  Battle. — Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston. — The  Tipper 
Potomac. — Evacuation  and  Destruction  of  Harper's  Ferry. — The  Movements  in  the 
Upper  Portion  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia. — Northwestern  Virginia. — The  BATTLE  OF 
RICH  MOUNTAIN. — Carrock's  Ford. — The  Retreat  of  the  Confederates. — General  Mc- 
Clellan. — Meeting  of  the  Federal  Congress. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Message. — Kentucky. — 
Western  Virginia. — Large  Requisitions  for  Men  and  Money  by  the  Federal  Govern 
ment. — Its  Financial  Condition. — Financial  Measures  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. — 
Contrast  between  the  Ideas  of  the  Rival  Governments. — Conservatism  of  the  Southern 
Revolution. — Despotic  Excesses  of  the  Government  at  Washington. 

NOTHING  could  exceed  the  boastful  and  unlimited  expressions 
of  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  Northern  people,  in  the  speedy 
"  crushing  out  of  the  rebellion,"  and  of  contempt  for  the  means 
and  resources  of  the  South  to  carry  on  any  thing  like  a  formid 
able  war.  In  the  light  of  subsequent  events,  those  expressions 
and  vaunts  give  a  grotesque  illustration  of  the  idfeas  with  which 
the  Northern  people  entered  upon  the  war. 

The  New  York  people  derided  the  rebellion.  The  Tribum 
declared  that  it  was  nothing  "  more  or  less  than  the  natural 
recourse  of  all  mean-spirited  and  defeated  tyrannies  to  rule  or 
ruin,  making,  of  course,  a  wide  distinction  bet-ween  the  will 
and  power,  for  the  hanging  of  traitors  is  sure  to  begin  before 
one  month  is  over."  "  The  nations  of  Europe,"  it  continued, 
i  may  rest  assured  that  Jeff.  Davis  &  Co.  will  be  swinging 
from  the  battlements  at  Washington,  at  least,  by  the  4th  of 
July.  We  spit  upon  a  later  and  longer  deferred  justice." 

The  New  York  Times  gave  its  opinion  in  the  following 
vigorous  and  confident  spirit :  "  Let  us  make  quick  work. 
The  '  rebellion,'  as  some  people  designate  it,  is  an  unborn  tad 
pole.  Let  us  not  fall  into  the  delusion,  noted  by  Hallam,  of 
mistaking  a  *  local  commotion'  for  a  revolution.  A  strong 
active  'pull  together' will  do  our  work  effectually  in  thirty 
days,  We  have  only  to  send  a  column  of  25,000  men  across 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  77 

the  Potomac  to  Richmond,  and  burn  out  the  rats  there  ;  another 
column  of  25,000  to  Cairo,  seizing  the  cotton  ports  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  ;  and  retaining  the  remaining  25,000,  included  ir.  Mr 
Lincoln's  call  for  75,000  men,  at  Washington,  not  because  there 
is  need  for  them  there,  but  because  we  do  not  require  theii 
services  elsewhere." 

The  Philadelphia  Press  declared  that  "no  man  of  sense 
could,  for  a  moment,  doubt  that  this  much-ado-about-nothing 
would  end  in  a  month."  The  Northern  people  were  "  simply 
invincible."  "The  rebels,"  it  prophesied,  ua  mere  band  of 
ragamuffins,  will  fly,  like  chaff  before  the  wind,  011  our  ap 
proach." 

The  West  was  as  violent  as  the  North  or  the  East.  In  the 
States  of  Iowa  and  Wisconsin,  among  the  infidel  Dutch,  no 
rein  was  drawn  upon  the  wild  fanaticism.  In  Illinois,  too, 
there  was  a  fever  of  morbid  violence.  The  Chicago  Tribune 
insisted  on  its  demand  that  the  West  be  allowed  to  fight  the 
battle  through,  since  she  was  probably  the  most  interested  in 
the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  and  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi.  "Let  the  East,"  demanded  this  valorous  sheet, 
"  get  out  of  the  way  ;  this  is  a  war  of  the  West.  We  can  fight 
the  battle,  and  successfully,  within  two  or  three  months  at  the 
furthest.  Illinois  can  whip  the  South  by  herself.  We  insist 
on  the  matter  being  turned  over  to  us." 

The  Cincinnati  Commercial,  in  commenting  upon  the  claims 
of  the  West,  remarked  that  "the  West  ought  to  be  made  the 
vanguard  of  the  war" — and  proceeded:  "We  are  akin,  by 
trade  and  geography,  with  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri, 
and  in  sentiment  to  the  noble  Union  patriots  who  have  a  ma 
jority  of  three  to  one  in  all  these  States.  An  Ohio  army  would 
be  received  with  joy  in  Nashville,  and  welcomed  in  a  speech 
of  congratulation  bv  Andrew  Johnson.  Crittenden  and  Frank 

O  *> 

Blair  are  keeping  Kentucky  and  Missouri  all  right.  The  re- 
bellion  will  be  crushed  out  before  the  assemblage  of  Congress 
— no  doubt  of  it." 

Not  a  paper  of  influence  in  the  North,  at  that  time, 
had  the  remotest  idea  of  the  conflict ;  not  a  journalist  who 
rose  to  the  emergencies  of  the  occasion — all  wras  passion,  rant, 
and  bombast. 

In  the  Northern  cities,  going  to  the  \var  for  "  three  months," 


78  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAK. 

the  term  of  the  enlistment  of  volunteers,  was  looked  upon 
almost  as  a  holiday  recreation.  In  New  York  and  Philadel 
phia,  the  recruiting  offices  were  besieged  by  firemen,  rowdie?, 
and  men  fished  from  the  purlieus  of  vice,  and  every  sink  of 
degradation.  There  appeared  to  be  no  serious  realization  of 
the  war.  If  a  man  ventured  the  opinion  that  a  hundred 
thousand  Southern  troops  might  be  gathered  in  Virginia,  ho 
was  laughed  at,  or  answered  with  stories  about  the  Adirondack 
sharpshooters  and  the  New  York  "  roughs."  The  newspapers 
declared  that  the  most  terrible  and  invincible  army  that  ever 
enacted  deeds  of  war  might  be  gathered  from  the  "  roughs" 
of  the  Northern  cities.  Nothing  could  compete  with  their 
desperate  courage,  and  nothing  could  withstand  their  furious 
onslaught.  A  regiment  of  firemen  and  congenial  spirits  was 
raised  in  New  York,  and  put  under  command  of  Colonel  Ells 
worth,  of  Chicago,  a  youth,  who  had  some  time  ago  exhibited 
through  the  country  a  company  of  young  men  drilled  in  the 
manual  and  exercises  of  the  French  Zouaves,  who  had  made 
himself  a  favorite  with  the  ladies  at  the  Astor  House  and 
Willard's  Hotel,  by  his  long  hair,  gymnastic  grace,  and  red 
uniform,  and  who  boasted  of  a  great  deal  of  political  influence 
as  the  pet  and  protege  of  President  Lincoln.  To  the  standard 
of  this  young  man,  and  also  to  that  of  a  notorious  bully  and 
marauder,  by  the  name  of  Billy  Wilson,  flocked  all  the  vagrant 
and  unruly  classes  of  the  great  and  vicious  metropolis  of  New 
York.  The  latter  boasted,  that  when  his  regiment  was  moved 
off,  it  would  be  found  that  not  a  thief,  highwayman,  or  pick 
pocket  would  be  left  in  the  city.  The  people  of  New  York 
and  Washington  were  strangely  enraptured  with  the  spectacle 
of  these  terrible  and  ruthless  crusaders,  who  were  to  strike 
terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  Southern  people.  Anecdotes  of 
their  rude  and  desperate  disposition,  their  brutal  speeches  and 
their  exploits  of  rowdyism,  were  told  with  glee  and  devoured 
with  unnatural  satisfaction.  In  Washington,  people  were  de 
lighted  by  anecdotes  that  Ellsworth's  Zouaves  made  a  practice 
of  knocking  their  officers  down  ;  that  their  usual  address  to  the 
sentinels  was,  "  Say,  fellow,  I  am  agoin'  to  leave  this  ranch  ;' 
that  on  rail?  j  days  they  seized  umbrellas  from  citizens  on  the 
streets,  and  knocked  them  in  the  gutter  if  they  remonstrated ; 
that,- "in  the  most  entire  good  humor,"  they  levied  contribn- 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  79 

tions  of  boots,  shoes,  liquors,  and  cigars  on  tradesmen ;  and 
that  the  "  gallant  little  colonel,"  who  controlled  these  unruly 
spirits,  habitually  wore  a  bowie  knife  two  feet  long.  Theso 
freaks,  and  eccentricities  were  not  only  excusable,  they  weio 
admirable:  the  untamed  courage  of  the  New  York  firemen 
and  rowdies,  said  the  people,  were  to  be  so  useful  and  con 
spicuous  in  the  war ;  and  the  prophecy  was,  that  these  men, 
so  troublesome  and  belligerent  towards  quiet  citizens  who  came 
in  contact  with  them,  would  be  the  first  to  win  honorable 
laurels  on  the  field  of  combat. 

"Billy  Wilson's"  regiment  was  held  up  for  a  long  time  in 
New  York  as  an  inimitable  scarecrow  to  the  South.  The 
regiment  was  displayed  on  every  occasion ;  it  was  frequently 
marched  up  Broadway  to  pay  visits  to  the  principal  hotels. 
On  one  of  these  occasions,  it  was  related  that  Billy  Wilson 
marched  the  companies  into  the  hall  and  spacious  bar-room  of 
the  hotel,  and  issued  the  order  "  Attention."  Attention  was 
paid,  and  the  bystanders  preserved  silence.  "Kneel  down," 
shouted  the  colonel.  The  men  dropped  upon  their  knees. 

"  You  do  solemnly  swear  to  cut  off  the  head  of  every  d d 

Secessionist  you  meet  during  the  war."  "  We  swear,"  was  the 
universal  response.  "The  gallant  souls,"  said  a  New  York 
paper,  "  then  returned  in  good  order  to  their  quarters." 

1  The  newspaper  extracts  and  incidents  given  above  afford 
no  little  illustration  of  the  spirit  in  which  the  North  entered 
upon  the  war,  and,  in  this  connection,  belong  to  the  faithful 
history  of  the  times.  That  spirit  was  not  only  trivial  and 
utterly  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  contest  upon  which  the 
North  was  to  enter ;  it  betrayed  a  fierceness  and  venom,  the 
monstrous  developments  of  which  were  reserved  for  a  period 
later  in  the  progress  of  events. 

What  was  partly  ignorance  and  partly  affectation  on  the 
part  of  the  Northern  press  and  people,  in  their  light  estima 
tion  of  the  war,  was  wholly  affectation  on  the  part  of  the  in 
telligent  and  better  informed  authorities  at  Washington.  The 
government  had  a  particular  object  in  essaying  to  represent 
the  Southern  revolution  as  nothing  more  than  a  local  mutiny. 
The  necessity  was  plain  for  balking  any  thing  like  a  European 
recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  Mr.  Seward  was 
prompt  to  rank  the  rebellion  as  a  local  and  d'sorganized  insur- 


80  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF     THE    WAR. 

rection,  amounting  to  nothing  more  than  a  passing  and  inci 
dental  "  change"  in  the  history  of  the  Union.  At  the  time 
that  all  the  resources  of  the  government  were  put  out  to  en 
counter  the  gathering  armies  of  the  South,  already  within  a 
few  miles  of  the  capital,  Mr.  Seward,  in  a  letter  of  instructions 
to  Mr.  Dayton,  the  recently  appointed  minister  to  France, 
dated  the  4th  of  May,  urged  him  to  assure  that  government 
of  the  fact  that  an  idea  of  a  permanent  disruption  of  the 
Union  was  absurd  ;  that  the  continuance  of  the  Union  was 
certain,  and  that  too  as  an  object  of  "affection!"  He  wrote: 
"  The  thought  of  a  dissolution  of  this  Union,  peaceably  or  by 
force,  has  never  entered  into  the  mind  of  any  candid  states 
man  here,  and  it  is  high  time  that  it  be  dismissed  by  the 
statesmen  in  Europe." 

The  government  at  "Washington  evidently  showed,  by  its 
preparations,  that  it  was  secretly  conscious  of  the  resources 
and  determined  purposes  of  the  revolution.  Another  procla 
mation  for  still  further  increasing  his  military  forces  had  been 
made  by  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  third  of  May.  He  called  for  forty- 
odd  thousand  additional  volunteers  to  enlist  for  the  war,  and 
eighteen  thousand  seamen,  besides  increasing  the  regular  army 
by  the  addition  of  ten  regiments.  It  is  curious  that  these  im 
mense  preparations  should  have  attracted  such  little  notice 
from  the  Northern  public.  The  people  and  soldiers  appeared 
to  be  alike  hilarious  and  confident  in  the  prospect  of  a  "  short, 
sharp,  and  decisive"  war,  that  was  to  restore  the  Union,  open 
the  doors  of  the  treasury,  give  promotion  and  fame  to  those 
desirous  of  gain  in  those  particulars,  and  afford  new  opportu 
nities  to  adventurers  of  all  classes. 

The  h'rst  and  opening  movements  of  the  Northern  campaign 
were  decided  to  be  a  forward  movement  from  the  Potomac 
along  the  Orange  and  Alexandria  and  Central  roads  towards 
Richmond,  while  another  invading  army  might  be  thrown  into 
the  Valley  of  Virginia  from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland. 

The  first  step  of  the  invasion  of  Virginia  was  the  occupa 
tion  of  Alexandria,  which  was  accomplished  on  the  2-lth  of 
May,  by  throwing  some  eight  thousand  Federal  troops  across 
the  Potomac,  the  Virginia  forces  evacuating  the  town  and  fall 
ing  back  to  the  Manassas  Junction,  where  General  Bonham,  of 
South  Carolina,  was  in  command  of  the  Confederate  forces. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  81 

The  invasion  was  accomplished  under  cover  of  the  night,  and 
with  such  secrecy  and  dispatch,  that  a  number  of  Virginia 
cavalry  troops  were  found,  unconscious  of  danger,  at  theii 
quarters,  and  were  taken  prisoners. 

The  Federal  occupation  of  the  town  was  attended  by  a  dra 
matic  incident,  the  heroism  and  chivalry  of  which  gave  a 
remarkable  lesson  to  the  invader  of  the  spirit  that  was  to 
oppose  his  progress  on  the  soil  of  Virginia.  In  the  gray  of 
the  morning,  Col.  Ellsworth,  who,  with  his  Fire  Zouaves,  had 
entered  the  town,  observed  a  Confederate  flag  floating  from 
the  top  of  an  hotel  called  the  Marshall  House,  and  attended  by 
a  squad  of  his  men,  determined  to  secure  it  as  his  prize.  Ho 
found  his  way  into  the  hotel,  ascended  the  stairs,  and  climbed, 
by  a  ladder,  to  the  top  of  the  house,  where  he  secured  the 
obnoxious  ensign.  As  he  was  descending  from  the  trap  door, 
with  the  flag  on  his  arm,  he  was  confronted  by  Mr.  Jackson, 
the  proprietor  of  the  hotel,  who,  aroused  from  his  bed  by  the 
unusual  noise,  half  dressed  and  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  with  a 
double-barrel  gun  in  his  hands,  faced  Ellsworth  and  his  four 
companions  with  a  quiet  and  settled  determination.  "  Thi»  id 
my  trophy,"  said  the  Federal  commander,  pointing  to  the  flag, 
"  And  you  are  mine,"  responded  the  Yirginian,  as,  with  a  quick 
aim  he  discharged  his  gun  full  into  the  breast  of  Colonel 
Ellsworth,  and  the  next  instant  sank  by  his  side  a  breathless 
corpse,  from  a  bullet,  sped  through  the  brain,  and  a  bayonet- 
thrust  at  the  hands  of  one  of  the  soldiers. 

The  slayer  of  Colonel  Ellsworth  was  branded,  in  the  .North, 
as  an  "  assassin."  The  justice  of  history  does  not  permit  such 
a  term  to  be  applied  to  a  man  who  defended  his  country's  flag 
and  the  integrity  of  his  home  with  his  life,  distinctly  and  fear 
lessly  offered  up  to  such  objects  of  honor :  it  gives  him  the 
name  which  the  Southern  people  hastened  to  bestow  upon  the 
memory  of  the  heroic  Jackson — that  of  "  martyr."  The  char 
acter  of  this  man  is  said  to  have  been  full  of  traits  of  rude, 
initive  chivalry.  He  was  captain  of  an  artillery  company  in 
his  town.  He  was  known  to  his  neighbors  as  a  person  who 
united  a  dauntless  and  unyielding  courage  with  the  most  gen 
erous  impulses.  A  week  before  his  death  a  "  Union"  man 
from  Washington  had  been  seized  in  the  streets  of  Alexandria 
and  a  crowd  threatened  to  shoot  or  hang  him,  when  Jackson 


82  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

went  to  his  rescue,  threatened  to  kill  any  man  who  W(  uld 
molest  him,  and  saved  him  from  the  vengeance  of  the  mob, 
A  day  before  the  Federal  occupation  of  the  town,  in  a  coriver 
sation  in  which  some  such  movement  was  conjectured,  his 
neighbors  remonstrated  with  him  about  the  danger  of  making 
his  house  a  sign  for  the  enemy's  attack,  by  the  flag  which 
floated  over  it.  He  replied  that  he  would  sacrifice  his  life  in 
keeping  the  flag  flying — and  by  daybreak  the  next  day  the 
oath  was  fulfilled.  He  laid  down  his  life,  not  in  the  excite 
ment  of  passion,  but  coolly  a^id  deliberately,  upon  a  principle, 
and  as  an  example  in  defending  the  sacred  rights  of  his  home 
and  the  flag  of  his  country.  This  noble  act  of  heroism  did  not 
fail  to  move  the  hearts  of  the  generous  people  of  the  South  ;  a 
monument  was  proposed  to  the  memory  of  the  only  hero  of 
Alexandria ;  the  dramatic  story,  and  the  patriotic  example  of 
w  the  martyr  Jackson,"  were  not  lost  sight  of  in  the  stormy 
excitements  of  the  war  that  swept  out  of  the  mind  so  many 
incidents  of  its  early  history  ;  and  in  most  of  the  cities  of  the 
South  practical  evidences  of  regard  were  given  in  large,  vol- 
intary  subscriptions  to  his  bereaved  family. 

The  Federal  forces  were  not  met  in  Alexandria  with  any  01 
\hose  demonstrations  of  "  Union"  sentiment  which  they  had 
>een  induced,  by  the  misrepresentations  of  the  Northern  press, 
u)  expect  would  hail  the  vanguard  of  their  invasion  of  the 
South.  The  shouts  and  yells  of  the  invaders  fell  upon  the  ears 
of  a  sullen  people,  who  shut  themselves  up  in  their  houses,  as 
much  to  avoid  the  grating  exultations  of  their  enemies  as  con 
tact  with  the  rowdyism  and  riot  that  had  taken  possession  of 
the  streets.  On  coming  into  the  town,  the  New  York  troops, 
particularly  the  Fire  Zouaves,  ran  all  over  the  city  with  their 
asual  cry  of  "Hi,"  "Hi."  Citizens  closed  their  doors,  and 
is  the  news  of  the  tragedy  at  the  Marshall  House  spread  over 
the  town,  it  assumed  an  aspect  like  that  of  the  Sabbath. 
About  the  wharves  and  warehouses,  where  hitherto  the  life  and 
excitement  of  the  town  had  been  concentrated,  the  silence  was 
absolutely  oppressive;  and  the  only  people  to  be  seen  were 
numbers  of  negroes,  who  stood  about  the  wharves  and  on  the 
ttreet  corners  with  frightened  faces,  talking  in  low  tones  to< 
other. 

With  Alexandria  and  Fortress  Monroe  in  its  possession,  the 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  83 

« 

Federal  Govern mert  held  the  most  important  passages  into 
Virginia.  General  McDowell  was  charged  with  the  command 
of  the  division  of  the  forces  thrown  across  the  Potomac.  Gen 
eral  Butler  was  placed  in  command  at  Fortress  Monroe.  The 
town  of  Hampton  was  occupied  by  the  Federal  troops,  and 
Newport  News,  at  the  mouth  of  the  James  River,  invested  by 
them.  At  Sewell's  Point,  some  eight  or  ten  miles  distant  on 
the  other  side,  the  Confederates  had  erected  a  powerful  battery, 
which  had  proved  its  efficiency  and  strength  by  resisting  an 
attack  made  upon  it  on  the  19th  of  May,  and  continued  for 
two  days,  by  the  Federal  steamer  Monticello,  aided  by  the 
Minnesota. 

The  first  serious  contest  of  the  war  was  to  occur  in  the  low 
country  of  Virginia.  On  the  10th  of  June  the  battle  of 
Bethel  was  fought. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   BETHEL. 

The  Confederates,  to  the  number  of  about  eighteen  hundred, 
under  Colonel  J.  Bankhead  Magruder,  were  intrenched  at 
Great  Bethel  church,  which  was  about  nine  miles  on  the  road 
leading  south  from  Hampton.  A  Federal  force  exceeding  four 
thousand  men,  under  General  Pierce — a  Massachusetts  officer 
who  was  never  afterwards  heard  of  in  the  war — was  moved 
towards  Bethel  in  two  separate  bodies,  a  portion  landing  on  the 
extreme  side,  of  the  creek,  some  distance  below,  while  the  rest 
proceeded  across  the  creek.  The  landing  of  the  latter  was 
effected  without  opposition,  and  presently  the  Federal  troops, 
who  had  marched  up  from  below,  closed  in  on  the  Confederates 
almost  simultaneously  with  those  attacking  their  front. 

The  attack  was  received  by  a  battery  of  the  Richmond 
Howitzers,  under  command  of  Major  Randolph;  the  action 
being  commenced  by  a  shot  from  the  Parrott  gun  in  our  main 
battery  aimed  by  himself.  One  of  the  guns  of  the  battery 
being  spiked  by  the  breaking  of  a  priming  wire  in  the  vent, 
the  infantry  supports  were  withdrawn,  and  the  work  was  occu 
pied  for  a  moment  by  the  enemy.  Captain  Bridges,  of  the 
'1st  North  Carolina  regiment,  was  ordered  to  retake  it.  The 
charge  of  the  North  Carolina  infantry,  on  this  occasion,  was 
the  most  brilliant  incident  of  the  day.  They  advanced  calmly 


SOUTHEBN    HiSTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  coolly  in  the  face  of  a  sheet*  of  artillery  fire,  and  whei 
within  sixty  yards  of  the  enemy  dashed  on  at  the  double  quick, 
The  Federals  fell  back  in  dismay. 

The  enemy  continued  to  fire  briskly,  but  wildly,  with  his  ar 
tillery.  At  no  time,  during  the  artillery  engagement,  could 
the  Confederates  see  the  bodies  of  the  men  in  the  column  01 
attack,  and  their  fire  was  directed  by  the  bayonets  of  the  en 
emy.  The  position  of  the  enemy  was  obscured  by  the  shade 
of  the  woods  on  their  right  and  two  small  houses  on  their  left. 
The  fire  of  the  Confederates  was  returned  by  a  battery  near 
the  head  of  the  enemy's  column,  but  concealed  by  the  woods 
and  the  houses  so  effectually  that  the  Confederates  only  ascer 
tained  its  position  by  the  flash  of  the  pieces. 

The  earthworks  were  struck  several  times  by  the  shots  of  the 
Federals.  They  fired  upon  us  with  shot,  shell,  spherical  case, 
canister,  and  grape,  from  six  and  twelve  pounders,  at  a  distance 
of  six  hundred  yards.  The  only  injury  received  from  their 
artillery  was  the  loss  of  a  mule.  The  fire  on  our  part  was 
deliberate,  and  was  suspended  whenever  masses  of  the  enemy 
were  not  within  range.  From  9  o'clock  A.  M.  until  1:30  p.  ]d, 
but  ninety-eight  shot  were  fired  by  as,  every  one  of  them  with 
deliberation. 

After  some  intermission  of  the  assault  in  front,  a  heavy  col 
umn,  apparently  a  reinforcement  or  a  reserve,  made  its  appear 
ance  on  the  Hampton  road  and  pressed  forward  towards  the 
bridge,  carrying  the  United  States  flag  at  its  head.  This  col 
umn  was  under  command  of  Major  Winthrop,  aid  to  General 
Butler.  Those  in  advance  had  put  on  the  distinctive  badge  of 
the  Confederates — a  white  band  around  the  cap.  They  cried 
out  repeatedly,  "  don't  fire."  Having  crossed  the  creek,  they 
began  to  cheer  most  lustily,  thinking  that  our  work  was  open 
at  the  gorge,  and  that  they  might  get  in  by  a  sudden  rush. 
The  North  Carolina  infantry,  however,  dispelled  this  illusion. 
Their  firing  was  as  cool  as  that  of  veterans  ;  the  only  difficulty 
being  the  anxiety  of  the  riflemen  to  pick  off  the  foe,  the  men 
repeatedly  calling  to  their  officers,  "  May  I  fire?  I  think  I  can 
bring  him." 

As  the  enemy  fell  back  in  disorder  and  his  final  rout  com 
menced,  the  bullet  of  a  North  Carolina  rifleman  pierced  the 
breast  of  the  brave  Federal  officci  Major  Winthrop,  who  had 


THE    FIBST    YEAR.  OS 

made  himself  a  conspicuous  mark  by  his  gallantry  on  the  field. 
"  He  was,"  says  Colonel  Hill,  of  the  North  Carolina  regiment, 
in  his  official  report  of  the  action,  "  the  only  one  of  the  enemy 
who  exhibited  even  an  approximation  to  courage  during  the 
whole  day."  The  fact  was,  that  he  had  fallen  in  circumstances 
of  great  gallantry.  He  was  shot  while  standing  on  a  log, 
waving  his  sword  and  vainly  attempting  to  rally  his  men  to 
the  charge.  His  enemy  did  honor  to  his  memory ;  and  the 
Southern  people,  who  had  been  unable  to  appreciate  the  cour 
age  of  Ellsworth,  and  turned  with  disgust  from  his  apotheosis 
in  the  North,  did  not  fail  to  pay  the  tribute  due  a  truly  brave 
man  to  the  gallant  Winthrop,  who,  having  simply  died  on  the 
battle-field,  without  the  sensational  circumstances  of  a  private 
brawl  or  a  bully's  adventure,  was  soon  forgotten  in  the  North. 

During  the  fight  at  the  angle  of  our  works,  a  small  wooden 
house  in  front  was  thought  to  give  protection  to  the  enemy 
Four  privates  in  the  North  Carolina  regiment  volunteered  tc 
advance  beyond  our  lines  and  set  it  on  fire.  One  of  them,  a 
youth  named  Henry  L.  Wyatt,  advanced  ahead  of  his  compan 
ions,  and,  as  he  passed  between  the  two  fires,  he  fell  pierced 
by  a  musket-ball  in  the  forehead,  within  thirty  yards  of  the 
house.  This  was  our  only  loss  in  killed  during  the  entire  en 
gagement. 

The  results  of  the  battle  of  Bethel  were  generally  magnified 
in  the  South.  It  is  true  that  a  Confederate  force  of  some 
eighteen  hundred  men,  in  a  contest  of  several  hours  with  an 
enemy  more  than  twice  their  numbers,  had  repulsed  them ; 
that  the  entire  loss  of  the  former  was  only  one  man  killed  and 
seven  wounded,  while  that  of  the  enemy,  by  their  own  ae 
knowledgment,  was  thirty  killed  and  more  than  one  hundred 
wounded.  The  fact,  however,  was,  that  our  troops  had  fought 
under  the  impenetrable  cover  of  their  batteries,  the  only  In 
stance  of  exposure  being  that  of  the  North  Carolina  infantry, 
who,  by  their*  charge  on  the  redoubt  taken  by  the  enemy  early 
in  the  action,  contributed,  most  of  all,  to  the  success  and  glory 
of  the  day.  The  battle  had  been  the  result  of  scarcely  any 
thing  more  than  a  reconnoissance  ;  it  was  by  no  means  to  be 
ranked  as  a  decisive  engagement,  and  yet  it  was  certainly  a 
eerious  and  well-timed  check  to  the  foe. 

In  one  respect,  however,  the  result  was   not  magnified,  and 


86  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

that  was  in  its  contribution  of  confidence  and  ardor  io   the 
South.     Thus  regarded,  it  was  an  important  event,  and  its 
effects  of  the  happiest  kind.     The  victory  was  achieved  at  a 
time  when  the  public  mind  was  distressed  and  anxious  on  ac 
count  of  the  constant  backward  movements  of  our  forces  iii 
Virginia,  and  the  oft-recurring  story  of  "  surprise"'  and  con 
sequent  disaster  to  our  troops  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  en 
emy's  lines.     The  surrender  of  Alexandria,  the  surprise  and 
dispersion  of  a  camp  at  Philippi  by  a  body  of  Federal  troops,* 

*  The  disaster  at  Philippi  was  inconsiderable ;  but  it  was  the  subject  of 
some  recrimination  at  the  time,  and  Colonel  Porterfield,  the  Confederate  com 
mander,  was  subjected  to  a  court-martial,  which,  in  the  main,  exonerated  him, 
and  complimented  him  for  his  courage.  Colonel  Porterfield  had  been  ordered 
to  Grafton  about  the  middle  of  May,  1861,  with  written  instructions  from 
General  Lee  to  call  for  volunteers  from  that  part  of  the  State,  and  receive 
them  into  the  service,  to  the  number  of  five  thousand  ;  and  to  co-operate  with 
the  agents  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad ;  and  with  verbal  orders  to  try 
to  conciliate  the  people  of  that  section,  and  to  do  nothing  to  offend  them. 
Finding,  soon  after  his  arrival,  that  the  country  was  in  a  state  of  revolution. 
and  that  there  was  a  large  and  increasing  Federal  force  at  Camp  Denison,  in 
Ohio,  opposite  Parkersburg,  and  another  in  the  vicinity  of  Wheeling,  Colonel 
Porterfield  wrote  to  the  commanding  general,  that  unless  a  strong  force  was 
sent  very  soon,  Northwestern  Virginia  would  be  overrun. 

Upon  directing  the  captains  of  organized  volunteer  companies  to  proceed 
with  their  companies  to  Grafton,  they  replied  that  not  more  than  twenty  in 
companies  numbering  sixty  were  willing  to  take  up  arms  on  the  side  of  the 
State ;  that  the  others  declared,  if  they  were  compelled  to  fight,  it  would  be 
in  defence  of  the  Union.  Colonel  Porterfield  succeeded  in  a  wrek  in  getting 
together  three  newly-organized  companies.  This  force  was  increased  by  the 
arrival  of  several  other  companies,  two  of  which  were  unarmed  cavalry  com 
panies — amounting  in  all  to  about  500  infantry  and  150  cavalry.  These 
troops  had  been  at  Grafton  but  a  few  days,  when,  or  about  the  25th  of  May, 
Colonel  Porterfield  was  reliably  informed  of  the  force  of  the  enemy  and  with 
drew  his  command  to  Philippi.  Orders  were  given  for  the  destruction  of  the 
Cheat  bridge,  but  were  not  executed.  The  enemy's  force  at  Grafton  was 
about  eight  thousand  men.  On  the  3d  of  June,  through  the  failure  of  the 
guard  or  infantry  pickets  to  give  the  alarm,  the  command  at  Philippi  was 
surprised  by  about  five  thousand  infantry  and  a  battery  of  artillery,  and  dis 
persed  in  great  confusion,  but  with  inconsiderable  loss  of  life,  through  the 
woods.  The  command  had  no  equipments  and  very  little  ammunition.  Such 
was  the  inauguration  of  the  improvident  and  unfortunate  campaign  in  West 
ern  Virginia. 

General  Garnett  succeeded  Colonel  Porterfield  in  the  command  in  North- 
vest  em  Virginia,  with  a  much  larger  force  (about  six  thousand  men),  but 
jne  obviously  inadequate,  considering  the  extent  of  the  district  it  was  ex 
pwted  to  defend,  the  hostile  character  of  the  country,  and  the  invading  force* 
ol  the  enemy. 


THE    FIRST    YEAK.  87 

and  the  apparently  uncertain  movements  of  our  forces  on  the 
Upper  Potomac,  had  unpleasantly  exercised  the  popular  mind, 
and  had  given  rise  to  many  rash  and  ignorant  doubts  with  re 
spect  to  the  opening  events  of  the  war.  The  battle  of  Bethe) 
was  the  first  to  turn  the  hateful  current  of  retreat,  and  sent 
the  first  gleam  of  sunlight  through  the  sombre  shadows  that 
had  hung  over  public  opinion  in  the  South. 

It  is  certain  that  the  movements  on  the  Upper  Potomac  were 
greatly  misunderstood  at  the  time,  especially  with  regard  to 
the  evacuation  of  Harper's  Ferry.  General  Joseph  E.  John 
ston,  who  had  been  a  quartermaster-general  in  the  old  United 
States  service,  and  had  resigned  to  take  part  in  the  defence  of 
his  native  State,  Virginia,  had  assumed  command  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  on  the  23d  of  May.  On  the  27th  of  the  same  month, 
General  Beauregard  had  relinquished  his  command  at  Charles 
ton,  being  assigned  to  duty  at  Corinth,  Mississippi ;  but,  the 
order  being  recalled,  he  was  put  in  command  at  Manassas,  our 
forces  being  divided  into  what  was  known  as  the  armies  of  the 
Potomac  and  of  the  Shenandoah.  At  the  time  General  John 
ston  took  command  at  Harper's  Ferry,  the  forces  at  that  point 
consisted  of  nine  regiments  and  two  battalions  of  infantry, 
with  four  companies  of  artillery — a  force  which  was  certainly 
not  sufficient,  when  we  consider  that  it  was  expected  to  hold 
both  sides  of  the  Potomac,  and  take  the  field  against  an  inva 
ding  army.  After  a  complete  reconnoissance  of  the  place  and 
environs,  General  Johnston  decided  that  it  was  untenable,  but 
determined  to  hold  it  until  the  great  objects  of  the  govern 
ment  required  its  abandonment. 

The  demonstrations  of  the  Federal  forces  in  the  direction  oi 
the  Valley  of  Virginia  were  certainly  thwarted  by  the  timely 
falling  back  of  our  army  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  Winchester. . 
General  Patterson's  approach  was  expected  by  the  great  route 
into  the  Valley  from  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  leading 
through  Winchester,  and  it  was  an  object  of  the  utmost  im 
portance  to  prevent  any  junction  between  his  forces  and  those 
of  General  McClellan,  who  was  already  making  Ins  way  into 
the  upper  portions  of  the  Valley.  On  the  morning  of  the  loth 
of  June,  information  was  received  from  Winchester  that  Horn- 
ney  was  occupied  by  two  thousand  Federal  troops,  supposed  - 
to  be  the  vanguard  of  McClellan's  army.  A  detachment  was 


88  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY     OF    THE    WAR. 

dispatched  by  railway  to  check  the  advance  of  the  enemy ; 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  15th,  the  Confederate  army  left 
Harper's  Ferry  for  Winchester. 

The  next  morning,  after  the  orders  were  issued  for  the  evac 
uation  of  Harper's  Ferry,  brought  one  of  those  wild,  fearful 
•cenes  which  make  the  desolation  that  grows  out  of  war.  The 
splendid  railroad  bridge  across  the  Potomac — one  of  the  most 
superb  structures  of  its  kind  on  the  continent — was  set  on  fire 
at  its  northern  end,  while  about  four  hundred  feet  at  its  south 
ern  extremity  was  blown  up,  to  prevent  the  flames  from  reach 
ing  other  works  which  it  was  necessary  to  save.  Many  of  the 
vast  buildings  were  consigned  to  the  flames.  Some  of  them 
were  not  only  large,  but  very  lofty,  and  crowned  with  tall  tow 
ers  and  spires,  and  we  may  be  able  to  fancy  the  sublimity  of 
the  scene,  when  more  than  a  dozen  of  these  huge  fabrics, 
crowded  into  a  small  space,  were  blazing  at  once.  So  great 
was  the  heat  and  smoke,  that  many  of  the  troops  were  forced 
out  of  the  town,  and  the  necessary  labors  of  the  removal  were 
performed  with  the  greatest  difficulty. 

On  the  morning  of  the  day  after  the  evacuation  of  Harper's 
Ferry,  intelligence  was  received  that  General  Patterson's  army 
had  crossed  the  Potomac  at  Williamsport ;  also  that  the  Fed- 
force  at  Komney  had  fallen  back.     The  Confederate  army 
ordered  to   gain  the   Martinsburg  turnpike  by  a  flank 

•movement  to  Bunker's  Hill,  in  order  to  place  itself  between 
Winchester  and  the  expected  advance  of  Patterson.  On 
hearing  of  this,  the  enemy  crossed  the  river  precipitately. 
Resuming  his  first  direction  and  plan,  General  Johnston  pro 
ceeded  to  Winchester.  There  his  army  was  in  position  to  op 
pose  ^either  McClellan  from  the  West,  or  Patterson  from  the 
North-east,  and  to  form  a  junction  with  General  Beauregard 
when  necessary. 

Intelligence  from  Maryland  indicating  another  movement 
by  Patterson,  Colonel  Jackson  with  his  brigade  was  sent  to 
the  neighborhood  of  Martinsburg  to  support  Colonel  Stuart, 
who  had  been  placed  in  observation  on  the  line  of  the  Potomac 
with  his  cavalry.  On  the  2d  of  July,  General  Patterson  again 
crossed  the  Potomac.  Colonel  Jackson,  pursuant  to  instruc 
tions,  again  fell  back  before  him ;  but,  in  retiring,  gave  him  a 

-  severe  lesson.     With  a  battalion  of  the  Fifth  Virginia  Regi- 
i 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  89 

raent  and  Pendleton's  Battery  of  Field  Artillery,  he  engaged 
the  enemy's  advance.  Skilfully  taking  a  position  where  the 
srnallness  of  his  force  was  concealed,  he  engaged  them  for  a 
considerable  time,  inflicted  a  heavy  loss,  and  retired  when 
about  to  be  outflanked,  scarcely  losing  a  man,  but  bringing  off 
forty -five  prisoners. 

Upon  this  intelligence,  the  force  at  "Winchester,  strengthened 
by  the  arrival  of  General  Bee  and  Colonel  Elzey  and  the  Ninth 
Georgia  regiment,  were  ordered  forward  to  the  support  of 
Jackson,  who,  it  was  supposed,  was  closely  followed  by  Gen 
eral  Patterson.  Taking  up  a  position  within  six  miles  from 
Martinsburg,  which  town  the  enemy  had  invested,  General 
Johnston  waited  for  him  four  days,  hoping  to  be  attacked  by 
an  adversary  double  his  number.  Convinced  at  length  that 
the  enemy  would  not  approach  him,  General  Johnston  returned 
to  Winchester,  much  to  the  disappointment  of  his  troops,  who, 
sullen  and  discontented,  withdrew  in  the  face  of  the  enemy. 

On  the  loth  of  July,  Colonel  Stuart,  who,  with  his  cavalry, 
remained  near  the  enemy,  reported  the  advance  of  General  Pat 
terson  from  Martinsburg.  He  halted,  however,  at  Bunker's 
Hill,  nine  miles  from  Winchester,  where  he  remained  on  the 
16th.  On  the  17th,  he  moved  his  left  to  Smithfield.  This 
movement  created  the  impression  that  an  attack  was  intended 
on  the  south  of  the  Confederate  lines ;  but,  with  a  clear  and 
qr.ick  intelligence,  General  Johnston  had  penetrated  the  de 
signs  of  the  enemy,  which  were  to  hold  him  in  check,  while 
"  the  Grand  Army"  under  McDowell  was  to  bear  down  upon 
General  Beauregard  at  Manassas. 

In  the  mean  time,  General  McClellan's  army  had  moved 
southwestward  from  Graf  ton.  In  the  progress  of  the  history 
of  the  war,  we  shall  meet  with  frequent  repetitions  of  the  lesson 
of  how  the  improvident  spirit  of  the  South,  in  placing  small 
forces  in  isolated  localities,  was  taken  advantage  of  by  the  quick 
Btrategic  movements  and  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the 
North.  The  first  of  the  series  of  these  characteristic  disasters 
was  now  to  befall  the  South, 


f»0  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


THE    BATTLE    OF    KICK    MOUNTAIN. 

The  main  column  of  Federal  troops  under  General  McClellan 
was  estimated  to  be  twenty  thousand  strong ;  his  movements 
were  now  directed  towards  Beverley,  with  the  object  of  getting 
to  the  rear  of  General  Garnett,  who  had  been  appointed  to  the 
command  of  the  Confederate  forces  in  Northwestern  Virginia, 
and  was  occupying  a  strong  position  at  Rich  Mountain,  in 
Randolph  county. 

The  strength  of  General  Garnett's  command  was  less  than 
five  thousand  infantry,  with  ten  pieces  of  artillery,  and  four 
companies  of  cavalry.  The  disposition  of  these  forces  was  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  Rich  Mountain.  Col.  Pegram  occu 
pied  the  mountain  with  a  force  of  about  sixteen  hundred  men 
and  some  pieces  of  artillery.  On  the  slopes  of  Laurel  Hill, 
General  Garnett  was  intrenched  with  a  force  or  three  thousand 
infantry,  six  pieces  of  artillery  and  three  companies  of  cavalry. 

On  the  5th  of  July,  the  enemy  took  a  position  at  Bealington, 
in  front  of  Laurel  Hill,  and  a  day  or  two  afterwards  a  large 
force  appeared  in  front  of  Rich  Mountain. 

On  the  morning  of  the  llth  instant,  General  Garnett  re 
ceived  a  note  from  Colonel  Pegram  at  Rich  Mountain,  stating 
that  his  pickets  had  that  morning  taken  a  prisoner,  who  stated 
that  there  were  in  front  of  Rich  Mountain  nine  regiments  of 
seven  thousand  men  and  a  number  of  pieces  of  artillery;  that 
General  McClellan  had  arrived  in  camp  the  evening  before, 
and  had  given  orders  for  an  attack  the  next  day;  that  General 
Rosecrans  had  started  a  night  before  with  a  division  of  the 
army  three  thousand  strong,  by  a  convenient  route,  to  take 
him  in  the  rear,  while  McClellan  was  to  attack  in  front ;  tha^ 
he  had  moved  a  piece  of  artillery  and  three  hundred  men  to  the 
point  by  which  General  Rosecrans  was  expected,  and  that  he 
had  requested  Colonel  Scott,  with  his  regiment,  to  occupy  a 
position  on  the  path  by  which  the  enemy  must  come.  As  soon 
as  General  Garnett  received  this  note,  he  sent  a  written  order 
to  Colonel  Scott  to  move  to  the  point  indicated  by  Colonel 
Pegram,  and  to  defend  it  at  all  hazards. 

The  attack  on  Colonel  Pegram  was  met  with  the  most  gal 
lant  resistance.  The  fight  lasted  nearly  three  hours.  The  enemj 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  91 

advanced  by  a  .pathless  route  through  the  woods,  the  whole 
division  moving  in  perfect  silence  through  the  brush,  laurel, 
and  rocks,  while  the  rain  poured  down  upon  them  in  torrents. 
The  expectation  however  of  surprising  the  little  force  on  th< 
mountain  was  disappointed.  As  the  enemy  advanced,  our  artil 
lery,  posted  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  opened  upon  them, 
but  with  little  effect,  as  their  lines  were  concealed  by  the  trees 
and  brushwood.  The  earth  of  the  mountain  seemed  to  tremble 
under  the  thunders  of  the  cannon.  The  tops  of  immense  trees 
were  cut  off  by  our  fire,  which  was  aimed  too  high ;  the  crash 
of  the  falling  timber  mingled  with  the  roar  of  the  cannon,  and 
as  our  artillery  again  and  again  belched  forth  its  missives  of 
destruction,  it  seemed  as  if  the  forest  was  riven  by  living 
streams  of  lightning.  While  the  cannonading  progressed,  an 
incessant  fire  of  musketry  was  kept  up  in  the  woods,  where  the 
sharpshooters,  wTet  to  the  skin  in  the  rain,  kept  the  advancing 
lines  of  the  enemy  at  bay.  For  more  than  two  hours  the  little 
army  of  Colonel  Pegram  maintained  its  ground.  Its  situation,, 
however,  was  hopeless.  Finding  himself  with  three  thousand 
of  the  enemy  in  his  rear  and  five  thousand  in  front,  Colonel 
Pegram  endeavored  to  escape  with  his  command,  after  a  small 
loss  in  the  action.  One  part  of  the  command,  under  Major 
Tyler,  succeeded  in  escaping;  the  other,  about  five  hundred  in 
number,  were  compelled  to  surrender,  when,  it  was  found  that 
General  G-arnett  had  evacuated  Laurel  Hill.  Among  the  pris 
oners  taken  by  the  enemy  was  Colonel  Pegram  himself.  Thrown 
from  his  horse,  which  wasvwouncled  and  had  become  unman 
ageable,  he  refused  to  surrender  his  sword  to  his  captors,  and 
a  messenger  had  to  ride  six  miles  to  find  an  officer  to  receive  it 
from  the  hands  of  the  ill-starred  commander. 

When  Gen.  Garnett  heard  of  the  result  of  the  engagement 
at  Rich  Mountain,  he  determined  to  evacuate  Laurel  Hill  as 
soon  as  night  set  in  and  retire  to  Huttonsville  by  the  way  ot 
Beverley.  This  design  was  baffled,  as  Col.  Scott  with  his  regi 
ment  had  retreated  beyond  Beverley  towards  Huttong  ? ille, 
without  having  blocked  the  road  between  Rich  Mountain  and 
Beverley.*  General  Garnett  was  compelled  by  this  untoward 


*  It  is  proper  to  state,  that  there  was  some  controversy  as  to  the  precise 
orders  given  to  Colonel  Scott.  That  officer  published  a  card  in  the  newspaper? 


92  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

circumstance,  and  by  the  mistaken  execution  of  another 
by  which  the  road  was  blocked  from  Beverley  towards  Laure 
Ilill,  instead  of  that  between  the  former  place  and  Rich  Mouii 
tain,  to  retreat  by  a  mountain  road  into  Hardy  county. 

The  retreat  was  conducted  in  good  order,  amid  distresses  and 
trials  of  the  most  extraordinary  description.  The  road  was 
barely  wide  enough  for  a  single  wagon.  In  the  morning,  the 
army  arrived  at  a  camp  on  the  Little  Cheat,  and  after  resting 
on  the  grass  in  the  rain  a  few  hours,  took  up  their  dreary  line 
of  march  through  the  forest.  On  the  morning  of  the  second 
day  of  the  retreat,  soon  after  leaving  the  camp  on  the  branch 
of  the  Cheat  River,  the  pursuing  enemy  fell  upon  the  rear  of 
the  distressed  little  army,  and  skirmishing  continued  during 
the  day.  Four  companies  of  the  Georgia  regiment  were  cut  off. 

At  one  of  the  fords,  a  sharp  conflict  ensued,  in  which  the 
enemy  were  held  at  bay  for  a  considerable  time. 

This  action,  known  as  that  of  Carrock's  Ford,  more  than 
retrieved  the  disasters  of  the  defeat.  It  was  a  deep  ford, 
rendered  deeper  than  usual  by  the  rains,  and  here  some  of  the 
wagons  became  stalled  in  the  river  and  had  to  be  abandoned. 

The  enemy  were  now  close  upon  the  rear,  which  consisted  o! 
the  23d  Virginia  regiment,  and  the  artillery ;  and  as  soon  as 
the  command  had  crossed,  Colonel  Taliaferro  commanding  the 
23d  was  ordered  to  occupy  the  high  bank  on  the  right  of  the 
ford  with  his  regiment  and  artillery.  On  the  right,  this  posi 
tion  was  protected  by  a  fence;  on  the  left,  only  by  low  bushes; 
but  the  hill  commanded  the  ford  and  the  approach  to  it  by  the 
road,  and  was  admirably  selected  for  a  defence.  In  a  few 
minutes,  the  skirmishers  of  the  enemy  were  seen  running  along 
the  opposite  bank,  which  was  low  and  skirted  by  a  few  trees, 
and  were  at  first  taken  for  the  Georgians,  who  were  known  to 
have  been  cut  off,  but  our  men  were  soon  undeceived,  and  with 
a  simultaneous  cheer  for  "  Jeff.  Davis"  by  the  whole  command, 
they  opened  upon  the  enemy. 

The  enemy  replied  with  a  heavy  fire  from  their  infantry  and 
artillery.  A  large  force  was  brought  to  the  attack,  but  the 


ft.  the  time,  relieving  himself  from  censure  and  showing  that  he  occupied  on 
I  he  day  of  the  battle  the  position  to  which  he  was  peremptorily  ordered  \>y 
General  Garnett  at  the  instance  of  Colonel  Pegrain, 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  93 

continued  and  well-directed  tire  of  the  Confederates  kept  them 
from  crossing  the  river,  and  twice  the  enemy  was  driven  back 
some  distance  from  the  ford.  They  again,  however,  came  up 
with  a  heavy  force  and  renewed  the  fight.  The  fire  of  their 
artillery  was  entirely  ineffective,  although  their  shot  and  shell 
were  thrown  very  rapidly,  but  they  all  flew  over  the  heads  of 
the  Confederate  troops,  without  any  damage  except  bringing 
the  limbs  of  the  trees  down  upon  them. 

After  continuing  the  fight  until  nearly  every  cartridge  had 
been  expended,  and  until  the  artillery  had  been  withdrawn  by 
General  Garnett's  orders,  and  as  no  part  of  his  command  was 
within  sight  or  supporting  distance,  as  far  as  could  be  discov 
ered,  or,  as  was  afterwards  ascertained,  within  four  miles  of 
the  ford,  Col.  Taliaferro,  after  having  sustained  a  loss  of 
about  thirty  killed  and  wounded,  ordered  the  regiment  to  retire 
— the  officers  and  men  manifesting  decided  reluctance  at  being 
withdrawn. 

The  loss  to  the  enemy  in  this  gallant  little  affair  must  have 
been  quite  considerable,  as  they  had,  from  their  own  account, 
three  regiments  engaged.  The  people  in  the  neighborhood  re 
ported  a  heavy  loss,  which  they  stated  the  enemy  endeavored 
to  Conceal  by  transporting  the  dead  and  wounded  to  Bealingtou 
in  covered  wagons,  permitting  no  one  to  approach  them. 

At  the  second  ford,  about  half-past  one  o'clock  in  the  day, 
Gen.  Garnett  was  killed  by  almost  the  last  fire  of  the  enemy. 
On  reaching  at  this  ford  the  opposite  bank  of  the  stream,  Gen. 
Garnett  desired  one  company  from  the  23d  Virginia  regiment 
to  be  formed  behind  some  high  drift  wood.  He  stated  that  he 
would  in  person  take  charge  of  them,  and  did  so — the  company 
being  the  Richmond  Sharpshooters,  Capt.  Tompkins.  In  a  few 
minutes,  Capt.  Tompkins  and  all  his  men,  but  ten,  came  up  to 
the  regiment,  stating  that  Gen.  Garnett  only  wanted  ten  men. 
The  inference  was  palpable — he  had  taken  an  extreme  near 
position  to  the  enemy.  Very  soon  the  firing  commenced  in  the 
rear  where  Gen.  Garnett  was,  and  immediately  the  horse  of  the 
general  came  galloping  past  without  a  rider.  He  fell  just  as 
lie  gave  the  order  to  the  skirmishers  to  retire,  and  one  of  them 
was  killed  by  his  side. 

At  the  second  ford,  where  Gen  Garnett  was  killed,  the 
Biiciny  abandoned  the  pursuit,  and  the  command  under  Col 


94  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OP    THE     WAR. 

Ramsey  reached  Monterey  and  formed  a  junction  with  Gen 
Jackson. 

The  actual  reverses  of  the  retreat  consisted  of  some  thirty- 
odd  killed  and  wounded,  a  number  missing,  many  of  whom 
afterwards  reached  the  command,  and  the  loss  of  its  baggage 
a  portion  of  which  was  used  in  blocking  the  road  against  the 
enemy's  artillery.  The  conflict  and  the  retreat,  the  hunger 
and  fatigue  of  the  men,  many  of  whom  dropped  from  the  ranks 
from  sheer  exhaustion,  were  unequalled  by  any  thing  that  had 
yet  occurred  in  the  war.  Its  success  appeared  as  extraordinary 
as  its  hardships  and  privations.  Surrounded  by  an  army  oi 
twenty  thousand  men,  without  supplies,  in  a  strange  country, 
and  in  the  midst  of  continuous  and  drenching  rains,  it  was  a 
wonder  that  the  little  army  of  three  thousand  men  should  have 
escaped  annihilation.  The  command  had  inarched  sixty  hours, 
resting  only  five  hours,  and  had  endured  a  march  through  the 
forest  without  food  for  men  or  horses. 

Gen.  McClellan  announced  to  the  government  at  Washing 
ton  a  signal  victory.  He  summed  up  the  results  of  the  battle 
on  the  mountain  and  his  pursuit  of  the  retreating  army  as  two 
hundred  killed  and  wounded,  a  thousand  taken  prisoners,  the 
baggage  of  the  entire  command  captured,  and  seven  guns 
taken.  "  Our  success,"  he  wrote  to  Washington,  "  is  complete, 
•»nd  Secession  is  killed  in  this  country." 

The  affair  of  Rich  Mountain  was  certainly  a  serious  disaster ; 
*t  involved  the  surrender  of  an  important  portion  of  North 
western  Virginia;  but  with  respect  to  the  courage  and  dis 
cipline  of  our  troops,  it  had  exhibited  all  that  could  be  desired, 
and  the  successful  retreat  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in 
nistory.  It  is  certain  that  the  unskilful  disposition  of  our 
troops,  as  well  as  their  inadequate  numbers,  had  contributed 
to  the  success  of  the  enemy,  and  doubts  are  admissible  whether 
more  advantage  might  not  have  been  taken  of  the  position  at 
Carrock's  Ford,  with  proper  supports,  considering  its  extra 
ordinary  advantages  of  defence,  and  how  long  it  had  been 
held  against  the  forces  of  the  pursuing  enemy  by  a  single 
regiment. 

A  feeling  of  deep  sympathy,  however,  was  felt  for  the  unfor 
tunate  commander,  whose  courage,  patriotic  ardor,  and  gener- 
•us,  because  unnecessary,  exposure  of  his  person  to  the  bullet* 


THE    FiKST    YEAR.  95 

of  the  enemy,  commended  his  memory  to  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen. 

Whatever  might  have  been  the  depression  of  the  public 
mind  of  the  South  by  the  Rich  Mountain  disaster,  it  was  more 
than  recovered  by  news  from  other  quarters.  The  same  day 
that  the  unfavorable  intelligence  from  Rich  Mountain  reached" 
the  government  at  Richmond,  the  telegraph  brought,  by  a 
devious  route,  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Carthage  in  Missouri. 
The  blow  given  to  the  enemy  at  this  distant  point,  was  the  first 
of  the  brilliant  exploits  which  afterwards  made  the  Missouri 
campaign  one  of  the  most  brilliant  episodes  of  the  war.  It  had 
gone  far  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  an  empire  that  was  here 
after  to  be  added  to  the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  assure  the 
promise  that  had  been  made  in  the  proclamation  of  the  gallant 
Gen.  Price  of  that  State — "  a  million  of  such  people  as  the 
citizens  of  Missouri  were  never  yet  subjugated,  and,  if  at 
tempted,  let  no  apprehension  be  felt  for  the  result."  But  of 
this  hereafter. 

On  the  anniversary  of  the  Fourth  of  July,  the  Federal  Con 
gress  met  at  Washington.  Galusha  A.  Grow,  a  Pennsylvania 
Abolitionist,  and  an  uncompromising  advocate  of  the  war,  was 
elected  Speaker  of  the  House.  The  meeting  of  this  Congress 
affords  a  suitable  period  for  a  statement  of  the  posture  of  po 
litical  affairs,  and  of  the  spirit  which  animated  the  North,  with 
respect  to  existing  hostilities. 

In  his  message,  Mr.  Lincoln  denounced  the  idea  of  any  of 
the  States  preserving  an  armed  neutrality  in  the  war,  having 
particular  reference  to  the  continued  efforts  of  Governor  Ma- 
goffin,  of  Kentucky",  to  maintain  a  condition  of  neutrality  on 
the  part  of  that  State.  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  that  if  armed 
neutrality  were  permitted  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  States,  it 
would  soon  ripen  into  disunion;  that  it  would  build  impass 
able  walls  along  the  line  of  separation  ;  and  it  would  tie  the 
hands  of  the  Unionists,  while  it  would  free  those  of  the  Insur 
rectionists,  by  taking  all  the  trouble  from  Secession,  except 
that  which  might  be  expected  from  the  external  blockade. 
Neutrality,  he  said,  gave  to  malcontents  disunion  without  its 
risks,  and  was  not  to  be  tolerated,  since  it  recognized  no  fidelity 
to  the  Constitution  or  obligation  to  the  Union. 

Kentucky  was  not  unreasonably  accounted   a  part   of  the 


96  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

Northern  government.  But  with  an  outrage  ot  the  plainest 
doctrines  of  the  government,  and  a  practical  denial  not  only  of 
every  thing  like  the  rights  of  States,  but  even  of  their  territo 
rial  integrity,  the  Northwestern  portion  of  Virginia,  which 
had  rebelled  against  its  State  government,  was  taken  into  the 
membership  of  the  Federal  Union  as  itself  a  State,  with  the 
absurd  and  childish  addition  of  giving  to  the  rebellious  counties 
the  name  of  "  Virginia. "  A  Convention  of  the  disaifected 
Northwestern  counties  of  Virginia  had  been  held  at  Wheeling, 
on  the  13th  day  of  May,  and  after  a  session  of  three  days,  de 
cided  to  call  another  Convention,  to  meet  on  the  llth  of  June, 
subsequent  to  the  vote  of  the  State  on  the  Ordinance  of  Seces 
sion.  The  Convention  reorganized  the  counties  as  a  member 
of  the  Federal  Union :  F.  W.  Pierpont  was  elected  governor ; 
arid  W.  T.  Willie  and  the  notorious  John  S.  Carlile,  both  of 
whom  had  already  signalized  their  treason  to  their  State  by 
their  course  in  the  Convention  at  Kichmond,  were  sent  as 
representatives  of  "Virginia "  to  the  United  States  Senate,  in 
which  absurd  capacity  they  were  readily  received. 

The  message  of  the  President  gave  indications  of  a  deter 
mined  and  increased  prosecution  of  hostilities.  It  called  for 
an  army  of  four  hundred  thousand  men,  and  a  loan  of  four 
hundred  millions  of  dollars.  This  call  was  a  curious  commen 
tary  upon  the  spirit  and  resources  of  the  people,  who  it  had 
been  thought  in  the  North  would  be  crushed  out  by  the  three 
months'  levies  before  the  Federal  Congress  met  in  July  to  de 
cide  upon  what  disposition  should  be  made  of  the  conquered 
States. 

The  statements  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  fiscal  secretary  were  alarm 
ing  enough ;  they  showed  a  state  of  the  treasury  unable  even 
to  meet  the  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  government,  and  its 
resources  were  now  to  be  taxed  to  the  last  point  of  ingenuity 
to  make  for  the  next  fiscal  year  the  necessary  provision  of  foui 
nundred  arid  eighty  millions  of  dollars,  out  of  an  actual  revenue 
the  first  quarter  of  which  had  not  exceeded  five  millions.  The 
ordinary  expenditures  of  the  Federal  government  for  the  fiscal 
year  ending  June  30th,  1862,  were  estimated  at  eighty  millions 
of  dollars ;  the  extraordinary  expenditures,  on  the  basis  of  in 
creased  military  operations,  at  four  hundred  millions.  To  meef 
these  large  demands  of  the  civil  and  war  service,  Secretary 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  97 

Chase  confessed  to  a  receipt  of  but  five  millions  per  quarter 
from  the  "Morrill"  tariff,  showing  that  at  this  rate  of  the 
receipt  of  customs,  the  income  of  the  government  would  be 
twenty  millions  per  year  against  nearly  live  hundred  millions 
of  prospective  outlay. 

It  was  proposed  in  this  financial  exigency  to  levy  specific 
duties  of  about  thirty-three  per  cent,  on  coffee,  tea,  sugar,  mo 
lasses,  and  syrup,  which  might  yield  twenty  millions  a  year ;  it 
was  hoped  by  some  modification  of  the  Morrill  tariff,  with  re 
spect  to  other  articles,  to  increase  its  productiveness  from 
twenty  to  thirty-seven  millions ;  the  revenue  from  the  sale  of 
public  lands  was  estimated  at  three  millions ;  and  it  was  timidly 
proposed  that  a  tax  should  be  levied  upon  real  property  of 
one-third  or  one-fifth  of  one  per  cent.,  to  produce  twenty 
millions  additional.  Thus  by  means  of — 

The  Tariff, $37,000,000 

Tea,  Sugar,  and  Coffee, 20,000,000 

Public  Lands, 3,000,000 

Direct  Taxes, 20,000,000 


Producing  a  total  of .$80,000,000 

The  Northern  government  proposed  to  eke  out  the  means  of 
meeting  its  ordinary  expenses,  leaving  the  monstrous  balance 
of  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars  to  be  raised  by  a  sale  of 
bonds. 

The  financial  complications  of  the  government  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
were  in  striking  contrast  with  the  abundant  and  easy  means 
which  the  Southern  Confederacy  had,  at  least  so  far,  been  able 
to  carry  on  the  war.  The  latter  had  been  reduced  to  a  paper 
currency,  but  it  had  for  the  basis  of  its  currency  the  great 
staple  of  cotton,*  which  in  the  shape  of  a  produce  loan  wae 
practically  pledged  to  the  redemption  of  the  public  debt. 

*  The  whole  cotton  crop  of  America,  in  1800,  was  4,675,770  bales  •  and  of 
this,  3,697,727  bales  were  exported,  and  978,043  bales  used  at  home.  England 
alone  took  2,582,000  bales,  which  amounted  to  about  four-fifths  of  her  entire 
consumption.  The  cotton-fields  of  the  Southern  States  embrace  an  area  of 
500,000  square  miles,  and  the  capital  invested  in  the  cultivation  of  the  plant 
amounts  to  $900,000,000.  Seventy  years  ago,  the  exports  of  our  cotton  were 
only  420  bales — not  one-tenth  of  the  amount  furnished  by  several  countries 
to  England.  Now,  the  South  furnishes  five-sevenths  of  the  surplus  cotton 
product  of  the  entire  world 

7 


£g  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Prospects  were  entertained  of  a  speedy  raising  of  the  blockade, 
the  disappointment  of  which,  at  a  later  day,  drove  the  Con 
iederacy  to  other  expedients  of  revenue,  in  a  war  tax,  &c. ;  but, 
at  the  time  of  the  comparison  of  the  financial  condition  of  the 
two  governments,  the  Confederate  currency  was  accounted 
quite  as  good  as  gold,  as  the  cotton  and  tobacco  once  in  the 
market  would  afford  the  Southern  government  the  instant 
means  to  discharge  every  cent  of  its  indebtedness. 

The  Federal  Congress  commenced  its  work  in  a  spirit  that 
essentially  tended  to  revolutionize  the  political  system  and  ideas 
of  the  North  itself.  It  not  only  voted  to  Mr.  Lincoln  the  men 
and  supplies  he  asked  for,  but  the  first  days  of  its  session  were 
signalized  by  a  resolution  to  gag  .all  propositions  looking  to 
wards  peace,  or  any  thing  else  than  a  prosecution  of  the  war ; 
by  another,  to  approve  the  acts  done  by  the  President  without 
constitutional  authority,  including  his  suspension  of  the  habeas 
corpus  ;  and  by  the  introduction  of  a  bill  to  confiscate  the  prop 
erty  of  "  rebels." 

The  pages  of  history  do  not  afford  a  commensurate  instance 
of  the  wide  opposition  in  the  social  and  political  directions  of 
two  nations  who  had  so  long  lived  in  political  union  and  inter 
course  as  the  North  and  the  South.  While  the  latter  was  daily 
becoming  more  conservative  and  more  attached  to  existing  in 
stitutions,*  the  North  was  as  rapidly  growing  discontented, 

*  A  type  of  the  conservatism  of  the  Southern  revolution — its  attachment  to 
the  past — was  vividly  displayed  in  the  adoption  of  its  national  ensign,  a  blue 
union  with  a  circle  of  stars,  and  longitudinal  bars,  red,  white,  and  red,  in  place 
of  "  the  stripes"  of  the  flag  of  the  old  government.  The  present  Confederate 
flag  was  balloted  for  in  the  Provisional  Congress,  and  was  selected  by  a  ma 
jority  of  votes  out  of  four  different  models.  At  the  time  of  the  early  session  of 
Congress  at  Montgomery,  the  popular  sentiment  was  almost  unanimous,  and 
very  urgent,  that  the  main  features  of  the  old  Federal  Constitution  should  bo 
copied  into  the  new  government,  and  that  to  follow  out  and  give  expression  to 
this  idea,  the  flag  should  be  as  close  a  copy  as  possible  of  the  Federal  ensign. 
A  resolution  was  introduced  in  the  Provisional  Congress  to  the  effect  that  the 
flag  should  be  as  little  different  as  possible  from  that  of  the  Federal  govern 
ment  ;  which  resolution  was  vigorously  opposed  by  Mr.  Miles,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  who  was  then  chairman  of  the  Flag  Committee.  The  design  recommended 
by  Mr.  Miles,  but  voted  down,  has  since  been  adopted  as  the  battle  flag  oi 
Generals  Johnston  and  Beauregard.  It  is  a  blue  saltier  (or  Maltese  cross), 
with  inner  rows  of  stars,  on  a  red  field — the  emblem  of  the  saltier  (saltere,  to 
reap)  being  appropriately  that  of  progress  and  power.  The  two  other  com 
peting  designs,  from  which  our  present  flag  was  selected,  were,  one,  an  almost 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  99 

restless,  radical,  and  revolutionary.  The  people  of  the  North 
had  passed  the  stage  of  pure  Democracy,  and  inaugurated  mili 
tary  despotism.  They,  in  effect,  had  changed  their  form  of 
government,  while  vainly  attempting  to  preserve  their  territo 
rial  ascendency.  They  charged  the  South  with  attempting 
revolution,  when  it  was  only  fighting  for  independence ;  while 
they,  themselves,  actually  perpetrated  revolution  rather  than 
forego  the  advantages  of  a  partial  and  iniquitous  Union.  The 
South,  in  the  midst  of  a  war  of  independence — a  war  waged  not 
to  destroy,  but  to  preserve  existing  institutions — was  recurring 
to  the  past,  and  proposing  to  revive  conservative  ideas  rather 
than  to  run  into  new  and  rash  experiments. 

The  war  had  already  developed  one  great  moral  fact  in  the 
North  of  paramount  interest.  It  was  the  entire  willingness  of 
the  people  to  surrender  their  constitutional  liberties  to  any 
government  that  would  gratify  their  political  passions. 

This  peculiarity  of  the  condition  of  Northern  society,  was 
more  significant  of  its  disintegration  and  revolutionary  destiny 
than  all  the  other  circumstances  and  consequences  of  the  wai 
combined,  in  loss  of  trade,  prostration  of  commerce,  and  poverty 
and  hunger  of  the  people.  It  was  the  corruption  of  the  public 
virtue.  The  love  of  constitutional  liberty  was  degraded  to  po 
litical  hatreds.  While  these  were  gratified,  the  Northern  people 
were  willing  to  surrender  their  liberties  to  their  panderers  at 
Washington.  Without  protest,  without  opposition,  in  silent 
submission,  or  even  in  expressions  stimulating  and  encouraging 
the  despot  who  stript  them  of  their  rights,  to  still  further  ex 
cesses,  they  had  seen  every  vestige  of  constitutional  liberty 
swept  away,  while  they  imagined  that  their  greed  of  resentment 
towards  the  South  was  to  be  satisfied  to  its  fill.  They  had  seen 
the  liberties  of  the  people  strangled,  even  in  States  remaining 
in  the  Union.  They  had  seen  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  denied, 
not  only  by  the  minions  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Maryland,  but 
by  the  commanding  officers  of  Forts  Hamilton  and  Lafayette. 
They  had  seen,  not  only  the  rights  of  free  speech,  but  the 
sanctity  even  of  private  correspondence,  violated  by  the  seizure 

exact  reproduction  of  the  Federal  stars  and  stripes,  the  only  variation  being 
that  of  a  blue  stripe,  and  the  other  a  simple  blue  circle  or  rim,  on  a  red  field. 
The  consideration  that  determined  the  selection  of  the  present  flag  was  its 
y  to  that  of  the  old  government. 


100  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  dispatches  in  their  own  telegraph  offices.  They  had  seen  the 
law  of  the  drum-head  not  only  established  in  Baltimore,  but 
measures  to  subvert  their  own  municipal  liberties  inaugurated 
by  a  system  of  military  police  for  the  whole  Federal  Union. 
They  had  suffered  without  protestation  these  monstrous  viola 
tions  of  the  Constitution  under  which  they  professed  to  live. 
They  had  not  only  suffered,  but  had  indorsed  them.  They  had 
not  only  done  this,  but  they  had  applauded  in  this  government 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  violations  of  honor,  morality,  and  truth, 
more  infamous  than  excesses  of  authority. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  101 


CHAPTER  IT. 

The  "Grand  Arr^y''  of  the  North.— General  McDowell. — The  Affair  of  Bull  KJD.— 
An  Artillery  Duel. — THE  BATTLE  OF  MANASSAS. — "  On  to  Richmond." — Scenery  of  the 
Battle-field.— Crises  in  the  Battle.— Devoted  Courage  of  the  Confederates.— THE  ROOT, 
— How  the  News  was  received  in  Washington. — How  it  was  received  in  the  South. — 
General  Bee. — Colonel  Bartow. — The  Great  Error. — General  Johnston's  Excuses  for 
not  advancing  on  Washington. — INCIDENTS  OF  THE  MANASSAS  BATTLE. 

THE  month  of  July  found  confronting  the  lines  of  the  Poto 
mac  two  of  the  largest  armies  that  this  continent  had  ever 
seen.  The  confidence  of  the  North  in  the  numbers,  spirit,  and 
appointments  of  its  "  Grand  Army"  was  insolent  in  the  ex 
treme.  It  was  thought  to  be  but  an  easy  undertaking  for  it  to 
march  to  Richmond,  and  plant  the  Stars  and  Stripes  in  Capitol 
Square.  An  advance  was  urged  not  only  by  the  popular 
clamor  of  "  On  to  Richmond,"  but  by  the  pressure  of  extreme 
parties  in  Congress ;  and  when  it  was  fully  resolved  upon,  the 
exhilaration  was  extreme,  and  the  prospect  of  the  occupation 
of  Richmond  in  ten  days  was  entertained  with  every  variety 
of  public  joy. 

Nothing  had  been  left  undone  to  complete  the  preparations 
of  the  Northern  army.  In  numbers  it  was  immense  ;  it  was 
provided  with  the  best  artillery  in  the  world ;  it  comprised, 
besides  its  immense  force  of  volunteers,  all  the  regulars  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  the  number  of  about  ten  thousand, 
collected  since  February,  in  the  city  of  Washington,  from  Jef 
ferson  Barracks,  from  St.  Louis,  and  from  Fortress  Monroe. 
Making  all  allowances  for  mistakes,  we  are  warranted  in  say 
ing  that  the  Northern  army  consisted  of  at  least  fifty-five 
regiments  of  volunteers,  eight  companies  of  regular  infantry, 
four  of  marines,  nine  of  regular  cavalry,  and  twelve  batteries, 
foi  ty-nine  guns.  This  army  was  placed  at  the  command  of  one 
who  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  greatest  and  most  scientific 
general  in  the  North — General  McDowell.  This  officer  had  a 
reputation  in  the  army  of  being  a  stoic  philosopher — a  reputa 
tion  sought  after  by  a  certain  number  of  "West  Point  pupils. 

General  Beauregard  was  fully  informed  of  the  movements  of 


102  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

McDowell.  The  vaunting  and  audacious  declaration  of  the 
enemy's  purpose  to  force  his  position,  and  press  on  to  Rich 
mond,  was  met  bj  firm  and  busy  preparations  for  the  crisis. 
It  was  no  mean  crisis.  It  was  to  involve  the  first  important 
shock  of  arms  between  two  peoples  who,  from  long  seasons  of 
peace  and  prosperity,  had  brought  to  the  struggle  more  than 
ordinary  resources  and  splendors  of  war. 

The  decisive  battle  was  preceded  by  the  important  affair  of 
Bull  Run,  a  brief  sketch  of  which,  as  a  precursor  to  the  events 
of  the  21st  of  July,  furnishes  'an  intelligent  introduction  to  the 
designs  of  the  enemy,  and  alike  to  the  complicated  plan  and 
glorious  issue  of  the  great  battle  that,  through  the  sultry  heats 
of  a  whole  day,  wrestled  over  the  plains  of  Manassas. 

Bull  Run  constitutes  the  northern  boundary  of  that  county 
which  it  divides  from  Fairfax ;  and  on  its  memorable  banks, 
about  three  miles  to  the  northwest  of  the  junction  of  the 
Manassas  Gap  with  the  Orange  and  Alexandria  railroad,  was 
fought  the  gallant  action  of  the  18th  of  July.  It  is  a  smaL 
stream,  running  in  this  locality,  nearly  from  west  to  east,  to 
its  confluence  with  the  Occoquan  River,  about  twelve  miles 
from  the  Potomac,  and  draining  a  considerable  scope  of  coun 
try,  from  its  source  in  Bull  Run  Mountain  to  within  a  short 
distance  of  the  Potomac  at  Occoquan.  Roads  traverse  and 
intersect  the  surrounding  country  in  almost  every  direction. 
The  banks  of  the  stream  are  rocky  and  steep,  but  abound  in 
long-used  fords.  At  Mitchell's  Ford,  the  stream  is  about 
equidistant  between  Centreville  and  Manassas,  some  six  miles 
apart. 

Anticipating  the  determination  of  the  enemy  to  advance  on 
Manassas,  General  Beauregard  had  withdrawn  his  advanced 
brigades  within  the  lines  of  Bull  Run.  On  the  morning  of 
the  17th  of  July  our  troops  rested  on  Bull  Run,  from  Union 
Mill's  Ford  to  the  Stone  Bridge,  a  distance  of  about  eight 
miles.  The  next  morning  the  enemy  assumed  a  threatening 
attitude.  Appearing  in  heavy  force  in  front  of  the  position 
of  ^  General  Bonham's  brigade,  which  Held  the  approaches 
Mitchell's  Ford,  the  enemy,  about  the  meridian,  opened  fire 
with  several  20-pounder  rifle  guns  from  a  hill  over  one  and  a 
half  miles  from  Bull  Run.  At  first,  the  firing  of  the  enemy 
was  at  random;  but,  by  half-past  12  p.  M.,  he  had  obtained 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  103 

the  range  of  our  position,  and  poured  into  the  brigade  a  si  ower 
of  shot,  but  without  injury  to  us  in  men,  horses,  or  guns.  Gin 
tire  was  reserved,  and  our  troops  impatiently  awaited  the  op 
portune  moment. 

In  a  few  moments,  a  light  battery  was  pushed  forward  by 
the  enemy,  whereupon  Kemper's  battery,  which  was  attached 
to  Bonham's  brigade,  and  occupied  a  ridge  on  the  left  of  the 
Centreville  road,  threw  only  six  solid  shot,  with  the  remark 
able  effect  of  driving  back  both  the  battery  and  its  supporting 
force.  The  unexpected  display  of  skill  and  accuracy  in  our 
artillery  held  the  advancing  column  of  the  enemy  in  check, 
while  Kemper's  pieces  and  support  were  withdrawn  across 
Mitchell's  Ford,  to  a  point  previously  designated,  and  which 
commanded  the  direct  approaches  to  the  ford. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  enemy  was  advancing  in  strong  col 
umns  of  infantry,  with  artillery  and  cavalry,  on  Blackburn's 
Ford,  which  was  covered  by  General  Longstreet's  brigade. 
The  Confederate  pickets  fell  back,  silently,  across  the  ford 
before  the  advancing  foe.  The  entire  southern  bank  of  the 
stream,  for  the  whole  front  of  Longstreet's  brigade,  was  cov 
ered  at  the  water's  edge  by  an  extended  line  of  skirmishers. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  steep  slopes  on  the  northern  bank  of 
the  stream,  the  enemy  approached  under  shelter,  in  heavy 
force,  within  less  than  one  hundred  yards  of  our  skirmishers. 
Before  advancing  his  infantry,  the  enemy  maintained  a  fire  of 
rifle  artillery  for  half  an  hour;  then  he  pushed  forward  a 
column  of  over  three  thousand  infantry  to  the  assault,  with 
such  a  weight  of  numbers  as  to  be  repelled  with  difficulty  by 
the  comparatively  small  force  of  not  more  than  twelve  hun 
dred  bayonets,  with  which  Brigadier-general  Longstreet  met 
him  with  characteristic  vigor  and  intrepidity.  The  repulse  of 
this  charge  of  the  enemy  was,  as  an  exhibition  of  the  devoted 
courage  of  our  troops,  the  most  brilliant  incident  of  the  day. 
Not  one  yard  of  intrenchment  or  one  rifle-pit  protected  the 
men  at  Blackburn's  Fordr  who,  with  rare  exceptions,  were,  on 
that  day,  the  first  time  under  fire,  and  who,  taking  and  main 
taining  every  position  ordered,  exceeded  ic  cool,  self-possessed, 
and- determined  courage  the  best-trained  veterans.  Twice  the 
enemy  was  foiled  and  driven  back  by  our  skirmishers  and 
Longstreet's  reserve  companies.  As  he  returned  to  the  contest 


104:  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

with  increased  numbers,  General  Longstreet  had  been  lein 
forced  from  Early's  brigade  with  two  regiments  of  infantry 
and  two  pieces  of  artillery.  Unable  to  effect  a  passage  of  the 
stream,  the  enemy  kept  up  a  scattering  fire  for  some  time. 
The  fire  of  musketry  was  soon  silenced,  and  the  affair  became 
one  of  artillery.  The  enemy  was  superior  in  tie  character  as 
well  as  in  the  number  of  his  weapons,  provided  with  improved 
munitions  and  every  artillery  appliance,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  occupying  the  commanding  position.  The  results  of  the 
remarkable  artillery  duel  that  ensued  were  fitting  precursors 
to  the  achievements  of  the  twenty-first  of  July  in  this  unex 
pectedly  brilliant  arm  of  our  service.  In  the  onset,  our  fire 
was  directed  against  the  enemy's  infantry,  whose  bayonets, 
gleaming  above  the  tree-tops,  alone  indicated  their  presence 
and  force.  This  drew  the  attention  of  a  battery  placed  on  a 
high,  commanding  ridge,  and  the  duel  commenced  in  earnest. 
For  a  time,  the  aim  of  the  adversary  was  inaccurate,  but  this 
was  quickly  corrected,  and  shot  fell  and  shells  burst  thick  and 
fast  in  the  very  midst  of  our  battery.  From  the  position  of 
our  pieces  and  the  nature  of  the  ground,  their  aim  could  only 
be  directed  by  the  smoke  of  the  enemy's  artillery ;  how  skil 
fully  and  with  what  execution  this  was  done  can  only  be  real 
ized  by  an  eye-witness.  For  a  few  moments,  the  guns  of  the 
enemy  were  silenced,  but  were  soon  reopened.  By  direction 
of  General  Longstreet,  his  battery  was  then  advanced,  by  hand, 
out  of  the  range  now  ascertained  by  the  enemy,  and  a  shower 
of  spherical  case,  shell,  and  round-shot  flew  over  the  heads  of 
our  gunners.  From  this  new  position  our  guns  fired  as  before, 
with  no  other  aim  than  the  smoke  and  flash  of  their  adversa 
ries'  pieces,  and  renewed  and  urged  the  conflict  with  such  sig 
nal  vigor  and  effect,  that  gradually  the  fire  of  the  enemy  slack 
ened,  the  intervals  between  their  discharges  grew  longer  and 
longer,  finally  to  cease ;  and  we  fired  a  last  gun  at  a  baffled 
flying  foe,  whose  heavy  masses  in  the  distance  were  plainly 
seen  to  break  and  scatter  in  wild  confusion  and  utter  rout, 
strewing  the  ground  with  cast-away  guns,  hats,  blankets,  and 
knapsacks,  as  our  parting  shell  was  thrown  among 'them. 

Thus  ended  the  brilliant  action  of  Bull  Run.  The  guns  en 
gaged  in  the  singular  artillery  conflict  on  our  side  were  three 
six-pounder  rifle  pieces  and  four  ordinary  six-pounders,  all  oJ 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  105 

Walton's  battery — the  Washington  Artillery  of  New  Orleans 
Our  casualties  were  unimportant — fifteen  killed  and  fifty-three 
wounded.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  can  only  be  conjectured  ;  it 
was  unquestionably  heavy.  In  the  cursory  examination,  which 
tvas  made  by  details  from  Longstreet's  and  Early's  brigades, 
on  the  18th  of  July,  of  that  portion  of  the  field  immediately 
contested  and  near  Blackburn's  Ford,  some  sixty-four  corpses 
were  found  and  buried,  and  at  least  twenty  prisoners  were  also 
picked  up,  besides  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  stands  of 
arms  and  a  large  quantity  of  accoutrements  and  blankets. 

The  effect  of  the  day's  conflict  was  to  satisfy  the  enemy  that 
he  could  not  force  a  passage  across  Bull  Run  in  the  face  of  our 
troops,  and  led  him  into  the  flank  movement  of  the  21st  of 
Ju?y  and  the  battle  of  Manassas. 

THE    BATTLE   OF   MANASSAS. 

General  Scott  having  matured  his  plan  of  battle,  ordered 
General  McDowell  to  advance  on  Manassas  on  Sunday,  the 
21st  of  July — three  days  after  the  repulse  at  Bull  Run.  The 
movement  was  generally  known  in  "Washington  ;  Congress  had 
adjourned  for  the  purpose  of  affording  its  members  an  oppor 
tunity  to  attend  the  battle-field,  and  as  the  crowds  of  camp 
followers  and  spectators,  consisting  of  politicians,  fashionable 
women,  idlers,  sensation-hunters,  editors.  &c.,  hurried  in  car 
riages,  omnibuses,  gigs,  and  every  conceivable  style  of  vehicle 
across  the  Potomac  in  the  direction  of  the  army,  the  constant 
and  unfailing  jest  was,  that  they  were  going  on  a  visit  to  Rich 
mond.  The  idea  of  the  defeat  of  the  Grand  Army,  which,  in 
show,  splendid  boast,  and  dramatic  accessaries,  exceeded  any 
thing  that  had  ever  been  seen  in  America,  seems  never  to  have 
crossed  the  minds  of  the  politicians  who  went  prepared  with 
carriage-loads  of  champagne  for  festal  celebration  of  the  vic 
tory  that  was  to  be  won,  or  of  the  fair  dames  who  wrere  equip 
ped  with  opera-glasses  to  entertain  themselves  with  the  novel 
scenes  of  a  battle  and  the  inevitable  rout  of  "  rebels."  The 
indecencies  of  this  exhibition  of  morbid  curiosity  and  exultant 
hate  are  simply  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  civilized  na 
tions.  Mr  Russell,  correspondent  of  the  London  Times^  an 
eye-witness  of  the  scene,  describes  the  concourse  of  carriages 


106  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF     THE    WAR. 

and  gayly-dressed  spectators  in  the  rear  of  the  army  on  the 
morning  of  the  battle  of  Manassas  as  like  a  holiday  exhibitior. 
on  a  race-course. 

The  scene  was  an  extraordinary  one.  It  had  a  beauty  and 
grandeur,  apart  from  the  revolting  spectacle  of  the  indecent 
and  bedizened  rabble  that  watched  from  a  hill  in  the  rear  of 
the  army  the  dim  outlines  of  the  battle  and  enjoyed  the  nerv 
ous  emotions  of  the  thunders  of  its  artillery.  The  gay  uniform? 
of  the  Northern  soldiers,  their  streaming  flags  and  glistening 
bayonets,  added  strange  charms  to  the  primeval  forests  of 
Virginia.  No  theatre  of  battle  could  have  been  more  magnifi 
cent  in  its  addresses  to  the  eye.  The  plains,  broken  by  a 
wooded  and  intricate  country,  were  bounded  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach  to  the  west  by  the  azure  combs  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 
The  quiet  Sabbath  morning  opened  upon  the  scene  enlivened 
by  moving  masses  of  men  ;  the  red  lights  of  the  morning,  how 
ever,  had  scarcely  broken  upon  that  scene,  with  its  landscapes, 
its  forests,  and  its  garniture,  before  it  was  obscured  in  the 
clouds  of  battle.  For  long  intervals  nothing  of  the  conflict 
was  presented,  to  those  viewing  it  at  a  distance,  but  wide  and 
torn  curtains  of  smoke  and  dust  and  the  endless  beat  of  the 
artillery. 

Orders  had  been  issued  by  McDowell  for  the  Grand  Army 
to  be  in  motion  by  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  twenty- 
first,  and  en  route  for  their  different  positions  in  time  to  reach 
them  and  be  in  position  by  the  break  of  day.  It  was  also  or 
dered  that  they  should  have  four  days'  rations  cooked  and 
stored  away  in  their  haversacks — evidently  for  the  purpose  of 
gaining  Manassas  and  holding  it,  until  their  supplies  should 
reach  them  by  the  railroad  from  Alexandria.  Thus  stood  the 
arrangements  of  the  Northern  forces  on  the  evening  preceding 
the  battle  of  the  twenty-first. 

It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  of  the  battle  of  Manassas, 
that  it  was  fought  on  our  side  without  any  other  plan  than  to 
suit  the  contingencies  arising  out  of  the  development  of  the 
enemy's  designs,  as  it  occurred  in  the  progress  of  the  action. 
Several  plans  of  battle  had  been  proposed  by  General  Beaure- 
gard,  but  had  been  defeated  by  the  force  of  circumstances. 
He  had  been  unwilling  to  receive  the  enemy  on  the  defensive 
line  of  Bull  Run,  and  had  determined  on  attacking  him  a1 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  107 

Centreville.  In  the  mean  time,  General  Johnston  had  "been 
ordered  to  form  a  junction  of  his  army  corps  with,  that  of  Gen 
eral  Beauregard,  should  the  movement,  in  his  judgment,  be 
advisable.  The  best  service  which  the  army  of  the  Shenan- 
doah  could  render  was  to  prevent  the  defeat  of  that  of  the 
Potomac.  To  be  able  to  do  this,  it  was  necessary  for  General 
Johnston  to  defeat  General  Patterson  or  to  elude  him.  The 
latter  course  was  the  most  speedy  arid  certain,  and  was,  there 
fore,  adopted.  Evading  the  enemy  by  the  disposition  of  the 
advance  guard  under  Colonel  Stuart,  our  army  moved  through 
Ashby's  Gap  to  Piedmont,  a  station  of  the  Manassas  Gap  rail 
road.  Hence,  the  infantry  were  to  be  transported  by  the  rail 
way,  while  the  cavalry  and  artillery  were  ordered  to  continue 
their  march.  General  Johnston  reached  Manassas  about  noon 
on  the  twentieth,  preceded  by  the  Yth  and  8th  Georgia  regi 
ments  and  by  Jackson's  brigade,  consisting  of  the  2d,  4th,  5th 
27th  and  33d  Virginia  regiments.  He  was  accompanied  by 
General  Bee,  with  the  4th  Alabama,  the  2d  and  two  compa 
nies  of  the  llth  Mississippi.  The  president  of  the  railroad  had 
assured  him  that  the  remaining  troops  should  arrive  during 
the  day. 

General  Johnston,  being  the  senior  in  rank,  necessarily 
assumed  command  of  all  the  forces  of  the  Confederate  States 
then  concentrating  at  Manassas.  He,  however,  approved  the 
plans  of  General  Beauregard,  and  generously  directed  their 
execution  under  his  command.  It  was  determined  that  the 
two  forces  should  be  united  within  the  lines  of  Bull  Run,  and 
thence  advance  to  the  attack  of  the  enemy,  before  Patterson's 
junction  with  McDowell,  which  was  daily  expected.  The  plan 
of  battle  was  again  disconcerted.  In  consequence  of  the 
untoward  detention  on  the  railroad  of  some  five  thousand  of 
General  Johnston's  forces  that  had  been  expected  to  reach 
Manassas  prior  to  the  battle,  it  became  necessary,  on  the 
morning  of  the  twenty-first,  before  daylight,  to  modify  the 
plan  accepted,  to  suit  the  contingency  of  an  immediate  attack 
on  our  lines  by  the  main  force  of  the  enemy,  then  plainly  at 
hand.  It  thus  happened  that  a  battle  ensued,  different  in 
place  and  circumstance  from  any  previous  plan  on  our  side. 

Our  effective  force  of  all  arms,  ready  for  action  on  the  field 
on  the  eventful  morning,  was  less  than  thirty  thousand  men 


108  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Our  troops  were  divided  into  eight  brigades,  occupying  the 
defensive  line  of  Bull  Run.  Brigadier-general  Ewell's  was 
posted  at  the  Union  Mill's  Ford;  Brigadier-general  D.  R. 
Jones'  at  McLean's  Ford;  Brigadier-general  Longstreet's  at 
Blackburn's  Ford ;  Brigadier -general  Bonham's  at  Mitchell's 
Ford ;  Colonel  Cocke's  at  Ball's  Ford,  some  three  miles  above, 
and  Colonel  Evans,  with  a  regiment  and  battalion,  formed  the 
extreme  left  at  the  Stone  Bridge.  The  brigades  of  Brigadier- 
general  Holmes  and  Colonel  Early  were  in  reserve  in  rear  oi 
the  right. 

In  his  entire  ignorance  of  the  enemy's  plan  of  attack,  Gen 
eral  Beauregard  was  compelled  to  keep  his  army  posted  along 
the  stream  for  some  eight  or  ten  miles,  while  his  wily  adver 
sary  developed  his  purpose  to  him.  The  subsequent  official 
reports  of  McDowell  and  his  officers  show  that  that  com 
mander  had  abandoned  his  former  purpose  of  marching  on 
Manassas  by  the  lower  routes  from  Washington  and  Alexan 
dria,  and  had  resolved  upon  turning  the  left  flank  of  the 
Confederates. 

The  fifth  division  of  his  Grand  Army,  composed  of  at  leasi 
four  brigades,  under  command  of  General  Miles,  was  to  re 
main  at  Centreville,  in  reserve,  and  to  make  a  false  attack  on 
Blackburn's  and  Mitchell's  Fords,  and  thereby  deceive  Gen 
eral  Beauregard  as  to  its  intention.  The  first  division,  com 
posed  of  at  least  three  brigades,  commanded  by  General  Tyler, 
was  to  take  position  at  the  Stone  Bridge,  and  feign  an  attack 
upon  that  point.  The  third  division,  composed  of  at  least 
three  brigades,  commanded  by  Heintzelman,  was  to  proceed  as 
quietly  as  possible  to  the  Red  House  Ford,  and  there  remain, 
until  the  troops  guarding  that  ford  should  be  cleared  away. 
The  second  division,  composed  of  three  or  four  brigades,  com 
manded  by  Hunter,  was  to  march,  unobserved  by  the  Confed 
erate  troops,  to  Sudley,  and  there  cross  over  the  run  and 
move  down  the  stream  to  the  Red  House  Ford,  and  clear 
away  any  troops  that  might  be  guarding  that  point,  where  he 
was  to  be  joined  by  the  third  or  Heintzelman's  division. 
Together,  these  two  divisions  were  to  charge  upon,  and  drive 
away  any  troops  that  might  be  stationed  at  the  Stone  Bridge, 
when  Tyler's  division  vas  to  cross  over  and  join  them,  and 
thus  produce  a  junction  of  three  formidable  divisions  of  the 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  109 

Grand  Army  across  the  run,  for  offensive  operations  against 
the  forces  of  Genera.  Beauregard,  which  the  enemy  expected 
to  find  scattered  along  the  run  for  seven  or  eight  miles — tho 
bulk  of  them  being  at  and  below  Mitchell's  Ford,  and  so  situ 
ated  as  to  render  a  concerted  movement  by  them  utterly  im 
practicable. 

Soon  after  sunrise,  the  enemy  appeared  in  force  in  front  of 
Colorel  Evans'  position  at  the  Stone  Bridge,  and  opened  a 
light  rannonade.  The  monstrous  inequality  of  the  two  forces 
at  this  point  was  not  developed.  Colonel  Evans  only  ob 
served  in  his  immediate  front  the  advance  portion  of  General 
Schenck's  brigade  of  General  Tyler's  division  and  two  other 
heavy  brigades.  This  division  of  the  enemy's  forces  numbered 
nine  thousand  men  and  thirteen  pieces  of  artillery — Carlisle's 
and  Ayres'  batteries — that  is,  nine  hundred  men  and  two  six- 
pounders  confronted  by  nine  thousand  men  and  thirteen  pieces 
of  artillery,  mostly  rifled. 

A  movement  was  instantly  determined  upon  by  General 
Beauregard  to  relieve  his  left  flank,  by  a  rapid,  determined 
attack  with  his  right  wing  and  centre  on  the  enemy's  flank 
and  rear  at  Centreville,  with  precautions  against  the  advance 
of  his  reserves  from  the  direction  of  Washington. 

In  the  quarter  of  the  Stone  Bridge,  the  two  armies  stood 
for  more  than  an  hour  engaged  in  slight  skirmishing,  while 
the  main  body  of  the  enemy  was  marching  his  devious  way 
through  the  "  Big  Forest,"  to  cross  Bull  Run  some  two  miles 
above  our  left,  to  take  our  forces  in  flank  and  rear.  This 
movement  was  fortunately  discovered  in  time  for  us  to  check 
its  progress,  and  ultimately  to  form  a  new  line  of  battle  nearly 
at  ri^ht  angles  with  the  defensive  line  of  Bull  Run. 

On  discovering  that  the  enemy  had  crossed  the  stream 
above  him,  Colonel  Evans  moved  to  his  left  with  eleven  com 
panies  and  two  field-pieces  to  oppose  his  advance,  and  dis 
posed  his  little  force  under  cover  of  the  wood,  near  the  inter 
section  of  the  Warrenton  turnpike  and  the  Sudley  road. 
Here  he  was  attacked  by  the  enemy  in  immensely  sv  peri  or 
numbers. 

The  enemy  beginning  his  detour  from  the  turnpike,  at  a 
point  nearly  half-way  between  Stone  Bridge  and  Centreville, 
had  pursued  a  tortuous,  narrow  track  of  a  rarely  used  road, 


110  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAE. 

through  a  dense  wood,  the  greatei  part  of  his  way  until  neai 
the  Sudley  road.  A  division  under  Colonel  Hunter,  of  the 
Federal  regular  army,  of  two  strong  brigades,  was  in  the  ad 
vance,  followed  immediately  by  another  division,  under  Colo 
nel  Heintzelman  of  three  brigades,  and  seven  companies  Oi 
regular  cavalry,  and  twenty-four  pieces  of  artillery — eighteer. 
of  which  were  rifled  guns.  This  column,  as  it  crossed  Bull 
Kun,  numbej-ed  over  sixteen  thousand  men,  of  all  arms,  by 
their  own  accounts. 

Burnside's  brigade — which  here,  as  at  Fairfax  Court-house 
led  the  advance — at  about  9.45  A.  M.,  debouched  from  a  wood 
in  sight  of  Evans'  position,  some  five  hundred  yards  distant 
from  Wheat's  Louisiana  battalion.  He  immediately  threw 
forward  his  skirmishers  in  force,  and  they  became  engaged 
with  Wheat's  command.  The  Federalists  at  once  advanced, 
as  they  report  officially,  the  2d  Rhode  Island  regiment  volun 
teers,  with  its  vaunted  battery  of  six  thirteen-pound er  rifle 
guns.  Sloan's  companies  of  the  4th  South  Carolina  were  then 
brought  into  action,  having  been  pushed  forward  through  the 
woods.  The  enemy,  soon  galled  and  staggered  by  -the  fire, 
and  pressed  by  the  determined  valor  with  which  Wheat  han 
dled  his  battalion,  until  he  was  desperately  wounded,  hast 
ened  up  three  other  regiments  of  the  brigade  and  two  Dahl- 
gren  howitzers,  making  in  all  quite  three  thousand  five  hun 
dred  bayonets  and  eight  pieces  of  artillery,  opposed  to  less 
than  eight  hundred  men  and  two  six-pounder  guns. 

Despite  the  odds,  this  intrepid  command,  of  but  eleven 
weak  companies,  maintained  its  front  to  the  enemy  for  quite 
an  hour,  and  until  General  Bee  came  to  their  aid  with  his 
command. 

General  Bee  moving  towards  the  enemy,  guided  by  the 
firing,  had  selected  the  position  near  the  now  famous  "  Henry 
House,"  and  formed  his  troops  upon  it.  They  were  the  7th 
and  8th  Georgia  under  Colonel  Bartow,  the  4th  Alabama,  2d 
Mississippi,  and  two  companies  of  the  llth  Mississippi  regi 
ments,  with  Imboden's  battery.  Being  compelled,  however 
to  sustain  Colonel  Evans,  he  crossed  the  valley,  and  formed 
on  the  right  and  somewhat  in  advance  of  his  position.  Here 
the  joint  force,  little  exceeding  five  regiments,  with  six  field 
pieces,  held  the  ground  against  about  fifteen  thousand  Federal 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  Ill 

troops.  A  fierce  and  destructive  conflict  now  ensued — the  fire 
was  withering  on  both  sides,  while  the  enemy  swept  our  short, 
thin  lines  with  their  numerous  artillery,  which,  according  to 
their  official  reports,  at  this  time  consisted  of  at  least  ten  rifle 
guns  and  four  howitzers.  For  an  hour  did  these  stout-hearted 
me  n,  of  the  blended  commands  of  Bee,  Evans,  and  Bartow, 
breast  an  unintermitting  battle-storm,  animated  surely  by 
something  more  than  the  ordinary  courage  of  even  the  bravesl 
men  under  fire. 

Two  Federal  brigades  of  Heintzelman's  division  were  now 
brought  into  action,  led  by  Rickett's  superb  light  battery  of 
six  ten-pounder  rifle  guns,  which,  posted  on  an  eminence  to  the 
right  of  the  Sudley  road,  opened  fire  on  Imboden's  battery. 
At  this  time,  confronting  the  enemy,  we  had  still  but  Evans' 
eleven  companies  and  two  guns — Bee's  and  Bartow's  four 
regiments,  the  two  companies  llth  Mississippi  under  Lieuten 
ant-colonel  Liddell,  and  the  six  pieces  under  Imboden  and 
Richardson.  The  enemy  had  two  divisions  of  four  strong 
brigades,  including  seventeen  companies  of  regular  infantry, 
cavalry,  and  artillery,  four  companies  of  marines,  and  twenty 
pieces  of  artillery.  Against  this  odds,  scarcely  credible,  our 
advance  position  was  still  for  a  while  maintained,  and  the 
enemy's  ranks  constantly  broken  and  shattered  under  the 
scorching  fire  of  our  men;  but  fresh  regiments  of  the  Fed 
erals  came  upon  the  field,  Sherman's  and  Keyes'  brigades  of 
Tyler's  division,  as  is  stated  in  their  reports,  numbering  over 
six  thousand  bayonets,  which  had  found  a  passage  across  the 
Run,  about  eight  hundred  yards  above  the  Stone  Bridge, 
threatened  our  right. 

Heavy  losses  had  now  been  sustained  on  our  side,  both  in 
numbers  and  in  the  personal  worth  of  the  slain.  The  8th 
Georgia  regiment  had  suffered  heavily,  being  exposed,  as  it 
took  and  maintained  its  position,  to  a  fire  from  the  enemy, 
already  posted  within  a  hundred  yards  of  their  front  and 
right,  sheltered  by  fences  and  other  cover.  The  4th  Alabama 
also  suffered  severely  from  the  deadly  fire  of  the  thousands  of 
muskets  which  they  so  dauntlessly  confronted  under  the  im 
mediate  leadership  of  the  chivalrous  Bee  himself. 

Now,  however,  with  the  surging  mass  of  over  fourteen 
thousand  Federal  infantry  pressing  on  their  front  and  under 


112  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  incessant  fire  of  at  least  twenty  pieces  of  artillery,  with 
the  fresh  brigades  of  Sherman  and  Keyes  approaching — the 
latter  already  in  musket  range — our  lines  gave  back,  but  under 
orders  from  General  Bee. 

As  our  shattered  battalions  retired,  the  slaughter  was  de 
plorable.  They  fell  back  in  the  direction  of  the  Eobinson 
[louse,  under  the  fires  of  Heintzelman's  division  on  one  side, 
Keyes'  and  Sherman's  brigades  of  Tyler's  division  on  the 
other,  and  Hunter's  division  in  their  rear,  and  were  compelled 
fco  engage  the  enemy  at  several  points  on  their  retreat,  losing 
both  officers  and  men,  in  order  to  keep  them  from  closing  in 
around  them.  Under  the  inexorable  stress  of  the  enemy's 
fire  the  retreat  continued.  The  enemy  seemed  to  be  inspired 
with  the  idea  that  he  had  won  the  field  ;  the  news  of  a  victory 
tvas  carried  to  the  rear,  and,  in  less  than  an  hour  thereafter, 
the  telegraph  had  flashed  the  intelligence  through  all  the  cities 
in  the  North,  that  the  Federal  troops  were  completing  their 
victory,  and  premature  exultations  ran  from  mouth  to  mouth 
iu  Washington. 

If  the  enemy  had  observed  the  circumstances  and  character 
of  this  falling  back  of  a  portion  of  our  lines,  it  would  have 
been  enough  to  have  driven  him  in  consternation  from  the 
field.  With  the  terrible  desperation  that  had  sustained  them 
so  long  in  the  face  of  fivefold  odds  and  the  most  frightful 
losses,  our  troops  fell  back  sullenly  ;  at  every  step  of  their  re 
treat  staying,  by  their  hard  skirmishing,  the  flanking  columns 
of  the  enemy. 

The  retreat  was  finally  arrested  just  in  rear  of  the  Robinson 
House  by  the  energy  and  resolution  of  General  Bee,  assisted  by 
the  support  of  the  Hampton  Legion,  and  the  timely  arrival  of 
Jackson's  brigade  of  five  regiments.  A  moment  before.  General 
Bee  had  been  well-nigh  overwhelmed  by  superior  numbers. 
He  approached  General  Jackson  with  the  pathetic  exclama 
tion,  "General,  they  are  beating  us  back;"  to  which  the 
latter  promptly  replied,  "Sir,  we'll  give  them  the  bayonet." 
General  Bee  immediately  rallied  his  over-tasked  troops  with 
the  words,  "  There  is  Jackson  standing  like  a  stone  wall.  Let 
us  determine  to  die  here,  and  we  will  conquer." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  crisis  of  the  battle  and  the  full  devel 
opment  of  the  enemy's  designs  had  been  perceived  by  oui 


THE    FIRST     YEAR.  113 

generals.  They  were  yet  four  miles  away  from  the  immediate 
field  of  action,  having  p.aced  themselves  on  a  commanding 
hill  in  rear  of  General  Bonham's  left,  to  observe  the  move 
ments  of  the  enemy.  There  could  be  no  mistake  now  of  the 
enemy's  intentions,  from  the  violent  firing  on  the  left  and  the 
immense  clouds  of  dust  raised  by  the  march  of  a  large  body 
of  troops  from  his  centre.  With  the  keenest  impatience, 
General  Beauregard  awaited  the  execution  of  his  orders  of 
the  morning,  which  were  intended  to  relieve  his  left  flank  by 
an  attack  on  the  enemy's  flank  and  rear  at  Centreville.  As 
the  continuous  roll  of  musketry  and  the  sustained  din  of  the 
artillery  announced  the  serious  outburst  of  the  battle  on  our 
left  flank,  he  anxiously,  but  confidently,  awaited  similar  sounds 
of  conflict  from  our  front  at  Centreville.  When  it  was  too  late 
for  the  effective  execution  of  the  contemplated  movement,  he 
was  informed,  to  his  profound  disappointment,  that  his  ordei> 
for  an  advance  had  miscarried. 

No  time  was  to  be  lost.  It  became  immediately  necessary 
to  depend  on  new  combinations,  and  to  meet  the  enemy  on  the 
field  upon  which  he  had  chosen  to  give  us  battle.  It  was  plain 
that  nothing  but  the  most  rapid  combinations  and  the  most 
heroic  and  devoted  courage  on  the  part  of  our  troops  could 
retrieve  the  field,  which,  according  to  all  military  conditions, 
appeared  to  be  positively  lost. 

About  noon,  the  scene  of  the  battle  was  unutterably  sub 
lime.  Not  until  then  could  one  of  the  present  generation,  who 
had  never  witnessed  a  grand  battle,  have  imagined  such  a 
spectacle.  The  hill  occupied  in  the  morning  by  Generals 
Beauregard,  Johnston,  and  Bonham,  and  their  staffs,  placed 
the  whole  scene  before  one — a  grand,  moving  diorama.  When 
(he  firing  was  at  its  height,  the  roar  of  artillery  reached  the 
hill  like  that  of  protracted  thunder.  For  one  long  mile  the 
whole  valley  was  a  boiling  crater  of  dust  and  smoke.  Occa 
sionally  the  yells  of  our  men,  in  the  few  instances  in  which  the 
enemy  fell  back,  rose  above  the  roar  of  artillery.  In  the  dis- 
tan  30  rose  the  Blue  Ridge,  to  form  the  dark  background  of  a 
most  magnificent  picture. 

The  condition  of  the  battle-field  was  now,  at  the  least,  des 
perate.  Our  left  flank  was  overpowered,  and  it  became  neces 
sary  to  bring  immediately  up  to  their  support  the  reserves  not 


SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    Of    THE    WAR. 

already  in  motion.     Holmes'  two  regiments  and  battery  oJ 
artillery,   under  Captain  Lindsey  Walker,   of  six  guns,   and 
Early 's  brigade,  were  immediately  ordered  up  to  support  our 
left  flank.     Two  regiments  from  Bonham's  brigade,  with  Kern 
per's  four  six-pounders,  were  also  called  for,   and  General 
Ewell,  Jones  (D.  E.),  Longstreet,  and  Bonham  were  directed 
to  make  a  demonstration  to  their  several  fronts  to  retain  and 
engross  the  enemy's  reserves,  and  any  forces  on  their  flank,  and 
at  and  around  Centre ville. 

Dashing  on  at  headlong  gallop,  General  Johnston  and  Gen 
ural  Beauregard  reached  the  field  of  action  not  a  moment  too 
soon.     They  were  instantly  occupied  with  the  reorganization 
of  the  heroic  troops,  whose  previous  stand  in  stubborn  and 
patriotic  valor  has  nothing  to  exceed  it  in  the  records  of  his 
tory.     It  was  now  that  General  Johnston   impressively  and 
gallantly  charged   to  the  front,   with   the   colors  of  the  4th 
Alabama  regiment   by  his   side.     The  presence   of  the  two 
generals  with  the  troops  under  fire,  and  their  example,  had  the 
happiest  effect.     Order  was  soon   restored.     In  a  brief  and 
rapid   conference,   General  Beauregard  was   assigned  to  th 
command  of  the  left,  which,  as  the  younger  officer,  he  claimed 
while  General  Johnston  returned  to  that  of  the  whole  field. 

The  battle  was  now  re-established.  The  aspect  of  affairs 
was  critical  and  desperate  in  the  extreme. 

Confronting  the  enemy  at  this  time,  General  Beauregard's 
forces  numbered,  at  most,  not  more  than  six  thousand  five 
hundred  infantry  and  artillerists,  with  but  thirteen  pieces  ol 
artillery,  and  two  companies  of  Stuart's  cavalry. 

The  enemy's  force  now  bearing  hotly  and  confidently  down 
on  our  position — regiment  after  regiment  of  the  best-equipped 
men  that  ever  took  the  field — according  to  their  own  official 
history  of  the  day,  was  formed  of  Colonels  Hunter's  and 
Heintzelman's  divisions,  Colonels  Sherman's  and  Keyes'  bri 
gades  of  Tyler's  division,  and  of  the  formidable  batteries  ol 
Ricketts,  Griffin,  and  Arnold  regulars,  and  2d  Ehode  Island, 
and  two  Dahlgren  howitzers — a  force  of  over  twenty  thou 
sand  infantry,  seven  companies  of  regular  cavalry,  and  twenty 
four  pieces  of  improved  artillery.  At  the  same  time,  peril 
ous,  heavy  reserves  of  infantry  and  artillery  hung  in  tho 
.distance,  around  the  Stone  Bridge,  Mitchell's,  Blackburn's,  and 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  11 C 

Union  Mill's  Fords,  visibly  ready  to  fall  upon  us  at  any  mo 
ment. 

Fully  conscious  of  the  portentous  disparity  offeree,  General 
Beauregard,  as  lie  posted  the  lines  for  the  encounter,  spoke 
words  of  encouragement  to  tlje  men  to  inspire  their  confidence 
and  determined  spirit  of  resistance.  He  urged  them  to  the 
resolution  of  victory  or  death  on  the  field.  The  men  responded 
with  loud  and  eager  cheers,  and  the  commander  felt  reassured 
of  the  unconquerable  spirit  of  his  army. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  enemy  had  seized  upon  the  plateau  on 
which  Eobinson's  and  the  Henry  houses  *  are  situated — the 
position  first  occupied  in  the  morning  by  General  Bee,  before 
advancing  to  the  support  of  Evans — Ricketts'  battery  of  six 
rifle  guns,  the  pride  of  the  Federalists,  the  object  of  their  un^ 
stinted  expenditure  in  outfit,  and  the  equally  powerful  regular 
light  battery  of  Griffin,  were  brought  forward  and  placed  in 
immediate  action,  after  having,  conjointly  with  the  batteries 
already  mentioned,  played  from  former  positions  with  destruc 
tive  effect  upon  our  forward  battalions. 

About  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  General  Beauregard 
gave  the  order  for  the  right  of  his  line,  except  his  reserves,  to 
advance  to  recover  the  plateau.  It  was  done  with  uncommon 
resolution  and  vigor,  and  at  the  same  time  Jackson's  brigade 
pierced  the  enemy's  centre  with  the  determination  of  veterans 
and  the  spirit  of  men  who  fight  for  a  sacred  cause  ;  but  it  suf 
fered  seriously.  With  equal  spirit  the  other  parts  of  the  line 
made  the  onset,  and  the  Federal  lines  were  broken  and  swept 
back  at  all  points  from  the  open  ground  of  the  plateau.  Ral 
lying  soon,  however;  as  they  were  strongly  reinforced  by  fresh 
regiments,  the  Federals  returned,  and,  by  the  weight  of  num 
bers,  pressed  our  lines  back,  recovered  their  ground  and  guns, 
and  renewed  the  offensive. 

By  this  time,  between  half-past  2  and  3  o'clock,  p.  M.,  our 
reinforcements  pushed  forward,  and  directed  by  General  John 
ston  to  the  required  quarter,  were  at  hand  just  as  General 
Beauregard  had  ordered  forward  to  a  second  effort,  for  the 
recovery  of  the  disputed  plateau,  the  whole  line,  including  his 


*  These  houses  were  small  wooden  buildings,  occupied  at  the  time  the  DM* 
by  the  Widow  Henry  and  the  other  by  the  froe  negro  Robinson 


116  ,      SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

reserve,  which,  at  this  crisis  of  the  battle,  the  commander  fell 
called  upon  to  lead  in  person,  This  attack  was  general,  and 
was  shared  in  by  every  regiment  then  in  the  field,  including 
the  6th  (Fisher's)  North  Carolina  regiment,  which  had  just 
come  up.  The  whole  open  ground  was  again  swept  clear  o, 
the  enemy,  and  the  plateau  around  the  Henry  and  Robinson 
houses  remained  finally  in  our  possession,  with  the  greater 
part  of  the  Ricketts  and  Griffin  batteries.  This  part  of  the 
day  was  rich  with  deeds  of  individual  coolness  and  dauritles? 
conduct,  as  well  as  well-directed,  embodied  resolution  and 
bravery,  but  fraught  with  the  loss  to  the  service  of  the  coun 
try  of  lives  of  inestimable  preciousness  at  this  juncture.  The 
brave  Bee  was  mortally  wounded  at  the  head  of  the  4th  Ala 
bama  and  some  Mississippians,  in  the  open  field  near  the 
Henry  house  ;  and,  a  few  yards  distant,  Colonel  Bartow  had 
fallen,  shot  through  the  heart.  He  was  grasping  the  standard 
of  his  regiment  as  he  was  shot,  and  calling  the  remnants  of 
his  command  to  rally  and  follow  him.  He  spoke  after  receiv 
ing  his  mortal  wound,  and  his  words  were  memorable.  To  the 
few  of  his  brave  men  who  gathered  around  him  he  said,  "  The/ 
have  killed  me,  but  never  give  up  the  field."  The  last  con*- 
mand  was  gallantly  obeyed,  and  his  men  silenced  the  battery 
of  which  he  died  in  the  charge.  Colonel  Fisher  had  also  been 
killed.  He  had  fallen  at  the  head  of  the  torn  and  thinned 
ranks  of  his  regiment. 

The  conflict  had  been  awfully  terrific.  The  enemy  had  been 
driven  back  on  our  right  entirely  across  the  turnpike,  and 
beyond  Young's  Branch  on  our  left.  At  this  moment,  the 
desired  reinforcements  arrived.  Withers'  18th  regiment  of 
Cocke's  brigade  had  come  up  in  time  to  follow  the  charge. 
Kershaw's  2d  and  Cash's  8th  South  Carolina  regiments  ar 
rived  soon  after  Withers',  and  were  assigned  an  advantageous 
position.  A  more  important  accession,  however,  to  our  forces 
was  at  hand.  A  courier  had  galloped  from  Manassas  to  report 
that  a  Federal  army  had  reached  the  line  of  the  Manassas 
Gap  railroad,  was  marching  towards  us,  and  was  then  about 
three  or  four  miles  from  our  left  flank.  Instead,  however,  oi 
the  enemy,  it  was  the  long-expected  reinforcements.  General 
Eirby  Smith,  with  some  seventeen  hundred  infantry  of  El 
zey's  brigade  of  the  Army  of  the  ohenandoah  and  Beckham't 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  117 

battery,  had  reached  Manassas,  by  railroad,  at  noon.  Hia 
forces  were  instantly  marched  across  the  fields  to  the  scene  of 
action. 

The  flying  enemy  had  been  rallied  under  cover  of  a  strong 
Federal  brigade,  posted  on  a  plateau  near  the  intersection  of 
the  turnpike  and  the  Sudley-Brentsville  road,  and  was  now 
making  demonstrations  to  outflank  and  drive  back  our  left, 
and  thus  separate  us  from  Manassas.  General  Smith  was  in 
structed  by  General  Johnston  to  attack  the  right  flank  of  the 
enemy,  now  exposed  to  us.  Before  the  movement  was  com 
pleted,  he  fell  severely  wounded.  Colonel  Elzey,  at  once  tak 
ing  command,  proceeded  to  execute  it  with  promptness  and 
vigor,  while  General  Beauregard  rapidly  seized  the  opportu 
nity,  and  threw  forward  his  whole  line. 

About  3.30  P.  M.,  the  enemy,  driven  back  on  their  left  and 
centre,  and  brushed  from  the  woods  bordering  the  Sudley 
road,  south  and  west  from  the  Henry  house,  had  formed  a  line 
of  battle  of  truly  formidable  proportions,  of  crescent  outline, 
reaching,  on  their  left,  from  the  vicinity  of  Pittsylvania  (the 
old  Carter  mansion),  by  Matthew's  and  in  rear  of  Dogan's, 
across  the  turnpike  near  to  Chinn's  house.  The  woods  and 
fields  were  filled  with  their  masses  of  infantry  and  their  care 
fully  preserved  cavalry.  It  was  a  truly  magnificent,  though 
redoubtable  spectacle,  as  they  threw  forward  in  fine  style,  on 
the  broad  gentle  slopes  of  the  ridge  occupied  by  their  main 
lines,  a  cloud  of  skirmishers,  preparatory  for  another  attack. 

Colonel  Early,  who,  by  some  mischance,  did  not  receive 
orders  until  2  o'clock,  which  had  been  sent  him  at  noon,  came 
on  the  ground  immediately  after  Elzey,  with  Kemper's  7th 
Virginia,  Hay's  7th  Louisiana,  and  Barksdale's  13th  Missis 
sippi  regiments.  This  brigade,  by  the  personal  direction  of 
General  Johnston,  was  marched  by  the  Holkham  house,  across 
the  fields  to  the  left,  entirely  around  the  woods  through  which 
Elzey  had  passed,  and  under  a  severe  fire,  into  a  position  in 
line  of  battle  near  Chinn's  house,  outflanking  the  enemy's 
right. 

The  enemy  was  making  his  last  attempt  to  retrieve  the  day 
He  had  re-formed  to  renew  the  battle,  again  extending  hi 
right  with  a  still  wider  sweep  to  turn  our  left.  Colonel  Early 
was  ordered  to  throw  hi  n  self  directly  upon  the  right  flank  oi 


118  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  enemy,  supported  by  Colonel  Stuart's  cavalry  and  Bock- 
ham's  battery.  As  Early  formed  his  line,  and  Beckham's 
pieces  played  upon  the  right  of  the  enemy,  Elzey's  brigade, 
Gibbons'  10th  Virginia,  Lieut-colonel  Stuart's  1st  Maryland, 
and  Yaughan's  3d  Tennessee  regiments,  and  Cash's  8th  and 
Kershaw's  2d  South  Carolina,  Withers'  18th  and  Preston's  28th 
Virginia,  advanced  in  an  irregular  line,  almost  simultaneously. 
The  charge  made  by  General  Beauregard  in  front,  was  sus 
tained  by  the  resolute  attack  of  Early  on  the  right  flank  and 
rear.  The  combined  attack  was  too  much  for  the  enemy.  He 
was  forced  over  the  narrow  plateau  made  by  the  intersection. 
of  the  two  roads  already  mentioned.  He  was  driven  into  the 
fields,  where  his  masses  commenced  to  scatter  in  all  available 
directions  towards  Bull  Eun.  He  had  lost  all  the  artillery 
which  he  had  advanced  to  the  last  scene  of  the  conflict;  he 
had  no  more  fresh  troops  to  rally  on,  and  there  were  no  combi 
nations  to  avail  him  to  make  another  stand.  The  day  was 
ours.  From  the  long-contested  hill  from  which  the  enemy  had 
been  driven  back,  his  retreating  masses  might  be  seen  to  break 
over  the  fields  stretching  beyond,  as  the  panic  gathered  in  their 
rear.  The  rout  had  become  general  and  confused ;  the  field* 
were  covered  with  black  swarms  of  flying  soldiers,  while  cheers 
and  yells  taken  up  along  our  lines,  for  the  distance  of  miles> 
rung  in  the  ears  of  the  panic-stricken  fugitives. 

THE   KOUT. 

Early's  brigade,  meanwhile,  joined  by  the  19th  Virginia. 
regiment,  of  Cocke's  brigade,  pursued  the  now  panic-stricken 
fugitive  enemy.  Stuart,  with  his  cavalry,  and  Beckham  had 
also  taken  up  the  pursuit  along  the  road  by  which  the  enemy 
had  come  upon  the  field  that  morning ;  but,  soon  cumbered  by 
prisoners  who  thronged  the  way,  the  former  was  unable  to  at 
tack  the  mass  of  the  fast-fleeing,  frantic  Federals.  The  want 
of  a  cavalry  force  of  sufficient  numbers  made  an  efficient  pur 
suit  a  military  impossibility. 

But  the  pressure  of  close  and  general  pursuit  was  not  neces 
sury  to  disorganize  the  flight  of  the  enemy.     Capt.  Kemper' 
pursued  the  retreating  masses  to  within  range  of  Cub   Kim. 
1 'ridge.     Upon  the  bridge,  a  shot  took  effect  upon  the  horses* 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  119 

of  a  team  that  was  crossing.  The  wagon  was  overturned  di 
rectly  in  the  centre  of  the  bridge,  and  the  passage  was  com 
pletely  obstructed.  The  Confederates  continued  to  play  their 
artillery  upon  the  train  carriages  and  artillery  wagons,  and 
these  were  reduced  to  ruins.  Cannons  and  caissons,  ambu 
lances  and  train-wagons,  and  hundreds  of  soldiers  rushed  down 
the  bill  into  a  common  heap,  struggling  and  scrambling  to 
cross  the  stream  and  get  away  from  their  pursuers. 

The  retreat,  the  panic,  the  heedless,  headlong  confusion  was 
soon  beyond  a  hope.  Officers  with  leaves  and  eagles  on  their 
shoulder-straps,  majors  and  colonels  who  had  deserted  their 
comrades,  passed,  galloping  as  if  for  dear  life.  Not  a  field-offi 
cer  seemed  to  have  remembered  his  duty.  The  flying  teams 
and  wagons  confused  and  dismembered  every  corps.  For 
three  miles,  hosts  of  the  Federal  troops — all  detached  from 
their  regiments,  all  mingled  in  one  disorderly  rout — were  flee 
ing  along  the  road.  Army  wagons,  sutler's  teams,  and  private 
3arriages  choked  the  passage,  tumbling  against  each  other  amid 
:louds  of  dust,  and  sickening  sights  and  sounds.  Hacks  con- 
raining  unlucky  spectators  of  the  late  affray  were  smashed  like 
glass,  and  the  occupants  were  lost  sight  of  in  the  debris. 
Horses,  flying  wildly  from  the  battle-field,  many  of  them  in 
death  agony,  galloped  at  random  forward,  joining  in  the  stam 
pede.  Those  on  foot  who  could  catch  them  rode  them  bareback,: 
as  much  to  save  themselves  from  being  run  over  as  to  make 
quick  time. 

Wounded  men  lying  along  the  banks — the  few  either  left  on 
the  field  or  not  taken  to  the  captured  hospitals— appealed,  with 
liaised  hands,  to  those  who  rode  horses,  begging  to  be  lifted 
behind  ;  but  few  regarded  such  petitions.     Then,  the  artillery, 
such  as  was  saved,  came  thundering  along,  smashing  and  over 
powering  every  thing.     The   regular   cavalry  joined   in  the 
melee,  adding  to  its  terrors,  for  they  rode  down  footmen  with 
out  mercy.     One  of  the  great  guns  was  overturned  and  lay 
amid  the  ruins  of  a  caisson.     Sights  of  wild  and  terrible  agony 
met  the  eye  everywhere.     An    eye-witness  of  the  scene   de 
scribes  the  despairing  efforts  of  an  artilleryman,  who  was  run 
ning  between  the  ponderous  fore  and  after  wheels  of  his  gun 
carriage,  hanging  on  with  both  hands  and  vainly  striving  to 
jump  upon    the   ordnance.     The   drivers  were   spurring   the 


120  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

horses;  he  could  not  cling  much  longer,  and  a  more  agonized 
expression  never  fixed  the  features  of  a  drowning  man.  The 
carriage  bounded  from  the  roughness  of  a  steep  hill  leading  to 
a  creek ;  he  lost  his  hold,  fell,  and  in  an  instant  the  great 
wheels  had  crushed  the  life  out  of  him. 

The  retreat  did  not  slacken  in  the  least  until  Centre  ville  was 
reached.  There,  the  sight  of  the  reserve — Miles's  brigade — 
formed  in  order  on  the  hill,  seemed  somewhat  to  reassure  the 
van.  The  rally  was  soon  overcome  by  a  few  sharp  discharges 
of  artillery,  the  Confederates  having  a  gun  taken  from  the  en 
emy  in  position.  The  teams  and  foot-soldiers  pushed  on,  passing 
their  own  camp  and  heading  swiftly  for  the  distant  Potomac. 

The  men  literally  screamed  with  rage  and  fright  when  their 
way  was  blocked  up.  At  every  shot,  a  convulsion,  as  it  were, 
seized  upon  the  morbid  mass  of  bones,  sinews,  wood,  and  iron, 
and  thrilled  through  it,  giving  new  energy  and  action  to  its 
desperate  efforts  to  get  free  from  itself.  The  cry  of  "  cavalry" 
arose.  Mounted  men  still  rode  faster,  shouting  out,  "  cavalry 
is  coming."  For  miles  the  roar  of  the  flight  might  be  heard. 
Negro  servants  on  led-horses  dashed  frantically  past,  men  in 
.'uniform  swarmed  by  on  mules,  chargers,  and  even  draught 
Worses,  which  had  been  cut  out  of  carts  and  wagons,  and  went 
>on  with  harness  clinging  to  their  heels  as  frightened  as  their 
riders.  "  We're  whipped,"  "  we're  whipped,"  was  the  univer- 
&ii  cry.  The  buggies  and  light  wagons  triecLto  pierce  the  rear 
-of  the  mass  of  carts,  which  were  now  solidified  and  moving  on 
like  a  glacier ;  while  further  ahead  the  number  of  mounted 
men  increased,  and  the  volume  of  fugitives  became  denser. 

For  ten  miles,  the  road  over  which  the  Grand  Army  had  so 
fitely  passed  southward,  gay  with  unstained  banners,  and 
flushed  with  surety  of  strength,  was  covered  with  the  frag 
ments  of  its  retreating  forces,  shattered  and  panic-stricken  in  a 
single  day. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  deplorable  spectacle 
than  was  presented  in  "Washington  as  the  remnants  of  the  army 
came  straggling  in.  During  Sunday  evening,  it  had  been  sup 
posed  in  the  streets  of  the  Federal  city  that  its  army  had  won 
a  decisive  and  brilliant  victory.  The  elation  was  extreme. 
At  each  echo  of  the  peals  of  the  cannon,  men  were  seen  on  the 
street  lamping  up  and  exclaiming — "  There  goes  another  hun- 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  121 

dred  of  the  d d  rebels."     The  next  morning  the  news  of 

defeat  was  brought  by  the  tide  of  the  panic-stricken  fugitives. 
One  of  the  boats  from  Alexandria  came  near  being  sunk  by  the 
rush  of  the  panic-stricken  soldiers  upon  its  decks.  Their  panic 
did  not  stop  with  their  arrival  in  Washington.  They  rushed  to 
the  depot  to  continue  their  flight  from  Washington,  The  govern 
ment  was  compelled  to  put  it  under  a  strong  guard  to  keep  of! 
the  fugitives  who  struggled  to  get  on  the  Northern  trains. 
Others  fled  wildly  into  the  country.  Not  a  few  escaped  across 
the  Susquehanna  in  this  manner,  compelling  the  negroes  they 
met  to  exchange  their  clothes  with  them  for  their  uniforms. 
For  four  or  five  days,  the  wild  and  terror-stricken  excitement 
prevailed.  Many  of  the  fugitives,  with  garments  nearly  torn 
from  them,  and  covered  with  the  blood  of  their  wounds, 
thronged  the  streets  with  mutinous  demonstrations.  Others, 
exhausted  with  fatigue  and  hunger,  fear  and  dismay  upon  their 
countenances,  with  torn  clothing,'  covered  with  dust  and  blood, 
were  to  be  seen  in  all  quarters  of  the  city,  lying  upon  the  pave 
ments,  cellar-doors,  or  any  other  spot  that  offered  them  a  place 
for  the  repose  which  nature  demanded.  Many  of  them  had 
nothing  of  the  appearance  of  soldiers  left  except  their  be 
smeared  and  tattered  uniforms.  They  did  not  pretend  to  ob 
serve  any  order,  nor  did  their  officers  seem  to  exercise  the  least 
authority  over  them.  Some  recounted  to  horror-stricken  au 
diences  the  bloody  prowess  of  the  Confederate  troops.  The  city 
of  Washington  was  for  days  in  trembling  expectation  of  the  ad 
vance  of  the  Confederate  army,  flushed  with  victory  and  intent 
upon  planting  its  flag  upon  the  summits  of  the  Northern  capital. 
We  had,  indeed,  won  .a  splendid  victory,  to  judge  from  its 
fruits  within  the  limits  of  the  battle-field.  The  events  of  the 
battle  of  Manassas  were  glorious  for  our  people,  and  were 
thought  to  be  of  crushing  effect  upon  the  morale  of  our  hitherto 
confident  and  overweening  adversary.  Our  loss  was  consider 
able.  The  killed  outright  numbered  369  ;  the  bounded,  1,483 
making  an  aggregate  of  1,852.  The  actual  loss  of  the  enemy 
will  never  be  known  ;  it  may  now  only  be  conjectured.  Their 
abandoned  dead,  as  they  were  buried  by  our  people  where  they 
fell,  unfortunately  were  not  enumerated,  but  many  parts  of  the 
field  were  thick  with  their  corpses,  as  but  few  battle-fields  have 
been.  The  official  reports  of  the  enemy  are  expresslv  si- 


122  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

lent  on  this  point,  but  still  afford  ns  data  for  an  approximate 
estimate.  Left  almost  in  the  dark,  in  respect  to  the  losses  of 
Hunter's  and  Ileintzelman's  divisions — first,  longest,  and  most 
hotly  engaged — we  are  informed  that  Sherman's  brigade — 
Tyler's  division — suffered  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  f>09  •. 
that  is  about  18  per  cent,  of  the  brigade.  A  regiment  ot 
Franklin's  brigade — Gorman's — lost  21  per  cent,  Griffin's 
(battery)  loss  was  30  per  cent. ;  and  that  of  K  eyes'  brigade, 
which  was  so  handled  by  its  commander,  as  to  be  exposed  to 
only  occasional  volleys  from  our  troops,  was  at  least  10  per 
cent.  To  these  facts  add  the  repeated  references  in.  the  reports 
of  the  more  reticent  commanders,  to  the  "  murderous"  fire  to 
which  they  were  habitually  exposed — the  "pistol  range"  vol 
leys,  and  galling  musketry,  of  which  they  speak,  as  scourging 
their  ranks,  and  we  are  warranted  in  placing  the  entire  loss  of 
the  Federalists  at  over  4,500  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners, 
28  pieces  of  artillery,  about  5,000  muskets,  and  nearly  500,000 
cartridges  ;  a  garrison  flag  and  10  colors  were  captured  on  the 
field  or  in  the  pursuit.  Besides  these,  we  captured  64  artillery 
horses,  with  their  harness,  26  wagons,  and  much  camp  equipage, 
clothing,  and  other  property,  abandoned  in  their  flight. 

The  news  of  our  great  victory  was  received  by  the  people  of 
the  South  without  indecent  exultations.  The  feeling  was  one 
of  deep  and  quiet  congratulation,  singularly  characteristic  of 
the  Southern  people.  A  superficial  observer  would  have 
judged  Richmond,  the  Confederate  capital,  spiritless  under  the 
news.  There  were  no  bells  rung,  no  bonfires  kindled,  no  exul 
tations  of  a  mob,  and  none  of  that  parade  with  which  the  North 
had  exploited  their  pettiest  successes  in.  the  opening  of  the  war. 
But  there  was  what  superficial  observation  might  not  have 
apprehended  and  could  not  have  appreciated — a  deep,  serious, 
thrilling  enthusiasm,  which  swept  thousands  of  hearts,  which 
was  too  solemn  for  wild  huzzas,  arid  too  thoughtful  to  be  uttered 
in  the  eloquence  of  ordinary  words.  The  tremulous  tones  ol 
deep  emotion,  the  silent  grasp  of  the  hand,  the  faces  of  men 
catching  the  deep  and  burning  enthusiasm  of  unuttered  feelings 
from  each  other,  composed  an  eloquence  to  which  words  would 
have  been  a  mockery.  Shouts  would  have  marred  the  solem 
nity  of  the  general  joy.  The  manner  of  the  reception  of  the 
news  in  Richmond  was  characteristic  of  the  conservative  and 


THE    FIEST    YEAB.  123 

poised  spirit  of  our  government  and  people.  The  only  national 
recognition  of  the  victory  was  the  passage  of  resolutions  in  the 
Provisional  Congress,  acknowledging  the  interposition  and 
mercies  of  Providence  in  the  affairs  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
recommending  thanksgiving  services  in  all  the  churches  of  the 
South  on  the  ensuing  Sabbath. 

The  victory  had  been  won  by  the  blood  of  many  of  our  best 
and  bravest,  and  the  public  sorrow  over  the  dead  was  called 
upon  to  pay  particular  tributes  to  manjr  of  our  officers  who 
had  fallen  in  circumstances  of  particular  gallantry.  Among 
others,  Gen.  Bee,  to  whose  soldierly  distinction  and  heroic  ser 
vices  on  the  field  justice  was  never  fully  done,  until  they  were 
especially  pointed  out  in  the  official  reports,  both  of  General 
Johnston  and  General  Beauregar^d,  had  fallen  upon  the  field. 
The  deceased  general  was  a  graduate  of  "West  Point.  During 
the  Mexican  war,  he  had  served  with  marked  distinction,  win 
ning  two  brevets  before  the  close  of  the  war ;  the  last  that  of 
captain,  for  gallant  and  meritorious  conduct  in  the  storming  ot 
Chapultepec.  His  achievements  since  that  time  in  wars 
among  the  Indians  were  such  as  to  attract  towards  him  the 
attention  of  his  State ;  and  in  his  dying  hand,  on  the  field  in 
which  he -fell,  he  grasped  the  sword  which  South  Carolina  had 
iaken  pride  in  presenting  him. 

Colonel  Francis  S.  Bartow,  of  Georgia,  who  had  fallen  in 
the  same  charge  in  which  the  gallant  South  Carolinian  had 
received  his  death-wound,  was  chairman  of  the  Military  Com 
mittee  of  the  Provisional  Congress,  and  that  body  paid  a  pub 
lic  tribute  of  more  than  usual  solemnity  and  eloquence  to  his 
memory.* 

*  An  eloquent  tribute  was  paid  to  the  memory  of  Colonel  Bartow  in  Con 
gress  by  Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  in  which  some  interesting  recitals  were 
given  of  Colonel  Bartow's  short,  but  brilliant  experiences  of  the  camp.  The 
following  extract  is  indicative  of  a  spirit  of  confidence,  which  was  peculiarly 
characteristic  of  the  officers  and  men  alike  of  our  army  : 

"  While  in  camp,  and  before  the  advance  of  Patterson's  column  into  Vir 
ginia,  but  while  it  yet  hovered  on  the  border  in  Maryland,  watched  closely 
by  Johnston's  army,  I  said,  casually,  to  Colonel  Bartow,  'The  time  is  ap 
preaching  when  your  duties  will  call  you  to  meet  Congress  at  Richmond,  and 
I  look  to  the  pleasure  of  travelling  therewith  you.'  He  replied,  'I  don't 
think  I  can  go ;  my  duties  will  detain  me  here.'  I  toid  him  that  if  a  battle 
was  fought  between  the  two  armies,  it  certainly  was  not  then  imminent,  and 
t  thought  his  service  in  Congress,  and  especially  as  chairman  of  the  Military 


124-  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  results  of  the  victory  of  Manassas  were,  on  the  first 
days  of  its  full  announcement,  received  in  the  South  as  indica 
tive  of  a  speedy  termination  of  the  war.  The  advance  of  our 
army  on  Washington  was  impatiently  expected.  A  few  days 
passed,  and  it  became  known  to  the  almost  indignant  disap 
pointment  of  the  people,  that  our  army  had  no  thoughts  of  an 
advance  upon  the  Northern  capital,  and  was  content  to  remain 
where  it  was,  occupying  the  defensive  line  of  Bull  Run. 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  in  excuse  of  the  palpable 
and  great  error,  the  perniciousness  of  which  no  one  doubted 
after  its  effects  were  realized,  of  the  failure  of  the  Confederate 
army  to  take  advantage  of  its  victory,  and  press  oil  to  Wash 
ington,  where  for  days  there  was  nothing  to  oppose  them  but 


Committee,  would  be  even  more  valuable  to  tlie  country  in  Congress,  than  in 
the  field.  After  a  pause,  and  with  a  beaming  eye,  he  said :  '  No,  sir  ;  I  shall 
never  leave  this  army,  until  the  battle  is  fought  and  won.'  And,  afterwards, 
while  the  two  armies  lay  in  front  of  each  other,  the  enemy  at  Martinsburg, 
and  Johnston  with  his  command  at  Bunker  Hill,  only  seven  miles  apart — the 
enemy  we  knew  numbered  some  twenty-two  thousand  men,  while  on  our  side 
we  could  not  present  against  them  half  that  number,  and  the  battle  hourly 
expected.  His  head-quarters  under  a  tree  in  an  orchard,  and  his  shelter  and 
shade  from  a  burning  sun  the  branches  of  that  tree,  and  his  table  a  camp 
chest — I  joined  him  at  dinner.  Little  is,  of  course,  known  of  the  views  and 
purposes  of  a  general  in  command,  but  it  was  generally  understood  that 
Johnston  was  then  to  give  the  enemy  battle,  should  he  invite  it.  In  conver 
sation  on  the  chances  of  the  fight,  I  said  to  Bartow,  '  of  the  spirit  and  courage 
)f  the  troops  I  have  no  doubt,  but  the  odds  against  you  are  immense.'  His 
prompt  reply  was,  '  they  can  never  whip  us.  We  shall  not  count  the  odds. 
We  may  be  exterminated,  but  never  conquered.  I  shall  go  into  that  fight 
with  a  determination  never  to  leave  the  field  alive,  but  in  victory,  and  I  know 
that  the  same  spirit  animates  my  whole  command.  How,  then,  can  they  whip 
as?' 

"  Am  I  here  to  tell  you  how  gallantly  and  truthfully  he  made  that  vow  good 
on  the  bloody  plain  at  Manassas,  and  how  nobly  the  troops  under  his  com 
mand  there  redeemed  the  pledge  made  for  them  ?  The  '  battle  was  fought 
and  won,'  as  he  vowed  at  Bunker  Hill,  and  he  sealed  in  death  his  first  promise 
in  the  field  of  war.  Will  you  call  this  courage — bravery  ?  No,  no.  Bartow 
never  thought  of  the  perils  of  .the  fight.  Bravery,  as  it  is  termed,  may  be 
nothing  more  than  nervous  insensibility.  With  him  the  incentives  to  the 
battle-field  were  of  a  far  different  type.  The  stern  and  lofty  purpose  to  free 
his  country  from  the  invader  ;  the  calm  judgment  of  reason,  paramount  on  its 
throne,  overruling  all  other  sensations ;  resolution  and  will  combined  to  the 
deed,  the  consequence  to  take  care  of  itself.  There  is  the  column  of  true 
majesty  in  man.  Such  was  Bartow,  and  such  will  impartial  history  record 
him  He  won  immortality  in  Fame,  even  at  the  threshold  of  her  temple.'' 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  125 

an  utterly  demoralized  army,,  intent  upon  a  continuance  of 
their  flight  at  the  approach  of  our  forces.  In  his  official  re 
port,  General  Johnston  insists  that  "  no  serious  thoughts  "  were 
ever  entertained  of  advancing  against  the  capital,  as  it  was 
considered  certain  that  the  fresh  troops  within  the  works  were, 
in  number,  quite  sufficient  for  their  defence ;  and  that  if  not, 
General  Patterson's  army  would  certainly  reinforce  them  soon 
enough.  This  excuse  takes  no  account  of  the  utterly  demor 
alized  condition  of  the  Northern  forces  at  Washington  ;  and 
the  further  explanations  of  the  inadequate  means  of  our  army 
in  ammunition,  provisions,  and  transportation  are  only  satis 
factory  excuses,  why  the  toil  of  pursuit  was  not  undertaken 
immediately  after  the  battle,  and  do  not  answer  with  complete 
satisfaction  the  inquiry  why  an  advance  movement  was  not 
made  within  the  time  when  means  for  it  might  have,  been  fur 
nished,  and  the  enemy  was  still  cowed,  dispirited,  and  trembling 
for  his  safety  in  the  refuges  of  Washington. 

The  fact  is,  that  our  army  had  shown  no  capacity  to  under 
stand  the  extent  of  their  fortunes,  or  to  use  the  unparalleled 
opportunities  they  had  so  bravely  won.  They  had  achieved  a 
victory  not  less  brilliant  than  that  of  Jena,  and  not  more  profit 
able  than  that  of  Alma.  Instead  of  entering  the  gates  of 
Sebastopol  from  the  last-named  field,  the  victors  preferred  to 
wait  and  reorganize,  and  found,  instead  of  a  glorious  and  un 
resisting  prey,  a  ten  months'  siege. 

The  lesson  of  a  lost  opportunity  in  the  victory  of  Manassas 
had  to  be  repeated  to  the  South  with  additions  of  misfortune. 
For  months  the  world  was  to  witness  our  largest  army  in  the 
field  confronting  in  idleness  and  the  demoralizations  of  a  sta 
tionary  camp  an  enemy  already  routed  within  twenty  miles  of 
his  capital ;  giving  him  the  opportunity  not  only  to  repair  the 
shattered  columns  of  his  Grand  Army,  but  to  call  nearly  half  a 
million  of  new  men  into  the  field ;  to  fit  out  four  extensive 
armadas  ;  to  fall  upon  a  defenceless  line  of  sea-coast ;  to  open  a 
new  theatre  of  war  in  the  West  and  on  the  Mississippi,  and  to 
cover  the  frontiers  of  half  a  continent  with  his  armies  and 


navies. 


126  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


INCIDENTS    OF    THE    BATTLE. 

A  friend,  Captain  McFarland,  who  did  service  in  the  battle 
of  Manassas  as  a  private  in  Captain  Powell's  Virginia  cavalry, 
has  furnished  us  with  a  diary  of  some  thrilling  incidents  of 
the  action.  We  use  a  few  of  them  in  Captain  McFarland 's 
words : 

"  At  8  A.  M.  we  proceeded  to  take  position  as  picket  guard  and  videttes  in 
a  little  clump  of  timber,  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile,  directly  in  front  of  the 
Confederate  earth-works  at  Mitchell's  Ford.  The  picket  consisted  of  twelve 
infantry  and  three  cavalry.  Having  secured  our  horses,  we  lay  down  in  the 
edge  of  the  timber,  and  with  our  long-range  rifles  commenced  to  pick  off  such 
of  the  enemy  as  were  sufficiently  presumptuous  to  show  themselves  clear  of 
the  heavy  timber  which  crowned  the  distant  hill.  In  a  short  time,  the  enemy, 
being  very  much  annoyed  by  our  sharp  shooting,  ran  out  from  the  woods, 
both  in  our  front  and  on  the  left,  two  rifle  pieces,  and 'threw  their  conical 
shells  full  into  our  covert.  The  pickets,  however,  were  not  dislodged.  But  two 
of  our  horses  became  frantic  from  the  whistling  and  explosion  of  the  shells, 
and  we  found  it  necessary  to  remove  them.  Just  at  this  moment,  a  detachment 
of  the  enemy's  cavalry  came  dashing  down  the  road,  but  halted  before  they 
came  within  range  of  the  muskets  of  the  infantry.  The  enemy  then  com 
menced  a  heavy  firing  with  artillery  on  our  earth- works  at  the  ford,  and  we 
retired  beyond  Bull  Run. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  thunder  of  battle  was  heard  on  our  left,  and  from  the 
heights  above  the  stream  could  be  seen  the  smoke  from  the  scene  of  the  con 
flict,  which,  as  it  shifted  position,  showed  the  varying  tide  of  conflict.  Occa 
sionally,  a  small  white  cloud  of  smoke  made  its  appearance  above  the  horizon, 
indicating  the  premature  explosion  of  a  bomb-shell ;  while,  at  painfully  regu 
lar  intervals,  the  dull,  heavy  report  of  the  enemy's  thirty-two  pounder  told  us 
that  its  position  remained  unassailed.  In  the  mean  time,  the  infantry  in  the 
trenches  at  Mitchell's  Ford  were  impatiently  awaiting  the  vainly  looked-for 
advance  upon  our  breastworks.  The  enemy  threw  their  shells  continuously 
into  this  locality,  but  during  the  whole  day  killed  only  three  men,  and  these 
were  standing  up  contrary  to  orders.  This  position  was  commanded  by  the 
brave  Brigadier-genei  al  M.  L.  Bonham,  of  South  Carolina. 

About  11  o'clock,  the  cavalry  were  ordered  to  ride  to  the  main  field  oi 
action,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Stone  Bridge.  We  set  off  at  a  dashing  gallop 
throwing  down  fences  and  leaping  ditches,  in  our  eagerness  to  participate  in 
the  then  raging  conflict.  In  crossing  an  open  field,  I  was,  with  Lieutenant 
Timberlake,  riding  at  the  head  of  a  detachment,  consisting  of  Captain  Wick- 
ham's  light-horse  troop,  and  Capt*in  E.  B.  Powell's  Company  of  Fairfax  cav 
alry,  when  a  shell  was  thrown  at  the  head  of  the  column  from  a  rifle  piece 
stationed  at  the  distance  of  not  less  than  two  miles,  and  as,  hurrying  onward 
we  leaned  down  upon  our  horses,  the  hurtling  missile  passed  a  few  inche 
above  us,  burying  itself  harmlessly  in  the  soft  earth  on  our  left. 

On  arriving  near  the  scene  of  action,  we  took  position  below  the  Lewis 
house,  under  cover  of  an  abruptly  rising  hill.  Here  we  remained  stationary 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  127 

for  about  an  hour.  The  enemy  in  the  mean  time,  knowing  our  position,  en 
dc-avored  to  dislodge  us  with  their  shells,  which  for  some  time  came  hissing 
over  our  heads,  and  exploded  harmlessly  in  our  rear.  Finally,  however,  they 
lowered  their  guns  sufficiently  to  cause  their  shot  to  touch  the  crest  of  the 
hill,  and  ricochet  into  our  very  midst,  killing  one  man,  besides  wounding  sev 
eral,  and  maiming  a  number  of  horses.  But  we  still  retained  our  position 
amid  the  noise  of  battle,  which  now  became  terrific. 

From  the  distance  came  the  roar  of  the  enemy's  artillery,  while  near  by  our 
field-pieces  were  incessantly  vomiting  their  showers  of  grape  and  hurling 
their  small  shell  into  the  very  teeth  of  the  foe.  At  intervals,  as  regiments 
came  face  to  face,  the  unmistakable  rattle  of  the  musketry  told  that  the  small- 
arms  of  our  brave  boys  were  doing  deadly  work.  At  times,  we  could  hear  wild 
yells  and  cheers  which  rose  above  the  din,  as  our  infantry  rushed  on  to  the 
charge.  Then  followed  an  ominous  silence,  and  I  could  imagine  the  fierce  but 
quiet  work  of  steel  to  steel,  until  another  cheer  brought  me  knowledge  of  the 
baffled  enemy. 

Meanwhile,  our  reinforcements  were  pouring  b"y,  and  pressing  with  enthusi 
astic  cheers  to  the  battle-field.  On  the  other  hand,  many  of  our  wounded  were 
borne  past  us  to  the  rear.  One  poor  fellow  was  shot  through  the  left  cheek  ; 
as  he  came  past  me,  he  smiled,  and  muttered  with  difficulty,  "  Boys,  they've 
spoilt  my  beauty."  He  could  say  no  more,  but  an  expression  of  acute  pain 
flitted  across  his  face,  and  shaking  his  clenched  fist  in  the  direction  of  the  foe, 
he  passed  on.  Another  came  by,  shot  in  the  breast.  His  clothing  had  been 
stripped  from  over  his  ghastly  wound,  and  at  every  breath,  the  warm  life- 
blood  gushed  from  his  bosom.  I  rode  up  to  him,  as,  leaning  on  two  compan 
ions,  he  stopped  for  a  moment  to  rest.  "  My  poor  fellow,"  said  I,  "  I  am  sorry 
to  see  you  thus."  "  Yes !  yes,"  was  his  reply,  "  they've  clone  for  me  now,  but 
my  father's  there  yet !  our  army's  there  yet !  our  cause  is  there  yet !"  and 
raising  himself  from  the  arms  of  his  companions,  his  pale  face  lighting  up  like 
a  sunbeam,  he  cried  with  an  enthusiasm  I  shall '  never  forget,  "  and  Liberty's 
there  yet !"  But  this  spasmodic  exertion  was  too  much  for  him,  a  purple  flood 
poured  from  his  wound,  and  he  swooned  away.  I  was  enthusiastic  before,  but 
I  felt  then  as  if  I  could  have  ridden  singly  and  alone  upon  a  regiment,  regard 
less  of  all  but  my  country's  cause. 

Just  then,  the  noble  Beauregard  came  dashing  by  with  his  staff,  and  the  cry 
was  raised,  that  part  of  Sherman's  battery  had  been  taken.  Cheer  after  cheer 
went  up  from  our  squadrons.  It  was  taken  up  and  borne  along  the  whole 
battle-field,  until  the  triumphant  shout  seemed  one  grand  cry  of  victory.  At 
this  auspicious  moment,  our  infantry  who  had  been  supporting  the  batteries 
were  ordered  to  rise  and  charge  the  enemy  with  the  bayonet.  With  terrific 
veils,  they  rushed  upon  the  Federal  legions  with  an  impetuosity  which  could 
not  be  withstood,  and  terror-stricken,  they  broke  and  fled  like  deer  from  the 
cry  of  wolves.  Our  men  followed  hard  upon  them,  shouting,  and  driving  their 
bayonets  up  to  the  hilt  in  the  backs  of  such  of  the  enemy  as  by  ill  luck 
chanced  to  be  hindmost  in  the  flight. 

At  this  moment,  one  of  Gen.  Beauregard's  aids  rode  rapidly  up  and  spoko 
to  Col  Radford,  commander  of  our  regiment  of  Virginia  cavalry,  who  imme 
diately  turned  to  us  and  shouted,  "  Men,  now  is  our  time  !"  It  was  the  hap 
piest  moment  of  my  life.  Taking  a  rapid  gallop,  we  crossed  Bull  Run  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  below  the  Stone  Bridge,  and  made  for  the  rear  of  the 


128  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

now  flying  enemy.  On  we  dashed,  with  the  speed  of  the  wind,  our  horses 
tvild  with  excitement,  leaping  fences,  ditches,  and  fallen  trees,  until  we  came 
opposite  to  the  house  of  Mrs.  Spindle,  which  was  used  by  the  enemy  as  a  ho& 
pital,  and  in  front  of  which  was  a  small  cleared  space,  the  fence  which  inclosed 
it  running  next  the  timber.  Letcping*this  fence,  we  debouched  from  the  woods 
with  a  demoniacal  yell,  and  found  ourselves  on  the  flank  of  the  enemy. 

The  remnant  of  Sherman's  battery  was  passing  at  the  time,  and  thus 
we  threw  ourselves  between  the  main  body  of  the  enemy  and  Sherman's 
battery,  which,  supported  by  four  regiments  of  infantry,  covered  the  re 
treat  of  the  Federal  army.  Our  regiment  had  divided  in  the  charge,  and  our 
detachment  now  consisted  of  Capt.  Wickham's  cavalry,  Capt.  E.  B.  Powell's 
troop  of  Fairfax  cavalry,  the  Radford  Rangers,  Capt.  Radford,  the  whole  led 
by  Col.  Radford. 

Our  onslaught  was  terrific.  With  our  rifles  and  shot-guns,  we  killed  forty- 
nine  of  the  enemy  the  first  discharge,  then  drawing  our  sabres,  we  dashed 
upon  them,  cutting  them  down  indiscriminately. 

With  several  others,  I  rode  up  to  the  door  of  the  hospital  in  which  a  num 
ber  of  terrified  Yankees  had  crowded  for  safety,  and  as  they  came  out,  we  shot 
them  down  with  our  pistols.  Happening  at  this  moment  to  turn  round,  I  saw 
a  Yankee  soldier  in  the  act  of  discharging  his  musket  at  the  group  stationed 
around  the  door.  Just  as  he  fired,  I  wheeled  my  horse,  and  endeavored  to 
ride  him  down,  but  he  rolled  over  a  fence  which  crossed  the  yard.  This,  I 
forced  my  horse  to  leap,  and  drawing  my  revolver,  I  shouted  to  him  to  stop ; 
as  he  turned,  I  aimed  to  fire  into  his  face,  but  my  horse  being  restive,  the  ball 
intended  for  his  brain,  only  passed  through  his  arm,  which  he  held  over  his 
head,  and  thence  through  his  cap.  I  was  about  to  finish  him  with  another 
Bhot  (for  I  had  vowed  to  spare  no  prisoners  that  day),  when  I  chanced  tc  look 
into  his  face.  He  was  a  beardless  boy,  evidently  not  more  than  seventeen 
years  old.  I  could  not  find  it  in  my  heart  to  kill  him,  for  he  plead  piteously  ; 
BO  seizing  him  by  the  collar,  and  putting  my  horse  at  the  speed,  leaping  the 
fence,  I  dragged  him  to  our  rear-guard. 

Just  at  this  moment,  I  saw  that  the  enemy  had  unlimbered  two  field-pieces, 
and  were  preparing  to  open  upon  us.  Capt.  Radford  was  near  me,  and  I 
pointed  to  the  cannon.  He  dashed  the  spurs  into  his  horse,  and  shouted, 
"  Charge  the  battery."  But  only  twenty  of  our  men  were  near,  the  rest  having 
charged  the  rear  of  the  main  body  of  the  flying  Federals.  Besides  this,  the 
cannon  were  supported  by  several  regiments  of  infantry.  We  saw  our  situa 
tion  at  a  glance,  auJ  determined  to  retreat  to  the  enemy's  flank.  We  were 
very  close  to  the  battery,  and  as  I  wheeled  my  horse,  I  fired  a  shot  from  my 
revolver  at  the  man  who  was  aiming  the  piece.  He  reeled,  grasped  at  the 
wheel,  and  fell.  I  had  thrown  myself  entirely  on  the  left  side  of  my  horse. 
my  foot  hanging  upon  the  croup  of  the  saddle,  and  the  grape  consequently 
passed  over  me.  Capt.  Radford  was  in  advance  of  me,  his  horse  very  unruly, 
plunging  furiously.  As  I  rode  up,  he  uttered  a  cry,  and  put  his  hand  to  his 
side.  At  this  instant,  we  came  to  a  fence,  and  my  horse  cleared  it  with 
a  bound.  I  turned  to  look  for  Capt.  Radford,  but  he  was  not  visible.  A 
grape-shot  had  entered  just  above  the  hip,  and  tearing  through  his  bowels 
passed  out  of  his  left  side.  He  fell  from  his  steed,  which  leaped  the  fence 
and  ran  off.  The  captain  was  found  afterwards  by  some  of  Col.  Munford's 
cavalry.  He  lived  till  sunset,  and  died  in  great  agony.  By  this  discharge 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  129 

were  killed,  besides  Capt.  R.,  a  lieutenq  at,  two  non-commissioned  officers,  and 
five  privates. 

Having  gained  the  flank  of  the  enemy,  I  dismounted  and  firfld  for  some 
time  with  my  rifle  into  the  passing  columns.  Suddenly  I  found  myself  entirely 
alone,  and  remounting,  I  rode  back  until  I  found  Col.  Munford's  column 
drawn  up  in  the  woods.  Not  being  able  to  find  my  own  company,  I  returned 
to  the  pursuit. 

Kemper's  battery  had  dashed  upon  the  horror-stricken  foe,  and  opened  on 
their  rear,  which  was  covered  oy  the  remainder  of  Sherman's  battery,  includ 
ing  the  thirty-two  pound  rifle-gun,  known  as  "  Long  Tom."  The  havoc  pro 
duced  was  terrible.  Drivers  were  shot  from  their  horses,  torn  to  pieces  by 
the  shells  and  shot.  Cannon  were  dismounted,  wheels  smashed,  horses 
maimed,  and  the  road  strewn  with  the  dead.  This  completed  the  rout,  and 
the  passage  of  Cub  Run  was  blocked  by  wagons  and  caissons  being  driven 
into  the  fords  above  and  below  the  bridge,  and  upon  the  bridge  itself. 

The  route  taken  by  the  flying  enemy  was  blocked  with  dead.  I  saw  Yan 
kees  stone-dead,  without  a  wound.  They  had  evidently  died  from  exhaustion 
or  sheer  fright.  Along  the  route  we  found  the  carriage  of  Governor  Sprague 
of  Rhode  Island,  and  in  it  his  overcoat,  with  several  baskets  of  champagne. 
The  necks  of  the  bottles  were  snapped  in  a  trice,  and  we  drank  to  our  victory. 
But  our  delight  and  pride  can  scarcely  be  imagined,  when  we  found  "  Long 
Tom,"  whose  whistling  shells  had  been  falling  continually  among  us  from 
early  dawn.  It  was  hauled  back  to  Bull  Run  amid  the  shouts  of  our  men,  and 
particularly  Kemper's  artillery  boys,  who  acted  so  well  their  part  in  causing 
the  Federals  to  abandon  it. 

*  *  ******  T^  following  morning,  in  the  dark  drizzling 
rain,  I  rode  over  the  field  of  battle.  It  was  a  sorrowful  and  terrible  spectacle 
to  behold,  without  the  stirring  excitements  of  battle  to  relieve  the  horrors  of 
the  ghastly  heaps  of  dead  that  strewed  the  field.  At  a  distance,  some  por 
tions  of  the  field  presented  the  appearance  of  flower-gardens,  from  the  gay 
colors  of  the  uniforms,  turbans,  &c.,  of  the  dead  Zouaves.  The  faces  of  many 
of  the  dead  men  were  already  hideously  swollen,  blotched,  and  blackened, 
from  the  effects  of  the  warm,  wet  atmosphere  of  the  night. 

In  a  little  clump  of  second-growth  pines,  a  number  of  wounded  had  crawled 
for  shelter.  Many  of  our  men  were  busy  doing  them  offices  of  kindness  and 
humanity.  There  was  one  New  York  Zouave  who  appeared  to  be  dying ;  his 
jaws  were  working,  and  he  seemed  to  be  in  great  agony.  I  poured  some  wu 
ter  down  his  throat,  which  revived  him.  Fixing  his  eyes  upon  me,  with  a 

look  of  fierce  hatred,  he  muttered,  "  You  d d  rebel,  if  I  had  a  musket  / 

would  blow  out  your  infernal  soul."  Another  pale  youth  was  lying  in  the 
wet  undergrowth,  shivering  in  the  rain,  and  in  the  cold  of  approaching  death. 
He  was  looking  wistfully  towards  a  large,  warm  blanket  spread  across  my 
saddle,  and  said  in  his  halting,  shivering  breath,  "I'm  so  cold."  I  spread  the 
blanket  over  him,  and  left  him  to  that  end  of  his  wretchedness  which  could 
not  be  far  distant.  9 


130  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTEE  Y. 

Results  of  the  Manassas  Battle  in  the  North.— General  Scott.—  McClellan,  "  tint 
Young  Napoleon."— Energy  of  the  Federal  Government.— The  Bank  Loan.— Events 
in  the  West. — The  MISSOURI  CAMPAIGN. — Governor  Jackson's  Proclamation. — Sterling 
Price.— The  Affair  of  Booneville. — Organization  of  the  Missouri  forces. — The  BATTLE 
OF  CARTHAGE. — General  McCulloch. — The  BATTLE  OF  OAK  HILL. — Death  of  General 
Lyon. — The  Confederate  Troops  leave  Missouri. — Operations  in  Northern  Missouri. — 
General  Harris. — General  Price's  march  towards  the  Missouri. — The  Affair  at  Dry- 
wood  Creek. — The  BATTLE  OF  LEXINGTON. — The  Jayhawkers. — The  Victory  of  "  the 
Five  Hundred." — General  Price's  Achievements. — His  Retreat  and  the  necessity  for 
it. — Operations  of  General  Jeff.  Thompson  in  Southeastern  Missouri. — The  Affair  of 
Fredericktown. — General  Price's  passage  of  the  Osage  River. — Secession  of  Missouri 
from  the  Federal  Union. — Fremont  superseded. — The  Federal  forces  in  Missouri  de 
moralized. — General  Price  at  Springfield. — Review  of  his  Campaign. — SKETCH  o» 
GENERAL  PRICE. — Coldness  of  the  Government  towards  him. 


THE  Northern  mind  demanded  a  distinguished  victim  for  its 
humiliating  defeat  at  Manassas.  The  people  and  government 
of  the  North  had  alike  flattered  themselves  with  the  expecta 
tion  of  possessing  Richmond  by  midsummer  ;  their  forces  were 
said  to  be  invincible,  and  their  ears  were  not  open  to  any  re 
port  or  suggestion  of  a  possible  disaster.  On  the  night  of  the 
21st  of  July,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Northern  cities  had  slept 
upon  the  assurances  of  victory.  It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  a 
description  of  their  disappointment  and  consternation  on  the 
succeeding  day. 

The  Northern  newspapers  were  forced  to  the  acknowledg 
ment  of  a  disaster  at  once  humiliating  and  terrible.  They  as 
signed  various  causes  for  it.  Among  these  were  the  non-arri 
val  of  General  Patterson  and  the  incompetence  of  their  general 
officers.  The  favorite  explanation  of  the  disaster  was,  how 
ever,  the  premature  advance  of  the  army  under  General  Scott's 
direction  ;  although  the  fact  was,  that  the  advance  movement 
had  been  undertaken  from  the  pressure  of  popular  clamor  in  the 
North. 

The  clamor  was  now  for  new  commanders.  It  came  from 
the  army  and  the  people  indiscriminately.  The  commander- 
in-chief,  General  Scott,  was  said  to  be  impaired  in  his  faculties 
by  age,  and  it  was  urged  that  he  should  be  made  to  yield  the 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  131 

command  to  a  younger  and  more  efficient  spirit.  The  railing 
accusations  against  General  Scott  were  made  by  Northern 
journals  that  had,  before  the  issue  of  Manassas,  declared  him 
to  be  the  "  Greatest  Captain  of  the  Age,"  and  without  a  rival 
among  modern  military  chieftains.  It  was  thought  no  allevia 
tion  of  the  matter  that  he  was  not  advised,  as  his  friends  repre 
sented,  of  the  strength  of  "  the  rebels."  It  was  his  business  to 
have  known  it,  and  to  have  calculated  the  result. 

General  Scott  cringed  at  the  lash  of  popular  indignation 
with  a  humiliation  painful  to  behold.  He  was  not  great  in 
misfortune.  In  a  scene  with  President  Lincoln,  the  incidents 
of  which  were  related  in  the  Federal  House  of  Representatives 
by  General  Richardson,  of  Illinois,  he  declared  that  he  had 
acted  "  the  coward,"  in  yielding  to  popular  clamor  for  an  ad 
vance  movement,  and  sought  in  this  wretched  and  infamous 
confession  the  mercy  of  demagogues  who  insulted  his  fallen 
fortunes. 

The  call  for  a  "  younger  general"  to  take  command  of  the 
Federal  forces  was  promptly  responded  to  by  the  appointment 
of  General  G.  B.  McClellan  to  the  command  of  the  Army  o£ 
the  Potomac.  The  understanding  on  both  sides  of  the  line 
was,  that  General  Scott  was  virtually  superseded  by  the  Fed 
eral  government,  so  far  as  the  responsibility  of  active  service 
was  concerned,  though  he  retained  his  nominal  position  and 
pay  as  lieutenant-general  and  commander- in-chief  of  the  Arrny 
of  the  United  States.  The  unfortunate  commander  experienced 
the  deep  humiliation  and  disgrace  of  being  adjudged  incompe 
tent  by  the  North,  whose  cause  he  had  unnaturally  espoused, 
and  whose  armies  he  had  sent  into  the  field  as  invaders  of  the 
land  of  his  birth.  The  retribution  was  righteous.  No  penal 
ties  of  fortune  were  too  severe  for  a  general  who  had  led  or 
directed  an  army  to  trample  upon  the  graves  of  his  sires  and 
to  despoil  the  homes  of  his  kindred  and  country. 

General  McClellan  had  been  lifted  into  an  immense  popu 
larity  by  his  successes  in  Northwestern  Virginia,  in  the  affair 
of  Rich  Mountain  and  the  pursuit  of  General  Garnett,  which 
Northern  exaggeration  had  transformed  into  great  victories. 
For  weeks  he  had  been  the  object  of  a  "  sensation."  His  name 
was  displayed  in  New  York,  on  placards,  on  banners,  and  in 
newspaper  headings,  with  the  phrase,  "McClellan — two  victo- 


132  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ries  in  one  day."  The  newspapers  gave  him  the  title  of  "the 
Young  Napoleon,"  and  in  the  South  the  title  was  derisively 
perpetuated.  He  was  only  thirty-five  years  of  age— small  in 
stature,  with  black  hair  and  moustaches,  and  a  remarkable 
military  precision  of  manner.  He  was  a  pupil  of  West  Point, 
and  had  been  one  of  the  American  Military  Commission  to  the 
Crimea.  "When  appointed  major-general  of  volunteers  by 
Governor  Dennison,  of  Ohio,  he  had  resigned  from  the  army, 
and  was  superintendent  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  railroad,  a 
dilapidated  concern.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
man  who  was  appointed  to  the  responsible  and  onerous  com 
mand  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  any  thing  more  than 
the  creature  of  a  feeble  popular  applause. 

A  leading  Southern  newspaper  had  declared,  on  the  an 
nouncement  of  the  complete  and  brilliant  victory  at  Manassas, 
"  the  independence  of  the  Confederacy  is  secured."  There 
could  not  have  been  a  greater  mistake.  The  active  and  elastic 
spirit  of  the  North  was  soon  at  work  to  repair  its  fortunes ;  and 
time  and  opportunity  were  given  it  by  the  South,  not  only  to 
recover  lost  resources,  but  to  invent  new.  The  government  at 
Washington  displayed  an  energy  which,  perhaps,  is  the  most 
lemarkable  phenomenon  in  the  whole  history  of  the  war:  it 
multiplied  its  armies ;  it  reassured  the  confidence  of  the  peo 
ple  ;  it  recovered  itself  from  financial  straits  which  were  al 
most  thought  to  be  hopeless,  and  while  the  politicians  of  the 
South  were  declaring  that  the  Federal  treasury  was  bankrupt, 
it  negotiated  a  loan  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars 
from  the  banks  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston,  at  a 
rate  but  a  fraction  above  that  of  legal  interest  in  the  State  of 
New  York. 

While  the  North  was  thus  recovering  its  resources  on  the 
frontiers  of  Virginia  and  preparing  for  an  extension  of  the 
campaign,  events  were  transpiring  in  the  West  which  were 
giving  extraordinary  lessons  of  example  and  encouragement 
to  the  Southern  States  bordering  on  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf. 
These  events  were  taking  place  in  Missouri.  The  campaign 
in  that  State  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  episodes  of  the  war 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  history,  ard  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  in  the  lessons  of  the  almost  miraculous  achievements 
of  a  people  stirred  by  the  enthusiasm  of  revolution.  To 


THE    FIRST    YEAR. 

felie  direction  of  these  events  we  must  now  divert  our  narra 
tive. 

THE   MISSOURI   CAMPAIGN. 

The  riots  in  St.  Louis,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made,  were  the  inaugurating  scenes  of  the  revolution  in  Mis 
souri.  The  Federal  government  had  commenced  its  pro 
gramme  of  subjugation  with  a  high  hand.  On  the  10th  of 
May,  a  brigade  of  Missouri  militia,  encamped  under  the  law 
of  the  State  for  organizing  and  drilling  the  militia,  at  Camp 
Jackson,  on  the  western  outskirts  of  St.  Louis,  had  been  forced 
to  surrender  unconditionally  on  the  demand  of  Captain  (after 
wards  General)  Lyon  of  the  Federal  Army.  In  the  riots 
excited  by  the  Dutch  soldiery  in  St.  Louis,  numbers  of  citizens 
had  been  murdered  in  cold  blood ;  a  reign  of  terror  was 
established ;  and  the  most  severe  measures  were  taken  by  the 
Federal  authority  to  keep  in  subjection  the  excitement  and 
rage  of  the  people.  St.  Louis  was  environed  by  a  line  of 
military  posts ;  all  the  arms  and  ammunition  in  the  city  were 
seized,  and  the  houses  of  citizens  searched  for  concealed  muni 
tions  of  war.  The  idea  of  any  successful  resistance  of  Mis 
souri  to  the  Federal  power  was  derided.  "  Let  her  stir,"  said 
the  Lincolriites,  "  and  the  lion's  paw  will  crush  out  her  paltry 
existence." 

The  several  weeks  that  elapsed  between  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  and  the  early  part  of  June  were  occupied  by  the  Seces 
sionists  in  Missouri  with  efforts  to  gain  time  by  negotiation 
and  with  preparations  for  the  contest.  At  length,  finding 
further  delay  impossible,  Governor  Jackson  issued  his  procla 
mation,  calling  for  fifty  thousand  volunteers.  At  the  time  of 
issuing  this  proclamation,  on  the  13th  of  June,  1861,  the  gov 
ernor  was  advised  of  the  purpose  of  the  Federal  authorities  to 
send  an  effective  force  from  St.  Louis  to  Jefferson  City,  the 
capital  of  the  State.  He  determined,  therefore,  to  move  at 
once  with  the  State  records  to  Booneville,  situated  on  the  south 
bank  of  the  Missouri,  eighty  miles  above  Jefferson  City.  Be 
fore  his  departure  from  the  latter  place,  he  had  conferred  upon 
Sterling  Price  the  position  of  major-general  of  the  army  of  Mis 
souri,  and  had  also  appointed  nine  brigadier-generals.  These 


134:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

were  Generals  Parsons.  M.  L.  Clark,  John  B.  Clark,  Slack, 
Harris,  Stein,  Bains,  McBride,  and  Jeff.  Thompson. 

There  was  at  the  time  oi  the  issuance  of  this  proclamation 
no  military  organization  of  any  description  in  the  State.  Per 
haps,  there  had  not  been  a  militia  muster  in  Missouri  for  twelve 
or  fifteen  years,  there  being  no  law  to  require  it.  The  State 
was  without  arms,  or  ammunition.  Such  was  her  condition, 
when,  with  a  noble  and  desperate  gallantly  that  might  have 
put  to  blush  forever  the  stale  and  common  excuse  of  "  help 
lessness"  for  a  cringing  submission  to  tyranny,  the  State  of 
Missouri  determined  alone  and  unaided  to  confront  and  resist 
the  whole  power  of  the  North,  and  to  fight  it  to  the  issue  of 
liberty  or  death. 

Orders  were  issued  by  General  Price,  at  Jefferson  City,  to 
the  several  brigadiers  just  appointed,  to  organize  their  forces 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  send  them  forward  to  Booneville  and 
Lexington. 

On  the  20th  June,  General  Lyon  and  Colonel  F.  P.  Blair, 
with  seven  thousand  Federal  troops,  well  drilled  and  well 
armed,  came  up  the  river  by  vessels,  and  debarked  about  five 
miles  below  Booneville.  To  oppose  them  there  the  Missouriana 
had  but  about  eight  hundred  men,  armed  with  ordinary  riflea 
and  shot-guns,  without  a  piece  of  artillery,  and  with  but  little 
ammunition.  Lyon's  command  had  eight  pieces  of  cannon  and 
the  best  improved  small-arms.  The  Missouriana  were  com 
manded  by  Colonel  Marmaduke,  a  graduate  of  West  Point, 
Under  the  impression  that  the  forces  against  him  were  incon-, 
siderable,  he  determined  to  give  them  battle ;  but,  upon  ascer 
taining  their  actual  strength,  after  he  had  formed  his  line,  he 
told  his  men  they  could  not  reasonably  hope  to  defend  the 
position,  and  ordered  them  to  retreat.  This  order  they  refused 
to  obey.  They  declared  that  they  would  not  leave  the  ground 
without  exchanging  shots  with  the  enemy.  The  men  remained 
on  the  field,  commanded  by  their  captains  and  by  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Horace  Brand.  A  fight  ensued  of  an  hour  and  a  half 
or  more  ;  the  result  of  which  was  the  killing  and  wounding  of 
upwards  of  one  hundred  of  the  enemy,  and  a  loss  of  three 
Missourians  killed  and  twenty-five  or  thirty  wounded,  several 
of  whom  afterwards  died.  "The  barefoot  rebel  militia,"  as 
they  were  sneeringly  den  jminated,  exhibited  a  stubbornness  on 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  135 

the  field  of  their  first  fight  which  greatly  surprised  their  enemy, 
and,  overpowered  by  his  numbers,  they  retreated  in  safety,  il 
not  in  order. 

Governor  Jackson  and  General  Price  arrived  at  Booneville, 
from  Jefferson  City,  on  the  18th  June.  Immediately  after  his 
arrival,  General  Price  was  taken  down  with  a  violent  sickness, 
which  threatened  a  serious  termination.  On  the  19th,  he  was 
placed  on  board  a  boat  for  Lexington,  one  of  the  points  at 
which  he  had  ordered  troops  to  be  congregated.  This  accounts 
for  his  absence  from  the  battle  of  Booneville. 

A  portion  of  the  Missouri  militia  engaged  in  the  action, 
from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  in  number,  took 
up  their  line  of  march  for  the  southwestern  portion  of  the 
State,  under  the  direction  of  Governor  Jackson,  accompanied 
by  the  heads  of  the  State  Department  and  by  General  J.  B. 
Clark  and  General  Parsons.  They  marched  some  twenty-five 
miles  after  the  fight  of  the  morning,  in  the  direction  of  a  place 
called  Cole  Camp,  to  which  point  it  happened  that  General 
Lyon  and  Colonel  Blair  had  sent  from  seven  hundred  to  one 
thousand  of  their  "  Home  Guard,"  with  a  view  of  intercept 
ing  the  retreat  of  Jackson.  Ascertaining  this  fact,  Governor 
Jackson  halted  his  forces  for  the  night  within  twelve  or  fifteen 
miles  of  Camp  Cole.  Luckily,  an  expedition  for  their  relief 
had  been  speedily  organized  south  of  Cole  Camp,  and  was  at 
that  very  moment  ready  to  remove  all  obstructions  in  the  way 
of  their  journey.  This  expedition,  consisting  of  about  three 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  was  commanded  by  Colonel  O'Kane, 
and  was  gotten  up,  in  a  few  hours,  in  the  neighborhood  south 
of  the  enemy's  camp.  The  so-called  "Home  Guards,"  con 
sisting  almost  exclusively  of  Germans,  were  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Cook,  a  brother  of  the  notorious  B.  F.  Cook,  who 
was  executed  at  Charlestown,  Virginia,  in  1859,  as  an  accom 
plice  of  John  Brown,  in  the  Harper's  Ferry  raid.  Colonel 
O'Kane  approached  the  camp  of  the  Federals  after  the  hour  of 
midnight.  They  had  no  pickets  out,  except  in  the  direction  of 
Jackson's  forces,  and  he  consequently  succeeded  in  completely 
surprising  them.  They  were  encamped  in  two  large  barns, 
and  were  asleep  when  the  attack  was  made  upon  them  at  day 
break.  In  an  instant,  they  were  aroused,  routed,  and  nearly 
annihilated;  two  hundred  and  six  of  them  being  killed,  a  still 


136  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

larger  number  wounded,  and  upwards  of  one  hundred  taken 
prisoners.  Colonel  Cook  and  the  smaller  portion  of  his  com 
mand  made  their  escape.  The  Missourians  lost  four  men  killed 
and  fifteen  or  twenty  wounded.  They  captured  three  hundred 
and  sixty-two  muskets ;  thus  partially  supplying  themselves 
with  bayonets,  the  weapons  for  which  they  said  they  had  a 
particular  use  in  the  war  against  their  invaders.  Of  this  suc 
cess  of  the  Missouri  "rebels"  there  was  never  any  account 
published,  even  in  the  newspapers  of  St.  Louis. 

Having  been  reinforced  by  Col'.  O'Kane,  Governor  Jackson 
proceeded  with  his  reinforcements  to  "Warsaw,  on  the  Osage 
river  in  Benton  county,  pursued  by  Col.  Totten  of  the  Federal 
army,  with  fourteen  hundred  men,  well  armed  and  having  sev 
eral  pieces  of  artillery.  Upon  the  receipt  of  erroneous  infor 
mation  as  to  the  strength  of  Jackson's  forces,  derived  from  a 
German  who  escaped  the  destruction  of  Camp  Cole,  and  per 
haps,  also,  from  the  indications  of  public  sentiment  in  the 
country  through  which  he  marched,  Col.  Totten  abandoned 
the  pursuit  and  returned  to  the  army  under  Gen.  Lyon,  at 
Booneville.  Jackson's  forces  rested  at  Warsaw  for  two  days, 
after  which  they  proceeded  to  Montevallo,  in  Yernon  county, 
where  they  halted  and  remained  for  six  days,  expecting  to  form 
a  junction  at  that  point  with  another  column  of  their  forces 
that  had  been  congregated  at  Lexington,  and  ordered  by  Gen. 
Price  to  the  southwestern  portion  of  the  State. 

That  column  was  under  the  command  of  Brigadier-generals 
Rains  and  Slack,  and  consisted  of  some  twenty-five  hundred 
men.  Col.  Prince,  of  the  Federal  army,  having  collected  a 
force  of  four  or  five  thousand  men  from  Kansas,  with  a  view  of 
cutting  them  off,  Gen.  Price  ordered  a  retreat  to  some  point  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Montevallo.  Gen.  Price,  still  very  feeble 
from  his  recent  severe  attack  of  sickness,  started  with  one  hun 
dred  men  to  join  his  forces.  His  object  was  to  draw  his  army 
away  from  the  base-line  of  the  enemy,  the  Missouri  river,  and 
to  gain  time  for  the  organization  of  his  army.  The  column 
from  Lexington  marched  forward,  without  blankets  or  clothing 
of  any  kind,  without  wagons,  without  tents,  and,  indeed,  with 
out  any  thing  usually  reckoned  among  the  comforts  of  an  army. 
They  had  to  rely  for  subsistence  on  the  country  through  which 
they  passed— a  friendly  country  it  is  true,  but  they  Lad  buf 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  137 

little  time  to  partake  of  hospitalities  on  their  march,  being 
closely  pursued  by  the  enemy.  On  the  night  of  the  3d  of  J  uly, 
the  column  from  Lexington  formed  a  junction  with  Jackson's 
forces  in  Cedar  county. 

That  night,  under  orders  from  Governor  Jackson,  all  the  men 
belonging  to  the  districts  of  brigadier-generals  then  present, 
reported  respectively  to  their  appropriate  brigadier-generals 
for  the  purpose  of  being  organized  into  companies,  battalions, 
regiments,  brigades,  and  divisions.  The  result  was,  that  about 
two  thousand  reported  to  Brig.-gen.  Bains,  six  hundred  to 
Brig.-gen.  Slack,  and  about  five  hundred  each  to  Brigadier- 
generals  J.  B.  Clark  and  Parsons ;  making  an  entire  force  of 
about  three  thousand  six  hundred  men.  Some  five  or  six  hun 
dred  of  the  number  were,  however,  entirely  unarmed ;  and  the 
common  rifle  and  the  shot-gun  constituted  the  weapons  of  the 
armed  men,  with  the  exception  of  the  comparatively  few  who 
carried  the  muskets  taken  in  the  fight  at  Cole  Camp.  The 
army  was  organized  by  12  o'clock,  the  4th  of  July,  and  in  one 
hour  thereafter,  it  took  up  the  line  of  march  for  the  southwest. 

Before  leaving,  Governor  Jackson  received  intelligence  that 
he  was  pursued  by  Gen.  Lyon,  coming  down  from  a  northeast 
erly  direction,  and  by  Lane  and  Sturgis  from  the  northwest, 
their  supposed  object  being  to  form  a  junction  in  his  rear,  with 
a  force  sufficiently  large  to  crush  him.  He  marched  his  com 
mand  a  distance  of  twenty-three  miles  by  nine  o'clock  on  the 
evening  of  the  4th,  at  which  hour  he  stopped  for  the  night.  Be 
fore  the  next  morning,  he  received  authentic  intelligence  that 
a  column  of  men,  three  thousand  in  number,  had  been  sent  out 
from  St.  Louis  on  the  southwestern  branch  of  the  Pacific  rail 
road  for  Rolla,  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Sigel,  and  that  they 
had  arrived  at  the  town  of  Carthage,  immediately  in  his  front, 
thus  threatening  him  with  battle  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours. 
Such  was  the  situation  of  the  undisciplined,  badly-armed  Mis 
souri  State  troops,  on  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  July ;  a  large 
Federal  force  in  their  rear,  pressing  upon  them,  while  Sigel  in 
front  intercepted  their  passage.  But  they  were  cheerful  and 
buoyant  in  spirit,  notwithstanding  the  perilous  position  in  which 
they  were  placed.  They  resumed  their  march  at  two  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  5th,  and  proceeded,  without  halting,  a  dis 
tance  of  ten  miles.  At  10  o'clock  A.  M  they  approached  a 


138  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

creek  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  enemy,  whose  forces  were 
in  line  of  battle  under  Sigel,  in  the  open  prairie,  upon  the  brow 
of  a  hill,  and  in  three  detachments,  numbering  nearly  three 
thousand  men. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   CARTHAGE. 

The  Missourians  arrived  on  their  first  important  battle-field 
with  a  spirit  undiminished  by  the  toil  of  their  march  and  their 
sufferings.  The  men  were  suffering  terribly  for  water,  but 
could  find  none,  the  enemy  being  between  them  and  the  creek 
The  line  of  battle  was  formed  with  about  twelve  hundred  men  as 
infantry,  commanded  by  Brigadier-generals  J.  B.  Clark,  Par 
sons,  and  Slack,  and  the  remainder  acting  as  cavalry  under  Brig 
adier-general  Eains,  the  whole  under  the  command  of  Govern 
or  Jackson.  The  infantry  were  formed,  and  placed  in  line  of 
battle  six  hundred  yards  from  the  enemy,  on  the  brow  of  the 
hill  fronting  his  line,  The  cavalry  deployed  to  the  right  and 
left,  with  a  view  of  charging  and  attacking  the  enemy  on  his 
right  and  left  wing,  while  the  infantry  were  to  advance  from 
the  front.  Sigel  had  eight  pieces  of  cannon.  The  Missourians 
had  a  few  old  pieces,  but  nothing  to  charge  them  with.  While 
their  cavalry  were  deploying  to  the  right  and  left,  Sigel's  bat 
teries  opened  upon  their  line  with  grape,  canister,  shell,  and 
round-shot.  The  cannon  of  the  Missourians  replied  as  best 
they  could.  They  were  loaded  with  trace-chains,  bits  of  iron, 
rocks,  &c.  It  was  difficult  to  get' their  cavalry  up  to  the  posi 
tion  agreed  upon  as  the  one  from  which  a  general  charge  should 
be  commenced  upon  the  foe.  Sigel  would  turn  his  batteries 
upon  them  whenever  they  came  in  striking  distance,  causing 
a  stampede  among  the  horses,  and  subjecting  the  troops  to  a 
galling  fire.  This  continued  to  be  the  case  for  an  hour  and 
thirty-five  minutes.  Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  bringing  the 
horses  into  position,  the  brigadier-generals  ordered  the  infantry 
to  charge  the  enemy,  the  cavalry  to  come  up  at  the  same  time 
in  supporting  distance.  They  advanced  in  double-quick,  with 
a  shout,  when  the  enemy  retreated  across  Bear  Creek,  a  wide 
and  deep  stream,  and  then  destroyed  the  bridge  over  which 
they  crossed.  Sigel's  forces  retreated  along  the  bank  of  the 
creek  a  distance  of  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half,  and  formed 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  139 

behind  a  skirt  of  timber.  The  Missourians  had  to  cross  an 
open  field,  exposed  to  a  raking  fire,  before  they  could  reach  the 
corner  of  the  woods,  beyond  which  the  enemy  had  formed.  A 
number  of  the  cavalry  dismounted  and  acted  with  the  infantry, 
thus  bringing  into  active  use  nearly  all  the  small-arms  brought 
upon  the  field.  They  rushed  to  the  skirt  of  timber,  and  opened 
vigorously  upon  the  enemy  across  the  stream,  who  returned 
the  fire  with  great  spirit.  For  the  space  of  an  hour,  the  firo 
on  each  side  was  incessant  and  fierce.  The  Missourians  threw 
a  quantity  of  dead  timber  into  the  stream,  and  commo'iced 
crossing  over  in  large  numbers,  when  the  enemy  again  Aban 
doned  his  position  and  started  in  the  direction  of  Ca)  ohage, 
eight  miles  distant.  A  running  fight  was  kept  up  all  the  way 
to  Carthage,  Sigel  and  his  forces  being  closely  pursued  by  the 
men  whom  they  had  expected  to  capture  without  a  fight.  At 
Carthage,  the  enemy  again  made  a  stand,  forming  an  ambus 
cade  behind  houses,  wood-piles,  and  fences.  After  a  severe  en  - 
gagement  there  of  some  forty  minutes,  he  retreated  under  cover 
of  night  in  the  direction  of  Holla.  He  was  pursued  some 
three  or  four  miles,  till  near  nine  o'clock,  when  the  Missourians 
were  called  back  and  ordered  to  collect  their  wounded.  They 
camped  at  Carthage  that  night  (July  5),  on  the  same  ground 
that  Sigel  had  occupied  two  nights  before.  The  little  army  had 
done  a  brilliant  day's  work.  They  had  fought  an  eneT/xy  from 
10  A.  M.  to  9  P.  M.,  killing  and  wounding  a  considerable  number 
of  his  men,  and  driving  him  twelve  miles  on  the  roate  of  his 
retreat.  They  afterwards  ascertained  that  he  continued  to 
march  all  night,  and  did  not  halt  till  eleven  o'clock  the  next 
day,  nearly  thirty  miles  from  Carthage.  The  casualties  of  the 
day  cannot  be  given  with  accuracy.  The  Missourians  lost  be 
tween  forty  and  fifty  killed,  and  from  one  hundred  and  twen 
ty-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  wounded.  The  loss  of  the  en 
emy  was  estimated  at  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hun 
dred  killed,  and  from  three  hundred  to  four  hundred  wounded — 
his  killed  and  wounded  being  scattered  over  a  space  of  upwarda 
of  ten  miles.  The  Missourians  captured  several  hundred  mua 
kets,  which  were  given  to  their  unarmed  soldiers.  The  victory 
of  Carthage  had  an  inspiriting  effect  upon  the  Missourians,  and 
taught  the  enemy  a  lesson  of  humility  which  he  did  not  soon 
forget.  It  awakened  the  Federal  commanders  in  Missouri  to 


UO  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

a  sense  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work  before  them.  When 
Sigel  first  got  sight  of  the  forces  drawn  up  against  him,  he 
assured  his  men  that  there  would  be  no  serious  conflict.  He 
said  they  were  coming  into  line  like  a  worm-fence,  and  that  a 
few  grape,  canister,  and  shell  thrown  into  their  midst,  would 
throw  them  into  confusion,  and  put  them  to  flight.  This  ac 
complished,  he  would  charge  them  with  his  cavalry  and  take 
them  prisoners,  one  and  all.  But  after  carefully  observing 
their  movements  for  a  time,  in  the  heat  of  the  action,  he  changed 
his  tone.  "  Great  God,"  he  exclaimed,  "  was  the  like  ever 
seen !  Raw  recruits,  unacquainted  with  war,  standing  their 
ground  like  veterans,  hurling  defiance  at  every  discharge  oi 
the  batteries  against  them,,  and  cheering  their  own  batteries 
whenever  discharged.  Such  material,  properly  worked  up, 
would  constitute  the  best  troops  in  the  world."  Such  was  the 
testimony  of  Gen.  Sigel,  who  bears  the  reputation  of  one  of 
the  most  skilful  and  accomplished  officers  in  the  Federal  ser 
vice. 

The  next  day,  July  6th,  General  Price  arrived  at  Carthage, 
accompanied  by  Brigadier-general  McCulloch  of  the  Confed 
erate  army,  and  Major-general  Pierce  of  the  Arkansas  State 
forces,  with  a  force  of  nearly  two  thousand  men.  These  im 
portant  arrivals  were  hailed  with  joy  by  the  Missourians  in 
camp.  They  were  happy  to  see  their  beloved  general  so  far 
restored  to  health  as  to  be  able  to  take  command ;  and  the 
presence  of  the  gallant  Generals  McCulloch  and  Pierce  with 
an  effective  force  gave  them  an  assurance,  not  to  be  mistaken, 
of  the  friendly  feeling  and  intention  of  the  Confederate  govern 
ment  towards  the  State  of  Missouri. 

On  the  7th,  the  forces  at  Carthage,  under  their  respective 
commands,  took  up  the  line  of  march  for  Cowskin  Prairie,  in 
McDonald  county,  near  the  Indian  nation.  It  turned  out  that 
Lyon,  Sturgis,  Sweeny,  and  Sigel,  instead  of  pursuing  their 
foe,  determined  to  form  a  junction  at  Springfield.  The  forces 
of  Price  and  McCulloch  remained  at  Cowskin  Prairie  for  sev 
eral  days,  organizing  for  the  work  before  them.  General  Price 
received  considerable  reinforcements ;  making  the  whole  nu 
merical  strength  of  his  command  about  ten  thousand.  More 
than  one  half  of  the  number,  however,  were  entirely  unarmed. 
Price,  McCulloch,  and  Pierce  decided  to  march  upon  Spring- 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  141 

field,  and  attack  the  enemy  where  he  had  taken  his  position  in 
force.   To  that  end,  their  forces  were  concentrated  at  Cassville 
in  Barry  county,  according  to  orders,  and  from  that  point  they 
proceeded  in  the  direction  of  Springfield,  ninety  miles  distant^ 
General  McCulloch  leading  the  advance. 

Upon  his  arrival  at  Crane  Creek,  General  McCulloch  was 
informed  by  his  pickets  that  the  Federals  had  left  Springfield, 
and  were  advancing  upon  him  in  large  force,  their  advanced 
guard  being  then  encamped  within  seven  miles  of  him.  For 
several  days  there  was  considerable  skirmishing  between  the 
pickets  of  the  two  armies  in  that  locality.  In  consequence  of 
information  of  the  immense  superiority  of  the  enemy's  force, 
General  McCulloch,  after  consultation  with  the  general  officers, 
determined  to  make  a  retrograde  movement.  He  regarded  the 
unarmed  men  as  incumbrances,  and  thought  the  unorganized 
and  undisciplined  condition  of  both  wings  of  the  army  sug 
gested  the  wisdom  of  avoiding  battle  with  the  disciplined 
enemy  upon  his  own  ground,  and  in  greatly  superior  num 
bers. 

General  Price,  however,  entertained  a  different  opinion  of 
the  strength  of  the  enemy.  He  favored  an  immediate  ad 
vance.  This  policy  being  sustained  by  his  officers,  General 
Price  requested  McCulloch  to  loan  a  number  of  arms  from  his 
command  for  the  use  of  such  of  the  Missouri  soldiers  as  were 
unarmed,  believing  that,  with  the  force  at  his  command,  he 
could  whip  the  enemy.  General  McCulloch  declined  to  com 
ply  with  the  request,  being  governed,  no  doubt,  by  the  same 
reasons  which  had  induced  him  to  decline  the  responsibility  of 
ordering  an  advance  of  the  whole  command. 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  upon  which  this  consultation 
occurred,  General  McCulloch  received  a  general  order  from 
General  Polk,  commander  of  the  Southwestern  division  of  the 
Confederate  army,  to  advance  upon  the  enemy  in  Missouri. 
He  immediately  held  another  consultation  with  the  officers  of 
the  two  divisions,  exhibited  the  order  he  had  received,  and 
offered  to  march  at  once  upon  Springfield,  upon  condition  that 
he  should  have  the  chief  command  of  the  army.  General 
Price  replied,  that  he  was  not  fighting  for  distinction,  but  for 
the  defence  of  the  liberties  of  his  countrymen,  and  that  it 
mattered  but  little  what  position  he  occupied.  He  said  that  he 


142  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

was  ready  to  surrender  not  only  the  command,  but  his  life  as 
a  sacrifice  to  the  cause.  He  accordingly  did  not  hesitate,  with 
a  magnanimity  of  which  history  presents  but  few  examples  in 
%iilitary  leaders,  to  turn  over  the  command  to  General  McCul- 
loch,  and  to  take  a  subordinate  position  in  a  contest  in  which, 
irom  the  first,  he  was  assured  of  victory. 

On  taking  command,  General  McCulloch  issued  a  general 
order,  that  all  the  unarmed  men  should  remain  in  camp,  and 
all  those  furnished  with  arms  should  get  their  guns  in  condition 
for  service,  provide  themselves  with  fifty  rounds  of  ammunition, 
and  get  in  readiness  to  take  up  the  line  of  march  by  twelve 
o'clock  at  night.  The  army  was  divided  into  three  columns  : 
the  first  commanded  by  General  McCulloch,  the  second  by 
General  Pierce,  and  the  third  by  General  Price.  They  took 
up  the  line  of  march  at  the  hour  named,  leaving  the  baggage 
train  behind,  and  proceeded  in  the  direction  of  Springfield. 
The  troops  were  in  fine  condition  and  in  excellent  spirits,  ex 
pecting  to  find  the  enemy  posted  about  eight  miles  from  their 
camp,  on  the  Springfield  road,  where  the  natural  defences  are 
very  strong,  being  a  series  of  eminences  on  either  side  of  the 
road.  They  arrived  at  that  locality  about  sunrise,  carefully 
approached  it,  and  ascertained  that  the  enemy  had  retired  the 
•  previous  afternoon.  They  followed  in  pursuit  that  day  a  dis 
tance  of  twenty-two  miles,  regardless  of  dust  and  heat ;  twelve 
miles  of  the  distance  without  a  drop  of  water — the  troops  hav 
ing  no  canteens. 

The  weary  army  encamped  on  the  night  of  the  8th  at  Big 
Spring,  one  mile  and  a  half  from  Wilson's  Creek,  and  ten 
miles  and  a  half  south  of  Springfield.  Their  baggage  trains 
having  been  left  behind,  and  their  beef  cattle  also,  the  troops 
had  not  eaten  any  thing  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  had  been 
supplied  with  only  half  rations  for  ten  days  previous.  In  this 
exigency,  they  satisfied  the  cravings  of  hunger  by  eating  green 
corn,  without  a  particle  of  salt  or  a  mouthful  of  meat.  The 
wardrobe  of  the  soldiers  on  that  night  was  thus  humorously 
described  by  one  of  the  number:  "  We  had  not  a  blanket,  not 
a  tent,  nor  any  clothes,  except  the  few  we  had  on  our  backs, 
and  four-fifths  of  us  were  barefooted.  Billy  Barlow's  dress  at 
a  circus  would  be  decent  in  comparison  with  that  of  almost 
any  one,  from  the  major-general  down  to  the  humblest  private." 


THE    FIKST    YEAK.  143 

On  the  next  day,  the  army  moved  to  Wilson's  Creek,  and 
Jiere  took  up  camp,  that  they  might  be  convenient  to  several 
large  fields  from  which  they  could  supply  themselves  with 
green  corn,  which,  for  two  days,  constituted  their  only  repast. 

Orders  were  issued  by  General  McCulloch  to  the  troops  to 
get  ready  to  take  up  the  line  of  march  to  Springfield  by  nine 
o'clock  P.  M.,  with  a  view  of  attacking  the  enemy  at  four  dif 
ferent  points  at  daybreak  the  next  morning.  His  effective  force, 
as  stated  by  himself,  was  five  thousand  three  hundred  infantry, 
fifteen  pieces  of  artillery,  and  six  thousand  horsemen,  armed 
with  flint-lock  muskets,  rifles,  and  shot-guns. 

After  receiving  the  order  to  march,  the  troops  satisfied  then 
hunger,  prepared  their  guns  and  ammunition,  and  got  up  a 
dance  before  every  camp-fire.  When  nine  o'clock  came,  in 
consequence  of  the  threatening  appearance  of  the  weather,  and 
the  want  of  cartridge-boxes  to  protect  the  ammunition  of  the 
men,  the  order  to  march  was  countermanded,  the  commanding 
general  hoping  to  be  able  to  move  early  the  next  morning. 
The  dance  before  the  camp-fires  was  resumed  and  kept  up 
until  a  late  hour. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   OAK   HILL. 

The  next  morning,  the  10th  of  August;  before  sunrise,  the 
troops  were  attacked  by  the  enemy,  who  had  succeeded  in 
gaining  the  position  he  desired.  General  Lyon  attacked  them 
on  their  left,  and  General  Sigel  on  their  right  and  in  their 
rear.  From  each  of  these  points  batteries  opened  upon  them. 
General  McCulloch's  command  was  soon  ready.  The  Mis- 
sourians,  under  Brigadier  generals  Slack,  Clark,  McBride, 
Parsons,  and  Rains,  were  nearest  the  position  taken  by  Gen 
eral  Lyon  with  his  main  force.  General  Price  ordered  them  to 
move  their  artillery  and  infantry  rapidly  forward.  Advancing 
a  few  hundred  yards,  he  came  upon  the  main  body  of  the 
enemy  on  the  left,  commanded  by  General  Lyon  in  person 
The  infantry  and  artillery,  which  General  Price  had  ordered 
to  follow  him,  came  up  to  the  number  of  upwards  of  two  thou 
sand,  and  opened  upon  the  enemy  a  brisk  and  well-directed 
fire.  Woodruffs  battery  opened  to  that  of  the  enemy  under 
Captain  Totten,  and  a  constant  cannonading  was  kept  up  be 


144  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tween  these  batteries  during  the  action.  Hebert's  regiment  01 
Louisiana  volunteers  and  Mcln tosh's  regiment  of  Arkansas 
mounted  riflemen  were  ordered  to  the  front,  and,  after  passing 
the  battery,  turned  to  the  left,  and  soon  engaged  the  enemy 
with  the  regiments  deployed.  Colonel  Mclntosh  dismounted 
his  regiment,  and  the  two  marched  up  abreast  to  the  fence 
around  a  large  corn-field,  where  they  met  the  left  of  the 
enemy  already  posted.  A  terrible  conflict  of  small-arms  took 
place  here.  Despite  the  galling  fire  poured  upon  these  two 
regiments,  they  leaped  over  the  fence,  and,  gallantly  led  by 
their  colonels,  drove  the  enemy  before  them  back  upon  the 
main  body.  During  this  time,  the  Missourians,  under  General 
Price,  were  nobly  sustaining  themselves  in  the  centre,  and 
were  hotly  engaged  on  the  sides  of  the  height  upon  which 
the  enemy  was  posted.  Some  distance  on  the  right,  General 
Sigel  had  opened  his  battery  upon  Churchill's  and  Green's 
regiments,  and  had  gradually  made  his  way  to  the  Springfield 
road,  upon  each  side  of  which  the  Confederates  were  en 
Damped,  and  had  established  their  battery  in  a  strong  position. 
General  McCulloch  at  once  took  two  companies  of  the  Louisi 
ana  regiment  which  were  nearest  to  him  at  the  time,  and 
marched  them  rapidly  from  the  front  and  right  to  the  rear, 
with  orders  to  Colonel  Mclntosh  to  bring  up  the  remainder. 
When  they  arrived  near  the  enemy's  battery,  they  found 
that  Reid's  battery  had  opened  upon  it,  and  that  it  was 
already  in  confusion.  Advantage  was  taken  of  this,  and  soon 
the  Louisianians  gallantly  charged  upon  the  guns  and  swept 
the  cannoneers  away.  Five  guns  were  here  taken,  and  Sigel's 
forces  completely  routed.  They  commenced  a  rapid  retreat 
with  a  single  gun,  pursued  by  some  companies  of  the  Texas 
regiment  and  a  portion  of  Colonel  Major's  Missouri  regiment 
of  cavalry.  In  the  pursuit,  many  of  the  enemy  were  killed 
and  his  last  gun  captured.  Having  cleared  their  right  and 
rear,  it  became  necessary  for  the  Confederate  forces  to  direct 
all  their  attention  to  the  centre,  where  General  Lyon  was 
pressing  upon  the  Missourians  with  all  his  strength.  To  this 
point,  Mclntosh's  regiment  under  Lieutenant-colonel  Embry, 
and  Churchill's  regiment  on  foot,  Gratiot's  regiment,  and 
McEae's  battalion,  were  sent  to  their  aid.  A  terrible  fire  oi 
musketry  was  now  kept  up  along  the  whole  line  of  the  hill 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  1*15 

upon  which  the  er:emy  was  posted.  Masses  of  infai.trj  fell 
back  and  again  rushed  forward.  The  summit  of  the  hill  was 
covered  with  the  dead  and  the  wounded.  Both  sides  were  fight, 
ing  with  desperation  for  the  field.  Carroll's  and  Green's  regi 
ments,  led  gallantly  by  Captain  Bradfute,  charged  Totten's 
battery ;  but  the  whole  strength  of  the  enemy  were  immedi 
ately  in  the  rear,  and  a  deadly  fire  was  opened  upon  them. 
At  this  critical  moment,  when  the  fortunes  of  the  day  seemed 
to  be  at  the  turning-point,  two  regiments  of  General  Pierce's 
brigade  were  ordered  to  march  from  their  position,  as  reserves, 
to  support  the  centre.  Reid's  battery  was  also  ordered  to 
move  forward,  and  the  Louisiana  regiment  was  again  called 
into  action  on  the  left  of  it.  The  battle  then  became  general, 
and  probably,  says  General  McCulloch,  in  his  official  report, 
"no  two  opposing  forces  ever  fought  with  greater  desperation; 
inch  by  inch  the  enemy  gave  way,  and  were  driven  from  theii 
position.  Totten's  battery  fell  back — Missourians,  Arkansans, 
Louisianians,  and  Texans  pushed  forward — the  incessant  roll 
of  musketry  was  deafening,  and  the  balls  fell  thick  as  hail 
stones  ;  but  still  our  gallant  Southerners  pushed  onward,  and, 
with  one  wild  yell,  broke  upon  the  enemy,  pushing  them  back, 
and  strewing  the  ground  with  their  dead.  Nothing  could  with 
stand  the  impetuosity  of  our  final  charge.  The  enemy  fled,  and 
could  not  again  be  rallied." 

Thus  encled  the  battle  of  Oak  Hill,  or  of  Wilson's  Creek,  as 
Gen.  Sigel  called  it  in  his  official  report  to  the  Federal  author 
ities.  It  lasted  about  six  hours.  The  force  of  the  enemy  was 
stated  at  from  nine  to  ten  thousand,  and  consisted  for  the  most 
part  of  well-disciplined,  well-armed  troops,  a  large  portion  oi 
them  belonging  to  the  old  United  States  army.  They  were  riot 
prepared  for  the  signal  defeat  which  they  suffered.  Their  loss 
was  supposed  to  be  about  two  thousand  in  killed,  wounded,  and 
prisoners.  They  also  lost  six  pieces  of  artillery,  several  hun 
dred  stand  of  small-arms,  and  several  of  their  standards.  Ma 
jor-general  Lyon,  their  chief-in-cornmand,  was  killed,  and  many 
of  their  officers  were  wounded — some  of  them  high  in  rank. 
Gen,  McCulloch,  in  his  official  report,  stated  the  entire  loss  on 
the  part  of  his  command  at  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  killed, 
eight  hundred  wounded,  and  thirty  missing.  Of  these,  the 

Missourians,  according  to  Gen.  Price's  report,   lost  one  him- 

10 


146  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

dred   and   fifty-six  killed,  and   five  hundred   and   seventeen 
wounded. 

The  victory  was  won  by  the  determined  valor  of  each  divi 
sion  of  the  army.  The  Droops  from  Texas,  Arkansas,  and  Loui 
siana  bore  themselves  with  a  gallantry  characteristic  of  thei 
respective  States.  The  Missouri  troops  were  mostly  undisci 
plined,  but  they  had  fought  with  the  most  desperate  valor, 
never  failing  to  advance  when  ordered.  Repeatedly,  during 
the  action,  they  retired  from  their  position,  and  then  returned 
to  it  with  increased  energy  and  enthusiasm — a  feat  rarely  per 
formed  by  undisciplined  troops.  The  efficiency  of  the  double- 
barrel  shot-gun  and  the  walnut-stock  rifle,  was  abundantly 
demonstrated — these  being  the  only  arms  used  by  the  Mis- 
sourians  in  this  fight,  with  the  exception  of  the  four  hundred 
muskets  captured  from  the  enemy  on  the  two  occasions  already 
named. 

Gen.  Lyon,  at  the  head  of  his  regulars,  was  killed  in  an  at 
tempt  to  turn  the  wing  mainly  defended  by  the  arms  of  the 
Missourians.  He  received  two  small  rifle-balls  or  buckshot  in 
the  heart,  the  one  just  above  the  left  nipple,  the  other  immedi 
ately  below  it.  He  had  been  previously  wounded  in  the  leg 
His  surgeon  came  in  for  his  body,  under  a  flag  of  truce,  after 
the  close  of  the  battle,  and  Gen.  Price  sent  it  in  his  own  wagon, 
But  the  enemy,  in  his  flight,  left  the  body  unshrouded  in  Spring 
field.  The  next  morning,  August  llth,  Lieut.-.col.  Gustavus 
Elgin  and  Col.  R.  H.  Mercer,  two  of  the  members  of  Brigadier- 
general  Clark's  staff,  caused  the  body  to  be  properly  prepared 
for  burial.  He  was  temporarily  interred  at  Springfield,  in  a 
metallic  coffin  procured  by  Mrs.  Phelps,  wife  of  John  S.  Phelps, 
a  former  member  of  the  Federal  Congress  from  that  district, 
and  now  an  officer  in  the  Lincoln  army.  A  few  days  after 
wards,  the  body  was  disinterred  and  sent  to  St.  Louis,  to  await 
the  order  of  his  relatives  in  Connecticut. 

The  death  of  Gen.  Lyon  was  a  serious  loss  to  the  Federals  in 
Missouri.  He  was  an  able  and  dangerous  man — a  man  of  the 
times,  who  appreciated  the  force  of  audacity  and  quick  decision 
in  a  revolutionary  war.  To  military  education  and  talents,  he 
jnited  a  rare  energy  and  promptitude.  'No  doubts  or  scruples 
unsettled  his  mind.  A  Connecticut  Yankee,  without  a  trace 
of  chivalric  feeling  or  personal  sensibility — one  of  those  wnc 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  147 

submit  to  insult  with  indifference,  yet  are  brave  on  the  field — 
he  was  this  exception  to  the  politics  o^  the  late  regular  army 
of  the  United  States,  that  he  was  an  unmitigated,  undisguised, 
and  fanatical  Abolitionist. 

Shortly  after  the  battle  of  Oak  Hill,  the  Confederate  army 
returned  to  the  frontier  of  Arkansas,  Generals  McCulloch  and 
Price  having  failed  to  agree  upon  the  plan  of  campaign  in 
Missouri. 

In  northern  Missouri,  the  bold  and  active  demonstrations  of 
Gen.  Harris  had  made  an  important  diversion  of  the  enemy  in 
favor  of  Gen.  Price.  These  demonstrations  had  been  so  suc 
cessfully  made,  that  they  diverted  eight  thousand  men  from 
the  support  of  Gen.  Lyon,  and  held  them  north  of  the  river 
until  after  the  battle  of  Oak  Hill,  thus  making  an  important 
contribution  to  the  glorious  issue  of  that  contest. 

The  history  of  the  war  presents  no  instance  of  a  more  heroic 
determination  of  a  people  to  accomplish  their  freedom,  than 
that  exhibted  by  the  people  of  northern  Missouri.  Occupying 
that  portion  of  tlie  State  immediately  contiguous  to  the  Federal 
States  of  Kansas,  Iowa,  and  Illinois,  penetrated  by  two  lines  oi 
railroads,  intersecting  at  right  angles,  dividing  the  country 
north  and  south,  east  and  west — which  lines  of  railroads  were 
seized  and  occupied  by  the  enemy,  even  before  the  commence 
ment  of  hostilities  ;  washed  on  every  side  by  large,  navigable 
rivers  in  possession  of  the  enemy ;  exposed  at  every  point  to 
the  inroads  of  almost  countless  Federal  hosts,  the  brave  people 
of  northern  Missouri,  without  preparation  or  organization,  did 
not  hesitate  to  meet  the  alternative  of  war,  in  the  face  of  a  foe 
confident  in  his  numbers  and  resources. 

On  the  21st  June,  1861,  a  special  messenger  from  Governor 
fackson  overtook,  at  Paris,  Monroe  county,  Thomas  A.  Harris, 
who  was  then  en  route  as  a  private  soldier  to  the  rendezvous 
at  Booneville.  The  messenger  was  the  bearer  of  a  commission 
by  which  Thomas  A.  Harris  was  constituted  Brigadier-general 
of  the  Missouri  State  Guard,  and  assigned  to  the  duty  of  or-i 
ganizing  the  forces  for  the  defence  of  that  portion  of  the  State 
north  of  the  Missouri  river.  The  commission  was  accompanied 
bj  orders  from  Gen.  Sterling  Price.  At  the  date  of  the  deliv 
ery  of  the  commission  and  orders,  the  affair  at  Booneville  had 
transpired,  and  the  governor  and  Gen.  Price,  with  such  of  the 


145  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

forces  as  had  been  hastily  collected,  were,  as  already  stated,  in 
full  retreat  before  the  enemy  in  the  direction  of  southwestern 
Missouri. 

Gen.  Harris  was  without  any  organized  force  whatever; 
without  military  supplies  of  any  kind ;  without  money,  or  any 
authorized  agent  to  pledge  the  credit  of  the  State.  He  com 
menced  recruiting  an  army  in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  At  a 
public  meeting,  called  by  him,  he  delivered  a  stirring  and 
patriotic  address,  caused  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  South  tc 
be  administered  to  himself  in  the  most  public  and  impressive 
manner,  and,  in  turn,  administered  the  same  oath  to  fifty-three 
men,  and  organized  x,hem  into  a  company,  directing  them  to 
return  to  their  homes,  collect  their,  private  arms,  and  join  him 
without  delay.  When  we  consider  that  this  bold  action  was 
within  three  hours'  march  of  an  enemy  in  force,  and  that  it  in 
vited  his  bitter  resentment,  we  can  rightly  appreciate  the  he 
roism  and  self-sacrificing  patriotism  of  the  participators. 

A  false  report  of  the  approach  of  the  enemy  caused  the 
evacuation  of  the  town  of  Paris,  where  quite  a  number  of  un 
armed  troops  had  assembled.  General  Harris  retired  into  a 
stronghold  in  the  knobs  of  Salt  River.  He  was  a  brigadier- 
general,  with  a  command  of  three  men,  and  a  few  officers 
whom  he  had  appointed  upon  his  staff.  Here,  without 
blankets,  tents,  or  any  kind  of  army  equipments,  he  com 
menced  the  organization  of  a  guerrilla  force,  which  was  des 
tined  to  render  important  service  in  the  progress  of  the  war  in 
Missouri. 

Gen.  Harris  adopted  the  policy  of  secretly  organizing  his 
force,  the  necessity  for  such  secrecy  being  constantly  induced 
by  the  continued  presence  and  close  proximity  of  the  ene 
my.  The  fact,  however,  that  Gen.  Lyon  was  moving  to  the 
southwest  in  pursuit  of  Gen.  Price,  caused  him  to  attempt  a 
diversion,  which  was  successful,  as  has  been  stated,  in  holding 
a  large  Federal  force  north  of  the  Missouri  river.  Although 
the  active  duties  of  a  guerrilla  campaign  necessarily  involved 
a  delay  in  organization,  yet  Gen.  Harris  was  successful  in  rais 
ing  a  force  of  two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty  men  in 
the  very  face  of  the  enemy,  and  in  crossing  them  over  the 
river ;  and  after  a  march  of  sixty-t\v  •>  miles,  in  twenty-eight 
hours,  he  united  his  command  with  Gen.  Price  in  time  to  r>ar 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  149 

ticipatein  the  memorable  battle  of  Lexington.     1 )  follow  Gen. 
Price's  command,  to  that  battle-field  we  must  now  turn. 

Late  in  August,  Gen.  Price,,  abandoned  by  the  Confederate 
forces,  took  up  his  line  of  march  for  the  Missouri  river,  with 
an  armed  force  of  about  four  thousand  five  hundred  me»,  and 
seven  pieces  of  cannon.  He  continued  to  receive  reinforce 
ments  from  the  north  side  of  the  Missouri  river. 

Hearing  that  the  notorious  trio  of  Abolition  bandits,  Jim 
Lane,  Montgomery,  and  Jenison,  were  at  Fort  Scott,  with  a  ma 
rauding  force  of  several  thousand,  and  not  desiring  them  to 
get  into  his  rear,  he  detoured  to  the  left  from  his  course  to  the 
Missouri  river,  marching  directly  to  Fort  Scott  for  the  purpose 
of  driving  them  up  the  river.  On  the  7th  of  September,  he 
met  with  Lane  about  fifteen  miles  east  of  Fort  Scott,  at  a 
stream  called  Drywood,  where  an  engagement  ensued  which 
lasted  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  resulting  in  the  complete  rout 
of  the  enemy.  Gen.  Price  then  sent  on  a  detachment  to  Fort 
Scott,  and  found  that  the  enemy  had  evacuated  the  place.  .  He 
continued  his  march  in  the  direction  of  Lexington,  where  there 
was  a  Federal  army  strongly  intrenched,  under  the  command 
of  Col.  Mulligan. 

Gen.  Fremont,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the  Federal  gov 
ernment  to  take  command  in  the  Missouri  department,  had  in 
augurated  the  campaign  with  a  brutality  towards  his  enemy 
a  selfish  splendor  in  his  camp,  and  a  despotism  and  corruption 
more  characteristic  of  an  Eastern  satrap  than  an  American 
commander  in  the  nineteenth  century.  He  had  published  a 
proclamation  absolutely  confiscating  the  estates  and  slave 
property  of  "  rebels,"  which  measure  of  brutality  was  vastly 
pleasing  to  the  Abolitionists  of  the  ISTorth,  who  recognized  the 
extinction  of  negro  slavery  in  the  South  as  the  essential  object 
of  the  war,  but  was  not  entirely  agreeable  to  the  government  at 
Washington,  which  was  not  quite  ready  to  declare  the  extrem 
ity  to  which  it  proposed  to  prosecute  the  war. 

On  the  10th  of  September,  just  as  General  Price  was  about 
to  encamp  with  his  forces  for  the  day,  he  learned  that  a  de 
tachment  of  Federal  troops  were  marching  from  Lexington  to 
Warrei-sburg  to  seize  the  funds  of  the  bank  in  that  place,  and 
to  arrest  and  plunder  the  citizens  of  Johnson  county,  in  ac 
cordance  with  General  Fremont's  proclamation  and  instruc 


150  SOUTHEKN    HISTOBY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tions.  Although  his  men  were  greatly  fatigued  by  several 
days'  continuous  and  rapid  marching,  General  Price  deter 
mined  to  press  forward,  so  as  to  surprise  the  enemy,  if  pos 
sible,  at  Warrensburg.  After  resting  a  few  hours,  he  resumed 
his  march  at  sunset,  and  continued  it  without  intermission  till 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  it  became  evident  that  the 
infantry,  very  few  of  whom  had  eaten  any  thing  for  twenty- 
four  hours,  could  march  no  further.  He  then  halted  them, 
and  went  forward  with  the  greater  portion  of  his  mounted  men, 
till  he  came,  about  daybreak,  within  view  of  Warrensburg, 
where  he  ascertained  that  the  enemy  had  hastily  fled  about 
midnight,  burning  the  bridges  behind  him.  A  heavy  rain 
commenced  about  the  same  time.  This  circumstance,  coupled 
with  the  fact  that  his  men  had  been  fasting  for  more  than 
twenty-four  hours,  constrained  General  Price  to  abandon  the 
pursuit  of  the  enemy  that  day.  His  infantry  and  artillery 
having  come  up,  he  .encamped  at  Warrensburg,  where  the 
citizens  vied  with  each  other  in  feeding  his  almost  famished 
soldiers. 

A  violent  storm  delayed  the  march  next  morning  till  the 
hour  of  ten  o'clock.  General  Price  then  pushed  rapidly  for 
ward,  still  hoping  to  overtake  the  enemy.  Finding  it  impos 
sible  to  do  this  with  his  infantry,  he  again  ordered  a  detach 
ment  of  mounted  men  to  move  forward,  and  placing  himself  at 
their  head,  continued  the  pursuit  to  within  two  and  a  half 
miles  of  Lexington,  where  he  halted  for  the  night,  having 
learned  that  the  enemy's  forces  had  all  gone  within  the  city. 

THE    BATTLE    OF   LEXINGTON. 

About  daybreak  the  next  morning,  a  sharp  skirmish  took 
place  between  the  Missouri  pickets  and  the  enemy's  outposts. 
A  general  action  was  threatened,  but  General  Price,  being  un 
willing  to  risk  an  engagement  when  a  short  delay  would  make 
success,  in  his  estimation,  perfectly  certain,  fell  back  two  or 
three  miles,  and  awaited  the  arrival  of  his  infantry  and  cavalry. 
These  having  come  up,  he  advanced  upon  the  town,  driving  in 
the  Federal  pickets,  until  he  came  within  a  short  distance  01 
the  city.  Here  the  enemy's  forces  attempted  to  make  a  stand, 
but  they  were  speedily  driven  from  every  position,  and  com 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  151 

pelled  to  take  shelter  within  their  intrenchments.  The  enemy 
having  strongly  fortified  the  college  building,  the  Missouriana 
took  their  position  within  easy  range  of  it,  and  opened  a  brisk 
fire  from  Bledsoe's  and  Parsons'  batteries.  Finding,  after 
sunset,  that  his  ammunition,  the  most  of  which  had  been  left, 
behind  in  the  march  from  Springfield,  was  nearly  exhausted, 
and  that  his  men,  most  of  whom  had  not  eaten  any  thing  in 
thirty-six  hours,  required  rest  and  food,  General  Price  with 
drew  to  the  Fair  Ground,  and  encamped  there.  His  ammuni 
tion  wagons  having  been  at  last  brought  up,  and  large  rein 
forcements  having  come  in,  he  again  moved  into  town  on  the 
18th,  and  commenced  the  final  attack  upon  the  enemy's  works. 
Brigadier-general  Rains'  division  occupied  a  strong  position 
on  the  east  and  northeast  of  the  fortifications,  from  which 
position  an  effective  cannonading  was  kept  up  on  the  enemy 
by  Bledsoe's  battery,  and  another  battery  commanded  by  Capt. 
Churchill  Clark,  of  St.  Louis.  General  Parsons  took  his  posi 
tion  southwest  of  the  works.  Skirmishers  and  sharp-shooters 
were  sent  forward  from  both  of  these  divisions  to  harass  and 
fatigue  the  enemy,  and  cut  them  off  from  water  on  the  north, 
east,  and  south  of  the  college,  and  did  great  service  in  the  ac 
complishment  of  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  detached. 
Colonel  Congreve  Jackson's  division,  and  a  part  of  General 
Stein's,  were  posted  near  General  Rains  arid  General  Parsons 
as  a  reserve. 

Shortly  after  entering  the  city  on  the  18th,  Colonel  Rives, 
who  commanded  the  fourth  division  in  the  absence  of  General 
Slack,  led  his  regiment  and  Colonel  Hughes'  along  the  river 
bank  to  a  point  immediately  beneath  and  west  of  the  fortifica 
tions,  General  McBride's  command  and  a  portion  of  General 
Harris's  having  been  ordered  to  reinforce  him.  Colonel  Rives, 
in  order  to  cut  off  the  enemy's  means  of  escape,  proceeded 
down  the  bank  of  the  river  to  capture  a  steamboat  which  was 
lying  immediately  under  their  guns.  Just  at  this  moment,  a, 
heavy  fire  was  opened  upon  him  from  a  large  dwelling-house, 
known  as  Anderson's  house,  on  the  summit  of  the  bluff,  which 
the  enemy  was  occupying  as  a  hospital,  and  from  which  a  white 
fljtg  was  flying.  Several  companies  of  General  Harris's  com 
mand  and  the  soldiers  of  the  fourth  division,  who  had  won. 
much  distinction  in  previous  battles,  immediately  rushed  upon 


152  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  took  the  place.  The  important  position  thus  secured  was 
within  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  yards  of  the  enemy's  in- 
trenchments.  A  company  from  Colonel  Hughes'  regiment 
then  took  possession  of  the  boats,  one  of  which  was  freighted 
with  valuable  stores.  General  McBride's  and  General  Harris's 
divisions  meanwhile  stormed  and  occupied  the  bluffs  immedi 
ately  north  of  Anderson's  house.  The  position  of  these  heights 
enabled  the  assailants  to  harass  the  enemy  so  greatly,  that, 
resolving  to  regain  them,  he  made  upon  the  house  a  successful 
assault,  and  one,  said  General  Price,  which  would  have  been 
honorable  to  him  had  it  not  been  accompanied  by  an  act  of 
eavage  barbarity,  the  cold-blooded  and  cowardly  murder  of 
three  defenceless  men  who  had  laid  down  their  arms,  and  sur 
rendered  themselves  as  prisoners.  The  position  thus  retaken 
by  the  enemy  was  soon  regained  by  the  brave  men  who  had 
been  driven  from  it,  and  was  thenceforward  held  by  them  to 
the  very  end  of  the  contest. 

The  heights  on  the  left  of  Anderson's  house  were  fortified 
by  our  troops  with  such  means  as  were  at  their  command.  On 
:iHie  morning  of  the  20th,  General  Price  caused  a  number  of 
hemp  bales  to  be  transported  to  the  river  heights,  where  mov 
able  breastworks  were  speedily  constructed  out  of  them  The 
demonstrations  of  the  artillery,  and  particularly  the  continued 
advance  of  the  hempen  breastworks,  attracted  the  attention 
and  excited  the  alarm  of  the  enemy,  who  made  many  daring 
attempts  to  drive  back  the  assailants.  They  were,  however, 
repulsed  in  every  instance  by  the  unflinching  courage  and 
fixed  determination  of  men  fighting  for  their  homes.  The 
hempen  breastworks,  said  General  Price,  were  as  efficient  as 
the  cotton  bales  at  New  Orleans.  In  these  severe  encounters, 
McBride's  and  Slack's  divisions,  and  Colonel  Martin  Green 
and  his  command,  and  Colonel  Boyd  and  Major  Winston  and 
their  commands,  were  warmly  commended  for  their  gallant 
conduct. 

.  About  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  20th,  and  after 
fifty-two  hours  of  continuous  fighting,  a  white  flag  was  dis 
played  by  the  enemy  on  that  part  of  his  works  nearest  to  Col. 
Green's  poeitbn^  and  shortly  afterwards  another  was  displayed 
opposite,  to  Colonel  Eives'  position.  General  Price  immedi 
ately  ordered  a  cessation  of  all  firing,  and  sent  forward  hie 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  153 

uaif  oflicers  to  ascertain  the  object  of  the  flag  and  to  open 
aegotiations  with  the  enemy,  if  such  should  be  his  desire.  It 
ivas  agreed  that  the  Federal  forces  should  lay  down  their  arms 
and  sunender  themselves  prisoners  of  war. 

The  entire  loss  of  the  Missouri ans  in  this  series  of  battles 
was  but  twenty-five  killed  and  seventy-two  wounded.  The 
enenjy'e  loss  was  considerably  larger,  but  cannot  be  stated 
here  'with  accuracy.  The  visible  fruits  of  the  victory  to  the 
Misconrians  were  great:  about  three  thousand  five  hundred 
prisoners — among  whom  were  Cols.  Mulligan,  Marshall,  Pea- 
body,  White,  Grover,  Major  Van  Horn,  and  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  other  commissioned  officers;  five  pieces  of  artillery 
and  two  mortars ;  over  three  thousand  stand  of  infantry  arms, 
a  large  number  of  sabres,  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  horses, 
many  sets  of  cavalry  equipments,  wagons,  teams,  some  ammu 
nition,  more  than  $100,000  worth  of  commissary  stores,  and  a 
large  amount  of  other  property.  In  addition  to  all  this,  General 
Ptl?e  obtained  the  restoration  of  the  great  seal  of  the  State,  of 
the  public  records,  and  about  $900,000  of  which  the  bank  at 
Lexington  had  been  robbed,  in  accordance  with  Fremont's  in 
structions.  General  Price  caused  the  money  to  be  returned  at 
once  to  the  bank. 

In  his  official  report  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  Genera* 
Price  paid  a  high  compliment  to  the  command  that  had 
achieved  such  rich  and  substantial  fruits  of  victory.  "This 
victory,"  he  wrote,  "  has  demonstrated  the  fitness  of  our  citizen 
soldiery  for  the  tedious  operations  of  a  siege,  as  well  as  for  a 
dashing  charge.  They  lay  for  fifty-two  hours  in  the  open  air, 
without  tents  or  covering,  regardless  of  the  sun  and  rain,  and 
in  the  very  presence  of  a  watchful  and  desperate  foe,  manfully 
repelling  every  assault  and  patiently  awaiting  my  orders  to  storm 
the  fortifications.  No  general  ever  commanded  a  braver  o 
better  army.  It  is  composed  of  the  best  blood  and  bravest 
men  of  Missouri." 

Dining  the  siege,  quite  a  number  of  citizens  came  in  from 
the  neighboring  country,  and  fought,  as  they  expressed  it,  "on 
their  own  hooks."  A  participator  in  the  battle  tells  an  anecdote 
of  an  old  man,  about  sixty  years  of  age,  who  came  up  daily 
from  his  farm,  with  his  walnut-stock  rifle  and  a  basket  of  pro 
visions,  and  went  to  work  just  as  if  he  were  engaged  in  hauling 


154:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

rails  or  some  other  necessary  labor  of  his  farm.  He  took  his 
position  behind  a  large  stamp  upon  the  descent  of  the  hill  on 
which  the  fortification  was  constructed,  where  he  fired  with 
deadly  aim  during  each  day  of  the  siege. 

When  the  surrender  was  made,  and  the  forces  under  Colonel 
Mulligan  stacked  their  arms,  General  Price  ordered  that  they 
were  not  to  be  insulted  by  word  or  act,  assigning  as  the  reason 
therefor,  that  they  had  fought  like  brave  men,  and  were  enti 
tled  to  be  treated  as  such.  "When  Colonel  Mulligan  surren 
dered  his  sword.  General  Price  asked  him  for  the  scabbard. 
Mulligan  replied  that  he  had  thrown  it  away.  The  general, 
upon  receiving  his  sword,  returned  it  to  him,  saying,  he  dis 
liked  to  see  a  man  of  his  valor  without  a  sword.  Mulligan  re 
fused  to  be  paroled,  upon  the  ground  that  his  government  did 
not  acknowledge  the  Missourians  as  belligerents.  While  await 
ing  his  exchange,  Colonel  Mulligan  and  his  wife  became  the 
guests  of  General  Price,  the  general  surrendering  to  them  his 
carriage,  and  treating  them  with  the  most  civil  and  obliging 
hospitality.  The  captive  colonel  and  his  lady  were  treated  by 
all  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Missouri  army  with  a  courtesy 
and  kindness  which  they  seemed  to  appreciate. 

After  the  first  day's  conflict  at  Lexington,  while  General 
Price  was  encamped  at  the  Fair  Grounds  near  the  city,  await 
ing  reinforcements  and  preparing  the  renewal  of  the  attack,  an 
episode  occurred  at  some  distance  from  the  city,  in  which  the 
Missourians  again  had  the  satisfaction  of  inflicting  a  terrible 
chastisement  upon  the  bandits  of  the  Lane  and  Montgomery 
organization. 

Gen.  Price  was  informed  that  four  thousand  men  under  Lane 
and  Montgomery  were  advancing  from  the  direction  of  St. 
Joseph,  on  the  north  s'de  of  the  Missouri  river,  and  Gen.  Stur- 
gis,  with  fifteen  hundred  cavalry,  was  also  advancing  from  the 
Hannibal  and  St.  Joseph  railroad,  for  the  purpose  of  relieving 
the  forces  under  Mulligan.  About  twenty-five  hundred  Mis 
sourians,  under  the  immediate  command  of  Col.  Saunders 
were,  at  the  same  time,  hurrying  to  the  aid  of  Gen.  Price,  from 
the  same  direction  with  the  Lane  aiid  Montgomery  Jay  hawk 
ers  ;  and  having  reached  the  run  at  Blue  Mills,  thirty  miles 
above  Lexington,  on  the  17th  September,  crossed  over  their 
force,  except  some  five  hundred  men,  in  a  ferry-boat.  While 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  155 

the  remainder  were  waiting  to  cross  over,  the  Jayhawkers 
attacked  the  five  hundred  Missourians  on  the  north  bank  01 
the  river.  The  battle  raged  furiously  for  one  hour  on  the  river 
bottom,  which  was  heavily  timbered  and  in  many  places 
covered  with  water.  The  Missourians  were  armed  with  only 
shot-guns  and  rifles,  and  taken  by  surprise :  no  time  was  given 
them  to  call  back  any  portion  of  their  force  on  the  south  side 
of  the  river ;  but  they  were  from  the  counties  contiguous  to 
Kansas,  accustomed  in  the  border  wars  since  1854  to  almost 
monthly  fights  with  the  Kansas  "  Jayhawkers,"  under  Lane, 
and  were  fired  with  the  most  intense  hatred  of  him  and  of  them. 
Gen.  D.  R.  Atchison,  former  President  of  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  well  known  as  one  of  the  boldest  leaders  of  the 
State  Eights  party  in  Missouri,  had  been  sent  from  Lexington 
by  Gen.  Price  to  meet  our  troops  under  Col.  Saunders,  and 
hasten  them  on  to  his  army.  He  was  with  the  five  hundred, 
on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  when  they  were  attacked,  and 
by  his  presence  and  example  cheered  them  in  the  conflict. 
Charging  the  "Jayhawkers,"  with  shouts  of  almost  savage 
ferocity,  and  fighting  with  reckless  valor,  the  Missourians 
drove  the  enemy  back  a  distance  of  ten  miles,  the  conflict  be 
coming 'a  hand-to-hand  fight,  between  detached  parties  on  both 
sides.  At  length,  unable  to  support  the  fearful  fire  of  the 
Missourians  at  the  short  distance  of  forty  yards,  the  enemy 
broke  into  open  flight.  The  loss  of  the  Jay  hawkers  was  very 
considerable.  Their  official  report  admitted  one  hundred  and 
fifty  killed  and  some  two  hundred  wounded.  The  entire  loss  of 
the  Missourians  was  five  killed  and  twenty  wounded.  The 
intelligence  of  this  brilliant  victory  of  "the  five  hundred," 
was  received  with  shouts  of  exultation  by  Price's  army  at 
Lexington. 

On  the  second  day  after  the  battle  of  BNie  Mills,  Col.  Saun 
ders,  with  his  command,  joined  the  army  at  Lexington,  and 
fought  gallantly  till  the  surrender  of  the  Federal  garrison.  In 
the  mean  time,  Sturgis  with  his  cavalry  appeared  on  the  river 
bank  opposite  Lexington,  expecting  to  cross  over  in  the  boats 
of  Mulligan,  and  reinforce  him  to  the  extent  of  fourteen  hun 
dred  men.  It  happened,  however,  that  on  the  day  before  his 
arrival,  Gen.  Price's  forces  had  captured  all  of  the  enemy's 
boats  and  Gen.  Sturgis  ascertaining  this  fact,  retreated  precipi 


156  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    TCAR. 

iatcly  in  the  direction  from  which  he  came.  Gen.  Price  had 
sent  across  the  river  two  thousand  men  under  Gen.  Parsons,  to 
meet  the  forces  under  Gen.  Sturgis,  and  they  succeeded  in  cap 
turing  all  the  tents  and  camp  equipage  of  that  distinguished 
Yankee  commander.  The  tents  were  most  acceptable  to  the 
Missourians,  as  they  were  the  first  they  had  obtained  in  the 
war.  except  one  hundred  and  fifty  taken  at  Springfield.  Gen. 
Sturgis  did  not  stop  in  his  flight  for  three  days  and  three 
nights. 

The  capture  of  Lexington  had  crowned  Gen.  Price's  com 
mand  with  a  brilliant  victory,  and  so  far,  the  Missouri  campaign 
had  proceeded,  step  by  step,  from  one  success  to  another.  It 
was  at  this  period,  however,  that  Gen.  Price  found  his  position 
one  of  the  greatest  emergency.  After  the  victory  of  Lexing 
ton,  he  received  intelligence  that  the  Confederate  forces,  under 
Generals  Pillow  and  Hardee,  had  been  withdrawn  from  the 
{southeastern  portion  of  the  State.  Gen.  McCulloch  had  re 
tired  to  Arkansas.  In  these  circumstances,  Gen.  Price  was 
left  with  the  only  forces  in  Missouri,  to  confront  an  enemy 
seventy  thousand  strong,  and  being  almost  entirely  without 
ammunition,  he  was  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  making  a 
retrograde  movement. 

Before  leaving  Springfield,  Gen.  Price  had  made  arrange 
ments  for  an  ample  supply  of  ammunition,  then  at  Jacksons- 
port,  Arkansas,  to  be  sent  to  him  in  Missouri,  Gen.  McCulloch 
promising  to  send  a  safe  escort  for  it.  Gen.  McCulloch  subse 
quently  declined  to  furnish  the  escort  and  stopped  the  tiain, 
assigning  as  the  reason  therefor  that,  under  the  circumstances 
then  existing,  it  would  be  unsafe  to  send  it,  and  that  Gen. 
Price  would  be  compelled  to  foil  back  from  the  Missouri  river, 
beforo  the  overwhelming  forces  of  the  enemy  moving  against 
him  under  the  direction  of  Gen.  Fremont. 

Having  no  means  of  transportation,  except  for  a  limited 
number  of  men,  and  surrounded  by  circumstances  of  the  most 
painful  and  unlooked-for  misfortune,  Gen.  Price  was  compelled 
to  disband  a  considerable  portion  of  his  forces.  iNo  occasion 
could  be  more  fraught  with  mortifying  reflections  to  the  brave 
generous,  and  hopeful  spirit  of  such  a  commander  as  Gen.  Price 
He  had  marched  from  success  to  success ;  he  had  raised  a  force 
from  hundreds  to  tens  of  thousands ;  his  army  had  been  swelled 


THE    FIKST    YEAK.  157 

to  twenty-three  thousand  during  his  stay  at  Lexington,  not 
enumerating  ten  thousand  volunteers  who  had  collected  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  Missouri  about  the  period  when  he  com 
menced  a  retreat,  compelled  by  emergencies  which  the  most 
daring  valor  could  no  longer  hope  to  surmount.  Gen.  Price 
advised  all  who  could  not  accompany  him  to  take  care  of  such 
arms  as  they  had,  to  cherish  a  determined  spirit,  and  to  hold 
themselves  in  readiness  for  another  opportunity  to  join  his 
standard. 

In  southeastern  Missouri,  the  operations  of  the  partisan, 
Jeff.  Thompson,  in  connection  with  Gen.  Hardee's  command, 
had  attracted  some  public  notice  from  its  adventure,  and  some 
incidents  of  interest.  But  the  campaign  in  the  Ozark  moun 
tains  was  not  productive  of  any  important  or  serious  results. 
Gen.  Thompson  and  his  "  Swamp  Fox  Brigade"  gave  many 
rash  illustrations  of  daring  in  the  face  of  the  enemy.  At  one 
time  he  burnt  an  important  railroad  bridge  within  fifty  miles 
of  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  which  was  swarming  with  Federal 
troops.  On  a  march  towards  Fredericktown,  with  a  force  ol 
twelve  hundred  men,  Gen.  Thompson  encountered  a  Federal 
force  numbering  ten  thousand  men,  which  he  engaged  with 
such  skill  and  courage  as  to  check  the  enemy's  pursuit  and 
move  his  little  force  out  of  danger.  The  feat  showed  extraordi 
nary  military  skill,  when  we  consider  that  the  small  force  was 
extricated  with  only  twenty  killed,  wnile  the  loss  of  the  enemy 
was  counted  by  hundreds ;  and  that  his  pursuit  was  baffled 
only  from  the  impression  of  a  large  force  opposed  to  him,  which 
was  given  by  the  skilful  disposition  of  ambuscades. 

Gen.  Price  commenced  his  retreat  about  the  27th  of  Septem 
ber.  He  sent  his  cavalry  forward,  and  directed  them  to  make 
a  demonstration  in  the  neighborhood  of  Georgetown,  fifty  miles 
from  Lexington,  where  Fremont  was  concentrating  his  forces 
with  a  view  of  surrounding  him.  With  Sturgis  on  the  north 
side  of  the  river,  Lane  on  the  west,  and  himself  on  the  east, 
each  advancing  upon  Lexington,  Fremont  expected  to  cut  oft 
and  capture  the  entire  force  of  the  Missourians.  Gen.  Price 
supplied  his  mounted  men  with  provisions  for  several  days,  and 
directed  them  to  make  demonstrations  on  each  of  the  divisions 
of  the  Federals,  so  as  to  gain  time  for  the  safe  retreat  of  hi? 
iniantry  and  artillery.  By  this  means,  he  succeeded  in  deceiv 


158  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ing  the  enemy  as  to  his  real  purpose;  inducing  Fremont.  Lane, 
and  Sturgis  to  believe  that  he  was  about  to  attack  each  of 
them.  Each  of  them  fell  back,  and  Fremont  commenced 
ditching. 

In  the  mean  time,  Price's  infantry  and  artillery  were  making 
the  best  time  they  could  towards  the  south.  They  had  to  en 
counter  a  very  serious  obstacle  in  crossing  streams  swollen  by 
the  recent  rains.  The  whole  command,  fifteen  thousand  strong, 
crossed  the  Osage  river  in  two  common  flat-boats,  constructed 
for  the  occasion  by  men  who  could  boast  of  no  previous  expe 
rience  either  as  graduates  of  military  schools,  or  even  as  bridge 
builders. 

Subsequently,  General  Fremont  was  fifteen  days  engaged  in 
crossing  at  the  same  place,  upon  his  pontoon  bridges.  The 
superiority  of  the  practical  man  of  business,  over  the  scientific 
engineer  and  "  pathfinder,"  was  demonstrated  to  the  great 
satisfaction  of  the  Missourians. 

Gen.  Price  continued  his  retreat  to  Neosho,  at  which  place 
the  Legislature  had  assembled,  under  a  proclamation  from 
Governor  Jackson. 

At  Neosho,  Gen.  Price  again  formed  a  junction  with  Gen. 
McCulloch,  at  the  head  of  five  thousand  men.  The  Legisla 
ture  had  passed  the  Ordinance  of  Secession,  and  elected  dele 
gates  to  the  Provisional  Congress  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  : 
and  here  Gen.  Price  had  the  satisfaction  of  firing  one  hundred 
guns  in  honor  of  the  formal  secession  of  Missouri  from  the 
United  States,  to  which  his  services  in  the  field  had  more  than 
any  thing  else  contributed. 

Gen.  McCulloch  remained  a  day  or  two  in  Neosho,  and  then 
fell  back  with  his  forces  to  Cassville.  Price  remained  ten  days 
in  Neosho,  and  then  retreated  also  to  Cassville,  and  from  Cass 
ville  to  Pineville,  in  McDonald  county. 

Meanwhile,  General  Fremont,  with  his  grand  army  of  sixty 
thousand  men,  equipped  in  the  most  splendid  and  costly  man 
ner,  had  concentrated  his  forces  at  Springfield,  throwing  for 
ward  Jin  advance  of  ten  thousand  men  under  Gen.  Sigel  to 
Wilson's  Creek.  The  Missouri  forces  at  Springfield,  under  the 
command  of  Col.  Taylor,  were  ordered  by  General  Price  to 
fall  back  upon  the  approach  of  the  enemy  ;  but  in  leading  the 
town  they  encountered  Frem  >nt'e  body-guard,  three  times 


"  THE    FIRST    YEAR.  159 

their  own  number,  armed  with  Colt's  rifles  and  Cvimmanded  by 
Col.  Zagonyi.  A  conflict  ensued,  in  which  fifty  of  the  enemy 
were  killed,  and  twenty-five  captured,  including  a  major.  The 
loss  of  the  Missourians  was  one  killed  and  three  wounded. 

At  Pineville,  General  Price  made  preparations  to  receive 
Fremont,  determined  not  to  abandon  Missouri  vithuiit  a  battle. 
His  troops  were  enthusiastic  and  confident  of  success,  notwith 
standing   the  fearful   superiority   of  numbers   against  •them. 
They  were  in  daily  expectation  of  being  led  by  their  com 
mander  into  the  greatest  battle  of  the  war,  when  they  received 
the  unexpected  intelligence  that  Fremont  had  been  superseded 
as  commander  of  the  Federal  forces.     This  event  had  the  eft'eci 
of  demoralizing  the  Federal  forces  to  such  an  extent,  that  theii 
numbers  would   have   availed  them  nothing  in  a  fight  with 
their  determined  foe.     The  Dutch,  who  were  greatly  attached 
to  Fremont,  broke  out  into,  open  mutiny,  and  the  acting  offi 
cers  in  command  saw  that  a  retreat  from  Springfield  was  not 
only  a  wise  precaution,  but  an  actual  necessity.     They  accord 
ingly  left  that  town  in  the  direction  of  Kolla,  and  were  pur 
sued  by  Gen.  Price  to  Oceola.     From  Oceola,  Gen.  Price  fell 
back  to  Springfield,  to  forage  his  army  and  obtain  supplies 
and  here,  for  the  present,  we  must  leave  the  history  of  his  cam 
paign.     We  have  now  traced  that  history  to  a  period  about 
the  first  of  December. 

From  the  20th  of  June  to  the  1st  of  December,  General 
Price's  army  marched  over  800  miles,  averaging  ten  thousand 
men  during  the  time.  What  they  accomplished,  the  reader 
will  decide  for  himself,  upon  the  imperfect  sketch  here  given. 
They  fought  five  battles,  and  at  least  thirty  skirmishes,  in  some 
of  which  from  fifty  to  hundreds  were  killed  on  one  side  or  the 
other.  Not  a  week  elapsed  between  engagements  of  some  sort. 
They  started  without  a  dollar,  without  a  wagon  or  team,  with 
out  a  cartridge,  without  a  bayonet-gun.  On  the  first  of  Sep 
tember,  they  had  about  eight  thousand  bayonet-guns,  fifty 
pieces  of  cannon,  four  hundred  tents,  and  many  other  articles 
needful  in  an  army  ;  for  nearly  all  of  which  they  were  indebted 
to  their  own  strong  arms  in  battle  and  to  the  prodigality  of  tho 
enemy  in  providing  more  than  he  could  take  care  of  in  his 
campaign. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  exposure  to  which  the  Missouri 


160  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

troops  were  subjected,  not  fifty  died  of  disease  during  their  six 
months'  campaign,  arid  but  few  were  on  the  sink  list  at  the  close 
of  it.  The  explanation  is,  that  the  troops  were  all  the  time  in 
motion,  and  thus  escaped  the  camp  fever  and  other  diseases 
that  prove  so  fatal  to  armies  standing  all  the  time  in  a  de 
fensive  position. 

SKETCH   OF    GENERAL   PRICE. 

The  man  who  had  conducted  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
campaigns  of  the  war — Sterling  Price — was  a  native  of  "Vir 
ginia.  He  was  born  about  the  year  1810  in  Prince  Edward 
county,  a  county  which  had  given  birth  to  two  other  military 
notabilities — General  John  Coffee,  the  "right-hand  man"  of 
General  Jackson  in  his  British  and  Indian  campaigns,  and 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  already  distinguished  as  one  of 
the  heroes  of  the  present  war. 

Sterling  Price  emigrated  to  Missouri,  and  settled  in  Charlton 
county,  in  the  interior  of  that  State,  in  the  year  1830,  pursu 
ing  the  quiet  avocations  of  a  farmer. 

In  the  year  1844,  Mr.  Price  was  nominated  by  his  party  as 
a  candidate  for  Congress,  and  was  elected  by  a  decided 
majority.  He  took  his  seat  in  December,  1845  ;  but  having 
failed  to  receive  the  party  nomination  in  the  following  spring, 
he  resigned  his  seat  and  returned  home.  His  course  in  this 
respect  was  dictated  by  that  conscientious  integrity  and  high 
sense  of  honor  which  have  ever  distinguished  him  in  all  the 
relations  of  life.  He  argued  that  his  defeat  was  caused  either 
by  dissatisfaction  with  his  course  on  the  part  of  his  constitu 
ents,  or  else  by  undue  influences  which  had  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  people  by  ambitious  aspirants  for  the  seat,  who 
could  labor  to  a  great  advantage  in  their  work  in  supplanting 
an  opponent  who  was  attending  to  his  duties  at  a  distance  from 
them.  If  the  former  was  the  case,  he  was  unwilling  to  mis 
represent  his  constituents,  who,  he  believed,  had  the  right  to 
instruct  him  as  to  the  course  he  should  pursue;  if  the  latter, 
his  self-respect  would  not  allow  him  to  serve  a  people  who  had 
rejected  him  without  cause,  while  he  was  doing  all  in  his  power 
tc  advance  their  interests. 

At  the  time  of  Mi.  Price's  retirement  from  Congress,  hostili- 


GEN.  STERLING   PRICE 


C.B  'Kichardson. 
isher. 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  161 

UKA  /iad  broken  out  between  the  United  States  arid  Mexico, 
and  volunteers  from  all  parts  of  the  South  were  nocking  to  the 
defuace  of  their  country's  flag.  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mis 
sissippi,  bred  a  soldier,  who,  like  Mr.  Price,  was  serving  his 
lirst  term  in  Congress,  resigned  his  seat  about  the  same  time, 
and  was  soon  marching  at  the  head  of  a  Mississippi  regiment 
to  the  field,  from  which  he  was  destined  to  return  loaded  with 
many  honors.  So,  too,  did  a  brave  Missouri  regiment  call  to 
its  he«id  her  own  son,  who  had  just  doffed  his  civil  robes  to 
enter  a  new  and  untried  field  of  duty  and  honor.  The  regi 
ment  to  which  Col.  Price  was  attached  was  detailed  for  duty 
m  what  is  now  the  Territory  of  New  Mexico.  It  was  by  his 
own  arms  that  that  province  was  subdued,  though  not  with 
out  several  brilliant  engagements,  in  which  he  displayed  the 
Bame  gallantry  that  has  BO  distinguished  him  in  the  present 
contest. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Mexican  war,  a  violent  political 
excitement  broke  out  in  Missouri.  The  slavery  agitation  had 
received  a  powerful  impetus  by  the  introduction  into  Con 
gress  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  and  other  sectional  measures, 
whose  avowed  object  was  to  exclude  the  South  from  any  portion 
of  the  territory  which  had  been  acquired  principally  by  the 
blood  of  Southern  soldiers.  The  people  of  .the  South  became 
justly  alarmed  at  the  spread  of  Abolitionism  at  the  North,  and 
no  people  were  more  jealous  of  any  encroachment  upon  the 
rights  of  the  South  than  the  citizens  of  Missouri,  a  majority  of 
whose  leading  statesmen  were  as  sound  on  the  slavery  question 
as  those  of  Virginia  or  South  Carolina.  In  order  to  cause  Col. 
Benton,  who  had  become  obnoxious  to  a  large  portion  of  the 
Democratic  party  by  his  course  on  the  Texas  question,  the 
Wilmot  Proviso,  and  other  measures  of  public  policy,  to  resign 
his  seat,  and  for  the  purpose  of  casting  the  weight  of  the  State 
against  the  surging  waves  of  Abolitionism,  a  series  of  resolu 
tions,  commonly  known  as  the  "  Jackson  resolutions,"  was 
introduced  into  the  Senate  at  the  session  of  1848-9,  by  Clai- 
borne  F.  Jackson,  the  present  governor  of  Missouri,  which 
passed  both  houses  of  the  General  Assembly.  These  resolu 
tions  were  substantially  the  same  as  those  introduced  the  year 
before,  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  into  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
From  the  Legislature  Col.  Benton  appealed  to  the  people,  and 

11 


162  SO  CITHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

made  a  vigorous  canvass  against  the  Jackson  resolutions  through 
out  the  whole  State,  marked  by  extraordinary  ability  and  bit 
terness  towards  their  author  and  principal  supporters.  Tho 
sixth  resolution,  which  pledged  Missouri  to  "  co-operate  with 
her  sister  States  in  any  measures  they  might  adopt,"  to  defend 
their  rights  against  the  encroachments  of  the  North,  was  the 
object  of  his  special  denunciation  and  his  most  determined 
opposition.  He  denounced  it  as  the  essence  of  nullification, 
and  ransacked  the  vocabulary  of  billingsgate  for  coarse  and 
vulgar  epithets  to  apply  to  its  author  and  advocates.  But  his 
herculean  efforts  to  procure  the  repeal  of  the  resolutions  proved 
abortive.  Colonel  Benton  was  defeated  for  the  Senate  the 
next  year  by  a  combination  of  Democrats  and  State-Rights 
Whigs ;  and  the  Jackson  resolutions  remain  on  the  statute 
book  unrepealed  to  this  day.  Their  author  is  governor  of  the 
State  ;  their  principal  supporters  are  fighting  to  drive  myrmi 
dons  of  Abolitionism  from  the  soil  of  Missouri ;  and  how  nobly 
the  State  has  redeemed  her  pledge  to  "  co-operate  with  her 
Bister  States,"  the  glorious  deeds  of  her  hardy  sons,  who  have 
fought  her  battles  almost  single-handed,  who  have  struggled 
on  through  neglect  and  hardship  and  suffering  without  ever 
dreaming  of  defeat,  afford  the  most  incontestible  evidence. 

In  the  canvass  of  1852,  the  Anti-Benton  Democrats  put  for 
ward  Gen.  Sterling  Price  as  their  choice  for  the  office  of  gov 
ernor,  and  the  Bentonites  supported  Gen.  Thomas  L.  Price,  at 
that  time  lieutenant-governor,  and  now  a  member  of  Lincoln's 
Congress  and  a  brigadier-general  in  Lincoln's  army.  The 
Anti-Bentoiiites  triumphed,  and  the  nomination  fell  on  Gen. 
Sterling  Price,  who,  receiving  the  vote  of  the  whole  Demo 
cratic  party,  was  elected  by  a  large  majority  over  an  eloquent 
and  popular  whig,  Colonel  Winston,  a  grandson  of  Patrick 
Henry. 

The  administration  of  Gov.  Price  was  distinguished  for  an 
earnest  devotion  to  the  material  interests  of  Missouri.  At  the 
expiration  of  his  term  of  office,  he  received  a  large  vote  in  the 
Democratic  caucus  for  the  nomination  for  United  States  sena 
tor,  but  the  choice  fell  on  Mr.  James  Green. 

In  the  Presidential  election  of  1860,  in  common  with  Major 
Fackson,  who  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor,  and 
a  number  of  other  leading  men  of  his  party,  Ex-Go  vernoj 


THE    FIRST    TEAK. 

Price  supported  Mr.  Douglas  for  the  Presidency,  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  the  regular  nominee  of  ^e  Democratic 
party.  He  moreover  considered  Mr.  Douglas  true  to  the  in 
stitutions  of  the  South,  and  believed  him  to  be  the  only  one  of 
the  candidates  who  could  prevent  the  election  of  the  Black 
Republican  candidate.  The  influence  of  these  men  carried 
Missouri  for  Douglas. 

Upon  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  "Border  States 
were  unwilling  to  rush  into  dissolution  until  every  hope  of  a 
peaceful  settlement  of  the  question  had  vanished.  This  was 
the  position  of  Missouri,  to  whose  Convention  not  a  single  Se 
cessionist  was  elected.  Governor  Price  was  elected  from  his 
district  as  a  Union  man,  without  opposition,  and,  on  the  assem 
bling  of  the  Convention,  was  chosen  its  President.  The  Con 
vention  had  not  been  in  session  many  weeks  before  the  radi 
calism  of  the  Black  Republican  administration,  and  its  hostility 
to  the  institutions  of  the  South,  became  manifest  to  every  un 
prejudiced  mind.  The  perfidy  and  brutality  of  its  officers  in 
Missouri  were  particularly  observable,  and  soon  opened  the 
eyes  of  the  people  to  the  true  objects  of  the  Black  Republican 
party.  The  State  authorities  decided  upon  resistance  to  the 
Federal  government ;  the  Governor  issued  his  proclamation  for 
volunteers  ;  and  of  the  forces  raised  under  this  call,  who  were 
denominated  the  Missouri  State  Guard,  Governor  Price  was 
appointed  major-general,  and  took  the  field. 

The  period  of  history  has  scarcely  yet  arrived  for  a  full  ap 
preciation  of  the  heroic  virtues  of  the  campaign  in  Missouri, 
especially  as  illustrated  in  the  character  of  the  chieftain  whom 
no  personal  jealousies  could  distract  or  unmerited  slights  turn 
from  the  single  course  of  duty  and  devotion  to  his  country. 
He  had  given  the  government  at  Richmond  a  valuable,  but 
distasteful  lesson  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.  He  did  not  settle 
down  complacently  into  one  kind  of  policy,  refusing  to  advance 
because  he  was  on  the  defensive,  but  he  sought  the  enemy 
wherever  he  could  find  him,  fought  him  when  ready,  and  re 
treated  out  of  his  way  when  not  prepared.  His  policy  was 
both  offensive  and  defensive,  and  he  used  the  one  which  might 
be  demanded  by  the  exigencies  of  his  situation.  He  was  some 
thing  better  than  a  pupil  of  West  Point — he  was  a  general  by 
n&hire,  a  beloved  commander,  a  man  who  illustrated  the  Ro 


164:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

man  simplicity  of  character  in  the  nineteenth  century.  His 
troops  not  only  loved  him,  they  were  wildly  and  enthusiastic 
ally  devoted  to  him.  His  figure  in  the  battle-field,  clothed  in 
a  common  brown  linen  coat,  with  his  white  hair  streaming  in 
the  wind,  was  the  signal  for  wild  and  passionate  cheers,  ana 
there  was  not  one  of  his  soldiers,  it  was  said,  but  who  was  will 
ing  to  die,  if  he  could  only  fall  within  sight  of  his  commander. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  had  General  Price  been  supported 
after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  he  would  have  wrung  the  State 
of  Missouri  from  the  possession  of  the  enemy.  He  was  forced 
by  untoward  circumstances,  already  referred  to,  to  turn  back 
in  a  career  just  as  it  approached  the  zenith  of  success,  and  he 
could  have  given  no  higher  proof  of  his  magnanimity  than 
that  he  did  so  without  an  expression  of  bitterness  or  a  word  of 
recrimination.  He  bore  the  cold  neglect  of  the  government  at 
.Richmond  and  the  insulting  proposition  which  President  Davis 
was  compelled  by  popular  indignation  to  abandon,  to  place 
over  him,  as  major-general  in  his  department,  a  pupil  of  West 
Point  his  inferior  in  rank,  with  philosophic  patience  and  with 
out  any  subtraction  from  his  zeal  for  his  country.  When  his 
officers  expressed  resentment  for  the  injustice  done  him  by  the 
government,  he  invariably  checked  them :  stating  that  there 
should  be  no  controversies  of  this  kind  while  the  war  lasted, 
and  that  he  was  confident  that  posterity  would  do  him  justice. 
He  was  more  than  right ;  for  the  great  majority  of  his  living 
countrymen  did  him  justice,  despite  the  detractions  of  jealousy 
in  Richmond. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR, 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Campaign  in  Western  Virginia.—  General  Wise's  Command.—  Politiea  Influ 
ences  in  Western  ViKginia.  —  The  Affair  of  Scary  Creek.  —  General  Wise's  Retreat  to 
Lewisburg.  —  General  Floyd's  Brigade.  —  The  Affair  at  Cross  Lanes.  —  Movements  on 
the  Gauley.  —  The  Affair  of  Carnifax  Ferry.  —  Disagreement  between  Generals  Floyd 
and  Wise.  —  The  Tyrees.  —  A  Patriotic  Woman.  —  Movements  in  Northwestern  Vir 
ginia.  —  General  Lee.  —  The  Enemy  intrenched  on  Cheat  Mountain.  —  General  Rose- 
crans.  —  Failure  of  General  Lee's  Plan  of  Attack.  —  He  removes  to  the  Kanawha  Re- 
gion.  —  The  Opportunity  of  a  Decisive  Battle  lost.  —  Retreat  of  Rosecrans.  —  General 
H.  R.  Jackson's  Affair  on  the  Greenbrier.—  The  Approach  of  Winter.—  The  Campaign 
in  Western  Virginia  abandoned.  —  The  Affair  on  the  Alleghany.  —  General  Floyd  at 
Cotton  Hill.  —  His  masterly  Retreat.  —  Review  of  the  Campaign  in  Western  Virginia.— 
Some  of  its  Incidents.  —  Its  Failure  and  unfortunate  Results.  —  Other  Movements  in 
Virginia.  —  The  Potomac  Line.  —  The  BATTLE  OF  LEESBUEO.  —  Overweening  Confidence 
of  the  Soutii. 


must  return  here  to  the  narrative  of  the  campaign  in 
Virginia.  The  campaign  in  the  western  portion  of  the  State 
was  scarcely  more  than  a  series  of  local  adventures,  compared 
with  other  events  of  the  war.  It  was  a  failure  from  the  be 
ginning  —  owing  to  the  improvidence  of  the  government,  the 
want  of  troops,  the  hostile  character  of  the  country  itself,  and 
a  singular  military  policy,  to  which  we  shall  have  occasion 
hereafter  to  refer. 

General  Wise,  of  Virginia,  was  appointed  a  brigadier-gen 
eral  without  an  army.  He  rallied  around  him  at  Richmond  a 
number  of  devoted  friends,  and  explained  to  them  his  views 
and  purposes.  Cordially  favoring  his  plans,  they  went  into 
the  country,  and  called  upon  the  people  to  rally  to  the  stand 
ard  of  General  Wise,  and  enable  him  to  prevent  the  approach 
of  the  enemy  into  the  Kanawha  Valley. 

About  the  first  of  June,  General  Wise  left  Richmond  for  the 
western  portion  of  the  State,  accompanied  by  a  portion  of  his 
Btaff.  At  Lewisburg,  he  was  joined  by  several  companies 
raised  and  organized  in  that  region.  From  this  point,  he  pro 
ceeded  to  Charleston,  in  the  Kanawha  Valley,  where  he  under 
took,  with  his  rare  and  characteristic  enthusiasm,  to  rally  the 
people  to  the  support  of  the  State.  A  number  of  them  joined 
his  command  ;  but  the  masses  continued  apathetic,  owing  to  a 


166  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

number  of  adverse  influences,  prominent  among  which  was  the 
political  position  of  George  W.  Summers,  the  most  influential 
politician  of  Western  Virginia,  the  leader  of  the  "  Union*'  men 
*n  the  State  Convention,  and  a  prominent  delegate  to  the  Peace 
Conference  at  Washington. 

This  person  threw  the  weight  of  his  great  influence  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  uprising  of  the  people.  He  advised  them  to  a 
strict  neutrality  between  the  public  enemy  and  the  supporters 
of  the  Confederate  government.  Notwithstanding  all  the  ap 
peals  made  to  his  patriotism,  he  maintained  an  attitude  of  in 
difference,  and,  by  reason  of  the  high  estimation  in  which  hn 
was  generally  held  by  the  community  in  which  he  lived,  as 
a  wise  and  sagacious  man,  he  succeeded  in  neutralizing  the 
greater  portion  of  Kanawha  and  the  adjoining  counties. 

Despite,  however,  the  obstacles  in  his  way,  General  Wi,<;e 
succeeded  in  raising  a  brigade  of  two  thousand  five  hundred 
infantry,  seven  hundred  cavalry,  and  three  battalions  of  artil 
lery.  Of  this  force,  western  Virginia  furnished  about  three 
fifths  and  the  east  about  two-fifths.  On  his  arrival  at  Charles 
ton,  General  Wise  found  C.  G.  Tonipkins  in  command  of  a 
number  of  companies,  chiefly  from  Kanawha  and  the  adjacent 
counties.  These  forces,  combined  with  those  of  the '  Wise 
Legion,  amounted  to  about  four  thousand  men. 

General  Wise,  anxious  to  give  an  assurance  of  support  to 
the  strong  Southern  sentiment  reported  to  exist  in  Gilmer  and 
Calhoun,  sent  an  expedition  into  those  counties  to  repress  the 
excesses  of  the  Union  men.  In  the  mean  time,  the  enemy  had 
landed  considerable  forces  at  Parkersburg  and  Point  Pleasant 
on  the  Ohio  river,  and  'had  military  possession  of  the  neigh 
boring  country.  His  superior  facilities  for  raising  troops  in 
the  populous  States  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  his  ample  means 
of  transportation  by  railroad  through  those  States,  and  by  the 
navigation  of  the  Ohio  and  Kanawha  rivers,  enabled  him,  in 
a  short  space  of  time,  to  concentrate  a  large  force,  with  ade 
quate  supplies  and  munitions  of  war,  in  the"  .jwer  part  of  the 
Kanawha  Valley. 

About  the  middle  of  July,  the  enemy  advanced  up  the  river 
into  the  county  of  Putnam,  and,  on  the  17th,  Captain  Patton 
(afterwards  Colonel  Patton),  with  a  small  force,  met  and  re 
pulsed  three  regiments  of  the  enemy  at  Scary  Creek,  in  Put 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  167 

nam  county,  taking  prisoners  Cols.  Norton  and  Yilliers  of  the 
Ohio  troops,  and  Cols.  Woodroof  and  Neff  of  the  Kentucky 
troops.  The  enemy  retired,  and  our  forces  remained  in  pos 
session  of  the  field.  On  the  evening  of  the  day  of  the  action, 
General  Wise  sent  down  two  regiments  under  Colonels  Torap- 
kins  and  McCausland  to  reinforce  the  troops  at  Scary.  Upon 
arriving  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  they  found  that  the 
enemy  had  fallen  back  to  his  main  forces  under  the  command 
of  General  Cox. 

Being  unprepared  to  hold  the  position,  not  having  the  ade 
quate  supplies  of  men  and  munitions  of  war,  the  Confederates 
fell  back  in  the  direction  of  Charleston.  Capt.  Patton  had 
been  dangerously  wounded  in  the  action,  and  could  not  be  re- 
nroved  from  the  place.  Col.  Norton,  one  of  the  Federal  officers 
captured,  was  also  wounded.  He  and  Capt.  Patton  were  placed 
in  the  same  house,  Col.  Norton  entering  into  an  arrangement 
by  which  Capt.  Patton  was  to  be  released  by  the  enemy  in  ex 
change  for  himself.  Gen.  Cox,  on  his  arrival,  repudiated  the 
understanding.  He,  however,  released  Capt.  Patton  on  parole 
as  soon  as  he  had  partially  recovered  from  his  wound. 

After  the  action  of  Scary,  the  enemy's  forces,  which  had 
been  largely  increased,  steadily  advanced  up  the  valley  both 
by  land  and  water.  Gen.  Wise,  however,  was  ready  to  offer 
battle  to  the  enemy,  and  was  confident  of  his  ability  to  repul&e 
him.  But  just  about  this  time  the  news  of  the  disaster  to 
Gen.  Garnett's  command  at  Rich  Mountain  reached  the  Ka- 
nawha  Yalley,  and  put  a  new  aspect  upon  military  operations 
in  that  section.  The  consequences  of  this  disaster  exposed  the 
little  army  of  Gen.  Wise  to  imminent  peril.  He  was  in  danger 
of  being  cut  off  in  the  rear  by  several  roads  from  the  north 
west,  striking  the  Kanawha  road  at  various  points  between 
Lewisburg  and  Gauley  Bridge.  Under  these  circumstances, 
Gen.  Wise  determined  to  fall  back  with  his  entire  force  to 
Lewisburg,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  miles.  This  he  did  in 
good  order,  destroying  the  bridges  behind  him,  and  reaching 
Lewisburg  about  the  first  of  August.  Remaining  in  that 
vicinity  some  ten  days,  laboriously  engaged  in  organizing  his 
brigade,  and  supplying  it,  as  far  as  possible,  with  arms  and 
the  essential  materials  for  an  active  campaign,  he  announced 
himself  as  again  prepared  to  take  up  the  line  of  advance 


168  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

About  this  time,  General  Floyd  arrived  at  the  Greenbriei 
White  Sulphur  Springs  with  a  brigade  of  three  regiments  ol 
infantry  and  a  battalion  of  cavalry.  He  had  been  ordered,  in 
the  first  instance,  to  proceed  with  his  command  to  Jackson 
River,  with  a  view  to  the  relief  of  the  retreating  forces  of  Gen. 
Garnett ;  but,  on  his  arrival  at  the  Sweet  Springs  from  South 
ampton,  Yirginia,  Gen.  Floyd's  direction  was  changed  by  au 
thority  to  the  Kanawha  Yalley.  After  consultation  between 
Generals  Floyd  and  "Wise  in  Greenbrier  county,  the  former, 
who  was  the  ranking  officer,  resumed  his  march  westward,  the 
latter  following  in  a  few  days. 

Gen.  Floyd  commenced  to  skirmish  with  the  enemy's  pickets 
at  Tyree's,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Sewell  Mountain,  driving 
them  back  to  their  command,  five  miles  distant,  with  a  loss  of 
four  killed  and  seven  wounded.  Upon  his  approach,  the  army 
retreated  from  Locust  Lane  to  Hamilton's,  near  Hawk's  Nest, 
Floyd's  command  advancing  and  occupying  the  camp  of  the 
Federals  the  next  night.  The  Wise  Legion  also  came  up  and 
occupied  the  same  ground.  The  two  commands  then  advanced 
to  Dogwood  Gap,  where  the  road  from  Summersville  intersects 
the  turnpike  from  Lewisburg  to  Charleston.  There  two  pieces 
of  artillery  were  posted  to  keep  open  the  line,  .and  prevent  a 
flanking  movement  from  Cox's  command  via  Carnifax  Ferry, 
where  there  was  reported  to  be  a  Federal  force  of  several 
thousand.  The  main  command  then  moved  down  to  Pickett'a 
Mills,  near  Hamilton's,  within  a  few  miles  of  the  enemy's 
camp.  At  this  point,  information  was  obtained  that  the  rear 
of  the  Confederates  was  threatened  by  Matthews'  and  Tyler's 
commands,  which  had  occupied  Carnifax  Ferry  (on  the  Gauley 
river),  and  Cross  Lanes,  a  few  miles  distant  therefrom.  Gen. 
Floyd  at  once  ordered  his  brigade  to  strike  tents,  and  at  half- 
past  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  took  up  the  line  of  march, 
with  the  view  of  engaging  the  forces  of  his  assailants,  whose 
object  was  to  cut  off  his  trains  and  fall  upon  his  rear. 

Gen.  Wise's  command  was  left  at  Pickett's  Mills  to  hold  the 
turnpike,  and  prevent  a  flank  movement  from  Hawk's  Nest, 
where  the  main  body  of  Cox's  forces  were  stationed  on  New 
River,  seven  miles  east  of  Gauley  Bridge. 

Floyd's  brigade  proceeded  by  a  rapid  march,  and  reached 
Carnifax  Ferry  about  noon  of  the  same  day.  On  his  arrival 


I 
THE    FIRST    YEAR.  169 

there,  lie  learned  that  the  enemy  had  drawn  in  his  com  man  da 
at  Cross  Lanes  and  Carnifax  Ferry,  in  anticipation  of  an  attack 
at  Hawk's  Nest.  Gen.  Floyd  proceeded  at  once  to  raise  the 
boats  which  the  enemy  had  sunk  in  the  river  at  the  ferry,  and 
to  construct  other  boats  for  crossing  the  river  immediately,  so 
as  to  occupy  the  strong  positions  which  the  enemy  had  held  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  Gauley.  In  the  short  space  of  twenty- 
four  hours,  he  had  constructed  a  small  batteau  to  carry  some 
ten  men,  and  had  raised  a  ferry-boat  capable  of  carrying  fifty 
men  and  transporting  his  wagons,  and  had  succeeded  in  ferry 
ing  over  all  of  his  infantry  and  two  pieces  of  artillery.  He 
then  undertook  to  transport  his  cavalry,  when  an  accident 
occurred  which  caused  the  loss  of  the  ferry-boat  and  four  men 
The  boat  capsized  and  was  drawn  over  the  rapids.  By  this 
accident,  Gen.  Floyd's  command  was  severed,  most  of  his 
cavalry  and  four  pieces  of  artillery  being  left  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  stream,  while  his  infantry  and  a  small  portion  of  his 
cavalry  had  reached  the  opposite  shore.  The  stream  had  been 
so  swollen  by  recent  rains  as  to  render  ferrying  extremely 
hazardous.  Gen.  Floyd,  from  the  western  side,  ordered  the 
quarter-master  across  the  river  to  build  boats  on  the  other  side, 
and  to  convey  a  message  to  Gen.  Wise  informing  him  of  the 
condition  of  the  command. 

In  twenty-four  hours,  a  boat  was  built  and  launched  from 
the  west  side  of  the  river,  and  the  remainder  of  the  artillery 
and  cavalry  and  such  wagons  as  were  needful  were  passed 
over.  In  the  mean  time,  Gen.  Floyd  was  engaged  in  strength 
ening  his  position.  His  scouts  were  thrown  out  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Gauley  Bridge,  by  way  of  the  Summersville  and  Gauley 
turnpike,  and  they  reported  the  advance  of  the  enemy  in  con 
siderable  strength  from  Gauley,  in  the  direction  of  Cross 
Lanes.  The  next  evening,  the  enemy  had  advanced  to  Cross 
Lanes,  within  two  miles  of  Floyd's  camp.  The  Federal  officers 
had  heard  of  the  casualty  at  the  ferry,  and  their  "Union" 
friends  in  the  neighboring  country  had  reported  to  them  that 
but  two  hundred  of  the  infantry  and  cavalry  had  succeeded  in 
crossing  over.  , 

Col.  Tyler,  who  commanded  the  Federals,  was  confident  of 
the  capture  of  the  whole  force  on  the  western  side  of  the  river, 
lie  was  sadly  disappointed.  Gen.  Floyd  had  drawn  up  hia 


170  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

forces  in  line  of  battle  on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  August  25th, 
and  prepared  for  an  attack.  His  pickets  had  closely  scented 
the  enemy's  position.  Keeping  his  men  in  line  of  battle  all 
night,  at  four  o'clock  the  next  morning  he  ordered  an  advance 
upon  the  enemy,  whose  strength  was  estimated  at  from  fifteen 
hundred  to  two  thousand.  The  order  was  promptly  obeyed. 
The  several  Virginia  regiments  marched  by  the  respective 
routes  assigned  them,  and  succeeded  in  completely  surprising 
the  Federals.  Col.  Tyler's  line  of  pickets  did  not  extend  more 
than  two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  his  camp  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Carnifax  Ferry.  His  men  were  found  preparing  their 
breakfasts  of  green  corn  and  fresh  beef — roasting  their  corn 
by  the  fire  and  broiling  their  beef  on  sharp  sticks.  They  were 
encamped  in  separate  divisions,  the  rear  being  very  near  the 
church,  in  the  direction  of  Gauley,  in  which  building  CoL 
Tyler  had  taken  up  his  quarters.  Their  pickets  were  drawn 
in,  and  the  division  nearest  to  Floyd's  forces  took  position 
behind  a  fence,  where,  for  a  time,  they  stubbornly  resisted  the 
attack.  They  were  soon  dislodged,  and  the  whole  cdmmand 
pushed  over  the  hills,  where  they  broke  into  the  most  disgrace 
ful  flight,  the  advance  of  which  was  conspicuously  led  by  their 
colonel  and  field-officers.  The  flight  was  one  of  wild  conster 
nation,  many  of  the  enemy  not  only  throwing  away  their  arms, 
but  divesting  themselves  of  hats  and  coats  to  accelerate  their 
flight,  which  was  continued  on  an  uninterrupted  stretch  for 
twelve  or  fifteen  miles. 

The  commander  of  the  Federals,  Col.  Tyler,  was  an  Ohio 
man,  and  was  familiar  with  the  topography  of  the  country  he 
had  come  to  invade,  having  visited  it  for  years  in  the  character 
of  a  fur-dealer.  On  his  advent  in  the  Kanawha  Yalley  as  the 
commander  of  an  invading  regiment,  the  coarse  jest  was  made 
in  some  of  the  Northern  papers  that  he  would  u  drive  a  snug 
business"  in  rebel  skins.  The  joke  was  turned  against  him  by 
the  Virginia  soldiers  at  Cross  Lanes,  when  they  captured  all 
the  baggage  of  the  Federal  command,  including  the  colonel's 
shirts,  who  had  thus  narrowly  escaped  with  his  own  skin.  As 
the  flying  enemy  dashed  on,  the  colonel  led  the  retreat  at  a 
considerable  distance  ahead  of  it.  One  of  his  staff,  a  major,  in 
leaping  a  fence  got  his  horse  astride  it,  and  had  to  leave  him 
there,  trusting  to  the  fleetness  of  his  own  heels  for  safety. 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  171 

In  the  affair  at  Cross  Lanes,  the  enemy's  loss  in  killed 
wounded,  and  prisoners  was  about  two  hundred.  That  on  oui 
side  in  killed  and  wounded  did  not  exceed  &  dozen  men. 

Gen.  Floyd  proceeded  to  strengthen  his  position  on  the 
Gauley.  Having  succeeded  in  throwing  his  forces  between 
Cox  and  Rosecrans,  he  set  to  work  to  bring  up  ten  days'  sup 
plies  in  advance,  intending  to  throw  a  portion  of  his  command 
into  the  Kanawha  Valley  below  Cox,  with  a  view  of  cutting  off 
his  retreat.  Having  secured  supplies  sufficient  to  justify  an 
advance  movement,  Gen.  Floyd  was  about  this  time  apprised 
of  the  approach  of  Rosecrans,  by  way  of  Suttonsville,  with 
a  large  force  for  the  relief  of  Cox.  On  the  evening  previous  to 
the  contemplated  advance  of  the  Confederates  against  Cox, 
about  three  o'clock  of  the  10th  of  September,  Rosecrans,  by  a 
rapid  march  of  sixteen  miles,  threw  his  entire  force  of  ten  regi 
ments  and  several  heavy  batteries  of  artillery  about  Floyd's 
intrenchments,  and  commenced  a  vigorous  attack. 

The  successful  resistance  of  this  attack  of  the  enemy,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Carnifax  Ferry,  was  one  of  the  most  remark 
able  incidents  of  the  campaign  in  Western  Virginia.  The  force 
of  Gen.  Floyd's  command  was  1,740  men,  and  from  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  until  nightfall,  it  sustained,  with  un 
wavering  determination  and  the  most  brilliant  success,  an  as 
sault  from  an  enemy  between  eight  and  nine  thousand  strong, 
made  with  small-arms,  grape,  and  round-shot,  from  howitzers 
and  rifled  cannon. 

Upon  the  close  of  the  contest  for  the  night,  Gen.  Floyd  de 
termined  at  once  to  cross  the  Gauley  river,  and  take  position 
upon  the  left  bank — Gen.  "Wise  having  failed  to  reinforce  him, 
and  it  being  only  a  question  of  time  when  he  would  be  com 
pelled  to  yield  to  the  superiority  of  numbers.  The  retreat 
across  the  river  was  accomplished  by  aid  of  a  hastily  con 
structed  bridge  of  logs,  about  four  feet  wide,  without  the  loss 
of  a  gun,  or  any  accident  whatever.  In  a  continued  firing  upon 
us,  by  cannon  and  small-arms,  for  nearly  four  hours,  only 
twenty  of  our  men  had  been  wounded  and  none  killed.  We 
had  repulsed  the  enemy  in  five  distinct  and  successive  assaults, 
and  had  held  him  in  complete  check  until  the  river  was  placed 
between  him  and  the  little  army  he  had  come  in  the  insolent 
e  -niidence  of  overwhelming  numbers  tc  destroy.  The  loss  fc 


172  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  enemy  had  been,  considerable,  Col.  Lytle,  of  Ciucinnati, 
and  a  number  of  other  Federal  officers,  having  fallen  in  their 
attempts  to  rally  their  men  to  a  successful  charge.  The  whole 
loss  of  the  enemy  cannot  be  stated  here  ;  it  was  very  serious, 
by  the  admission  of  the  Cincinnati  Commercial,  and  other  Fed- 
eral  newspapers ;  it,  unquestionably,  must  have  amounted  to 
several  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded.  Gen.  Floyd  was 
wounded  by  a  musket-shot  in  the  arm.  His  flag,  which  was 
flying  at  head-quarters,  and  his  tent  were  riddled  with  balls. 

At  the  time  that  information  had  reached  Gen.  Floyd  of  the 
advance  of  the  enemy  towards  his  position,  he  had  dispatched 
orders  to  Gen.  Wise  for  reinforcements,  which  he  failed  to  pro 
cure.  In  his  official  report  of  the  action,  Gen.  Floyd  wrote  to 
the  "War  Department  at  Kichmond  :  "  I  am  very  confident  thai 
I  could  have  beaten  the  enemy  and  marched  directly  to  the 
Valley  of  the  Kanawha,  if  the  reinforcements  from  Gen.  Wise's 
column  had  come  up  when  ordered,  and  the  regiments  from 
North  Carolina  and  Georgia  could  have  reached  me  before  the 
close  of  the  second  day's  conflict.  I  cannot  express  the  regret 
which  I  feel  at  the  necessity,  over  which  I  had  no  control, 
which  required  that  I  should  recross  the  river,  I  am  confi 
dent  that  if  I  could  have  commanded  the  services  of  five 
thousand  men,  instead  of  eighteen  hundred,  which  I  had,  1 
could  have  opened  the  road  directly  into  the  Valley  of  the 
Kanawha."  Eeferring  to  the  correspondence  between  himself 
and  Gen.  Wise,  in  which  the  latter  had  declined  to  send  for 
ward  reinforcements,  Gen.  Floyd  indicated  to  the  government 
the  urgent  necessity  of  shaping  the  command  in  the  Valley 
of  the  Kanawha,  so  as  to  insure  in  the  future  that  unity  of 
action,  upon  which  alone  can  rest  any  hope  of  success  in  mili 
tary  matters. 

While  Gen.  Floyd  was  at  Carnifax  Ferry,  Gen.  Wise  marched 
down  to  Big  Creek,  in  Fayette  county,  where  the  enemy  were 
in  considerable  force,  fortified  his  position,  and  offered  them 
battle.  He  hoped  to  obtain  a  position  upon  the  flank  of  the 
enemy,  and  with  that  view,  sent  Col.  Anderson  and  his  regi 
ment  by  an  obscure  county  road,  but  did  not  succeed  in  his  ob 
ject.  Meanwhile,  with  two  regiments  of  infantry  and  a  battery 
of  artillery,  Gen.  Wise  remained  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of 
the  enemy.  A  sharp  skirmish  took  place,  the  enemy  opening 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  173 

upon  Wisu's  forces  with  artillery,  doing  no  execution,  however. 
The  artillery  of  the  Wise  Legion  replied,  throwing  shell,  with 
some  effect,  into  the  enemy's  lines.  But  the  attempt  to  bring 
on  a  general  engagement  was  unsuccessful,  the  enemy  declin 
ing  the  offer  of  battle. 

Gen.  Floyd  retreated  in  good  order  from  Carnifax  Ferry  to 
the  summit  of  Big  Se well  Mountain,  where  he  remained  for 
three  days,  when,  in  accordance  with  the  decision  of  a  council 
of  officers  called  by  him,  he  ordered  a  retreat  to  Meadow  Bluff, 
a  position  which,  it  was  said,  guarded  all  the  approaches  to 
Lewisburg  and  the  railroad.  Gen.  "Wise,  however,  who  had 
fallen  back  with  Gen.  Floyd  to  Big  Sewell,  declined  to  retreat 
to  Meadow  Bluff,  and  proceeded  to  strengthen  his  position, 
which  he  named  Camp  "  Defiance." 

The  enemy  had  advanced  to  Tyree's — a  well-known  public 
house,  on  the  turnpike-road,  in  Fayette  county.  This  'country 
tavern  had  been  kept  for  a  number  of  years  by  an  ancient 
couple,  whose  fidelity  and  services  to  the  South  were  remarka 
ble.  Of  the  courage  and  adventure  of  Mrs.  Tyree,  many  well- 
authenticated  anecdotes  are  told.  Her  husband,  though  a  very 
old  man,  had  gone  into  the  ranks  of  the  Confederate  army 
at  the  commencement  of  the  war.  The  enemy,  who  were  well- 
advised  of  the  enthusiastic  attachment  of  Mrs.  Tyree  to  the 
cause  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  soon  made  her  an  object  of  their 
annoyances.  Their  first  attempt  was  to  take  away  the  only 
horse  the  old  woman  had.  A  Federal  soldier  came  to  her 
house,  caught  her  horse  without  her  knowledge,  and  was  about 
to  ride  him  off,  when  she  discovered  the  thief  and  demanded 
his  business.  The  soldier  replied  that  he  was  directed  to  take 
the  horse  for  the  purpose  of  "jayhawking."  The  words  were 
scarcely  out  of  his  mouth,  when  Mrs.  Tyree  knocked  him  down 
with  a  billet  of  wood,  stretching  the  ambitious  "  jayhawker" 
almost  lifeless  upon  the  ground.  The  horse,  for  further  secu 
rity,  was  locked  up  in  the  old  woman's  smoke-house. 

On  another  occasion,  a  file  of  Federal  soldiers  proceeded  to 
the  premises  of  Mrs.  Tyree,  with  the  intention  of  driving  off 
her  cow.  Discovering  them,  she  asked  what  they  intended  to 
do  with  her  cow.  "  We  intend  to  drive  it  to  camp  for  a  beef," 
was  the  reply.  Instantly,  wrenching  a  gun  from  the  hands  01 
one  of  the  soldiers,  Mrs.  Tyree  deliberately  declared  that  she 


174  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

would  shoot  the  first  man  who  attempted  to  drive  the  cow  from 
her  premises.  "  The  rest  of  you  may  then  kill  me,"  she  said, 
"  if  you  think  proper."  The  soldiers  were  baffled,  and  Mrs. 
Tyree's  cow  was  saved. 

A  few  nights  afterwards,  a  number  of  soldiers  surrounded 
her  house,  under  the  shelter  of  which  was  herself,  her  daughter, 
and  a  few  faithful  servants,  without  any  male  protector  what 
ever.  They  ordered  the  family  to  leave,  as  they  intended  to 
burn  the  house.  Mrs.  Tyree  positively  refused  to  leave  the 
house,  very  coolly  locked  all  the  doors,  and  told  them  if  they 
intended  to  burn  the  building,  to  apply  the  torch  without 
further  ceremony,  as  she  and  her  family  were  resolved  to  bo 
consumed  with  it.  The  villains,  hesitating  at  such  a  work  of 
fiendish  assassination,  were  forced  to  leave  without  putting  their 
threat  into  execution.  The  heroic  spirit  of  such  a  woman,  not 
only  protected  her  household,  but  furnished  many  interesting 
incidents  to  the  campaign  in  her  neighborhood,  which  it  is  not 
now  the  time  to  relate.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  her  home 
was  left  within  the  lines  of  the  enemy. 

Having  traced  to  a  certain  period,  the  operations  in  the  Yal- 
ley  of  the  Kanawha,  we  must  turn  to  note  the  movements  of 
the  army  in  northwestern  Virginia. 

After  the  retreat  of  Gen.  Garnett  from  Kich  Mountain,  and 
the  death  of  that  officer,  Gen.  Lee  was  appointed  to  succeed 
him,  and,  with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  to  repair  to  the  scene 
of  operations.  The  most  remarkable  circumstance  of  this  cam 
paign  was,  that  it  was  conducted  by  a  general  who  had  never 
fought  a  battle,  who  had  a  pious  honor  of  guerrillas,  and  whose 
extreme  tenderness  of  blood  induced  him  to  depend  exclusively 
ppon  the  resources  of  strategy,  to  essay  the  achievement  of  vic 
tories  without  the  cost  of  life. 

Gen.  Lee  took  with  him  reinforcements,  making  his  whole 
force,  in  conjunction  with  the  remnant  of  Gen.  Garnett's  army 
that  had  fallen  back  from  Rich  Mountain  to  Monterey,  about 
sixteen  thousand  men.  Early  in  August,  Gen.  Lee  reached 
with  his  command  the  neighborhood  of  Cheat  Mountain,  on 
the  Staunton  and  Parkersburg  turnpike,  and  found  it  strongly 
fortified  by  the  enemy.  The  position  was  known  to  be  an  ex 
ceedingly  strong  one,  and  not  easily  turned.  Nevertheless, 
Gen.  Lee  was  confident  that  he  would  be  able  by  strategic 


THE    FIKST    YEAE.  175 

movements  to  dislodge  the  enemy  from  his  stronghold,  capture 
his  forces,  and  then  march  his  victorious  army  into  the  heart 
of  northwestern  Virginia,  releasing  the  people  there  from  the 
fetters  with  which,  for  two  months,  they  had  been  bound.  The 
prospect  of  such  a  conquest  of  the  enemy  was  eminently  pleas 
ant.  Rosecraris*  was  the  ranking  officer  in  northwestern  Vir 
ginia,  but  Gen.  Reynolds  was  in  command  of  the  troops  on 
Cheat  Mountain  and  in  its  vicinity,  his  force  being  estimated 
at  from  ten  to  twelve  thousand  men. 

Gen.  Lee  felt  his  way  cautiously  along  the  road  leading  from 
Huntersville  to  Iluttonsville,  in  the  county  of  Randolph,  and 
reaching  Valley  Mountain,  he  halted  for  some  time,  arranging 
his  plans  for  attacking  the  enemy,  who  were  about  eight  miles 
below  him,  in  Randolph  county,  at  Crouch's,  in  Tygart's  Val 
ley  River,  five  or  six  thousand  strong.  His  plans  were  ar 
ranged  so  as  to  divide  his  forces  for  the  purpose  of  surrounding 
the  enemy.  After  great  labor  and  the  endurance  of  severe 
hardships  on  the  mountain  spurs,  where  the  weather  was  very 
cold,  he  succeeded  in  getting  below  the  enemy,  on  Tygart'a 
Valley  River,  placing  other  portions  of  his  forces  on  the  spurs 
of  the  mountain  immediately  east  and  west  of  the  enemy,  and 
marching  another  portion  of  his  troops  down  the  Valley  River 
close  to  the  enemy.  The  forces  were  thus  arranged  in  position 
for  making  an  attack  upon  the  enemy  at  Crouch's,  and  re 
mained  there  for  some  hours.  It  was  doubtless  in  the  plan  of 
Gen.  Lee  for  his  forces  to  remain  in  position  until  the  consum 
mation  of  another  part  of  his  plan,  viz.  that  some  fifteen  hun 
dred  of  Gen.  H.  R.  Jackson's  forces  stationed  at  Greenbrier 

*  Gen.  Rosecrans  is  of  German  descent,  a  native  of  Ohio,  and  a  graduate 
of  West  Point.  He  had  devoted  much  study  to  chemistry  and  geology,  and 
resided  some  time  in  Charleston,  Kanawha,  prosecuting  some  researches  into 
the  mineral  riches  of  that  region.  He  was  also  employed  in  some  capacity 
lor  a  time  by  some  of  the  coal  companies  or  some  of  the  coal -oil  manufactur 
ers  there.  His  last  enterprise,  previous  to  the  war,  was  the  establishment  of 
an  oil  manufactory  in  Cincinnati.  In  this  he  failed  pecuniarily.  The  war 
was  a  timely  event  to  him,  and  his  military  education  gave  him  a  claim  to 
consideration.  In  the  South,  he  was  esteemed  as  one  of  the  best  generals  the 
North  had  in  the  field ;  he  was  declared  by  military  critics,  who  could  not  be 
suspected  of  partiality,  to  have  clearly  out-generalled  Lee  in  western  Vir 
ginia,  who  made  it  the  entire  object  of  his  campaign  to  "  surround"  the  Dutch 
general ;  and  his  popular  manners  and  amiable  deportment  towards  our  pris 
oners,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  procured  him  the  respect  of  his  enemy. 


176  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

River  should  march  around  another  position  of  the  enero  y,  at 
the  celebrated  Cheat  Mountain  Pass,  on  the.  Staunton  and 
Parkersburg  road,  where  he  was  five  or  six  thousand  strong. 
Jackson's  forces  did  march  around  this  position,  under  com 
inand  of  Col.  Rust,  of  Arkansas,  through  extraordinary  difn 
culties  and  perils  and  under  circumstances  of  terrible  exhaus 
tion.  The  troops  had  to  ascend  the  almost  perpendicular 
mountain  sides,  but  finally  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  positiop 
in  front  of  and  to  the  west  of  the  enemy.  The  attack  of  this 
force  upon  the  enemy  on  Cheat  Mountain  was  understood  to 
be,  in  the  plan  of  Gen.  Lee,  a  signal  for  the  attack  by  his 
forces  upon  the  enemy  at  Crouch's.  Col.  Rust,  however,  dis 
covered  the  enemy  on  the  mountain  to  be  safely  protected  by 
block-houses  and  other  defences,  and  concluding  that  the  at 
tack  could  not  be  made  with  any  hope  of  success,  ordered  a 
retreat.  The  signal  was  not  given  according  to  the  plan  of 
Gen.  Lee,  and  no  attack  was  made  by  his  forces,  which  re 
treated  without  firing  a  gun  back  to  Yalley  Mountain. 

It  is  understood  that  Gen.  Lee  did  not  expect  Col.  Rust  to 
make  an  attack  with  any  certainty  or  even  probability  of  suc 
cess  ;  his  purpose  being  for  Col.  Rust  to  hold  the  enemy  ir. 
position  at  Cheat  Mountain  Pass,  while  he  was  engaging  them 
at  Crouch's.  The  fact,  however,  is,  that  Cheat  Mountain  Pass 
was,  by  the  nearest  road  to  Crouch's,  ten  miles  distant ;  and 
there  are  strong  reasons  for  believing  that,  if  Gen.  Lee  had 
made  the  attack  upon  the  enemy  at  the  latter  position,  they 
would  have  been  captured  to  a  man,  notwithstanding  the 
failure  to  hold  the  forces  in  check  at  Cheat  Mountain.  Such 
was  the  impression  of  the  Federals  themselves.  If  the  enemy 
had  been  captured  at  Crouch's,  a  march  of  ten  miles  down  the 
Valley  River  by  Gen.  Lee  would  have  brought  his  forces  in  the 
rear  of  the  enemy  at  Huttonsville,  cutting  off  his  supplies,  and, 
with  Jackson  on  the  other  side,  compelling  him  to  the  necessity 
of  surrender. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Gen.  Lee  failed  to  make  the  attack 
at  Crouch's,  and  to  realize  the  rich  results  of  his  well-matured 
plan.  Had  he  defeated  the  enemy  at  Crouch's,  he  would  have 
been  within  two  days'  march  of  the  position  from  which  Gen 
Garnett  had  retreated,  and  could  have  held  Rosecrans  in  check, 
who  was  at  that  time  making  his  way  to  Camifax  Ferry  U 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  177 

oppose  Floyd.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  if  Gen.  Lee  had 
not  allowed  the  immaterial  part  of  his  plan  to  control  hia 
action,  a  glorious  success  would  have  resulted,  opening  the 
whole  northwestern  country  to  us,  and  enabling  Floyd  and 
Wise  to  drive  Cox  with  ease  out  of  the  Kanawha  Valley.  Re 
grets,  however,  were  unavailing  now.  Gen.  Lee's  plan,  finished 
drawings  of  which  were  sent  to  the  War  Department  at  Rich 
mond,  was  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  best-laid  plans  that 
ever  illustrated  the  consummation  of  the  rules  of  strategy, 
or  ever  went  awry  on  account  of  practical  failures  in  its 
execution. 

Having  failed  in  his  plans  for  dislodging  the  enemy  from 
Oheat  Mountain,  and  thus  relieving  northwestern  Virginia  of 
his  presence,  Gen.  Lee  determined  to  proceed  to  the  Kanawha 
region,  with  a  view  of  relieving  Generals  Floyd  and  Wise,  and 
possibly  driving  the  enemy  to  the  extreme  western  borders  of 
Virginia.  Accordingly,  in  the  latter  part  of  September,  he 
ordered  the  principal  portion  of  his  command  to  take  up  a  line 
of  march  in  that  direction. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  Gen.  Floyd  had  fallen  back 
with  his  forces  to  Meadow  Bluff,  while  Gen.  Wise  stopped  to 
the  east  of  the  summit  of  Big  Sewell.  In  this  position  Gen. 
Lee  found  them  on  his  arrival.  He  took  up  his  head-quarter? 
with  Gen.  Floyd,  and,  after  examining  his  position,  proceeded 
to  Sewell,  where  Gen.  Wise  still  remained  in  front  of  the 
enemy.  He  decided  to  fortify  Wise's  position.  Gen.  Floyd's 
command,  except  a  garrison  at  Meadow  Bluff,  returned  to  Big 
Sewell.  He  had  been  largely  reinforced  since  he  had  left  the 
Gauley  river.  The  position  on  Big  Sewell  was  made  exceed 
ingly  strong  by  a  breastwork  extending  four  miles. 

The  whole  Confederate  force  here  under  the  command  ol 
Gen.  Lee  was  nearly  twenty  thousand.  This  formidable  army 
remained  for  twelve  or  fifteen  days  within  sight  of  the  enemy, 
each  apparently  awaiting  an  attack  from  the  other.  Thus  the 
time  passed,  when,  one  morning,  Gen.  Lee  discovered,  much 
to  his  surprise,  that  the  enemy  he  had  been  so  long  hesitating 
to  attack  no  longer  confronted  him.  Rosecrans  had  disap 
peared  in  the  night,  and  reached  his  old  position  on  the  Gau 
ley,  thirty-two  miles  distant,  without  annoyance  from  the 
Confederate  army.  Thus  the  second  opportunity  of  a 

12 


178  .    SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

battle  in  western  Virginia  was  blindly  lost,  Gen.  Lee  making 
no  attempt  to  follow  up  the  enemy  who  had  so  skilfully  eluded 
him ;  the  excuses  alleged  for  his  no*  doing  so  being  mud,  swol 
len  streams,  and  the  leanness  of  his  artillery  hordes. 

In  withdrawing  from  the  Cheat  Mountain  region,  Gen.  Lee 
had  left  a  force  of  some  twenty-five  hundred  men  at  Greenbrier 
River,  and,  while  he  was  playing  at  strategy  in  the  Kanawha 
valley,  this  little  force  had  achieved  a  signal  victory  over  an 
apparently  overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy.  The  force  on 
the  Greenbrier  at  the  foot  of  Cheat  Mountain  was  under  com 
mand  of  Gen.  H.  R.  Jackson,  of  Georgia.  A  small  force  had 
also  been  left  on  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  at  Huntersville,  and 
perhaps  other  localities  in  that  region. 

On  the  3d  of  October,  the  enemy,  thinking  that  he  might 
strike  a  successful  blow,  in  the  absence  of  Gen.  Lee  and  the 
'arger  portion  of  his  command,  came  down  from  Cheat  Moun 
tain,  five  thousand  strong,  and  attacked  Jackson's  position  on 
the  Greenbrier.  The  attack  was  gallantly  repulsed.  The  most 
.unusual  and  brilliant  incident  of  the  battle  was  the  conduct  of 
t&ir  pickets,  who  held  the  entire  column  of  the  enemy  in  check 

•  for  nearly  an  hour,  pouring  into  the  head  of  it  a  galling  firo 
not  withdrawing  until  six  pieces  of  artillery  had  opened  briskly 

;  upoa  them,  and  full  battalions  of  infantry  were  outflanking 
them  on  the  right,  and  then  retiring  in  such  order,  and  taking 
such -ad  vantage  of  the  ground,  as  to  reach  their  camp  with  but 
a  trjfling  loss. 

The  action  was  continued  by  a  severe  artillery  engagement^ 
when,  after  four  hours'  interchange  of  fire,  in  which  we  could 
not  bring  more  than  five  pieces  into  action  to  return  the  fire  ot 
the  enemy's  eight,  he  began  to  threaten  seriously  our  front  and 
right,  by-heavy  masses  of  his  infantry.  He  had  been  repulsed 
at  one  point  -of  the  so-called  river  (in  fact,  a  shallow  stream, 
about  twenty  yards  in  width),  by  the  3d  Arkansas  regiment. 
As  the  designs  of  his  column  were  fully  developed,  the  12th 
Georgia  regiment  were  ordered  to  take  position  near  the 
stream,  while  a  battery  commanded  by  Capt.  Shumaker  wa& 
directed  to  open  fire  upon  the  same  column.  The  encounter 
was  of  but  short  duration.  In  a  short  time,  the  unmistakable 
evidences  of  the  enemy's  rout  became  apparent.  Distinctly 
could  their  officers  be  heard,  with  words  of  mingled  command, 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  179 

remonstrance,  and  entreaty,  attempting  to  rally  their  batta.  ions 
into  line,  and  to  bring  them  to  the  charge,  but  they  could  not 
be  induced  to  re-form  their  broken  ranks,  nor  to  emerge  from 
the  cover  of  the  woods,  in  the  direction  of  our  fire.  Kapidly, 
and  in  disorder,  they  returned  into  the  turnpike,  and  soon 
thereafter  the  entire  force  of  the  enemy,  artillery,  infantry, 
and  cavalry,  retreated  in  confusion  along  the  road  and  adjacent 
fields. 

The  engagement  lasted  from  seven  in  the  morning  to  half- 
past  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  at  which  time  the  enemy, 
who  had  come  wijh  artillery  to* bombard  and  demoralize  the 
small  force  of  Confederates;  with  infantry  to  storm  their  camp; 
with  cavalry  to  rout  and  destroy  them,  and  with  four  days' 
cooked  rations  in  his  haversacks,  to  prosecute  a  rapid  march 
either  towards  Staunton,  or  towards  Huntersville,  was  in  pre 
cipitate  retreat  back  to  his  Cheat  Mountain  fastnesses.  His  loss 
in  killed  and  wounded  was  estimated  at  from  two  hundred  and 
fifty  to  three  hundred.  That  of  the  Confederates  was  very  in 
considerable,  not  exceeding  fifty  in  all. 

The  approaching  rigors  of  a  winter  in  the  mountains,  gave 
warning  of  a  speedy  termination  of  the  campaign  in  western 
Virginia,  in  which,  in  fact,  we  had  no  reason  to  linger  for  any 
fruits  we  had  gained.  The  campaign  was  virtually  abandoned 
by  the  government,  in  recalling  Gen.  Lee  shortly  after  he  had 
allowed  the  opportunity  of  a  decisive  battle  with  Kosecrans 
to  escape  him.  He  was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  coast 
Defences  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  Gen.  Wise  was  or 
dered  to  report  to  Eichmond  ;  Gen.  Loring  was  sent  with  his 
command  to  reinforce  Gen.  T.  J.  Jackson  ("  Stonewall"),  at 
Winchester ;  and  Gen.  H.  K.  Jackson  was  transferred  to  duty 
in  the  South.  With  the  exception  of  Gen.  Floyd's  command, 
which  still  kept  the  field  in  the  region  of  the  Gauley,  and  a 
force  of  twelve  hundred  men  on  the  Alleghany  Mountain,  the 
Confederate  forces  were  withdrawn  from  western  Virginia, 
after  the  plain  failure  of  the  campaign,  and  in  the  expectation 
that  the  rigors  of  the  advancing  winter  season  would  induce 
the  enemy  to  retire  from  the  mountains  to  the  Ohio. 

The  last  incident  of  battle  in  the  campaign  was  a  brilliant 
:>ne.  On  the  13th  of  December,  the  whole  of  the  enemy's 
forces,  under  Gen.  Reynolds,  were  brought  out  to  attack  the 


180  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

position  commanded  by  Col.  Edward  Johnson,  of  Georgia,  Witt 
his  little  force  on  the  Alleghany.  The  enemy  had  been  con 
ducted  to  our  position  by  a  guide,  a  Union  man.  The  Federals, 
on  the  flank,  where  the  principal  attack  was  made,  numbered 
fully  two  thousand.  They  were  gallantly  met  by  our  troops, 
who  did  not  exceed  three  hundred  at  this  time,  being  a  portion 
of  Hansborough's  battalion,  the  31st  Virginia.  These  were 
reinforced  by  a  few  companies  of  Georgia  troops,  who  came  up 
with  a  shout,  and  joining  the  troops  who  had  been  forced  back 
by  overwhelming  numbers,  pressed  upon  the  enemy  with  a 
desperate  valor,  and  drove  him  from  his  almost  impenetrable 
$over  of  fallen  trees,  brush,  and  timber.  Many  of  the  officers 
fought  by  the  side  of  their  men,  and  the  enemy  was* pushed 
down  the  mountain,  but  with  serious  loss  to  the  gallant  little 
command.  In  describing  the  conduct  of  his  men,  Col.  Johnson 
wrote  to  the  War  Department,  "  I  cannot  speak  in  terms  too 
exaggerated  of  the  unflinching  courage  and  dashing  gallantry 
of  those  five  hundred  men,  who  contended  from  a  quarter  paut 
7  A.  M.,  until  a  quarter  to  2  p.  M.,  against  an  immensely  supo- 
rior  force  of  the  enemy,  and  finally  drove  them  from  their 
position  and  pursued  them  a  mile  or  more  down  the  mountain." 
The  casualties  in  this  small  force  amounted  to  twenty  killed  and 
ninety-six  wounded. 

Gen.  Floyd  was  the  last  of  the  Confederate  generals  to 
leave  the  field  .of  active  operations  in  western  Virginia.  After 
the  retreat  of  Rosecrans  from  Sewell  Mountain,  Gen.  Floyd, 
at  his  own  request,  was  sent  with  his  brigade,  by  way  of  Rich-, 
ard's  Ferry  and  Raleigh  and  Fayette  Court  House,  to  Cotton 
Hill,  on  the  west  side  of  the  Kanawha.  Here  he  again  con 
fronted  Rosecrans  and  his  whole  force,  encamped  at  Hamil 
ton's,  at  Hawk's  Nest,  at  Tompkins'  farm,  and  at  Stodin's,  near 
the  falls  Cotton  Hill  is  in  Fayette  county,  on  the  Kanawha, 
opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Gauley ;  the  Raleigh  and  Fayette 
turnpike  passes  over  the  hill,  crossing  the  Kanawha  river  at 
the  ferry  below  the  falls,  where  it  intersects  the  Kanawha  turn 
pike  leading  from  Lewisburg  to  Charleston.  From  the  position 
of  Cotton  Hill,  the  several  camps  of  Rosecrans  referred  to 
could  be  distinctly  seen,  stretching  to  the  distance  of  several 
miles.  Gen.  Floyd  reached  this  point  after  a  fatiguing  march 
of  eleven  days,  arid  occupied  the  landings  of  all  the  approaches 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  181 

to  his  position,  at  Bougen's  Ferry,  Matthews'  Ferry,  Mont 
gomery's  Ferry  at  the  falls,  and  Loop  Creek.  For  three  weeks, 
he  continued  to  challenge  the  enemy  to  battle,  firing  at  him 
across  the  river,  annoying  him  considerably,  cutting  off  his 
communication  with  the  Valley  of  the  Kanawha,  and  holding 
in  check  his  steamboats,  which  ran  up  to  Loop  Creek  shoals  at 
high  tides.  For  several  days,  the  communication  of  the  Fed 
erals,  between  their  corps  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  Gauley, 
was  entirely  suspended.  Gen.  Floyd  continued  to  challenge, 
insult,  and  defy  the  enemy  with  his  little  six-pounders  at  Cot 
ton  Hill,  while  Rosecrans,  before  he  would  accept  the  chal 
lenge  made  to  his  already  superior  numbers,  waited  for  heavy 
reinforcements  from  the  Ohio. 

At  last,  being  largely  reinforced  by  the  way  of  Charleston, 
Rosecrans  planned  an  attack  upon  Cotton  Hill,  and  moved  by 
several  distinctly  indicated  routes,  namely,  Miller's,  Montgom 
ery's,  and  Loop  Creek  Ferries,  all  concentrating  at  Fayetteville^ 
nine  miles  from  Cotton  Hill.  He  expected  the  most  brilliant 
results  from  his  overpowering  numbers  and  well-conceived  de 
signs,  and  was  confident  of  cutting  off  the  retreat  of  Floyd  and 
capturing  his  command.  His  force  was  fifteen  thousand  men  ; 
that  of  Floyd  did  not  exceed  four  thousand  effective  men,  his 
ranks  having  been  reduced  by  sickness,  and  the  old  story  of 
promised  reinforcements  never  having  been  realized  to  him 
In  these  circumstances,  Gen.  Floyd  made  a  retreat,  the  success 
of  which  was  one  of  the  most  admirable  incidents  of  a  cam 
paign,  which  he,  at  least,  had  already  distinguished  by  equal 
measures  of  vigor,  generalship,  and  gallantry.  He  effected  his 
retreat  in  perfect  order,  fighting  the  enemy  for  twenty  miles, 
and  bringing  off  his  force,  including  sick,  with  a  loss  of  not 
more  than  five  or  six  men.  In  this  loss,  however,  was  Col. 
Croghan,  of  Kentucky,  a  gallant  young  officer,  and  a  son  of  the 
late  Col.  Croghan,  who  had  obtained  historical  distinction  in 
the  Northwestern  campaign  of  the  War  of  1812.  The  enemy, 
after  pursuing  Gen.  Floyd  for  twenty  miles,  turned  back  in 
the  direction  of  Fayette  Court  House,  leaving  him  to  retire  at 
his  leisure  to  southwestern  Virginia.  It  was  from  here  that 
Gen.  Floyd  was  transferred  by  the  government  to  the  now  im 
posing  theatre  of  war  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky. 

A  minuter  history  of  the  campaign  in  western  Virginia  than 


182  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  plan  of  our  work  admits,  would  enable  us  to  cite  man}  in 
stances  of  individual  gallantry  and  self-sacrifice.  They  would 
show  the  good  conduct  of  small  parties  of  Confederates  on 
many  occasions.  In  concluding  the  narrative  of  the  general 
events  of  the  war  in  western  Yirginia,  we  may  add  a  very 
brief  mention  of  some  of  these  occurrences,  which  were  onty 
incidents  of  the  campaign,  which  did  not  affect  its  general  re 
sults,  but  which  showed  instances  of  gallantry  that,  on  a  larger 
scale  of  execution,  might  have  accomplished  very  important 
results. 

While  the  enemy  had  possession  of  the  Kanawha  Yalley, 
Col.  J.  Lucius  Davis'  cavalry,  of  the  Wise  Legion,  was  sent  to 
Big  Coal  Kiver,  thirty-five  miles  from  Fayette  Court  House. 
On  reaching  Big  Coal,  they  gave  rapid  chase  to  a  marauding 
party  of  Federals,  and  overtook  them  at  Tony's  Creek,  where  a 
fight  took  place  on  the  llth  September,  which  resulted  in  the 
total  rout  of  the  enemy,  with  a  loss  of  about  fifty  killed  and 
wounded,  about  the  same  number  of  prisoner^,  and  the  capture 
of  all  his  provisions,  munitions,  &c.  The  Confederates  sus 
tained  no  loss  whatever.  The  action  lasted  three  hours,  the 
remnant  of  the  enemy  having  been  pursued  to  a  point  within 
twelve  miles  of  Charleston.  The  cavalry  returned  with  their 
trophies,  after  having  traversed,  in  twenty-four  hours,  a  dis 
tance  of  seventy -five  or  eighty  miles  over  steep  mountain  trails, 
bridle-paths,  and  rocky  fords.  Col.  J.  Lucius  Davis,  in  his  re 
port  of  the  affair,  speaks  of  Lieut.-col.  Clarkson  as  the  hero  of 
the  expedition. 

On  the  25th  September,  Col.  J.  W.  Davis,  of  Greenbrier,  at 
the  head  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  militia  of  Wyoming, 
Logan,  and  Boone  counties,  were  attacked  at  Chapman sville, 
by  an  Ohio  regiment  commanded  by  Col.  Pratt.  The  militia 
fought  well,  and  were  forcing  the  enemy  from  the  field,  when 
their  gallant  leader,  Col.  Davis,  received  a  desperate,  and  as 
was  thought  at  the  time,  a  mortal  wound.  This  unfortunate 
circumstance  reversed  the  fortune  of  the  field.  The  militia 
retreated  and  the  enemy  returned  to  the  field.  Col.  Davis  was 
taken  by  the  Ohio  troops,  and  remained  in  their  hands  till  his 
partial  recovery  from  his  wounds,  when  he  was  paroled.  The 
troops  under  Col.  Davis  lost  but  two  killed  and  two  wounded, 
while  the  loss  of  the  Ohio  troops  in  killed  and  wounded  ex 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  183 

eeeded  fifty,  from  the  best  information  Col.  D.  was  able  to  ob 
tain. 

Col,  Jenkins'  cavalry  rendered  efficient  service  in  the  Ka 
nawha  Yalley,  and  kept  the  enemy  all  the  time  uneasy.  On 
the  9th  November,  they  made  a  gallant  dash  into  the  town  01 
Guyandotte,  on  the  Ohio  river,  and  routed  the  forces  of  the 
enemy  stationed  there,  killing  and  wounding  a  number  of  them, 
and  taking  nearly  one  hundred  prisoners.  Federal  reinforce 
ments  afterwards  came  up  to  the  town,  and  on  the  pretence 
that  the  Confederates  had  been  invited  to  attack  it  by  resident 
Secessionists,  gratified  a  monstrous  and  cowardly  revenge  by 
firing  the  larger  portion  of  the  town,  although  many  of  the  in 
habitants  had  come  out  to  meet  them  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
waving  white  flags  and  signifying  the  most  unqualified  submis 
sion.  Women  and  children  were  turned  into  the  street,  many 
of  them  being  forced  to  jump  from  the  windows  of  their  houses 
to  escape  the  flames. 

We  have  already  adverted  to  the  causes  which  contributed 
to  make  the  campaign  in  western  Virginia  a  failure.  The 
cause  which  furnished  the  most  popular  excuse  for  its  ineffec 
tiveness — the  disloyalty  of  the  resident  population — was,  per 
haps,  the  least  adequate  of  them  all.  That  disloyalty  has  been 
hugely  magnified  by  those  interested,  in  finding  excuses  in  it 
for  their  own  inefficiency  and  disappointment  of  public  expec 
tation.  While  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  other  regions  of  the 
South,  which  not  only  submitted  to  Lincoln,  but  furnished  him 
with  troops,  were  not  merely  excused,  but  were  the  recipients 
of  overflowing  sympathy,  and  accounted  by  a  charitable  stretch 
of  imagination  "  sister  States"  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  an 
odium,  cruelly  unjust,  was  inflicted  .upon  western  Virginia, 
despite  of  the  fact  that  this  region  was  enthralled  by  Federal 
troops,  and,  indeed,  had  never  given  such  evidences  of  sympa 
thy  with  the  Lincoln  government  as  had  been  manifested  both 
by  Maryland  and  Kentucky  in  their  State  elections,  their  contri 
butions  of  troops,  and  other  acts  of  deference  to  the  authorities  at 
Washington.  It  is  a  fact,  that  even  now,  "  Governor"  Pierpont, 
the  creature  of  Lincoln,  cannot  get  one-third  of  the  votes  in  a  sin 
gle  county  in  western  Virginia.  It  is  a  fact,  that  the  Northern 
journals  admit  that  in  a  large  portion  of  this  country,  it  is  unsafe 
for  Federal  troops  to  show  themselves  unless  in  large  bodies 


184:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  unfortunate  results  of  the  campaign  in  western  Virginia 
abandoned  to  the  enemy  a  country  of  more  capacity  and  gran 
deur  than,  perhaps,  any  other  of  equal  limits  on  this  continent; 
remarkable  for  the  immensity  of  its  forests,  the  extent  of  its 
mineral  resources,  and  the  vastness  of  its  water-power,  and 
possessing  untold  wealth  yet  awaiting  the  coal-digger,  the  salt 
dealer,  and  the  manufacturer. 

While  the  events  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  pages  were 
transpiring  in  western  Virginia,  an  inauspicious  quiet,  for 
months  after  the  battle  of  Manassas,  was  maintained  on  the 
lines  of  the  Potomac.  A  long,  lingering  Indian  summer,  with 
roads  more  hard  and  skies  more  beautiful  than  Virginia  had 
seen  for  many  a  year,  invited  the  enemy  to  advance.  He 
steadily  refused  the  invitation  to  a  general  action  ;  the  advance 
of  our  lines  was  tolerated  to  Munson's  Hill,  within  a  few  miles 
of  Alexandria,  and  opportunities  were  sought  in  vain  by  the 
Confederates,  in  heavy  skirmishing,  to  engage  the  lines  of  the 
two  armies.  The  gorgeous  pageant  on  the  Potomac,  which,  by 
the  close  of  the  year,  had  cost  the  Northern  people  three  hun 
dred  millions  of  dollars,  did  not  move.  The  "  Young  Napo 
leon"  was  twitted  as  a  dastard  in  the  Southern  newspapers. 
They  professed  to  discover  in  his  unwillingness  to  fight  the 
near  achievement  of  their  independence,  when,  however  the 
fact  was,  the  inactivity  of  the  Federal  forces  on  the  northern 
frontier  of  Virginia  only  implied  that  immense  preparations 
were  going  on  in  other  directions,  while  the  Southern  people 
were  complacently  entertained  with  the  parades,  reviews,  and* 
pompous  idleness  of  an  army,  the  common  soldiery  of  which 
wore  white  gloves  on  particular  occasions  of  holiday  display. 

THE   BATTLE    OF   LEESBURG. 

The  quiet,  however,  on  the  lines  of  the  Potomac  was  broken 
by  an  episode  in  the  month  of  October,  which,  without  being 
important  in  its  military  results,  added  lustre  to  our  arms. 
The  incident  referred  to  was  the  memorable  action  of  Lees- 
burg,  in  which  a  small  portion  of  the  Potomac  army  drove  an 
enemy  four  times  their  number  from  the  soil  of  Virginia,  kill 
ing  and  taking  prisoners  a  greater  number  than  the  whole 
Confederate  force  engaged. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  186 

Gen.  Stone  having  been  persuaded  that  no  important  force 
of  the  Confederates  remained  along  the  Upper  Potomac,  and 
in  obedience  to  orders  from  head-quarters,  commenced  his  pas 
sage  of  the  river  on  Sunday,  the  20th  of  October,  at  Harrison's 
Island,  a  point  of  transit  about  six  miles  above  Edwards' 
Ferry,  and  nearly  an  equal  distance  from  Leesburg.  A  force 
of  five  companies  of  Massachusetts  troops,  commanded  by  Col. 
Devins,  effected  a  crossing  at  the  ferry  named  above,  and,  a 
few  hours  thereafter,  Col.  Baker,  who  took  command  of  all  the 
Federal  forces  on  the  Virginia  side,  having  been  ordered  by 
Stone  to  push  the  Confederates  from  Leesburg  and  hold  the 
place,  crossed  the  river  at  Conrad's  Ferry,  a  little  south  ot 
Harrison's  Island. 

The  brigade  of  Gen.  Evans  (one  of  the  heroic  and  conspicuous 
actors  in  the  bloody  drama  of  Manassas),  which  had  occupied 
Leesburg,  consisted  of  four  regiments,  viz. :  the  8th  Virginia, 
the  13th,  the  17th,  and  the  18th  Mississippi.  Having  a  position 
on  Goose  Creek,  they  awaited  the  approach  of  the  overwhelm 
ing  numbers  of  the  enemy,  the  force  which  he  had  thrown 
across  the  river  being  between  seven  and  eight  thousand  strong. 
The  enemy  had  effected  a  crossing  both  at  Edwards'  Ferry,  and 
Ball's  Bluff,  and  preparations  were  made  to  meet  him  in  both 
positions.  Lieut.-col.  Jenifer,  with  four  of  the  Mississippi 
companies,  confronted  the  immediate  approach  of  the  enemy  in 
the  direction  of  Leesburg ;  Col.  Hunton,  with  his  regiment,  the 
8th  Virginia,  was  afterwards  ordered  to  his  support,  and,  about 
noon,  both  commands  were  united,  and  became  hotly  engaged 
with  the  enemy  in  their  strong  position  in  the  woods. 

Watching  carefully  the  action,  Gen.  Evans  saw  the,  enemy 
were  constantly  being  reinforced,  and  at  half-past  two  o'clock 
p.  M.,  ordered  Col.  Burt  to  march  his  regiment,  the  18th  Mis 
sissippi,  and  attack  the  left  flank  of  the  enemy,  while  Colonels 
Hunton  and  Jenifer  attacked  him  in  front.  On  arriving  at  his 
position,  Col.  Burt  was  received  with  a  tremendous  fire  from 
the  enemy,  concealed  in  a  ravine,  and  was  compelled  to  divide 
his  regiment  to  stop  the  flank  movement  of  the  enemy. 

At  this  time,  about  three  o'clock,  finding  the  enemy  were  in 
large  force,  Gen.  Evans  ordered  Col.  Featherston,  with  his 
regiment,  the  17th  Mississippi,  to  repair,  at  double  quick,  to 
the  support  of  Col.  Burt,  where  he  arrived  in  twenty  minutes, 


186  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  the  action  became  general   along  the  whole  line  of  the 
Confederates,  and  was  hot  and  brisk  for  more  than  two  hours 

The  Confederates  engaged  in  the  action  numbered  less  than 
eighteen  hundred  men ;  the  13th  Mississippi,  with  six  pieces  of 
artillery,  being  held  in  reserve.  The  troops  engaged  on  our 
side  fought  with  almost  savage  desperation.  The  firing  was 
irregular.  Our  troops  gave  a  yell  and  volley  ;  then  loaded  and 
fired  at  will  for  a  few  minutes.;  then  gave  another  yell  and 
volley.  For  two  hours,  the  enemy  was  steadily  driven  near  the 
banks  of  the  Potomac.  The  Federal  commander,  Col.  Baker, 
had  fallen  at  the  head  of  his  column,  and  his  body  was  with 
difficulty  recovered  by  his  command.  As  the  enemy  continued 
to  fall  back,  Gen.  Evans  ordered  his  entire  force  to  charge  and 
drive  him  into  the  river. 

The  rout  of  the  enemy  near  the  bluffs  of  the  river  was  ap 
palling.  The  crossing  of  the  river  had  gone  on  until  seven 
thousand  five  hundred  men,  according  to  the  report  of  Gen. 
Stone,  were  thrown  across  it.  Some  of  these  never  saw  the 
field  of  battle.  They  had  to  climb  the  mud  of  the  bluff,  drag 
ging  their  dismounted  arms  after  them,  before  they  could  reach 
the  field,  expecting  to  find  there  a  scene  of  victory.  The  diffi 
cult  ascent  led  them  to  a  horrible  Golgotha.  The  forces  that 
had  been  engaged  in  front  were  already  in  retreat;  behind 
them  rolled  the  river,  deep  and  broad,  which  many  of  them 
were  never  to  repass ;  before  them  glared  the  foe. 

The  spectacle  was  that  of  a  whole  army  retreating,  tum 
bling,  rolling,  leaping  down  the  steep  heights — the  enemy  fol 
lowing  them,  killing  and  taking  prisoners.  Col.  Devins,  of 
the  15th  Massachusetts  regiment,  left  his  command,  and  swam 
the  river  on  horseback.  The  one  boat  in  the  channel  between 
the  Virginia  shore  and  the  island  was  speedily  filled  with  the 
fugitives.  A  thousand  men  thronged  the  banks.  Muskets, 
coats,  and  every  thing  were  thrown  aside,  and  all  were  des 
perately  trying  to  escape.  Hundreds  plunged  into  the  rapid 
current,  and  the  shrieks  of  the  drowning  added  to  the  horror 
of  sounds  and  sights.  The  Confederates  kept  up  their  fire 
from  the  cliff  above.  All  was  terror,  confusion,  and  dismaj 
One  of  the  Federal  officers,  at  the  head  of  some  companies, 
charged  up  the  hill.  A  moment  later,  and  the  same  officer, 
perceiving  the  hopelessness  of  the  situation,  waved  a  white 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  187 

handkerchief  and  surrendered  the  main  body  of  his  regiment 
Other  portions  of  the  column  surrendered,  but  the  Confed 
erates  kept  up  their  fire  upon  those  who  tried  to  cross,  and 
many,  not  drowned  in  the  river,  were  shot  in  the  act  oi 
swimming. 

The  last  act  of  the  tragedy  was  the  most  sickening  and  ap 
palling  of  them  all.  A  flat-boat,  on  returning  to  the  island, 
was  laden  with  the  mangled,  the  weary,  and  the  dying.  The 
quick  and  the  dead  were  huddled  together  in  one  struggling, 
mangled  mass,  and  all  went  down  together  in  that  doleful  river, 
never  again  to  rise. 

The  Northern  newspapers,  with  characteristic  and  persistent 
falsehood,  pretended  that  the  Leesburg  affair  was  nothing — 
a  mere  reconnoissance,  in  which  the  Federals  accomplished 
their  object — a  skirmish,  in  which  they  severely  punished  the 
"  rebels" — an  affair  of  outposts,  in  which  they  lost  a  few  men, 
nothing  like  so  many  as  the  "  rebels,"  &G.  But  the  truth  at 
last  came  out,  stark  and  horrible.  The  defeat  of  Leesbnrg 
was  named  in  the  Federal  Congress  as  "  most  humiliating," 
"  a  great  national  calamity,"  and  as  another  laurel  added  to 
the  chaplet  of  the  "  rebellion." 

The  Federal  soldiers  who  had  suffered  most  severely  in  this 
action  were  from  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Pennsylvania. 
They  had  given  an  exhibition  of  cowardice,  quite  equal,  in 
degree  at  least,  to  its  display  at  Manassas.  There  were  no 
instances  among  them  of  desperate  stubbornness,  of  cairn 
front,  of  heroic  courage.  There  was  but  one  tint  of  glory  to 
gild  the  bloody  picture,  and  that  was  in  the  circumstance  of 
the  fall  of  their  gallant  commander,  Col.  Baker,  who  had  been 
shot  several  times  through  the  body,  and,  at  last,  through  the 
head,  in  his  desperate  and  conspicuous  effort  to  rally  his  broken 
forces. 

-Col.  Baker  was  United  States  senator  from  Oregon.  He 
had  served  with  distinction  in  the  Mexican  war ;  was  since  a 
member  of  Congress  from  Missouri ;  emigrated  to  California, 
where  he  long  held  a  leading  position  at  the  bar,  and,  being 
disappointed  in  an  election  to  Congress  from  that  State,  re 
moved  to  Oregon,  where  he  was  returned  United  States  saia- 
tor  to  Washington.  In  the  opening  of  the  war,  he  raised 'what 
was  caUed  a  "  California"  regiment,  recruited  in  New  York 


188  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

/ 

ai  d   New  Jersey,  and  at  the  last  session  of  the  Federal  Con 
gress  had  distinguished  himself  by  his  extreme  views  of  the 
subjugation  of  the  South,  and  its  reduction  to  a  "territorial' 
condition.     He  was  a  man  of  many  accomplishments,  of  more 
than  ordinary  gifts  of  eloquence,  and,  outside  of  his  political 
associations,  was  respected  for  his  bravery,  chivalry,  and  ad 
dress. 

Our  loss  in  the  action  of  Leesburg,  out  of  a  force  of  1,709 
men,  was  153  in  killed  and  wounded.  The  loss  of  the  enemy 
was  1,300  killed,  wounded,  and  drowned;  710  prisoners  cap 
tured,  among  them  twenty-two  commissioned  officers  ;  besides 
1,500  stand  of  arms  and  three  pieces  of  cannon  taken.  This 
brilliant  victory  was  achieved  on  our  side  by  the  musket  alone, 
over  an  enemy  who  never  ventured  to  emerge  from  the  cover, 
or  to  expose  himself  to  an  artillery  fire. 

The  battle  of  Leesburg  was  followed  by  no  important  conse 
quences  on  the  Potomac.  It  was  a  brilliant  and  dramatic 
incident ;  it  adorned  our  arms ;  and  it  showed  a  valor,  a  dem 
onstration  of  which,  on  a  grander  scale  and  in  larger  num 
bers,  might  easily  have  n;-enacted  on  a  new  field  the  scenes  oi 
Manassas.  But,  like  the  Manassas  victory,  that  of  Leesburg 
bore  no  fruits  but  those  of  a  confidence  on  the  part  of  the 
South,  which  was  pernici'  us,  because  it  was  overweening  and 
inactive,  and  a  contempt  for  its  enemy,  which  was  injurious, 
iji  proportion  as  it  exceeded  the  limits  of  truth  and  justice, 
and  reflected  the  self-conceits  of  fortune. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR. 


CHAPTER  YI1. 

The  Position  and  Policy  of  Kentucky  in  the  War.— Kentucky  Chivalry.—  Reminis 
cences  of  the  "  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground." — Protection  of  the  Northwest  by  Ken 
tucky. How  the  Debt  of  Gratitude  has  been  repaid.— A  Glance  at  the  Hartford 

Convention. — The  Gubernatorial  Canvass  of  1859  in  Kentucky. — Division  of  Parties. — 
Other  Causes  for  the  Disloyalty  of  Kentucky.— The  "Pro-Slavery  and  Union"  Kesolu- 
tions.— The  "State  Guard."— General  Buckner.— The  Pretext  of  "  Neutrality,"  and 
what  it  meant. — The  Kentucky  Kefugees. — A  Reign  ot  Terror. — Judge  Monroe  in 
Nashville. — General  Breckinridge. — Occupation  of  Columbus  by  General  Polk. — The 
Neutrality  of  Kentucky  first  broken  by  the  North. — General  Buckner  at  Bowling 
(jreen. Camp  "  Dick  Robinson." — The  "  Home  Guard." — The  Occupation  of  Colum 
bus  by  the  Confederates  explained. — Cumberland  Gap. — General  Zollicoffer's  Procla 
mation.— The  Aifair  of  Barboursville.— "  The  Wild-Cat  Stampede."— The  Virginia 
and  Kentucky  Border. — The  Affair  of  Piketon. — Suffering  of  our  Troops  at  Pound 
G-Ap, — The  "  Union  Party"  in  East  Tennessee. — Keelan,  the  Hero  of  Strawberrj 
Plains. — The  Situation  on  the  Waters  of  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee. — THE  BATTLE  o? 
BELMONT. — Weakness  of  our  Forces  in  Kentucky. — General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston.— 
Inadequacy  of  his  Forces*  at  Bowling  Green. — Neglect  and  Indifference  of  the  Con 
federate  Authorities.' — A  Crisis  imminent. — Admission  of  Kentucky  into  the  Southern 
Confederacy. 

IF,  a  few  months  back,  any  one  had  predicted  that  in  an 
armed  contest  between  the  North  and  the  South,  the  State  ol 
Kentucky  would  be  found  acting  with  the  former,  and  abetting 
and  assisting  a  war  upon  States  united  with  her  by  community 
of  institutions,  of  interests,  and  of  blood,  he  would,  most  prob 
ably,  in  any  Southern  company  in  which  such  a  speech  was 
adventured,  have  been  hooted  at  as  a  fool,  or  chastised  as  a 
slanderer.  The  name  of  Kentucky  had  been  synonymous  with 
the  highest  types  of  Southern  chivalry ;  her  historical  record 
was  adorned  by  the  knightly  deeds,  the  hardy  adventures,  the 
romantic  courage  of  her  sons ;  and  Virginia  had  seen  the  State 
which  she  had  peopled  with  the  flower  of  her  youth  grow  up, 
not  only  to  the  full  measure  of  filial  virtue,  but  with  the  orna 
ment,  it  was  thought,  of  even  a  prouder  and  bolder  spirit  than 
flowed  in  the  blood  of  the  Old  Dominion. 

War  discovers  truths  in  the  condition  of  society  which  would 
never  otherwise  have  been  known.  It  often  shows  a  spirit  of 
devotion  where  it  has  been  least  expected  ;  it  decides  the  claims 


190  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  superior  patriotism  and  superior  courage  often  in  favor  of 
communities  which  have  laid  less  claim  to  these  qualities  than 
others ;  and  it  not  infrequently  exposes  disloyalty,  rottenness,  or 
apathy  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  formerly  superior  reputa 
tion  for  attachment  to  the  cause  which  they  are  found  to  de 
sert  or  to  assail. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  for  a  moment,  that  while  the  posi 
tioi)  of  Kentucky,  like  that  of  Maryland,  was  one  of  reproach, 
it  is  to  mar  the  credit  due  to  that  portion  of  the  people  of  each, 
who,  in  the  face  of  instant  difficulties,  and  at  the  expense  of 
extraordinary  sacrifices,  repudiated  the  decision  of  their  States 
to  remain  under  the  Federal  government,  and  expatriated 
themselves,  that  they  might  espouse  the  cause  of  liberty  in  the 
South.  The  honor  due  such  men  is  in  fact  increased  by  the 
consideration  that  their  States  remained  in  the  Union,  and 
compelled  them  to  fly  their  homes,  that  they  might  testify  their 
devotion  to  the  South  and  her  cause  of  independence.  Still, 
the  justice  of  history  must  be  maintained.  The  demonstra 
tions  of  sympathy  with  the  South  on  the  part  of  the  States  re 
ferred  to — Maryland  and  Kentucky — considered  either  in  pro 
portion  to  what  was  offered  the  Lincoln  government  by  these 
States,  or  with  respect  to  the  numbers  of  their  population,  were 
sparing  and  exceptional ;  and  although  these  demonstrations 
on  the  part  of  Kentucky,  from  the  great  and  brilliant  names 
associated  with  them,  were  perhaps  even  more  honorable  and 
more  useful  than  the  examples  of  Southern  spirit  offered  by 
Maryland,  it  is  unquestionably,  though  painfully  true,  that  the 
great  body  of  the  people  of  Kentucky  were  the  active  allies  of 
Lincoln,  and  the  unnatural  enemies  of  those  united  to  them  by 
lineage,  blood,  and  common  institutions. 

A  brief  review  -of  some  of  the  most  remarkable  circum 
stances  in  the  history  of  Kentucky  is  not  inappropriate  to  the 
subject  of  the  existing  war. 

Kentucky  has  been  denominated  uthe  Dark  and  Bloody 
Ground"  of  the  savage  aborigines.  It  never  was  the  habita 
tion  of  any  nation  or  tribe  of  Indians  ;  but  from  the  period  of 
the  earliest  aboriginal  traditions  to  the  appearance  of  the  white 
man  on  its  soil,  Kentucky  was  the  field  of  deadly  conflict  be 
tween  the  Northern  and  Southern  warriors  of  the  forest. 

When,  shortly  after  the  secession  of  the  American  colonies 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  191 

from  the  British  empire,  this  contested  land  was  penetrated  by 
the  bold  adventurous  white  men  of  Carolina  and  Virginia,  who 
constituted  the  third  party  for  dominion,  its  title  of  the  "Dark 
and  Bloody  Ground"  was  appropriately  continued.  And  when, 
after  the  declaration  of  American  independence,  Great  Brit 
ain,  with  a  view  to  the  subjugation  of  the  United  States,  form 
ed  an  alliance  with  the  Indian  savages,  and  assigned  to  them 
the  conduct  of  the  war  upon  all  our  western  frontier,  the  ter 
ritory  of  Kentucky  became  still  more  emphatically  the  Dark 
and  Bloody  Ground.  Nor  did  the  final  treaty  of  peace  be 
tween  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  bring  peace  to 
Kentucky.  The  government  of  Great  Britain  failed  to  fulfil 
its  obligations  to  surrender  the  western  posts  from  which  their 
savage  allies  had  been  supplied  with  the  munitions  of  war,  but 
still  held  them,  and  still  supplied  the  Indians  with  arms  and 
ammunition,  inciting  them  to  their  murderous  depredations 
upon  the  western  border. 

This  hostile  condition  continued  in  Kentucky  until  the  cele 
brated  treaty  of  Jay,  "and  the  final  victory  over  the  savage  en 
emy  achieved  by  General  Wayne,  and  the  consequent  treaty 
of  peace  which  he  concluded  with  them  in  1795.  By  this 
treaty  of  peace,  the  temple  of  Janus  was  closed  in  Kentucky 
for  the  first  time  in  all  her  history  and  tradition. 

The  battles  in  these  wars  with  the  savage  enemy  were  not 
all  in  Kentucky,  nor  were  they  for  the  defence  of  the  territory 
of  her  people  only,  but  chiefly  for  the  defence  of  the  inhabit 
ants  of  Ohio,  who  were  unable  to  protect  themselves  against 
their  barbarous  foes.  How  this  debt  has  been  paid  by  the  de 
scendants  of  these  Ohio  people,  the  ravages  of  the  existing  war 
sufficiently  demonstrate. 

Peace  was  continued  in  Kentucky  for  about  twenty  years. 
There  were  commotions  and  grand  enterprises  which  we  cannot 
even  mention  here.  But  they  were  all  terminated  by  the  pur 
chase  of  Louisiana  by  Mr.  Jefferson  in  1803.  The  ratification 
of  the  treaty  by  which  this  vast  southern  and  western  do 
minion  was  acquired  at  the  price  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars, 
was  opposed  by  the  Northern  politicians,  whose  descendants 
now  seek  to  subjugate  the  people  of  the  South,  at  the  cost  ot 
a  thousand  millions  of  dollars,  and  of  a  monstrous,  unnatural, 
and  terrible  expenditure  of  blood. 


192  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

In  the  war  of  1812  with  Great  Britain,  the  surrender  of 
Hull  having  exposed  the  Michigan  Territory  and  all  the  north 
ern  border  of  Ohio  to  the  invasion  of  the  British  and  the 
savages,  who  were  now  again  the  allies  of  that  government. 
Kentucky  sent  forth  her  volunteers  for  the  defence  of  her  as 
sailed  Northern  neighbors;  and  when  so  many  of  her  gallant 
sons  were  sacrificed  upon  the  bloody  plains  of  Raisin,  the  Leg 
islature  of  Kentucky  requested  the  governor  of  the  State  to 
take  the  field,  and  at  the  head  of  his  volunteer  army  to  go 
forth  and  drive  back  the  enemy.  The  request  was  promptly 
complied  with.  It  was  the  army  of  Kentucky  that  expelled 
the  savages  from  all  Ohio  and  Michigan,  and  pursuing  them 
into  Canada,  achieved  over  them  and  the  British  upon  the 
Thames  a  victory  more  important  than  had  been  yet  won  upon 
land  in  that  war,  thus  giving  peace  and  security  to  Ohio  and 
all  the  northwestern  territory,  whose  people  were  confessedly 
powerless  for  their  own  defence. 

It  is  these  people,  protected  by  the  arms  and  early  chivalry 
of  Kentucky,  who  have  now  made  her  soil  the  Dark  and 
Bloody  Ground  of  an  iniquitous  civil  war,  waged  not  only  upon 
a  people  bearing  the  common  name  of  American  citizens,  but 
upon  the  eternal  and  sacred  principles  of  liberty  itself.  In 
these  references  to  the  early  history  of  Kentucky  we  must  be 
brief.  In  indicating,  however,  the  lessons  of  rebuke  they  give 
to  the  North  with  respect  to  the  existing  war,  we  must  not 
omit  to  mention  that  in  the  war  of  1812,  in  which  Kentucky 
covered  herself  with  such  well-deserved  and  lasting  glory,  the 
New  England  States  stood  with  the  enemy,  and  the  body  of 
their  politicians  had  resolved  upon  negotiation  with  Great 
Britain  for  a  separate  peace,  and  had,  in  fact,  appointed  a 
Convention  to  be  assembled  at  Hartford,  to  carry  into  effect 
what  would  have  been  virtually  a  secession  'from  the  United 
States,  and  the  assumption  of  neutrality  between  the  belliger 
ents,  if  not  an  alliance  with  the  public  enemy.  These  facts 
are  not  fully  recorded  in  history,  but  they  might  be  well  col 
lected  from  the  public  documents  and  journals'of  the  day.  In 
deed,  they  are  well  known  to  men  yet  living  in  our  land.  The 
schemes  of  the  New  England  traitors  were  defeated  only  by  the 
battle  of  Orleans,  and  the  consequent  treaty  of  peace.  Upon  the 
happening  of  these  events,  the  conspirators  abandoned  their 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  193 

Convention  projet,  and  denied  that  they  had  ever  contemplated 
any  thing  revolutionary  or  treasonable.  The  whole  matter  was 
suffered  to  pass  into  oblivion.  The  conspirators  were  treated 
by  the  government  and  people  of  the  United  States  as  William 
the  Third  treated  those  around  his  throne  who,  within  his 
knowledge,  had  conspired  against  him,  .and  had  actually  served 
the  public  enemy  of  England.  It  was  known  in  each  case  that 
the  conspirators  were  controlled  by  their  selfish  interests,  and 
that  the  best*  mode  of  managing  them,  was  to  cause  them  to  see 
that  it  was  to  their  interest  to  be  faithful  to  their  government. 
It  needs  no  comment  to  indicate  with  what  grace  the  vehement 
denunciation  of  the  secession  of  the  Southern  States  from  a 
Union  which  had  been  prostituted  alike  to  the  selfishness  of 
politicians  and  the  passion  of  fanatics,  comes  from  a  people 
who  had  been  not  only  domestic  rebels,  but  allies  to  the  foreign 
enemy  in  the  war  of  1812. 

In  tracing  the  political  connections  of  Kentucky  in  the  pres 
ent  war,  it  will  be  sufficient  for  our  purposes  to  start  at  the 
election  of  its  governor  in  1859.  Down  to  that  period  the 
body  of  the  partisans  now  upholding  the  Lincoln  government 
had  been  an  emancipation  party  in  the  State.  This  party  had 
lately  suffered  much  in  popularity.  In  the  election  of  1859,  they 
determined  to  consult  popularity,  and  took  open  pro-slavery 
ground.  The  State  Rights  candidate  (Magoffin)  was  elected. 

By  their  adroit  movement,  however,  the  Anti-State  Rights 
party  had  made  some  advance  in  the  confidence  of  the  people, 
which  availed  them  in  the  more  important  contests  that  fol 
lowed.  In  the  Presidential  election  of  1860  they  supported 
Mr.  Bell,  and  thus  succeeded  in  their  object  of  gaining  the  as 
cendency  in  the  councils  of  the  State.  Emancipationists  were 
urged  to  support  Mr.  Bell,  upon  the  ground  that  from  his  ante 
cedent^  and  present  position  they  had  more  to  expect  from  him 
than  from  his  principal  competitor  in  the  race  in  Kentucky, 
while  the  people  at  large  were  persuaded  to  support  Mr.  Bell 
us  the  candidate  of  the  friends  of  "  the  Union,  the  Constitution, 
and  the  Laws." 

The  Anti-State  Rights  party  (at  least  they  may  be  known 
for  the  present  by  this  convenient  denomination),  succeeded  in 
carrying  the  State  by  a  large  plurality.  They  commenced  at 
an  early  day  to  combat  the  movements  of  secession  in  the 

13 


194  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

South.  Popular  assemblies  and  conventions  were  called  to 
pledge  themselves  to  the  support  of  the  Union  in  every  con 
tingency.  The  party,  as  represented  in  these  assemblies,  united 
all  the  friends  of  Mr.  Bell,  and  the  great  body  of  those  of  Mi- 
Douglas  and  of  Mr.  Guthrie.  By  this  combination  an  organi 
zation  was  effected  which  was  able  to  control  and  direct  public 
opinion  in  the  subsequent  progress  of  events. 

It  is  certainly  defective  logic,  or,  at  best,  an  inadequate  ex 
planation,  which  attributes  the  subserviency  of  a  large  portion 
of  the  people  of  Kentucky  to  the  views  of  the  Lincoln  govern 
ment  to  the  perfidy  of  a  party  or  the  adroitness  of  its  manage 
ment.  However  powerful  may  be  the  machinery  of  party,  it 
certainly  has  not  the  power  of  belying  public  sentiment  for 
any  considerable  length  of  time.  The  persistent  adhesion  of  a 
large  portion  of  the  Kentucky  people  to  the  Northern  cause 
must  be  attributed  to  permanent  causes;  and  among  these 
were,  first,  an  essential  unsoundness  on  the  slavery  question, 
under  the  influences  of  the  peculiar  philosophy  of  Henry  Clay, 
who,  like  every  great  man,  left  an  impress  upon  his  State 
which  it  remained  for  future  even  more  than  contemporary 
generations  to  attest;  and,  second,  the  mercenary  consider 
ations  of  a  trade  with  both  North  and  South,  to  which  the 
State  of  Kentucky  was  thought  to  be  especially  convenient. 
These  suggestions  may  at  least  assist  to  the  understanding  of 
that  development  of  policy  in  Kentucky  which  we  are  about 
to  relate. 

On  the  meeting  of  the  Legislature  of  Kentucky,  after  the 
election  of  Lincoln,  the  party  in  the  interest  of  the  North  suc 
ceeded  in  obtaining  the  passage  by  that  body  of  a  singular  set 
of  resolutions,  which,  by  a  curious  compost  of  ideas,  were 
called  "  pro-slavery  and  Union"  resolutions.  They  denounced 
secession,  without  respect  to  any  cause  which  might  justify  the 
measure,  deprecated  any  war  between  the  North  and  the  South, 
and  avowed  the  determination  of  Kentucky  to  occupy  in  such 
an  event  a  position  of  perfect  neutrality. 

At  its  regular  session  in  1859-'60,  the  Legislature  had  or 
ganized  an  active  body  of  volunteer  militia,  denominated  the 
State  Guard,  and  General  Buckner  had  been  appointed  its 
highest  officer.  This  army,  as  it  might  be  called,  was  found  to 
consist  of  the  finest  officers  and  best  young  men  in  the  State 


THE    FIRST    YEAK.  195 

It  was  Necessarily,  by  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  under 
tho  command  of  the  governor ;  but  as  Governor  Magoffin  waa 
supposed  to  be  a  Southern  Rights  man,  and  the  fact  appearing 
that  nearly  all  of  the  State  Guard  were  favorable  to  the  same 
cause,  and  that  they  could  not  be  made  the  soldiers  of  the 
despotic  government  of  the  North,  he  was  in  effect  deprived 
of  their  command,  and  measures  were  taken  for  forcing  out  of 
their  hands  the  public  arms  with  which  they  had  been  fur 
nished,  and  for  the  organization  of  a  new. corps,  to  be  com 
manded  by  the  officers  and  partisans  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  In 
the  mean  time,  as  if  to  make  their  professed  determination  of 
neutrality  effective,  the  Legislature  proceeded  to  arm  with 
muskets  their  "  Home  Guards,"  as  their  new  army  was  called. 
With  this  programme  before  the  people,  the  Legislature  took  a 
recess,  probably  to  await  the  progress  of  events,  when  the 
mask  of  neutrality  might  be  thrown  off,  and  their  real  purposes 
might  safely  be  announced  to  the  people. 

Gov.  Magoffin's  refusal  to  furnish  troops  to  answer  the 
requisition  of  the  Federal  government  (to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made  in  another  part  of  this  work),  appeared  at 
the  time  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  entire  people  of  Ken 
tucky.  The  enemies  of  the  South  acquiesced  in  the  decision 
of  the  governor  only  until  the  period  arrived  when  the  farce 
of  neutrality  might  be  conveniently  broken,  and  the  next  step 
ventured,  which  would  be  union  with  the  JSTorth.  With  the 
pretence  of  neutrality,  and  the  seductive  promises  of  a  trade 
with  both  belligerents,  which  would  enrich  Kentucky  and  fill 
her  cities  with  gold,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  people  were 
held  blinded  or  willingly  entertained,  while  the  purposes  of  the 
Lincoln  government  with  respect  to  their  State  were  being 
steadily  fulfilled. 

In  the  election  of  members  of  the  Congress  called  by  Lin 
coln  to  meet  in  special  session  on  the  4th  of  July,  1861,  men 
of  Northern  principles  were  elected  from  every  district  in 
Kentucky  save  one ;  and  in  the  same  condition  of  the  public 
mind,  the  members  of  the  Legislature  were  elected  in  August 
the  result  being  the  return  of  a  large  majority  of  members  os 
tensibly  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  ground  of  neu 
trality,  but  with  what  real  designs  was  soon  discovered.  The 
election  of  the  Lincoln  rulers  having  been  thus  accomplished 


196  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

4 

the  measures  all  the  time  contemplated  and  intended  were 
easily  put  in  course  of  execution.  In  a  short  time  every  State 
Rights  newspaper  was  suspended  ;  every  public  man  standing 
in  defence  of  the  South  was  threatened  with  arrest  and  prose 
cution  ;  and  the  raising  of  a  volunteer  corps  for  the  defence 
of  the  South  was  totally  suppressed. 

Immediately  after  the  declaration  of  war  by  the  Lincoln 
government,  a  number  of  young  men  in  Kentucky,  actuated 
by  impulses  of  patriotism,  and  attesting  the  spirit  of  the  an 
cient  chivalry  of  their  State,  had  commenced  raising  volunteer 
companies  in  the  State  for  the  Confederate  service.  They 
passed  South  in  detachments  of  every  number.  This  emigra 
tion  was  at  first  tolerated  by  the  Unionists,  if  not  actually  de 
sired  by  them,  for  the  purpose  of  diminishing  the  opposition  in 
the  State  to  their  sinister  designs.  By  the  removal  of  its  mem 
bers,  and  by  the  acts  of  the  Legislature  already  mentioned,  the 
admirable  army  of  the  "  State  Guard  of  Kentucky"  was  to 
tally  disorganized,  and  the  command  of  it  virtually  taken  from 
Governor  Magoffin  and  General  Buckner,  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  political  partisans  of  the  Lincoln  government. 
General  Buckner  could  not  long  occupy  such  a  position,  and 
therefore,  as  soon  as  practicable,  he  resigned  his  office,  re 
nounced  the  Lincoln  government,  and  placed  himstlf  under 
the  Confederate  flag.  The  value  of  his  accession  to  the  South 
ern  cause  was  justly  appreciated,  and  he  was  speedily  ap 
pointed  a  brigadier-general  in  the  provisional  army  of  .the  Con 
federacy. 

The  encouragement  to  emigration  was  not  long  continued  by 
the  party  in  power  in  Kentucky.  It  was  determined  by  the 
Lincoln  government  to  make  examples  of  the  small  party  re- 
maining  in  Kentucky  who  sympathized  with  the  South,  and  to 
arrest  at  once  eveiy  public  and  influential  man  in  the  State 
known  to  be  hostile  to  the  North,  or  to  the  despotic  purposes 
of  the  government  at  Washington.  Ex-Governor  Morehead 
was  at  a  dead  hour  of  the  night  arrested  in  his  own  house,  a 
few  miles  from  Louisville,  in  the  presence  of  his  afflicted 
family,  by  the  Lincoln  police,  and  hurried  through  the  city  and 
over  the  river,  and  out  of  his  State  and  district,  in  violation  oi 
sill  law  ;  and  the  benefit  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  prac 
tically  denied  him  in  a  mode  which,  at  any  period  in  the 


THE    FIEST   YEAR.  197 

two  hundj  ed  years,  would  have  aroused  all  England  into  com 
motion.  The  high-handed  act,  it  might  have  been  supposed» 
would  have  aroused  Kentucky  also  to  a  flame  of  indignation  at 
any  other  period  since  it  became  the  habitation  of  white  men. 
The  people,  however,  seemed  to  be  insensible,  and  the  outrage 
was  allowed  to  pass  with  no  public  demonstration  of  its  disap 
proval.  Encouraged  by  its  experience  of  the  popular  subser 
viency  in  Kentucky  to  its  behests,  it  was  in  convenient  time 
determined  by  the  Lincoln  government  to  arrest  or  drive  off 
from  the  State  every  prominent  opponent  of  its  despotic  au 
thority.  It  was  determined  at  Louisville  that  John  C.  Breck- 
enridge,  late  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  Col.  G.  "W. 
Johnson,  a  prominent  citizen,  T.  B.  Monroe,  Jr.,  Secretary  of 
State,  William  Preston,  late  Minister  to  Spain,  Thomas  B. 
Monroe,  Sr.,  for  about  thirty  years  District  Judge  of  the 
United  States,  Col.  Humphrey  Marshall,  ex-member  of  Con 
gress,  and  a  distinguished  officer  in  the  Mexican  war,  Capt, 
John  Morgan  (since  "  the  Marion"  of  Kentucky),  and  a  num 
ber  of  other  distinguished  citizens  in  different  parts  of  the 
State,  should  be  arrested  at  the  same  hour,  and  consigned  to 
prison,  or  driven  from  their  homes  by  the  threats  of  such  a 
fate.  It  is  supposed  that  some  of  the  Lincoln  men,  and  per 
haps  some  officers  of  the  government,  preferred  the  latter 
alternative,  especially  in  respect  to  some  of  the  individuals 
named.  However  this  may  be,  it  happened  that  all  of  them 
escaped,  some  in  one  direction,  and  some  in  another. 

The  venerable  Judge  Monroe,  on  his  arrival  at  Bowling 
Green,  whence  he  was  on  his  next  day's  journey  to  pass  out  of 
his  State  and  his  district,  executed  in  duplicate,  and  left  to  be 
transmitted  by  different  modes  of  conveyance,  his  resignation 
of  the  office  of  Judge  of  the  United  States  for  Kentucky ;  and 
in  conformity  to  the  general  expectation  at  the  time,  he  placed 
upon  historic  record  the  declaration  of  his  expatriation  of  him 
self  from  the  dominion  of  the  despotic  government  of  Lincoln, 
and  adopted  himself  a  citizen  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
The  proceedings  occurred  in  the  Confederate  Court  of  Nash 
ville  OR  the  3d  of  October.  The  scene  of  the  renunciation  of 
allegiance  to  the  government  that  would  have  enslaved  him,  by 
this  venerable  jurist,  who  had  been  driven  from  H  long-cher 
ished  home,  and  was  now  on  his  way  to  the  State  of  Virginia 


198  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

whose  honored  soil  held  the  sacred  ashes  of  a  dozen  genera 
tions  of  his  ancestors,  was  one  of  peculiar  augustness  and  in 
terest.  The  picture  of  the  scene  alone  was  sufficient  to  illus 
trate  ai>i  adorn  the  progress  of  a  great  revolution.  It  was 
that  of  a  venerable  patriot,  a  man  of  one  of  the  greatest  his 
torical  names  on  the  continent,  just  escaped  from  the  minions 
of  the  despot,  who  had  driven  him  from  a  State  in  which  he 
had  lived,  the  light  of  the  law,  irreproachable  as  a  man,  be 
loved  by  his  companions,  honored  by  his  profession,  and  vener 
able  in  years,  voluntarily  and  proudly  abjuring  an  allegiance 
which  no  longer  returned  to  him  the  rights  of  a  citizen,  but 
would  have  made  him  an  obsequious  slave ;  and  with  all  the 
dignity  of  one  thus  honored  and  respected,  and  conscious  ol 
his  rectitude,  appearing  in  the  presence  of  a  Confederate  court 
of  justice,  and  with  the  pure  eloquence  of  truth,  offering  the 
remaining  years  of  his  life  to  the  service  of  the  new  govern 
ment,  which  had  ari&en  as  the  successor  of  the  old  Union,  as  it 
was  in  its  purer  and  brighter  days. 

Mr.  Breckenridge  reached  Nashville  by  a  very  circuitous 
route,  a  few  days  after  his  departure  from  Lexington,  and  after 
a  brief  sojourn  in  the  former  place,  proceeded  to  Bowling 
Green,  and  there  entered  into  a  compact  with  a  number  of  his 
old  constituents  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  camp  of  General 
Buckner,  that  they  would  take  up  their  arms  in  defence  of  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  their  country,  and  never  lay  them  down 
till  the  invader  was  driven  from  the  soil  of  Kentucky.  Shortly 
afterwards,  he  received  the  appointment  of  brigadier-genera) 
in  the  army  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  was  assigned  to  the 
command  of  a  brigade  of  his  fellow-citizens  of  Kentucky.  Col. 
Humphrey  Marshall  received,  at  the  same  time,  the  appoint 
ment  of  brigadier-general,  and  was  assigned  to  the  district  oi 
southeastern  Kentucky  and  southwestern  Yirginia.  Colonel 
Johnson  was  subsequently  chosen  Provisional  Governor  of 
Kentucky  by  the  friends  of  the  Confederate  government  in 
th;it  State. 

To  reconcile  the  people  of  Kentucky  to  the  Lincoln  govern 
ment,  its  partisans  had  told  them  at  the  outset  that  they  had 
the  right  to  insist  upon  the  strict  observance  of  neutrality.  As 
events  progressed,  they  ascribed  the  violation  of  Kentucky's 
neutrality  to  the  acts  of  the  Southern  government,  in  the  face 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  109 

of  facts  about  which  there  can  be  no  dispute.     The  facts  are, 
that  the  Federal  forces  were  preparing  to  take  possession  of 
Columbus  and  Paducah,  regarding  them  as  important  positions ; 
and  because  Gen.  Polk  anticipated  them  and  got  prior  posses 
sion  of  Columbus,  they  charged  the  Confederates  with  ttie  re 
sponsibility  of  the  first  invasion  of  Kentucky.     The  Federals 
had  commissioned  Gen.  Rouseau,  at  Louisville,  to  raise  a  bri 
gade  for  the  invasion  of  the  South,  but  while  the  recruits  were 
enlisted  in  Louisville,  the  camp  was  kept  at  Jeffersonville,  on 
the  Indiana  side  of  the  river,  until  the  Lincoln  commander  be 
came  satisfied  that  the  temper  of  the  people  of  Louisville  would 
tolerate  a  parade  of  Northern  soldiers  on  their  streets.     Then, 
and  not  till  then,  were  the  Northern  soldiers  boldly  marched 
across  the  State  in  the  direction  of  Nashville.     Gen.  Buckner 
took  possession  of  the  railroad,  and  stationed  himself  at  Bowl 
ing  Green,  in  Southern  Kentucky,  about  thirty  miles  from  the 
Tennessee  line.     The  partisans  of  Lincoln,  still  determined  to 
blind  the  people  by  all  sorts  of  false  representations,  established 
a  camp  called  "  Dick  Robinson,"  near  Lexington,  and  there 
*made  nip  an  army  comprised  of  recruits  from  Ohio,  vagabond? 
from  Kentucky,  and  Andrew-Johnson  men  from  Tennessee 
They  insisted  that  no  invasion  was  contemplated,  that  thei) 
forces  were  merely  a  "  Home  Guard"  organization  of  a  purely 
defensive  character.    They  did  not  hesitate,  however,  to  rob 
the  arsenals  of  the  United  States  of  their  muskets,  bayonets, 
and  cannon,  and  place  them  at  the  disposal  of  such  infamous 
leaders  as  George  D.  Prentice,  Tom  Ward,  and  Garrett  Davis 
"With,  these  arms,  "  Dick  Robinson's"  camp  was  replenished, 
and  at  this  memorable  spot  of  the  congregation  of  the  most 
villanous  characters,  an  army  was  raised  in  Kentucky  for  the 
invasion  of  the  South. 

The  causes  which  led  to  the  occupation  of  Kentucky  by  the 
Confederate  States  were  plain  and  abundant.  Finding  that 
their  own  territory  was  about  to  be  invaded  through  Kentucky, 
and  that  many  of  the  people  of  that  State,  after  being  deceived 
into  a  mistaken  security,  were  unarmed,  and  in  danger  of  be 
ing  subjugated  by  the  Federal  forces,  the  Confederate  armies 
were  marched  into  that  State  to  repel  the  enemy,  and  prevent 
their  occupation  c  f  certain  strategic  points  which  would  have 
gimi  them  great  advantages  in  the  contest — a  step  which  was 


200  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

justified,  not  only  by  the  necessities  of  self-defence  on  the  part 
of  the  Confederate  States,  but  also  by  a  desire  to  aid  the  peo 
ple  of  Kentucky.  It  was  never  intended  by  the  Confederate 
government  to  conquer  or  coerce  the  people  of  that  State ;  but, 
>n  the  contrary,  it  was  declared  by  our  generals  that  they 
would  withdraw  their  troops  if  the  Federal  government  would 
do  likewise.  Proclamation  was  also  made  of  the  desire  to  re 
spect  the  neutrality  of  Kentucky,  and  the  intention  to  abide  by 
the  wishes  of  her  people,  as  soon  as  they  were  free  to  express 
their  opinions. 

Upon  the  occupation  of  Columbus  by  the  Confederates,  in 
the  early  part  of  September,  the  Legislature  of  Kentucky 
adopted  resolutions  calling  upon  them,  through  Governor 
Magoffin,  to  retire.  General  Polk,  who  was  in  command  of 
the  Confederates  at  Columbus,  had  already  published  a  proc 
lamation,  clearly  explaining  his  position.  He  declared  in  this 
proclamation,  that  the  Federal  government  having  disregarded 
the  neutrality  of  Kentucky,  by  establishing  camps  and  depots 
of  armies,  and  by  organizing  military  companies  within  their 
territory,  and  by  constructing  a  military  work  on  the  Missouri 
shore,  immediately  opposite  and  commanding  Columbus,  evi 
dently  intended  to  cover  the  landing  of  troops  for  the  seizure 
of  that  town,  it  had  become  a  military  necessity,  involving  the 
defence  of  the  territory  of  the  Confederate  States,  that  the  Con 
federate  forces  should  occupy  Columbus  in  advance. 

The  act  of  Gen.  Polk  found  the  most  abundant  justification 
in  the  history  of  the  concessions  granted  to  the  Federal  govern 
ment  by  Kentucky  ever  since  the  war  began.  Since  the  elec 
tion  of  Lincoln,  she  had  allowed  the  seizure  in  her  ports  (Pa- 
ducah)  of  property  of  citizens  of  the  Confederate  States.  She 
had,  by  her  members  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
voted  supplies  of  men  and  money  to  carry  on  the  war  against 
the  Confederate  States.  She  had  allowed  the  Federal  govern 
ment  to  cut  timber  from  her  forests  for  the  purpose  of  building 
armed  boats  for  the  invasion  of  the  Southern  States.  She  was 
permitting  to  be  enlisted  in  her  territory  troops,  not  only  from 
her  own  citizens,  but  from  the  citizens  of  other  States,  for  th 
purpose  of  being  armed  and  used  in  offensive  warfare  against 
the  Confederate  States.  At  camp  "  Dick  Bobinson,"  in  the 
county  of  Garrard,  it  was  said  that  there  were  already  tec 


LT   GEN.  PO  LK. 


THE    FIRST     TEAR.  201 

thousand  troops,  in  which  men  from  Tennessee,  Ohio,  In  Jinn  a, 
and  Illinois  were  mustered  with  Kentuckians  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States,  and  armed  by  the  government  for  the 
flowed  purpose  of  giving  aid  to  the  disaffected  in  one  of  the 
Confederate  States,  and  of  carrying  out  the  designs  of  that  gov 
ernment  for  their  subjugation.  "When  Gen.  Polk  took  posses 
sion  of  Columbus,  he  found  that  the  enemy,  in  formidable 
numbers,  were  in  position  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river, 
with  their  cannon  turned  upon  Columbus,  that  many  of  the 
citizens  had  fled  in  terror,  and  that  not  a  word  of  assurance  of 
safety  or  protection  had  been  addressed  to  them. 

In  reply  to  the  demand  made  through  Governor  Magoffin 
for  the  withdrawal  of  the  Confederate  troops  from  Kentucky, 
Gen.  Polk  offered  to  comply  on  condition  that  the  State  would 
agree  that  the  troops  of  the  Federal  government  be  withdrawn 
simultaneously,  with  a  guaranty  (which  he  would  give  recip 
rocally  for  the  Confederate  government)  that  the  Federal 
troops  should  not  be  allowed  to  enter,  or  occupy  any  part  of 
Kentucky  in  the  future.  This  proposition  for  a  simultaneous 
withdrawal  of  forces,  was  derided  by  the  partisans  of  Lincoln 
in  Kentucky  and  elsewhere. 

Gen.  Polk  had  taken  possession  of  Columbus  on  the  4th  of 
September.  The  Federals  were  then  occupying  Paducah,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  river.  The  town  of  Cairo,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  had  been  previously  occupied  by  a  strong 
Federal  force.  New  Madrid,  on  the  Missouri  side  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  was  occupied  by  Southern  troops  under  the  command 
of  Gen.  Jeff.  Thompson. 

Early  in  the  summer,  it  was  known  that  the  Federals  were 
threatening  the  invasion  of  East  Tennessee  by  way  of  Cumber 
land  Gap.  To  counteract  their  designs,  the  Confederate  govern 
ment  sent  Brigadier-general  Zollicoffer,  with  a  force  of  several 
thousand  men,  by  way  of  Knoxville,  East  Tennessee,  to  the 
point  threatened.  On  the  14th  September,  Gen.  Zollicoffer 
telegraphed  Governor  Magoffin,  of  Kentucky,  as  follows  :  ''  The 
safety  of  Tennessee  requiring,  I  occupy  the  mountain  passes  at 
Cumberland,  and  the  three  long  mountains  in  Kentucky.  For 
weeks,  I  have  known  that  the  Federal  commander  at  Hoskins' 
Cross  Roads  was  threatening  the  invasion  of  East  Tennessee, 
and  ruthlessly  urging  our  people  to  destroy  our  own  road  and 


202  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

bridges.  I  postponed  this  precautionary  movement  until  the 
despotic  government  at  Washington,  refusing  to  recognize  ihe 
neutrality  of  Kentucky,  has  established  formidable  camps  in 
the  centre  and  other  parts  of  the  State,  with  the  view,  first  to 
subjugate  your  gallant  State,  and  then  ourselves.  Tennessee 
feels,  and  has  ever  felt,  towards  Kentucky  as  a  twin-sister ; 
their  people  are  as  one  people  in  kindred,  sympathy,  valor,  and 
patriotism.  We  have  felt,  and  still  feel,  a  religious  respect  for 
Kentucky's  neutrality.  We  will  respect  it  as  long  as  our  safety 
will  permit.  If  the  Federal  force  will  now  withdraw  from  their 
menacing  position,  the  force  under  my  command  shall  immedi 
ately  be  withdrawn." 

At  the  same  time  Gen.  Zollicoffer  issued  an  order  setting 
forth  that  he  came  to  defend  the  soil  of  a  sister  Southern  State 
against  an  invading  foe,  and  that  no  citizen  of  Kentucky  was 
to  be  molested  in  person  or  property,  whatever  his  political 
opinions,  unless  found  in  arms  against  the  Confederate  govern 
ment,  or  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy  by  his  counsels. 
On  the  19th  September,  a  portion  of  Gen.  Zollicoffer's  com 
mand  advanced  to  Barboursville,  in  Kentucky,  and  dispersed 
a  camp  of  some  fifteen  hundred  Federals,  without  any  serious 
struggle.  He  continued  to  advance  cautiously  in  the  direction 
of  Somerset,  driving  the  enemy  before  him.  A  large  Federal 
force,  chiefly  from  Ohio  and  Indiana,  was  sent  forward  to  meet 
him.  This  expedition  was  speedily  brought  to  a  disgraceful 
and  ruinous  conclusion.  Before  getting  near  enough  to  Zolli 
coffer  to  confront  him,  Gen.  Schoepff,  the  commander  of  the 
Yankee  expedition,  was  induced  to  believe  that  Gen.  Hardee 
was  advancing  from  Bowling  Green  on  his  flank.  What  was 
known  as  the  "  Wild  Cat  Stampede"  ensued.  The  retreat  of 
the  panic-stricken  soldiers,  which  for  miles  was  performed  at 
the  double-quick,  rivalled  the  agile  performances  at  Bull  "Run. 
For  many  miles  the  route  of  the  retreat  was  covered  with 
broken  wagons,  knapsacks,  dead  horses,  and  men  who  had  sunk 
by  the  wayside  from  exhaustion.  The  flight  of  the  Federals 
was  continued  for  two  days,  although  there  was  no  enemy 
near  them.  Such  was  the  result  of  the  first  expedition  sent  to 
capture  Zollicoffer  and  to  invade  the  South  by  way  of  Cumber- 
]and  Gap. 

Another  design  of  the  Federals  was  to  invade  southwestern 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  t  203 

Virginia  from  eastern  Kentucky,  by  way  of  Prestonsburg  and 
Pound  Gap,  with  the  view  of  seizing  upon  the  salt-works  and 
lead-mines  in  this  portion  of  Virginia,  and  of  cutting  off  rail 
road  communication  between  Richmond  and  Memphis.  To 
tli wart  this  design,  there  was  raised  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Prestonsburg  a  force  little  exceeding  a  thousand  men,  who 
were  placed  under  the  command  of  Col.  Williams.  To  capture 
the  "  rebels"  at  Prestonsburg,  a  considerable  force  was  sent 
after  them  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Kelson,  of  Kentucky. 
This  somewhat  notorious  officer  reported  to  the  Lincoln  gov 
ernment  that  his  expedition  had  been  brilliantly  successful; 
his  command,  according  to  his  account,  having  fallen  upon  the 
"  rebels"  at  Piketon,  captured  upwards  of  a  thousand  of  them, 
killed  five  hundred,  or  more,  wounded  a  great  number,  and 
scattered  the  few  remaining  ones  like  chaff  before  the  wind. 
This  announcement  caused  intense  joy  in  Cincinnati,  and,  in 
deed,  throughout  the  North ;  but  the  rejoicings  were  cut  sud 
denly  short  by  the  authentic  account  of  the  affair  at  Piketon, 
which  occurred  on  the  8th  of  November,  and  in  which  the 
Confederates  lost  ten  killed  and  fifteen  wounded,  while  they 
ambushed  a  considerable  body  of  Nelson's  men  on  the  river 
cliff,  near  that  place,  and  killed  and  wounded  hundreds  of 
them.  Owing  to  the  superior  force  of  the  Federals,  however, 
Col.  Williams'  little  command  fell  back  to  Pound  Gap. 

He  had  not  more  than  1,010  men,  including  sick,  teamsters, 
and  men  on  extra  duty.  He  described  the  little  army  that  had 
held  in  check  an  apparently  overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy, 
as  an  "  unorganized,  half-armed,  and  barefooted  squad."  He 
wrote  to  Richmond :  "  We  want  good  rifles,  clothes,  great 
coats,  knapsacks,  haversacks,  and  canteens ;  indeed,  every  thing 
almost  except,  a  willingness  to  fight.  Many  of  our  men  are 
barefooted,  and  I  have  seen  the  blood  in  then*  tracks  as  they 
inarched." 

There  had  long  been  unpleasant  indications  on  the  Tennessee 
border  of  disloyalty  to  the  South.  In  what  was  called  East 
Tennessee  there  was  reported  to  be  a  strong  "  Union"  party. 
This  section  was  inhabited  by  an  ignorant  and  uncouth  pop 
ulation  squatted  among  the  hills.  The  Union  faction  in  East 
Tennessee  was  the  product  of  the  joint  influences  of  three  men, 
differing  widely  in  tastes,  habits  of  thought,  and  political 


204:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

opinion,  but  concurring  in  a  blind  and  bigoted  devotion  to  the 
old  Federal  government.  These  men  were  Andrew  Johnson, 
William  G.  Brownlow,  and  T.  A.  K.  Nelson.  The  first  of 
these  was  a  man  who  recommended  himself  to  the  ignorant 
mountain  people  of  Tennessee  by  the  coarseness  and  vulgarity 
of  his  manners ;  but  beneath  his  boorish  aspect  he  had  a  strong 
native  intellect,  was  an  untiring  political  schemer,  and  for  more 
than  twenty  years  had  exercised  a  commanding  control  over 
the  rude  mountaineers  of  Tennessee,  who  for  an  equal  length 
of  time  had  held  the  balance  of  power  between  the  old  Whig 
and  Democratic  parties  in  that  State,  voting  first  with  one  and 
then  with  the  other  political  organization.  Brownlow,  "  the 
parson,"  the  haranguer  of  mobs  in  churches  and  at  the  hust 
ings,  and  who,  by  his  hatred  of  Andrew  Johnson,  had  once 
made  himself  an  ultra  pro-slavery  oracle  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  found  Unionism  so  strong  an  element  of  popular  par 
tisan  strength  in  East  Tennessee,  that  he  was  forced  to  co 
operate  with  his  old  enemy.  The  sincerest  and  most  respecta 
ble  of  the  trio  was  Nelson,  an  accomplished  orator,  &  poet  and 
dreamer  besides,  having  no  likeness  to  the  people  among  whom 
he  resided  but  in  his  apparel,  and  passing  most  of  his  time  in 
the  secluded  occupations  of  a  scholar,  in  which  vocation  he  was 
both  profound  and  classical.  There  could  be  no  stranger  com 
bination  of  talent  and  character  than  in  these  three  men,  who 
had  been  brought  together  by  a  single  sympathy  in  opposition 
to  the  cause  of  the  South. 

The  Union  party  in  Tennessee  was  for  a  long  time  occult ; 
its  very  existence  was  for  a  considerable  period  a  matter  of 
dispute  among  Southern  politicians ;  but  it  only  awaited  the 
operations  of  the  enemy  in  Kentucky  to  assist  and  further  their 
designs  by  a  sudden  insurrection  among  themselves.  Their 
demonstrations  were,  however,  premature.  Early  in  November 
there  was  a  conspiracy  formed  on  the  part  of  the  Unionists 
for  burning  all  the  bridges  on  the  East  Tennessee  and  Virginia 
and  Georgia  and  Tennessee  railroads.  The  designs  of  the 
conspirators  were  consummated  in  part  by  the  destruction  of 
two  or  three  bridges  in  East  Tennessee,  and  of  one  in  Georgia 
The  bridge  across  the  Holston,  at  Strawberry  Plains,  on  the 
East  Tennessee  and  Virginia  road,  was  saved  by  the  heroic 
and  self-sacrificing  act  of  an  humble  individual,  named  Edward 


THE    FIEST    TEAK.  205 

Keelan,  at  that  time  the  sole  guard  at  the  place.  He  fought 
the  bridge-burning  party — more  than  a  dozen  in  number— 
with  such  desperation  and  success,  that  they  were  forced  to  re 
tire  without  accomplishing  their  object.  One  of  the  party  waa 
killed,  and  several  badly  wounded.  Keelan  was  wounded  in  a 
number  of  places.  Upon  the  arrival  of  friends,  a  few  minutes 
after  the  occurrence,  he  exclaimed  to  them,  "  They  have  killed 
me,  but  I  have  saved  the  bridge."  Luckily  the  wounds  did  not 
prove  mortal,  and  the  hero  of  Strawberry  Plains  still  lives. 

The  Federal  expedition  to  Pound  Gap  was  of  the  same  char 
acter  with  all  the  other  invasions  from  the  northwestern  ter 
ritory  in  this  contest.  The  troops  were  from  Ohio  and  other 
northwestern  States,  the  occupiers  of  the  lands  bountifully 
granted  by  Virginia  to  the  Federal  government,  and  by  that 
government  liberally  distributed  among  the  ancestors  of  the 
people  attempting  the  invasion  of  Virginia  and  the  South. 
This  territory  had  been  won  by  a  Virginia  army,  composed  ot 
volunteers  from  this  State  and  from  the  district  of  Kentucky, 
then  a  part  of  the  Old  Dominion.  The  bold  and  successful 
enterprise  of  George  Rogers  Clark  in  the  conquest  of  all  that 
western  territory,  constitutes  one  of  the  most  romantic  and. 
brilliant  chapters  of  the  history  of  the  Revolution. 

"VVe  turn  from  the  operations  on  the  Kentucky  and  Virginia 
border,  which  were  in  effect  abandoned  by  the  enemy,  to  the 
more  active  theatre  of  the  war  in  Kentucky,  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee.  It  was  to  these 
waters  that  the  enemy  in  fact  transferred  his  plans  of  invasion 
of  the  South  through  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  by  means  of 
amphibious  expeditions,  composed  of  gunboats  and  land  forces. 
Further  on  in  the  course  of  events  we  shall  find  the  front  of  the 
war  on  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee  instead  of  those  of  the  Po 
tomac,  and  we  shall  see  that  a  war  which  the  Southern  people 
supposed  lingered  on  the  Potomac,  was  suddenly  transferred, 
and  opened  with  brilliant  and  imposing  scenes  on  the  Western 
waters.  But  it  is  not  proper  to  anticipate  with  any  comment 
the  progress  of  events. 

Gen.  Polk  had  been  completing  his  works  for  the  defence  oi 
Columbus.  While  thus  engaged,  he  was  assailed  on  the  7th 
November  by  the  enemy  in  strong  force  from  Cairo. 


206  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   BELMONT. 


Before  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  November 
Gen.  Polk  was  informed  that  the  enemy,  who  were  under  the 
command  of  Gen.  Grant,  had  made  their  appearance  in  the 
Driver  with  gunboats  and  transports,  and  were  landing  a  con 
siderable  force  on  the  Missouri  sfiore,  five  or  six  miles  above 
Belmorit,  a  small  village.  Gen.  Pillow,  whose  division  was 
nearest  the  point  immediately  threatened,  was  ordered  to  cross 
the  river  and  to  move  immediately  with  four  of  his  regiments 
to  the  relief  of  Col.  Tappan,  who  was  encamped  at  Belmont. 

Our  little  army  had  barely  got  in  position,  when  the  skir 
mishers  were  driven  in,  and  the  shock  took  place  between  the 
opposing  forces.  The  enemy  were  numerous  enough  to  have 
surrounded  the  little  Confederate  force  with  triple  lines.  Sev 
eral  attempts  were  made  by  the  enemy's  infantry  to  flank  the 
right  and  left  wings  of  the  Confederates ;  but  the  attempt  on 
the  right  was  defeated  by  the  deadly  fire  and  firm  attitude  of 
that  wing,  composed  of  the  regiments  of  Colonels  Russell  and 
Tappan,  the  13th  Arkansas  and  the  9th  Tennessee,  commanded 
by  Col.  Russell,  as  brigade  commander.  The  attempt  to  turn 
the  left  wing  was  defeated  by  the  destructive  fire  of  Beltz- 
hoover's  battery  and  Col.  Wright's  regiment,  aided  by  a  line 
of  felled  timber  extending  obliquely  from  the  left  into  the  bot 
tom.  The  two  wings  of  the  line  stood  firm  and  unbroken  for 
several  hours,  but  the  centre,  being  in  the  open  field,  and 
greatly  exposed,  once  or  twice  faltered. 

About  this  time,  Col.  Beltzhoover  reported  to  Gen.  Pillow 
that  his  ammunition  was  exhausted  :  Col.  Bell  had  previously 
reported  his  regiment  out  of  ammunition,  and  Col.  Wright  that 
one  battalion  of  his  regiment  had  exhausted  its  ammunition. 
The  enemy's  force  being  unchecked,  and  now  emerging  into 
the  edge  of  the  field,  Gen.  Pillow  ordered  the  line  to  use  the 
bayonet.  The  charge  was  made  by  the  whole  line,  and  the 
enemy  driven  back  into  the  woods.  But  his  line  was  not 
broken,  and  he  kept  up  a  deadly  fire,  and  being  supported  by 
his  large  reserve,  the  Confederate  line  was  forced  back  to  its 
original  position,  while  that  of  the  enemy  advanced.  The 
charge  was  repeated  the  second  and  third  time,  forcing  the 


THE    FIKST    YEAH.  207 

enemy's  line  heavily  against  his  reserve,  but  with  Ike  result. 
Finding  it  impossible  longer  to  maintain  his  position  without 
reinforcements  and  ammunition,  Gen.  Pillow  ordered  the  whole 
line  to  fall  back  to  the  river-bank.  In  this  movement  his  lino 
was  more  or  less  broken  and  his  corps  mingled  together,  so 
that  when  they  reached  the  river-bank  they  had  the  appear 
ance  of  a  mass  of  men  rather  than  an  organized  corps. 

The  field  was  to  all  appearances  lost.  Keinforcements,  how 
ever,  had  been  sent  for,  and  at  the  critical  time  when  oui 
forces  were  being  driven  to  the  river,  a  regiment,  the  2d  Ten 
nessee,  commanded  by  Col.  Walker,  which  had  crossed  the 
river,  came  to  their  support.  The  opportunity  was  seized  by 
Gen.  Pillow  to  engage  afresh,  with  this  timely  addition  to  his 
force,  the  advance  of  the  enemy,  while  he  made  a  rapid  move 
ment  up  the  river-bank,  with  the  design  of  crossing  through 
the  fallen  timber,  turning  the  enemy's  position  and  attacking 
him  in  the  rear. 

As  Gen.  Pillow  advanced  the  main  body  of  his  original 
force  in  broken  order  up  the  river,  to  a  point  where  he  could 
cross  through  the  fallen  timber  to  make  the  flank  movement, 
he  was  joined  by  two  other  regiments  ordered  by  Gen.  Polk  to 
his  support.  These  fresh  troops  were  placed  under  command 
of  Col.  Marks,  of  the  llth  Louisiana.  He  was  directed  to 
lead  the  advance  in  double-quick  time  through  the  woods,  and 
to  the  enemy's  rear,  and  to  attack  him  with  vigor.  Col.  Rus 
sell,  with  his  brigade,  was  ordered  to  support  the  movement. 

It  was  with  great  reluctance  that  Gen.  Polk  lessened  the 
force  assigned  to  the  immediate  defence  of  Columbus,  as  an  at 
tack  in  his  rear  was  every  moment  apprehended.  It  was  ob 
vious,  however,  from  the  yielding  of  our  columns  to  the  heavy 
pressure  of  the  masses  of  the  enemy's  infantry,  and  the  fierce 
assaults  of  their  heavy  battery,  that  further  reinforcements 
were  necessary  to  save  the  field.  Gen.  Cheatham  was  ordered 
to  move  across  the  river  in  advance  of  his  brigade,  to  rally  and 
take  command  of  the  portions  of  the  regiments  within  sight  on 
the  shore,  and  to  support  the  flank  movement  ordered  through 
Col.  Marks. 

About  this  time  the  enemy  had  fired  our  tents,  and  advan 
cing  his  battery  near  the  river-bank,  opened  a  heavy  fire  on  the 
steamers  which  were  transporting  our  troops,  in  some  instances 


208  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

driving  shot  through  two  of  them  at  the  same  time.  Captain 
Smith's  Mississippi  battery  was  ordered  to  move  to  the  river- 
bank,  opposite  Oie  field  of  conflict,  and  to  open  upon  the  ene 
my's  position.  The  joint  fire  of  this  battery  and  the  heavj 
guns  of  the  fort  was  for  a  few  moments  terrific.  The  enemy'? 
battery  was  silenced,  and  it  could  be  seen  that  they  were  taking 
up  their  line  of  march  for  their  boats. 

The  Federals,  however,  had  scarcely  put  themselves  in  mo-, 
tion,  when  they  encountered  Col.  Marks  first,  and  afterwards 
Gen.  Cheatham,  on  their  flank.  The  conjuncture  was  decisive. 
The  enemy  finding  himself  between  two  fires,  that  of  Smith's 
artillery  in  front,  and  of  Col.  Marks'  and  Russell's  column 
in  the  rear,  after  a  feeble  resistance,  broke  and  fled  in  disor 
der. 

Satisfied  that  the  attack  on  Columbus  for  some  reason  had 
failed,  Gen.  Polk  had  crossed  the  river,  and  ordered  the  victo 
rious  commands  to  press  the  enemy  to  their  boats.  The  order 
was  obeyed  with  alacrity.  The  pursuit  was  continued  until 
our  troops  reached  the  point  where  the  enemy  had  made  his 
Burgical  head-quarters,  and  depository  of  stores,  of  ammunition, 
baggage,  &c.  Here  our  troops  found  a  yard  fall  of  knapsacks, 
arms,  ammunition,  blankets,  overcoats,  mess-chests,  horses, 
wagons,  and  dead  and  wounded  men,  with  surgeons  engaged 
in  the  duties  of  their  profession.  The  enemy's  route  of  retreat 
was  strewn  likewise  with  many  of  these  articles,  and  abun 
dantly  with  blood,  dead,  and  wounded  men.  "  The  sight  along 
the  line  of  the  retreat,"  says  an  observer  on  the  field,  "  was 
awful.  The  dead  and  wounded  were  at  every  tree.  Some 
crawled  into  the  creeks  to  get  water,  and  died  there." 

On  coming  in  sight  of  the  enemy's  gunboats  and  transports, 
our  Jroops,  as  they  arrived,  were  ordered  to  move  as  rapidly  as 
possible  through  the  cornfields  to  the  bank  of  the  river.  The 
bank  was  thus  lined  for  a  considerable  distance  by  our  troops, 
who  were  ordered,  as  the  boats  passed  up  the  river,  to  give  the 
enemy  their  fire.  The  fire  was  hot  and  destructive.  On  the 
boats  all  was  dismay.  Under  the  fire  from  the  bank,  the  Fed 
erals  rushed  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  boats,  and  had  to  be 
forced  back  by  the  bayonet  to  prevent  capsizing.  Many  ot 
the  soldiers  were  driven  overboard  by  the  rush  of  those  behind 
them,  Thev  did  not  take  time  to  unloose  the  cables,  but  cut 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  209 

all  loose,  and  were  compelled  to  run  through  the  fire  of  sharp 
shooters  lining  the  bank  for  more  than  a  mile. 

The  day  which  at  one  time  had  been  so  inauspicious  to  om 
arms,  closed  upon  a  signal  triumph.  In  his  official  report  of 
the  battJe,  Gen.  Pillow  declared,  that  no  further  evidence? 
were  needed  to  assure  the  fact,  that  "  the  small  Spartan  army'' 
which  withstood  the  constant  fire  of  three  times  their  number 
for  nearly  four  hours  (a  large  portion  of  them  being  without 
ammunition),  had  acted  with  extraordinary  gallantry,  than  the 
length  and  character  of  the  conflict,  the  great  inequality  of 
numbers,  and  the  complete  results  that  crowned  the  day. 

That  our  loss  should  be  severe  in  such  a  conflict  might  be 
expected.  The  list  of  our  killed,  wounded,  and  missing  num 
bered  632.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was  stated  in  the  official 
reports  of  our  generals  to  have  been  more  than  treble  ours. 
Of  this,  we  had  the  most  abundant  evidence  in  the  incidents 
of  the  field,  in  his  flight,  and  his  helpless  condition,  when  as 
sailed  in  his  crowded  transports  with  the  fire  of  thousands  of 
deadly  rifles. 

The  victory  of  Belmont  was  esteemed  as  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  triumphs  of  the  war.*  In  his  congratulatory  order, 
Gen.  Albert  Sydney  Johnston,  who  had  been  appointed  to 

*  The  government  at  Washington,  with  a  characteristic  falsehood,  stubborn 
to  every  other  consideration  but  that  of  sustaining  the  spirits  of  its  people, 
claimed  the  affair  at  Belmont  as  a  victory  to  Northern  arms.  It  is  curious, 
and  to  some  degree  amusing,  to  notice  the  manner  of  this  misrepresentation, 
and  the  gloze  and  insinuation  by  which  it  was  effected  in  the  Northern  official 
reports  of  the  battle.  Gen.  Grant,  in  his  official  report,  declared  that  he  had 
driven  the  Confederates  to  the  river,  burnt  their  camps,  &c.  So  far,  his  report 
was  ostentatiously  fine,  but  not  untrue.  It  has  been  shown,  however,  thav 
the  scale  of  battle  was  completely  turned  by  a  flank  movement  of  our  forces  in 
heavy  numbers,  which  routed  the  enemy,  and  converted  his  early  successes  of 
the  morning  into  an  ignominious  defeat.  In  the  Northern  official  reports  ol 
the  battle,  this  portion  of  the  day  was  dismissed  with  refreshing  brevity  and 
nonchalance.  After  describing  in  the  most  glowing  terms  his  victory  in 
pressing  the  Confederates  to  the  river,  Gen.  Grant  wrote  to  his  friends,  who 
communicated  the  letter  to  the  newspapers,  "  on  our  return,  stragglers  that 
had  been  left  in  our  rear  fired  into  us,  and  more  recrossed  the  river."  In  Ms 
official  report,  the  flank  movement  of  the  Confederates,  that  was  tJie  event,  of 
the  day  and  had  decided  it,  was  alluded  to  in  a  single  sentence  of  casual  men 
tion,  "The  rebels  recrossed  the  river,  and  followed  in  the  rear  to  our  place  oj 
debarkation,"  Instances  of  this  style  and  effrontery  of  falsehood  abounded  ir 
all  the  Northern  official  reports  of  the  events  of  the  war ;  the  above  is  fui 
nished  only  as  a  characteristic  specimen. 

14 


210  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    0?    THE    WAR. 

command  in  the  Western  Department,  and  had  established  his 
head-quarters  at  Bowling  Green,  declared:  "This  was  no  ordi 
nary  shock  of  arms ;  it  was  a  long  and  trying  contest,  in  which 
our  troops  fought  by  detachments,  and  always  against  superior 
numbers.  The  7th  of  November  will  fill  a  bright  page  in  our 
military  annals,  and  be  remembered  with  gratitude  by  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  South." 

Despite  the  victory  of  Belmont,  our  situation  in  Kentucky 
was  one  of  extreme  weakness  and  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
enemy,  if  he  had  not  been  imposed  upon  by  false  representa 
tions  of  the  number  of  our  forces  at  Bowling  Green.  When 
Gen.  Johnston  was  about  to  assume  command  of  the  Western 
Department,  the  government  charged  him  with  the  duty  of  de 
ciding  the  question  of  occupying  Bowling  Green,  Kentucky, 
which  involved  not  only  military,  but  political  considerations. 
At  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  Nashville,  the  action  of  the  Legis 
lature  of  Kentucky  had  put  an  end  to  the  latter  consideration 
by  sanctioning  the  formation  of  companies  menacing  Tennessee, 
by  assuming  the  cause  of  the  government  at  Washington,  an«l 
by  abandoning  the  neutrality  it  professed  ;  and,  in  consequence 
.)f  their  action,  the  occupation  of  Bowling  Green  became  neces 
sary  as  an  act  of  self-defence,  at  least  in  the  first  step. 

About  the  middle  of  September,  (:  en.  Buckner  advanced 
with  a  small  force  of  about  four  thousand  men,  which  was  in 
creased  by  the  15th  of  October  to  twelve  thousand,  and  though 
Dther  accessions  of  force  were  received,  it  continued  at  about 
ihe  same  strength  until  the  end  of  November,  measles  and 
other  diseases  keeping  down  the  effective  force.  The  enemy's 
force  then  was  reported  to  the  War  Department  at  fifty  thou 
sand,  and  an  advance  was  impossible. 

Our  own  people  were  as  much  imposed  upon  as  were  the 
•enemy,  with  respect  to  the  real  strength  of  Gen.  Johnston's 
forces,  and  while  they  were  conjecturing  the  brilliant  results  oi 
an  advance  movement,  the  fact  was  that  inevitable  disasters 
might  have  been  known  by  the  government  to  have  been  in 
store  for  the  Southern  cause  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and 
to  be  awaiting  only  the  development  of  a  crisis.  The  utter 
inadequacy  of  Gen.  Johnston's  forces  was  known  to  the  govern 
ment.  The  authorities  at  Richmond  appeared  to  hope  for  re 
sults  without  the  legitimate  means  for  acquiring  them :  to  look 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  211 

for  relief  from  vague  and  undefined  sources;  and  to  await,  with 
dull  expectation,  what  was  next  to  happen.  While  the  govern 
ment  remained  in  this  blank  disposition,  events  marched  on 
ward.  It  is  easily  seen,  as  far  as  our  narrative  has  gone,  that 
our  troops  had  shown  a  valor  that  was  invincible  against  largely 
superior  numbers  of  the  enemy;  that  had  given  striking  illus 
trations  of  endurance  in  circumstances  of  the  greatest  adversity 
and  suffering ;  and  that  promised  with  absolute  certainty,  as  far 
as  its  agency  could  go,  the  achievement  of  our  independence. 
It  is  hereafter  to  be  seen  that  this  valor  and  devotion,  great  as 
they  were,  could  yet  not  withstand  an  enemy  superior  in  force, 
when  his  numbers  were  multiplied  indefinitely  against  them ; 
that  they  could  not  resist  armaments  to  which,  for  want  of 
defences,  they  could  only  offer  up  useless  sacrifices  of  life ;  and 
that  some  other  agency  than  the  natural  spirit  and  hardihood 
of  men  was  necessary  in  the  conduct  of  a  war,  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  against  a  nation  which  had  given  such  unquestionable 
proofs,  as  the  North  had,  of  quick  and  abundant  resource, 
mental  activity,  and  unflagging  hope. 

It  remains  but  to  add  here,  mention  of  the  political  connec 
tion  which  was  scarcely  more  than  nominally  effected  between 
Kentucky  and  the  Confederate  States.  On  the  18th  November, 
the  opponents  of  the  Lincoln  rule  in  Kentucky  assembled  in 
Convention,  at  Russellville,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  State, 
for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a  provisional  government  for 
Kentucky,  and  for  taking  steps  for  her  admission  into  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  On  the  20th  November,  the  Conven 
tion  unanimously  agreed  upon  a  report,  presenting  in  a  strong 
light  the  falseness  of  the  State  and  Federal  Legislature,  and 
concluded  with  the  declaration  that  "  the  people  are  hereby  ab 
solved  from  all  allegiance  to  said  government,  and  that  they 
have  the  right  to  establish  any  government  which  to  them  may 
seem  best  adapted  to  the  preservation  of  their  lives  and  liberty.7' 
George  W.  Johnson,  of  Scott  county,  was  chosen  governor 
Commissioners  were  appointed  to  negotiate  with  the  Confed 
orate  government  for  the  earliest  admission  of  Kentucky  into 
the  government  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  embassy  of  the 
commissioners  to  Richmond  was  successful,  and  before  the 
middle  of  December,  Kentucky  was  duly  recognized  as  one  of 
the  States  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 


212  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER 

Prospects  of  European  Interference.— The  selfish  Calculations  of  England.— EffecU 
of  the  Blockade  on  the  South. — Arrest  by  Capt.  Wilkes  of  the  Southern  Commission 
ers. — The  Indignation  of  England. — Surrender  of  the  Commissioners  by  the  Lincoln 
Government. — Mr.  Seward's  Letter.— REVIEW  OF  AFFAIRS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  YEAH 
1861. — Apathy  and  Improvidence  of  the  Southern  Government. — Superiority  of  the 
North  on  the  Water.— The  Hattcraa  Expedition.— The  Port  Royal  Expedition.— The 
Southern  Privateers.— Their  Failure.— Errors  of  Southern  Statesmanship.— "King 
Cotton."— Episodes  of  the  War.— The  Affair  of  Sjanta  Rosa  Island.— The  Affair  of 
Dranesville.— Political  Measures  of  the  South.— A  weak  and  halting  Policy.— The 
Spirit  of  the  War  in  the  North. — Administration  of  the  Civil  Polity  of  the  Southern 
Army. — The  Quarter-master's  Department. — The  Hygiene  of  the  Camps. — Ravages  ui 
the  Southern  Army  by  Disease. — The  Devotion  of  the  Women  of  the  South. 

SINCE  the  commencement  of  the  war,  the  South  had  enter 
tained  prospects  of  foreign  interference,  at  least  so  far  as  to 
involve  the  recognition  of  her  government  by  England  and 
Prance,  and  the  raising  of  the  blockade.  Such  prospects, 
continued  from  month  to  month,  had  an  unhappy  effect  in 
weakening  the  popular  sentiment  of  self-reliance,  in  turning 
the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  result  of  external  events,  and 
in  amusing  their  attention  with  misty  illusions. 

These  prospects  were  vain.  By  the  close  of  the  year,  the 
South  had  learned  the  lesson,  that  the  most  certain  means  of 
obtaining  injury,  scorn,  and  calumny  from  foreign  people,  was 
to  attempt  their  conciliation  or  to  seek  their  applause,  and  that 
not  until  she  had  proved  herself  independent  of  the  opinions  of 
Europe,  and  reached  a  condition  above  and  beyond  the  help 
of  England  and  France,  was  she  likely  to  obtain  their  amity 
and  justice. 

It  had  been  supposed  in  the  South,  that  the  interest  of  Eu 
rope  in  the  staples  of  cotton  and  tobacco  would  effect  a  raising 
3f  the  blockade,  at  least  by  the  fall  of  the  year.  The  statistics 
on  these  subjects  were  thought  to  be  conclusive.  France 
derived  an  annual  revenue  of  $38,000,000  from  her  monopoly 
of  the  tobacco  trade ;  and  Great  Britain  and  her  people,  a 
revenue  of  $350,000,000  per  annum  from  American  cotton. 
Five  millions  of  souls,  in  England,  were  interested  in  one  way 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  213 

or  the  otlur  m  the  cotton  manufacture  ;  and  the  South  calcu 
lated,  with  reason,  that  the  blockade  would  be  raised  by  foreign 
intervention,  rather  than  that  one-sixth  of  the  population  of 
the  British  Isles  would  be  permitted  to  be  thrown  out  of  em 
ployment  by  a  decree  or  fulmination  of  the  Yankee  govern 
rnent  at  "Washington. 

Among  the  statesmen  of  Great  Britain,  however,  a  different 
calculation  prevailed,  and  that  was,  as  long  as  the  possible  con 
tingencies  of  the  future  held  out  the  least  hope  of  avoiding  the 
alternative  of  war  with  the  Washington  government,  to  strain 
a  point  to  escape  it.  It  was  argued,  that  it  would  be  cheaper 
for  England  to  support,  at  the  public  expense,  five  millions  of 
operatives,  than  to  incur  the  cost,  besides  the  unpleasantness 
of  an  embroilment  in  American  affairs;  and  ft  was  in  this 
spirit  of  selfish  calculation — the  results  of  which  were  stated 
by  Lord  Palmerston  in  the  declaration,  that  the  "  necessities" 
of  England  had  not  reached  that  point  to  require  her  to  inter 
fere,  in  any  manner,  in  the  American  war — that  it  was  ulti 
mately  decided  by  the  British  government  to  maintain  her 
neutrality  with  reference  to  the  blockade,  as  well  as  other  in 
cidents  of  the  war. 

About  the  fall  of  the  year,  the  South  had  begun  to  feel  se 
verely  the  effects  of  the  blockade.  Supplies  of  the  usual  goods, 
and  even  provisions,  were  becoming  scarce.  The  evils  were 
augmented  every  day  in  the  results  of  a  baneful  spirit  of  specu 
lation,  which  indulged  in  monstrous  extortions  and  corrupted 
the  public  spirit,  making  opportunities  for  mercenary  adventure 
out  of  the  distresses  and  necessities  of  the  country.  There 
was  great  suffering  among  the  poor,  and  especially  among  refu 
gees,  who  had  fled  to  the  cities  from  districts  occupied  by  the 
enemy. 

The  resources  of  the  South  were  such,  however,  that  an} 
thing  like  famine  or  actual  starvation,  of  any  portion  of  the 
3eople,  was  not  to  be  apprehended.  The  changes  which  hap 
pened  in  the  circumstances  and  p  -rsuits  of  people,  were  not 
always  as  unfortunate  as  they  appeared,  and.  in  the  end,  not 
unfrequently  proved  an  advantage  to  them  and  to  the  prosperity 
<>f  the  -country.  Many  new  enterprises  were  started  ;  many 
sources  of  profitable  labor  were  sought  out ;  and  many  in 
stances  of  the  diversion  of  popular  industry  were  occasioned^ 


21-1  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

wh.ch  promised  to  become  of  permanent  advantage  in  de 
veloping  the  resources  of  the  country  in  minerals  and  manuiac 
tures,  and  introducing  provision  crops  on  an  enlarged  scale  in 
the  Cotton  States  of  the  Confederacy. 

In  the  month  of  December  occurred  an  event  which  promised 
the  most  fortunate  consequences  to  the  South,  with  respect  tc 
foreign  intervention  and  her  release  from  the  blockade.  The 
Confederate  government  had  deputed  Mr.  James  M.  Mason,  oi 
Virginia,  and  Mr.  John  Slidell,  of  Louisiana,  commissioners, 
respectively,  to  England  and  France.  They  had  escaped  the 
blockade  at  Charleston  on  a  Confederate  vessel,  and  arriving 
at  the  neutral  port  of  Havana,  had  left  there  on  the  7th  day  of 
December  in  a  British  mail-steamer,  the  Trent,  commanded  by 
Capt.  Moir.  The  next  day  after  leaving  port,  the  British  ves 
sel,  while  in  the  Bahama  channel,  was  intercepted  by  the  Fed 
eral  steam-frigate,  San  Jacinto,  Commander  Wilkes,  being 
brought  to  by  a  shotted  gun,  and  boarded  by  an  armed  boat's 
crew.  The  persons  of  the  commissioners  and  their  secretaries, 
Messrs.  Eustis  and  Macfarland,  were  demanded  ;  they  claimed 
the  protection  of  the  British  flag,  and  refused  to  leave  it  ex 
cept  at  the  instance  of  actual  physical  force,  which  Lieut.  Fair 
fax,  who  had  boarded  the  vessel,  then  declared  he  was  ready 
to  use.  The  Trent  was  an  unarmed  steamer,  and  as  resistance 
was  hopeless,  the  commissioners  were  surrendered,  under  a 
distinct  and  passionate  protest  against  a  piratical  seizure  of 
ambassadors  under  a  neutral  flag. 

This  outrage  done  by  a  Federal  vessel  to  the  British  flag, 
when  it  was  learned  in  the  South,  was  welcome  news,  as  it  was 
thought  certain  that  the  British  government  would  resent  the 
insult,  and  as  the  boastful  and  exultant  tone  in  the  North,  over 
the  capture  of  the  commissioners,  appeared  to  make  it  equally 
certain  that  the  government  at  Washington  would  not  surren 
der  its  booty.  "War  between  England  and  the  North  was 
thought  to  be  imminent.  Providence  was  declared  to  be  in 
our  favor  ;  the  incident  of  the  Trent  was  looked  upon  almost 
as  a  special  dispensation,  and  it  was  said,  in  fond  imagination, 
that  on  its  deck  and  in  the  trough  of  the  weltering  Atlantic 
the  key  of  the  blockade  had  at  last  been  lost. 

These  prospects  were  disappointed  by  the  weakness  of  the 
government  at  Washingt  ;n,  in  surrendering  the  commissioner? 


THE    FIRST    YEAB.  215 

and  returning  them  to  the  British  flag.  The  surrender  was  an 
exhibition  of  meanness  and  cowardice  unparalleled  in  the  po 
litical  history  of  the  civilized  world,  but  strongly  characteristic 
of  the  policy  and  mind  of  the  North.  The  people  of  the  North 
had,  at  first,  gone  into  raptures  over  the  arrest  of  the  commis 
sioners  ;  the  newspapers  designated  it  as  "  worth  more  'nan  a 
victory  in  the  field  ;"  the  hospitalities  of  the  city  of  New  York 
were  offered  by  its  common  council  to  Capt.  Wilkes,  and  a  din 
ner  was  given  him  by  leading  citizens  of  Boston,  in  honor  of 
his  brave  exploit  in  successfully  capturing,  from  the  deck  of 
an  unarmed  mail-steamer,  four  unarmed  passengers.  The  gov 
ernment  at  Washington  had  given  eveiy  indication  of  its  ap 
proval  of  the  arrest.  The  compliments  of  the  Cabinet  had  been 
tendered  to  Capt.  Wilkes,  and  a  proposition  introduced  intc 
Congress  to  distinguish  his  piratical  adventure  by  a  public 
vote  of  thanks.  The  subjects  of  the  capture  were  condemned 
to  close  cells  in  Fort  Warren. 

Despite  all  this  manifest  indorsement  by  the  government  of 
the  legality  and  value  of  the  arrest  of  the  commissioners,  Mr. 
Seward  did  not  hesitate  to  surrender  them  when  the  alterna 
tive  of  war  with  Great  Britain  was  indicated  to  him,  in  the 
dispatches  of  that  government  demanding,  in  very  simple  and 
stern  terms,  the  reparation  of  the  outrage  that  had  been  com 
mitted  upon  its  flag. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Adams,  the  representative  of  the  Wash 
ington  government  at  London,  Mr.  Seward  had  advised  'him 
to  make  no  explanations,  as  the  Washington  Cabinet  thought 
it  better  that  the  ground  taken  by  the  British  government 
should  first  be  made  known  to  them.  The  ground  of  its  claims 
was  never  furnished  by  the  British  government.  Its  demand 
for  reparation  and  apology  was  entirely  naked,  and  evidently 
disdained  to  make  a  single  argument  on  the  law  question. 
With  unexampled  shamelessness,  Mr.  Seward  made  the  plea 
himself  for  the  surrender  of  the  commissioners  ;  he  argued  that 
they  could  not  be  the  subjects  of  a  judicial  proceeding  to  de 
termine  their  status,  because  the  vessel,  the  proper  subject  of 
such  a  proceeding,  had  been  permitted  to  escape ;  and  with  ' 
a  contemptible  affectation  of  alacrity  to  offer,  from  a  returning 
sense  of  justice,  what  all  the  world  knew  had  been  extorted 
from  the  alarms  of  cowardice,  he  declared  that  he  •'  cheerfully* 


216  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY  OF    THE    WAR. 

surrendered  the  commissioners,  and  did  so  in  accordance  with 
long-established  American  doctrine. 

In  surrendering  the  commissioners,  the  Washington  govern 
ment  took  the  opportunity  to  declare  its  reassured  hopes  of  the 
Union,  and  to  express  its  contempt  for  the  Southern  revolu 
tion.  In  his  letter  to  Earl  Russell,  Mr.  Seward  took  particular 
pains  to  declare,  that  "  the  safety  of  the  Union  did  not  require 
the  detention  of  the  captured  persons  ;*  that  an  "  effectual 
check"  had  been  put  to  the  "  existing  insurrection,"  and  that 
its  "  waning  proportions"  made  it  no  longer  a  subject  of  se 
rious  consideration. 

The  declaration  was  false  and  affected,  but  it  contained  an 
element  of  truth.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  at  the  time  it  was 
made,  the  power  of  the  revolution  in  the  South  was  declining  ; 
and  a  rapid  survey  of  the  political  posture,  and  of  events  trans 
piring  in  the  latter  half  of  the  year  1861,  affords  painful  evi 
dence  of  relaxation  on  the  part  of  the  Confederate  government, 
and  of  instances  of  weakness  and  abuse  that  the  people,  who 
had  pledged  every  thing  and  endured  every  thing  in  a  contest 
for  freedom,  had  no  right  to  expect. 

REVIEW  OF  AFFAIRS    AT    THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    YEAR    1861. 

The  justice  of  history  compels  us  to  state  that  two  causes — 
the  overweening  confidence  of  the  South  in  the  superior  valor 
of  its  people,  induced  by  the  unfortunate  victory  of  Manassas, 
and  the  vain  delusion,  continued  from  month  to  month,  that 
European  interference  was  certain,  and  that  peace  was  near  at 
hand,  conspired,  about  this  time,  to  reduce  the  Southern  cause 
to  a  critical  condition  of  apathy. 

Western  Virginia  had  been  abandoned  to  the  enemy  almost 
with  indifference,  and  with  an  apathetic  confidence  in  an  army 
that  was  in  danger  of  becoming  demoralized,  and  in  the  pros 
pects  of  European  interference,  which  were  no  brighter  than 
formerly,  exqept  in  imagination,  the  South  carelessly  observed 
the  immense  preparations  of  the  North,  by  sea  and  land,  to 
extend  the  area  of  the  contest  from  the  coasts  of  Carolina  to 
1'ie  States  on  the  Mississippi,  and  to  embrace  her  whole  terri- 
t  >y  with  the  lengthening  arms  of  the  war. 

While  the  enemy  was  busy  making  his  immense  naval  prep 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  217 

arations  against  our  sea-coast,  and  building  scores  of  gun 
boats  on  the  upper  Mississippi  to  drive  our  armies  out  ot 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  the  Southern  government  had  shown 
the  most  extraordinary  apathy ;  the  spirit  of  our  armies  waa 
evidently  decaying,  and  abuses  of  extraordinary  magnitude 
had  crept  into  the  civil  administration  of  our  affairs.  No  cor 
responding  activity  was  manifested  by  us  in  the  line  of  naval 
enterprise  adopted  by  the  enemy.  Means  were  not  wanting  for 
at  least  some  emulation  in  this  respect.  Large  appropriations 
had  been  made  by  Congress  for  the  construction  of  gunboats 
and  objects  of  river  defence;  the  State  of  Virginia  had  turned 
over  to  the  Confederate  government  the  best  navy-yard  on  the 
continent,  and  two  armories  with  their  machinery ;  and  with 
the  means  and  appliances  at  Gosport  and  Richmond,  it  is  not 
doubted  that,  with  proper  activity,  the  government  might  have 
created  a  considerable  fleet. 

The  North  had  improved  the  advantage  of  its  possession  of 
a  navy  by  increasing  its  numbers.  Nearly  a  hundred  vessels 
of  different  descriptions  were  purchased  by  it,  and  fleets  of 
gunboats  fitted  out  for  operations  on  the  coast  and  rivers. 
Two  naval  expeditious  had  already,  before  the  close  of  the 
year,  been  sent  down  the  Carolina  coast,  and  without  accom 
plishing  much,  had  given  serious  indications  of  what  was  to  be 
expected  from  this  arm  of  the  service  on  the  slight  fortifica 
tions  of  our  ocean  frontier. 

On  the  29th  of  August,  a  naval  expedition  from  Fortress 
Monroe,  under  command  of  Commodore  Stringham  and  Major- 
general  Butler,  had  reduced  the  two  forts  at  liatteras  Inlet, 
and  had  signalized  their  victory  by  the  capture  of  fifteen  guns 
and  615  prisoners,  among  whom  was  Commodore  Barron,  the 
Confederate  officer  in  command. 

The  capture  of  Port  Royal,  on  the  South  Carolina  coast,  on 
the  7th  of  November,  by  the  bombardment  of  Forts  Walker 
and  Beauregard,  gave  to  the  enemy  a  point  for  his  squadrons 
to  find  shelter,  and  a  convenient  naval  depot.  The  attack  was 
made  on  the  7th  of  November,  by  a  Federal  fleet,  numbering 
fifteen  war-steamers  and  gunboats,  under  command  of  Capt. 
Dupont,  flag-officer  of  the  south  Atlantic  blockading  squadron. 
The  attack  was  easily  successful  by  the  bombardment  of  the 
torts  at  the  entrance  of  the  sound.  It  may  be  imagined  how 


218  SOUTHERN    HISTORY"    OF    THE    WAR. 

inefficient  our  defences  must  have  been,  when  the  fact  is,  tha*; 
they  yielded  after  a  bombardment  which  continued  precisely 
four  hours  and  thirty  minutes ;  the  condition  of  Fort  Walkei 
at  this  time  being,  according  to  the  official  report  of  General 
Drayton,  who  was  in  command,  "  all  but  three  of  the  guns  in 
the  water  front  disabled,  and  only  five  hundred  pounds  of  pow 
der  in  the  magazine."  But  these  were  only  the  first  lessons  of 
the  enemy's  power  and  our  improvidence  in  defences,  that  were 
to  be  taught  us  on  the  coast. 

The  privateering  service  had  yielded  us  but  poor  fruits.  The 
Savannah,  the  first  of  the  privateers,  was  captured,  and  her 
crew  treated  as  pirates,  at  least  so  far  as  to  load  them  with 
irons,  and  confine  them  in  felons'  cells.  With  the  exception  of 
the  Suinter  (an  awkwardly  rigged  bark)  and  one  or  two  others, 
the  privateers  of  the  South  were  pretty  closely  confined  within 
their  own  harbors  and  rivers  by  the  blockading  fleets.  The 
u  militia  of  the  seas,"  that,  it  was  predicted  in  the  early  part 
of  the  war,  would  penetrate  into  every  sea,  and  find  splendid 
prizes  in  the  silk  ships  of  China,  and  the  gold-freighted  steam 
ers  of  California,  had  proved  but  an  inconsiderable  annoyance 
to  the  extensive  commercial  marine  of  the  North ;  it  had 
captured  during  the  year  but  fifty  prizes  in  smacks,  schooners, 
and  small  merchantmen,  and  by  this  time  the  South  had  learned 
that  its  privateering  resources  were  about  as  delusive  as  that 
other  early  and  crude  expectation  of  adventitious  aid  in  the 
war — the  power  of  "  King  Cotton." 

It  is  curious,  indeed,  how  the  early  expectations  of  the  man 
ner  and  conduct  of  a  war  are  disappointed  by  the  progress  of 
Us  events,  and  its  invariable  law  of  success  in  the  stern  compe 
titions  of  force,  without  reference  to  other  circumstances.  It 
was  said,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  that,  while  cotton  would 
"  bring  Europe  to  its  knees,"  the  Southern  privateers  would 
cut  up  the  commerce  of  the  North,  and  soon  bring  the  merce 
nary  and  money- making  spirits  of  that  section  to  repentance. 
Neither  result  was  realized.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1861, 
the  South  appeared  to  be  fully  convinced  that  it  was  waging  a 
war  in  which  it  could  no  longer  look  for  aid  to  external  and 
adventitious  circumstances;  that  it  could  no  longer  hope  to 
obtain  its  independence  from  European  interference,  or  from 
cotton,  or  from  the  annoyances  of  its  privateers,  or  from  the' 


THE    FIEST    YEAK.  219 

rupture  of  a  financial  system  in  the  North ;  and  that  it  had  no 
other  resource  of  hope  but  in  the  stern  and  bloody  trials  of  the 
battle-field. 

Beyond  the  events  briefly  sketched  in  this  and  the  foregoing 
chapters,  there  were  some  incidents  which  were  interesting  as 
episodes  in  the  progress  of  the  war,  up  to  the  close  of  the  yeai 
1861,  to  which  a  full  reference  has  been  impossible  in  a  work 
which  professes  to  treat  only  the  material  parts  of  the  import 
ant  campaigns  of  the  year. 

The  most  interesting  of  these  was  probably  the  attack  on 
Santa  Rosa  Island,  in  the  harbor  of  Pensacola,  on  the  night  of 
the  8th  October,  and  the  storming,  by  picked  companies  from 
the  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  and  Florida 
regiments,  of  the  camp  which  had  been  made  on  the  island  by 
the  notorious  Billy  Wilson  Zouaves.  Landing  from  steamers 
and  flats  on  the  enemy's  shore,  within  sight  of  his  fleet,  the 
small  band  of  Confederates  marched  some  three  or  four  miles 
in  the  darkness  of  the  night  over  an  unknown  and  almost 
impassable  ground,  killing  the  enemy's  pickets,  storming  his 
intrenched  camp,  driving  off  the  notorious  regiment  of  New 
York  bullies,  with  their  colonel  flying  at  their  head,  and  burn 
ing  every  vestige  of  their  clothing,  equipage,  and  provisions. 
This  action  was  rendered  remarkable  by  an  instance  of  dis 
gusting  brutality  on  the  part  of  the  enemy — the  murder  of  our 
wounded  who  had  been  left  on  the  field  on  account  of  the 
necessity  of  rapidly  retiring  with  our  small  force,  before  the 
enemy  could  rally  from  his  surprise.  Of  thirteen  dead  bodies 
recovered,  eleven  were  shot  through  the  head,  having,  at  the 
same  time,  disabling  wounds  on  the  body.  This  fact  admits  of 
but  one  inference. 

The  affair  of  Dranesville,  on  the  line  of  the  Potomac,  had 
given  a  sharp  and  unexpected  lesson  to  our  immoderate  confi 
dence.  This  action  occurred  on  the  22d  day  of  December. 
Our  whole  force  engaged  was  nearly  2,500  men,  composed  of 
Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Kentucky,  and  Alabama  troops, 
under  command  of  Gen.  Stuart.  The  expedition,  which  was 
attended  by  a  train  of  wagons  intended  for  foraging  purposes, 
fell  in  with  the  enemy  near  Dranesville.  On  the  appearance 
of  the  enemy,  the  llth  Virginia  regiment  charged  them  with  a 
veil,  and  drove  them  back  to  their  lines  within  sight  of  Dranes 


J20  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ville.  Here  the  enemy  rallied.  In  the  confusion  which  ensued 
the  1st  Kentucky  regiment  fired  upon  the  South  Carolina 
troops,  mistaking  them  for  the  enemy.  Discovering  his  mis 
take,  Colonel  Taylor,  of  the  1st  Kentucky,  moved  cautiously 
through  the  woods.  Coming  in  sight  of  another  regiment, 
and  prompted  to  unusual  caution  by  his  previous  mistake,  he 
shouted  to  their  commander  to  know  who  he  was.  "  The 
colonel  of  the  9th,"  was  the  reply.  "  Of  what  9th  ?"  "  Don't 
shoot,"  said  the  Yankees;  "we  are  friends — South  Carolin 
ians."  "On  which  side  are  you?"  asked  Col.  Taylor.  "For 
the  Union,"  now  shouted  the  Federals;  at  the  same  instant 
pouring  a  murderous  volley  into  the  ranks  of  the  Kentuckians. 
The  engagement  now  became  general.  The  Federals  had  the 
advantage  of  position  and  largely  superior  numbers.  Their 
field  batteries  swept  our  lines,  and  several  regiments  of  their 
infantry,  protected  by  the  ground,  had  advanced  within  one 
hundred  yards  of  us,  keeping  the  air  full  of  minie-balls. 
After  sustaining  the  fire  for  some  time,  our  troops  were  com 
pelled  to  fall  back.  The  retreat  was  executed  in  good  order, 
as  the  enemy  did  not  attempt  any  pursuit.  Our  loss  on  the 
field  from  which  we  were  repulsed  was  about  two  hundred  in 
killed  and  wounded.  The  next  day,  reinforcements  having 
reached  Gen.  Stuart,  the  enemy  had  drawn  off  from  the 
locality  of  the  battle-field,  and  declined  any  further  engage 
ment. 

The  affair  at  Dranesville  was  no  serious  disaster,  but  it  was 
a  significant  warning,  and,  in  this  respect,  it  had  an  import 
ance  beyond  the  size  of  the  engagement  and  its  immediate  re 
sults.  The  Yankees  were  learning  to  stand  fire,  and,  out  of 
the  material  which  was  raw  at  Bull  Run,  McClellan  was 
making  troops  who  were  no  longer  contemptible,  and  who  were 
perceptibly  improving  in  discipline,  stanchness,  and  soldierly 
qualities. 

Of  the  political  measures  adopted  by  the  South  in  further 
ance  of  the  objects  of  the  war,  but  a  few  words  need  be  said. 
They  are  justly  described  as  weak  and  halting  responses  to  the 
really  vigorous  acts  of  the  Northern  government  in  its  heart 
less,  but  strong  and  effective  prosecution  of  the  war.  While 
the  Washington  government  protected  itself  against  disaffected 
persons  and  spies  by  a  system  of  military  police,  extending 


TJ1K    FIKST    YEAH.  221 

over  the  whole  North,  the  Provisional  Congress,  at  Kiclnnoul; 
was  satisfied  to  pass  a  law  for  the  deportation  of  "  alien  ene 
mies,"  the  execution  of  which  afforded  facilities  to  the  egress 
of  innumerable  spies.  The  Washington  government  had  passed 
a  law  for  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  "  rebels."  The 
Congress  at  Kichmond  replied,  after  a  weak  hesitation,  by  a 
law  sequestrating  the  property  of  alien  enemies  in  the  South, 
the  operations  of  which  could  never  have  been  intended  to 
have  effect ;  for,  by  future  amendments  in  the  same  Congress, 
the  law  was  soon  emasculated  into  a  broad  farce.  The  "Wash 
ington  government  was  actually  collecting  an  army  of  half  a 
million  of  men.  The  Kichmond  Congress  replied  to  the  threat 
of  numbers,  by  increasing  its  army,  on  paper,  to  four  hundred 
thousand  men  ;  and  the  Confederate  government,  in  the  midst 
of  a  revolution  that  threatened  its  existence,  continued  to  rely 
on  the  wretched  shift  of  twelve  months'  volunteers  and  raw 
militia,  with  a  population  that,  by  the  operation  of  conscrip 
tion,  could  have  been  embodied  and  drilled  into  an  invincible 
army,  competent  not  only  to  oppose  invasion  at  every  point  of 
our  frontier,  but  to  conquer  peace  in  the  dominions  of  the 
enemy. 

The  universal  mind  and  energy  of  the  North  had  been  con 
solidated  in  its  war  upon  the  South.  The  patriotism  of  the 
nation  was  broadly  invoked;  no  clique  arrogated  and  monopo 
lized  the  control  of  affairs  ;  no  favorites  closed  up  against  the 
million  outside  the  avenues  of  patronage,  of  honor,  and  of  pro 
motion.  It  was  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  the  North 
had,  at  all  stages  of  the  war,  adopted  the  best  means  for  secur 
ing  specific  results.  The  popularity  of  Fremont,  with  the  half 
million  "  Wide  Awakes"  of  the  North,  was  used  to  bring  an 
army  into  the  field.  The  great  ship-broker  ot  New  York, 
Morgan,  and  the  great  ship-owner,  Yanderbilt,  were  patronized 
to  create  a  navy.  In  the  army,  the  popularity  of  Banks,  But 
ler,  Grant,  and  Baker  w'ere  employed  equally  with  the  science 
of  McClellan,  Buell,  and  Halleck.*  It  had  been  thus  that  the 

*  The  two  most  conspicuous  Federal  generals  in  the  operations  of  the  West 
were  Generals  Buell  and  Halleck.  Don  Carlos  Buell  was  a  native  of  Ohio, 
He  had  served  in  the  Mexican  war  with  distinction,  having  been- twice  bre- 
vetted  for  gallant  conduct — the  last  time  as  major  in  the  battle  of  Churubusco, 
in  which  he-  was  severely  wounded.  At  the  close  of  the  Mexican  war,  he  was 


'222  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE 

Federal  government  had  united  the  whole  JSTortL,  brought  ar? 
arm}-  of  half  a  million  men  into  the  field,  and  swelled  the  pro 
portions  of  the  war  far  beyond  any  expectations  of  the  world. 

Tho  policy  of  monotonous  defence  had  been  persevering!  y 
pursued  by  the  authorities  of  the  Confederacy.  On  the  side 
of  the  enemy,  it  had  more  than  repaired  the  damage  inflicted 
upon  them  in  many  brilliant  battles,  and  had  left  them  at 
perfect  leisure,  in  the  very  presence  of  our  forces,  to  devise, 
mature,  and  make  trial  of  any  plan  of  campaign  or  assault 
which  they  thought  expedient.  A  large  portion  of  Virginia 
and  important  regions  on  the  Southern  seaboards  were  now 
occupied  by  the  enemy,  who  would  never  have  ventured  forth 
to  such  distances,  if  they  had  been  menaced  nearer  home.  The 
strictly  defensive  policy  was  sustained  by  elaborate  arguments. 

appointed  assistant  adjutant-general,  with  rank  of  captain,  but  relinquished 
his  rank  in  line  in  1851.  As  a  commander,  he  was  courageous,  energetic,  and 
methodical,  and  he  obtained  the  respect  of  the  South  for  his  chivalric  dispo 
sition,  his  courteous  behavior  to  prisoners,  and  his  uniform  recognition  of 
the  laws  and  amenities  of  civilized  warfare. 

Gen.  Henry  Wager  Halleck,  before  the  war,  had  been  but  little  known,  and 
that  only  as  the  author  of  some  military  works,  and  a  prominent  land  lawyer, 
deeply  versed  in  Mexican  titles,  at  the  bar  of  San  Francisco,  California.  He 
was  a  pupil  of  West  Point,  and  had  been  brevetted  captain  for  meritorious 
services  in  California  during  the  Mexican  war.  He  was  appointed  Secretary 
of  State  of  the  province  of  California  in  the  military  government  of  Generals 
Kearney,  Mason,  and  Riley,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Convention  to  form  and 
one  of  the  committee  to  draft  the  State  Constitution  of  California  in  1849. 
He  subsequently  disappeared  from  public  attention,  and  occupied  himself 
with  his  innumerable  Mexican  clients  in  California  as  a  lawyer  and  land 
speculator. 

A  correspondent  gives  the  following  account  'of  the  personnel  of  General 
Halleck :  "  In  the  field  he  is  hardly  the  same  person  who  might  have  been 
seen  quietly  gliding  from  the  Planters'  House  to  head-quarters  in  St.  Louis 
He  does  not  look  a  whit  more  military  in  appearance,  but  looks,  in  his  new 
and  rich,  though  plain  uniform,  as  if  he  were  in  borrowed  clothes.  In  truth. 
he  bears  a  most  striking  resemblance  to  some  oleaginous  Methodist  parson 
dressed  in  regimentals,  with  a  wide,  stiff-rimmed  black  felt  hat  sticking  on 
the  back  of  his  head,  at  an  acute  angle  with  the  ground.  His  demeanor  in 
front  of  his  tent  is  very  simple  and  business-like.  When  on  horseback,  Li* 
Wesleyan  character  is  more  and  more  prominent.  He  neither  looks  like  a 
soldier,  rides  like  one,  nor  does  he  carry  the  state  of  a  major-general  in  tlir 
field,  but  is  the  impersonation  of  the  man  of  peace.  His  face  is  large,  tabular 
and  Teutonic ;  his  eyes  a  kind  of  indistinct  gray,  not  without  expression,  but 
of  that  deep  welling  kind  that  only  reveal  the  emotion  without  indicating  itu 
character." 


THE    FIRST    YEAR. 

ft  i&  not  within  the  design  of  our  work  to  canvass  the  logical 
value  of  these  arguments ;  but  it  is  to  recognize  as  a  fact  the 
natural  and  almost  uni versal impress! on  made  upon  the  popular 
mind  of  the  South,  that  it  could  not  be  good  generalship  which 
left  the  enemy  at  perfect  leisure  to  mature  all  his  preparations 
for  aggression ;  and  that  it  could  not  be  a  glorious  system  of 
warfare,  which  never  ventured  an  aggressive  movement,  and 
which  decimated  its  armies  by  inaction. 

In  the  administration  of  the  civil  polity  of  the  Southern 
army,  as  distinguished  from  its  command,  there  were  abuses 
and  defects  which  were  constant  subjects  of  newspaper  com- 
ment. 

In  the  Quarter-master's  department,  however,  the  results  ac 
complished  by  the  energy  of  its  directors  were  little  less  than 
surprising,  and  received  the  marked  commendation  of  a  com 
mittee  of  the  Provisional  Congress,  appointed  to  inquire  into 
the  civil  polity. of  the  army.  That  the  immense  army  now  in 
the  service  of  the  Confederate  States,  suddenly  collected,  men 
and  officers  generally  inexperienced  in  camp  life  and  military 
duty,  should  be  clothed,  armed,  and  moved  with  the  facility  of 
a  permanent  organization,  was  not  to  be  expected  ;  and  yet, 
with  but  few  exceptions,  this  result  was  accomplished.  Major 
Alfred  M.  Barbour,  of  Virginia,  was  appointed  Chief  Qnai 
ter-master  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  our  principal  corps 
cFarmee  in  the  field  ;  and  his  remarkable  resources  of  judgment, 
his  vast  energy,  and  his  untiring  devotion  to  his  extensive  du 
ties  in  the  field,  contributed  most  important  results  in  the  emer 
gencies  of  the  many  sudden  and  rapid  movements  of  our  forces 
in  Virginia,  in  the  remarkable  campaign  in  that  State  of  the 
spring  of  1862.  Such  contributions  to  the  public  service  are 
not  to  be  depreciated  by  the  side  of  more  visible,  and,  in  the 
popular  mind,  more  brilliant  achievements  of  the  war.  The 
labors  of  the  Quarter-master's  department  penetrate  the  entire 
military  establishment,  breathe  life  into  the  army,  nurture  it8 
growth,  and  give  it  strength  and  efficiency  in  the  field  ;  vigi 
lant,  prepared,  and  present,  it  moves  unnoticed  amid  the  stir 
ring  events  of  the  field,  and  obscured  by  the  dust  and  smoke 
of  the  combat,  it  remains  unobserved  even  while  collecting  the 
fruits  of  victory. 

The  most  distressing  abuses  were  visible  in  the  ill-regulated 


224  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

hygiene  of  our  camps.  The  ravages  of  disease  among  the 
army  in  Virginia  were  terrible  ;  the  accounts  of  its  3xtent  were 
suppressed  in  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  thousands  of  our  brave  troops  disappeared  from  notice 
without  a  record  of  their  end,  in  the  nameless  graves  that  yet 
mark  the  camping  grounds  on  the  lines  of  the  Potomac,  and 
among  the  wild  mountains  of  Virginia. 

Our  camps  were  scourged  with  fever,  pneumonia,  and  diar 
rhoea.  The  armies  on  the  Potomac  and  in  western  Virginia 
suffered  greatly — those  troops  in  Cheat  Mountain  and  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Kanawha  Valley  most  intensely.  The  wet  and 
changeable  climate,  the  difficulty  of  transportation,  exposure 
to  cold  and  rain  without  tents,  the  necessary  consequence  of 
the  frequent  forward  and  retrograde  movements,  as  well  as  the 
want  of  suitable  food  for  either  sick  or  well  men,  produced 
most  of  the  sickness,  and  greatly  aggravated  it  after  its  acces 
sion. 

The  regulations,  requiring  reports  from'  the  regiments  as  to 
the  number  of  sick,  their  diseases,  and  the  wants  of  the  medi 
cal  station,  were,  but  in  few  instances,  complied  with.  The 
result  of  this  neglect  was,  that  upon  a  change  of  position  in 
che  army,  it  was  the  unhappy  consequence  that  the  number  of 
sick  greatly  exceeded  that  indicated  by  the  reports.  They 
were  hurried  to  the  rear,  where  the  accommodations,  both  as 
to  food,  shelter,  and  medical  attendance,  being  all  insufficient, 
there  was  great  suffering  and  great  mortality. 

The  suffering  of  our  army  evoked,  on  the  part  of  the  South 
ern  people,  demonstrations  of  patriotic  devotion  and  generosity, 
such,  perhaps,  as  the  world  had  never  seen.  The  patriotism 
of  our  citizens  at  home  was  manifested  in  unremitting  efforts 
to  supply  the  wants  and  relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  soldiers, 
sick  and  well.  The  supply  of  money,  clothing,  and  hospital 
stores,  from  this  voluntary  and  generous  source,  is  estimated 
in  millions  of  dollars.*  It  was  the  most  cheering  indication 


*  The  following  contributions  (estimated  in  money)  were  listed  at  the  Pass- 
port  Office,  in  Richmond,  during  the  last  three  months  of  the  year  18G1.  Th« 
list  comprises  almost  exclusively  tho  donations  made  to  the  army  of  the  Po 
tomac.  Of  the  voluntary  supplies  sent  to  the  army  in  Missouri,  Arkansas, 
and  Kentucky,  there  is  no  account  whatever  ;  but,  as  the  same  patriotic  devo 
tion  animated  our  people  everywhere,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  an  equa« 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  225 

si  the  spirit  of  our  people  in  the  cause  of  independence.  The 
women  of  the  country,  with  the  tenderness  and  generosity  of 
their  sex,  not  only  loaded  railroad  cars  with  all  those  applian 
ces  for  the  comfort  of  the  sick  which  their  patriotic  ingenuity 
could  devise,  but  also  came  to  the  rescue  in  clothing  those  who 
were  well  and  bearing  arms  in  the  field.  They  made  large  pe 
cuniary  contributions,  took  charge  of  the  hospitals  established 
by  the  States,  and,  as  matrons  of  those  .institutions,  carried 
cleanliness  and  comfort  to  the  gallant  soldier,  far  from  home 
and  kindred.  A  committee  of  the  Provisional  Congress  placed 
on  record  the  thanks  of  the  country  to  the  women  of  the  South, 
for  their  works  of  patriotism  and  public  charity,  and  declared 
that  the  government  owed  them  "  a  public  acknowledgment 
of  their  faithfulness  in  the  glorious  work  of  effecting  our  indfr 
pendence." 

amount  of  clothing,  stores,  &c.,  had  been  sent  to  those  troops.  With  this  cal 
sulation,  the  whole  amount  of  contributions  for  the  last  quarter  of  the  year 
1861  could  not  have  fallen  short  of  three  millions  of  dollars : 

North  Carolina, $325,417 

Alabama, 317,600 

Mississippi, 272,670 

Georgia, 244,885 

South  Carolina, ." 137,206 

Texas, 87,800 

Louisiana, 61,950 

Virginia, 48,070 

Tennessee, 17,000 

Florida, 2,350 

Arkansas, ,,- 950 

$1,515,898 
If 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

Prospects  of  the  Year  1862. — The  Lines  of  the  Potomac. — General  Jackson's  Expo- 
iitio.1  to  Winchester. — The  BATTLE  or  MILL  SPRINGS  IN  KENTUCKY. — General  Crit- 

tenden. Death  of  General  Zollicoffer. — Sufferings  of  Crittenden's  Army  on  the 

Retreat. — Comparative  Unimportance  of   the  Disaster. — The  BATTLE  or  ROANOKB 

ISLAND. Importance  of  the  Island  to  the  South. — Death  of  Captain  Wise. — Causes  ol 

the  Disaster  to  the  South. — Investigation  in  Congress. — Censure  of  the  Government. — 
Interviews  of  General  Wise  with  Mr.  Benjamin,  the  Secretary  of  War. — Mr.  Benjamin 
censured  by  Congress,  but  retained  in  the  Cabinet. — His  Promotion  by  President 
Davis. — Condition  of  the  Popular  Sentiment. 

THE  year  1862  was  to  bring  in  a  train  of  disasters  to  the 
South.  Taking  a  brief  glance  at  the  lines  of  the  Potomac,  we 
shall  thereafter  have  to  find  the  chief  interest  of  the  war  in 
other  directions — in  the  West  and  on  the  seacoast. 

In  December  last,  Gen.  Thomas  F.  Jackson  was  sent  from 
Gen.  Johnston's  line  to  Winchester  with  a  force  at  his  disposal 
of  some  ten  thousand  men.  Had  the  same  force  been  placed 
at  the  command  of  Gen.  Jackson  in  early  autumn,  with  the 
view  to  an  expedition  to  Wheeling,  by  way  of  the  Winchester 
and  Parkersburg  road,  the  good  effects  would,  in  all  proba 
bility,  have  shown  themselves  in  the  expulsion  of  the  Federals 
from  northwestern  Yirginia. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1862,  Gen.  Jackson  marched  with 
his  command  from  Winchester  to  Bath,  in  Morgan  county, 
and  from  the  latter  place  to  Romney,  where  there  had  been  a 
large  Federal  force  for  many  weeks,  and  from  which  point 
they  had  committed  extensive  depredations  on  the  surrounding 
country.  Gen.  Jackson  drove  the  enemy  from  Romney  and 
the  neighboring  country  without  much  fighting.  His  troops, 
however,  endured  the  severest  hardships  in  the  expedition. 
Their  sufferings  were  terrible  in  what  was  the  severest  portion 
of  the  winter.  They  were  compelled  at  one  time  to  struggle 
through  an  almost  blinding  storm  of  snow  and  sleet,  and  to 
Ibivouac  at  night  in  the  forests,  without  tents  or  camp  equi 
page.  Many  of  the  troops  were  frozen  on  the  march,  and  died 
from  exposure  and  exhaustion. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  227 

The  heroic  commander,  whose  courage  had  been  so  bril 
liantly  illustrated  at  Manassas,  gave  new  proofs  of  hi«  iron 
will  in  this  expedition  and  the  subsequent  events  of  his  cam 
paign  in  the  upper  portion  of  the  valley  of  Yirginia.  No  one 
would  have  supposed  that  a  man,  who,  at  the  opening  of  the 
war,  had  been  a  professor  in  a  State  military  institute — that 
at  Lexington,  Yirginia — could  have  shown  such  active  deter 
mination  and  grim  energy  in  the  field.  But  Gen.  Jackson  had 
been  brought  up  in  a  severer  school  of  practical  experience 
than  "West  Point,  where  he  had  graduated  twenty  years  before ; 
he  had  served  in  the  memorable  campaign  from  Yera  Cruz  to 
Mexico ;  and  an  iron  will  and  stern  courage,  which  he  had 
from  nature,  made  him  peculiarly  fitted  to  command.*  But 
we  must  wait  for  a  subsequent  period  to  refer  again  to  Gen. 
Jackson's  operations  in  the  Yalley,  or  to  other  portions  of  the 
campaign  in  Yirginia. 


*  At  the  siege  of  Vera  Cruz,  Jackson  commanded  a  battery,  and  attracted 
attention  by  the  coolness  and  judgment  with  which  he  worked  his  guns,  and 
was  promoted  first  lieutenant.  For  his  conduct  at  Cerro  Gordo,  he  was  brevet- 
ted  captain.  He  was  in  all  Scott's  battles  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  behaved 
so  well  that  he  was  bre vetted  major  for  his  services.  To  his  merits  as  a  com 
mander  he  added  the  virtues  of  an  active,  humble,  consistent  Christian, 
restraining  profanity  in  his  camp,  welcoming  army  colporteurs,  distributing 
tracts,  and  anxious  to  have  every  regiment  in  his  army  supplied  with  a  chap^ 
lain.  He  was  vulgarly  sneered  at  as  a  fatalist ;  his  habits  of  soliloquy  were 
derided  as  superstitious  conversations  with  a  familiar  spirit ;  but  the  confi 
dence  he  had  in  his  destiny  was  the  unfailing  mark  of  genius,  and  adorned  the 
Christian  faith,  which  made  him  believe  that  he  had  a  distinct  mission  of  duty 
in  which  he  should  be  spared  for  the  ends  of  Providence.  Of  the  habits  of  Ms 
life  the  following  description  is  given  by  one  who  knew  him :  "  He  is  as  calm 
in  the  midst  of  a  hurricane  of  bullets  as  he  was  in  the  pew  of  his  church  at 
Lexington,  when  he  was  professor  of  the  Institute.  He  appears  to  be  a  man 
of  almost  superhuman  endurance.  Neither  heat  nor  cold  makes  the  slightest 
impression  upon  him.  He  cares  nothing  for  good  quarters  and  dainty  fare 
Wrapped  in  his  blanket,  he  throws  himself  down  on  the  ground  anywhere, 
and  sleeps  as  soundly  as  though  he  were  in  a  palace.  He  lives  as  the  soldiers 
live,  and  endures  all  the  fatigue  and  all  the  suffering  that  they  endure.  His 
vigilance  is  something  marvellous.  He  never  seems  to  sleep,  and  lets  nothing 
pass  without  his  personal  scrutiny.  He  can  neither  be  caught  napping,  nor 
whipped  when  he  is  wide  awake.  The  rapidity  of  his  marches  is  something 
portentous.  He  is  heard  of  by  the  enemy  at  one  point,  and,  before  they  can 
make  up  their  minds  to  follow  him,  he  is  off  at  another.  His  men  have  little 
baggage,  and  he  moves,  as  nearly  as  he  can,  without  incumbrance.  He  keepa 
so  constantly  in  motion  that  he  never  has  a  sick  list,  and  no  need  of  hospitals/ 


228  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   MILL    SPRINGS    IN   KENTUCKY. 

Ill  a  previous  chapter,  we  noticed  the  expedition  of 
Zollicoffer  in  Kentucky,  and  gave  an  account  of  the  rout  of  the 
forces  sent  against  him.  The  next  expedition  of  the  enemy 
against  him  was  successful  beyond  their  expectations. 

Since  the  affair  referred  to,  Gen.  Zollicoffer  had  moved  with 
a  portion  of  his  command  to  Mill  Springs,  on  the  southern 
bank  of  the  Cumberland  river,  and  soon  after  advanced  across 
to  Camp  Beech  Grove,  on  the  opposite  bans,  fortifying  this 
camp  with  earthworks.  At  Beech  Grove,  he  placed  five  regi 
ments  of  infantry,  twelve  pieces  of  artillery,  and  several  hun 
dred  cavalry,  and  at  Mill  Springs  he  had  two  regiments  of 
infantry  and  several  hundred  cavalry.  About  the  first  of 
January,  Major-general  Crittenden  arrived  and  took  the  com 
mand,  having  been  advanced,  by  President  Davis,  from  a 
captaincy  in  the  Federal  army  to  a  major-generalship  in  the 
Confederate  army. 

Our  position  at  Beech  Grove  had  but  few  advantages.  From 
the  face  of  the  country  in  front  there  was  a  very  bad  range  for 
artillery,  and  it  could  not  be  of  very  material  benefit  against 
an  attacking  infantry  force ;  and,  considering  the  extent  of  the 
front  line  and  the  number  of  works  to  be  defended,  there  was 
within  the  camp  an  insufficient  force.  At  the  same  time,  for 
several  weeks,  bare  existence  in  the  camps  was  very  precarious, 
from  want  of  provisions  and  forage.  Regiments  frequently 
subsisted  on  one-third  rations,  and  this  very  frequently  ot 
bread  alone.  Wayne  county,  which  was  alone  productive  in 
this  region  of  Kentucky,  had  been  exhausted,  and  the  neigh 
boring  counties  of  Tennessee  could  furnish  nothing  for  the 
support  of  the  army.  Only  corn  could  be  obtained  for  the 
horses  and  mules,  and  this  in  such  small  quantities  that  often 
cavalry  companies  were  sent  out  on  unshod  horses  which  had 
eaten  nothing  for  two  days.  The  condition  of  the  roads  and  the 
poverty  of  the  intervening  section  rendered  it  impossible  to 
transport  from  Knoxville,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  thirty 
miles.  The  enemy  from  Columbia  commanded  the  Cumberland 
river,  and  only  one  boat  was  enabled  to  come  up  with  supplier 
from  Nashville.  With  the  channel  of  communication  closed, 
the  position  became  untenable  without  attack. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  229 

In  these  straits,  when  the  entire  army  at  Mill  Sprirgs  had 
been  reduced  to  a  single  ration  of  beef  per  day,  and  a  half  ra 
tion  of  corn,  the  latter  eaten  as  parched  corn,  and  not  issued 
as  meal,  news  reached  Gen.  Crittenden  of  an  advance  move 
ment  of  the  enemy,  both  from  Columbia  and  from  Somerset. 
On  the  17th  of  January  it  was  ascertained  that  a  large  Fed 
eral  force,  under  Gen.  Thomas,  was  moving  on  the  road  from 
Columbia,  and,  on  the  evening  of  that  day,  was  camped  aLout 
ten  miles  from  Beech  Grove.  It  was  also  ascertained  that 
other  reinforcements  were  moving  from  the  direction  of  Colum 
bia,  under  command  of  Gen.  Schoepff,  and  that  the  junction  of 
these  two  forces  was  intended  for  an  attack  on  Camp  Beech 
Grove. 

Under  these  circumstances,  Gen.  Crittenden  determined  to 
attack  Gen.  Thomas's  force  in  his  camp.  The  decision,  which 
was  sanctioned  by  a  council  of  war,  was  a  most  adventurous 
one.  It  was  proposed,  with  an  effective  force  of  four  thousand 
men,  to  attack  an  enemy  in  his  intrenchments,  at  least  ten 
thousand  strong ;  it  is  true,  however,  that  a  defence  of  our  in 
trenchments  was  impracticable,  and  that  to  have  awaited  the 
enemy  there,  would  only  have  given  him  time  to  have  effected  a 
junction  of  his  forces.  This  consideration,  however,  gives  but 
an  imperfect  vindication  of  the  impetuous  adventure  determined 
upon  by  Gen.  Crittenden.  The  fact  was,  that  the  avenues  of 
retreat  were  open  to  our  little  army,  and  could  only  have  ]>een 
cut  off  by  the  enemy's  crossing  above  and  below  Mill  Springs. 

In  perfect  silence,  at  midnight,  the  march  began.  The  bri 
gade  of  Gen.  Zollicoffer  moved  in  front.  In  the  gray  dawn, 
about  six  o'clock,  two  miles  from  their  camp,  the  pickets  of  the 
enemy  fired  upon  our  advanced  cavalry.  The  morning  of  the 
19th  was  dark  and  rainy — a  fit  day  for  a  sabbath  battle.  The 
15th  Mississippi  regiment,  in  line  of  battle,  was  steadily  ad 
vanced,  under  the  constant  fire  of  the  enemy.  The  charge  of 
Gen.  Zollicoffer's  brigade,  in  which  this  gallant  regiment  earned 
the  most  conspicuous  distinction  of  the  day,  soon  became  im 
petuous.  The  Mississippi  troops  fought  with  a  devotion  never 
excelled  by  the  soldiers  of  any  battle-field  ;  nearly  half  of  the 
regiment  (it  numbered  only  440)  fell  in  the  action ;  at  times 
they  fought  with  the  enemy  at  ten  or  twelve  paces,  and,  in  one 
of  their  sweeping  and  exultant  charges,  for  fifty  yards,  dashed 


230  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

over  the  dead  bodies  of  Yankees.  TLe  enemy  was  steadily 
driven  back  before  the  charge  of  Gen.  Zollicoffer's  command. 
Already  he  was  ascending  the  last  hill  to  its  crest,  where 
the  heaviest  firing  told  the  battle  raged.  He  sent  for  rein 
forcements,  and  the  brigade  of  Gen.  Carrol  was  ordered  up. 
In  another  moment,  it  was  announced  tbh,t  Gen.  Zollicoffer  was 
killed.  He  had  fallen  on  the  crest  of  the  hill,  the  stronghold 
of  the  enemy,  which  he  had  almost  driven  them  from,  and 
which  once  gained,  the  day  was  ours. 

Gen.  Zollicoffer  fell  very  near  the  camp  of  the  enemy.  He 
was  with  Col.  Battle's  Tennessee  regiment,  this  and  the  Missis 
sippi  regiment  being  the  chief  participants  in  the  action,  and 
in  the  ranks  of  which  were  his  own  home  friends,  born  and 
brought  up  around  him  at  Kashville.  In  front,  and  concealed 
in  the  woods,  was  a  regiment  of  Kentucky  renegades,  com 
manded  by  Col.  Fry.  By  some  mistake,  probably  that  of  the 
Kentuckians  for  a  regiment  of  his  own  command,  Gen.  Zolli 
coffer  got  very  near  them.  Col.  Fry  was  at  the  right  of  hi? 
regiment.  Gen.  Zollicoffer  was  within  a  few  feet  of  the  colonel. 
A  gum  coat  concealed  his  uniform.  The  two  parties  mistook 
each  other  for  friends,  and  discovered  their  mutual  mistake 
almost  at  the  same  instant.  One  of  General  Zollicoffer's  aids 
shot  at  Colonel  Fry,  but  only  wounded  his  horse.  The  nexf 
moment  the  Federal  colonel  fired  at  Zollicoffer,  and  the  gen 
eral,  raising  his  hand  to  his  breast,  fell,  pierced  by  several  balls. 

At  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Gen.  Zollicoffer,  a 
sudden  gloom  pervaded  the  field  and  depressed  the  Tennessee 
troops,  who  had  been  devotedly  attached  to  him.  Gen.  Crit- 
tenden  essayed  all  that  personal  example  could  do  to  retrieve 
the  sinking  fortunes  of  the  day.  He,  in  person,  rode  up  to  the 
front  of  the  fight,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  fire  of  the  enemy. 
To  gain  the  disputed  hill,  the  fight  was  still  continued.  Charge 
after  charge  was  driven  back  by  the  heavy  forces  of  the  enemy. 
After  a  conflict  of  three  and  a  half  hours,  our  troops  com 
menced  to  give  way.  The  pursuit  was  checked  by  several 
stands  made  by  the  little  army,  and  the  intrenchments  at  Camj 
Beer.h  Grove  were  reached  in  the  afternoon,  with  a  loss  on  oui 
side  of  about  three  hundred  killed  and  wounded,  and  probably 
fifty  prisoners. 

The  advance  of  the  enemy  arrived  late  in  the  evening  before 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  231 

the  Confederate  intrenchments,  and  fired  upon  them  with  shot 
and  shell.  Night  closing  in,  put  a  stop  to  further  demonstra 
tions.  Our  men,  tired  and  worn  out  as  they  were,  stood  be 
hind  the  breastworks  tinti]  midnight,  when  orders  came  for  them 
to  retreat  quietly  across  the  river.  A  steamer,  with  three 
barges  attached,  commenced  the  work  of  transportation.  Can 
non,  baggage  wagons,  and  horses  were  abandoned ;  every  thing 
was  lost  save  what  our  men  had  on  their  backs,  and  yet  the 
whole  night  was  consumed  in  getting  the  army  over  the  river, 
which  was  very  high  at  the  time.  The  line  of  retreat  was  taken 
up  towards  Monticello,  Gen.  Crittenden  having  determined  to 
strike  for  the  Cumberland  at  the  highest  point  where  boats 
could  land  with  safety,  in  order  to  be  in  open  communication 
with  Nashville. 

The  retreat  was  one  of  great  distress.  Many  of  the  troops 
had  become  demoralized,  and,  without  order,  dispersed  through 
the  mountain  by-ways  in  the  direction  of  Monticello.  "  We 
reached  Monticello,"  writes  an  officer  of  one  of  the  regiments 
in  the  retreat,  "  at  night,  and  then  we  were  threatened  with 
starvation — an  enemy  far  more  formidable  than  the  one  we  left 
beyond  the  river.-  Since  Saturday  night,  we  had  but  an  hour 
of  sleep,  and  scarcely  a  morsel  of  food.  For  a  whole  week,  we 
have  been  marching  under  a  bare  subsistence,  and  I  have  at 
length  approached  that  point  in  a  soldier's  career  when  a  hand 
ful  of  parched  corn  may  be  considered  a  first-class  dinner.  We 
marched  the  first  few  days  through  a  barren  region,  where  sup 
plies  could  not  be  obtained.  I  have  more  than  once  seen  the 
men  kill  a  porker  with  their  guns,  cut  and  quarter  it,  and  broil 
it  on  the  coals,  and  then  eat  it  without  bread  or  salt.  The 
suffering  of  the  men  from  the  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life, 
of  clothing,  and  of  repose,  has  been  most  intense,  and  a  more 
melancholy  spectacle  than  this  solemn,  hungry,  and  weary 
procession,  could  scarcely  be  imagined." 

The  enemy  invested  the  abandoned  camp  of  the  Confederates 
on  the  morning  following  the  day  of  the  battle.  Gen.  Schoepff's 
brigade  had  crossed  the  river  preparatory  to  the  attack  which 
Gen.  Thomas  had  intended  to  make  on  the  intrenchments  on 
Monday.  Early  in  the  morning,  the  steamer  used  by  the  Con 
federates  in  effecting  their  retreat  was  discovered  lying  in  the 
river,  and  was  burnt  by  the  shells  of  the  enemy.  They  con 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

gratulated  themselves  that  they  had  cut  off  the  last  hope  of 
the  escape  of  "  the  rebels."  Long  colnmns  of  troops  filed  away, 
and  the  artillery  commenced  to  play  on  the  intrenchments,  in 
doubt  for  a  moment  whether  their  guns  were  replied  to  or  not, 
when  word  came  that  the  intrenchments  were  abandoned.  Aa 
the  enemy  marched  into  the  camp  there  was  hardly  a  cheer. 
They  had  hoped  to  capture  every  man  of  the  Confederates,  and 
were  bitterly  disappointed.  They  secured,  however,  a  rich 
spoil  of  victory — every  thing  in  fact  that  made  our  poor  soldiers 
an  army.  The  property  captured  was  of  considerable  value. 
It  consisted  of  eight  six-pounders  and  two  Parrott-guns,  with 
caissons  filled  with  ammunition,  about  100  four-horse  wagons, 
and  upwards  of  1,200  horses  and  mules,  several  boxes  of  arms 
which  had  never  been  opened,  and  from  500  to  1,000  muskets. 
The  death  of  Gen.  Zollicoffer  was  deeply  lamented  by  his 
countrymen.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  death  of  any  man  of 
the  present  generation  ever  produced  such  conspicuous  grief 
among  Tennesseeans.  He  was  a  man  made  of  stern  stuff,  and 
possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  confidence  of  his  army 
and  of  the  Tennessee  people.  He  was  devoted  to  the  interests 
of  the  South,  and,  during  a  long  career  in  Congress,  was  one 
of  the  few  members  of  the  Whig  party  who  voted  uniformly 
with  Southern  men  on  all  questions  involving  her  honor  and 
welfare.  Made  a  brigadier-general,  he  was  assigned  to  the  de 
partment  of  East  Tennessee  at  an  early  period  of  the  war,  and 
had  exhibited  rare  address  and  genuine  courage  and  military  tal 
ents  in  the  administration  of  his  responsible  command.  It  was  a 
,  melancholy  mode  which  his  army  chose  of  testifying  their  ap 
preciation  of  his  ability  as  a  commander,  in  giving  up  all  for 
•lost  when  ;he  was  shot  down  ;  but  it  certainly  afforded  a  marked 
testimony  of  their  confidence  in  his  generalship. 

The  body  of  General  Zollicoffer  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  en 
emy.  His  remains  were  treated  by  them  with  unusual  respect. 
-One  of  their  officers,  who  had  known  him  in  "Washington- 
asked  to  be  permitted  to  see  the  corpse.  A  pistol-shot  had 
struck  him  in  the  breast,  a  little  above  the  heart.  His  face 
bore -no  expression  such  as  is  usually  found  upon  those  who 
fall  in  battle — no  malice,  no  reckless  hate,  not  even  a  shadow 
•of  physical  pain.  It  was  calm,  placid,  noble.  "  Poor  fellow/' 
wrote. ;the  officer  who  visited  with  respect  his  remains  just  after 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  233 

the  battle,  "  I  have  never  looked  on  a  countenance  so  marked 
with  sadness.  A  deep  dejection  had  settled  on  it.  '  The  low 
cares  of  the  month'  were  distinct  in  the  droop  at  its  corners, 
and  the  thin  cheeks  showed  the  wasting  which  comes  through 
disappointment  and  trouble." 

The  reverse  sustained  by  our  arms  in  Southern  Kentucky 
involved  no  important  military  consequences  ;  and  the  govern 
ment  at  Richmond  found  cause  of  congratulation  in  the  cir 
cumstance  that,  if  a  defeat  must  needs  have  happened  to  it  at 
this  time,  it  could  not  have  come  upon  it  at  a  point  of  less  com 
parative  consequence  than  the  battle-ground  near  Somerset, 
Kentucky.  It  was  a  hundred  miles  from  the  line  of  railroad 
connecting  us  with  the  great  West ;  it  was  a  still  greater  dis 
tance  from  Cumberland  Gap,  the  nearest  point  of  the  Yirginia 
line  ;  and  there  intervened,  on  the  road  to  Knoxville,  rivers  and 
mountain  passes  which  an  invading  army  could  only  traverse 
slowly  and  with  great  caution. 

But  a  disaster  to  our  arms  was  shortly  to  ensue,  of  the  im 
portance  and  gravity  of  which  there  could  be  no  doubt,  and 
with  respect  to  which  the  government  could  find  neither  con 
solations  nor  excuses.  While  we  have  seen  how  matters  stood 
on  the  Potomac  in  the  opening  of  the  year  1862,  and  what 
ominous  indications  had  taken  place  in  the  West,  we  must  now 
remove  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  sea-coast,  where, 
along  the  low  and  melancholy  scenery  of  the  sea-border  of 
North  Carolina,  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  dramas  of  the 
war  was  to  be  enacted. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   KOANOKE   ISLAND. 

On  the  21st  of  December,  that  part  of  North  Carolina  east 
of  the  Chowan  river,  together  with  the  counties  of  Washington 
and  Tyrrell,  was,  at  the  request  of  the  proper  authorities  of 
North  Carolina,  separated  from  the  remainder,  and  constituted 
into  a  military  district,  under  Brigadier-general  H.  A.  Wise, 
and  attached  to  the  command  of  Major-general  Huger,  com 
manding  the  department  of  Norfolk. 

Immediately  upon  the  secession  of  the  State  of  North  Caro 
lina  from  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  the  adop  • 
tion  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America, 


:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  authorities  of  that  State  commenced  the  construction  oi 
fortifications  at  Hatteras  and  Oregon  Inlets,  and  other  points 
upon  her  coast,  which  were  not  completed  when  the  State 
transferred  her  forts,  arsenals,  army,  navy,  and  coast  defence 
to  the  Confederate  government.  Shortly  thereafter  the  attack 
was  made  upon  Forts  Hatteras  and  Clark,  and  they  were 
taken,  and  the  fortifications  at  Oregon* Inlet  were  abandoned, 
and  the  armament,  stores,  and  ammunition  were  removed  to 
Roanoke  Island.  The  enemy  immediately  appeared  in  force 
in  Pamlico  Sound,  the  waters  of  which  are  connected  with  Al- 
bemarle  and  Cui*rituck  sounds  by  means  of  the  two  smaller 
sounds  of  Croatan  and  Roanoke.  The  island  of  Roanoke  be 
ing  situated  between  these  two  latter  sounds,  commanding  the 
channels  of  each,  became,  upon  the  fall  of  Hatteras  and  the 
abandonment  of  Oregon  Inlet,  only  second  in»importance  to 
Fortress  Monroe.  The  island  then  became  the  key  which  un 
locked  all  northeastern  North  Carolina  to  the  enemy,  and  ex 
posed  Portsmouth  and  Norfolk  to  a  rear  approach  of  the  most 
imminent  danger. 

Such  was  the  importance  of  Roanoke  Island.  It  was  threat 
ened  by  one  of  the  most  formidable  naval  armaments  yet  fittec 
out  by  the  North,  put  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Burnside, 
of  Rhode  Island.  It  might  have  been  placed  in  a  state  of  de 
fence  against  any  reasonable  force,  with  the  expenditure  oi 
money  and  labor  supposed  to  be  within  the  means  of  the  gov 
ernment.  Ample  time  and  the  fullest  forewarnings  were  given 
to  the  government  for  the  construction  of  defences,  since,  for  a 
full  month,  Gen.  Wise  had  represented  to  the  government, 
with  the  most  obvious  and  emphatic  demonstrations,  that  the 
defences  of  the  island  were  wholly  inadequate  for  its  protection 
from  an  attack  either  by  land  or  water. 

The  military  defences  of  Roanoke  Island  and  its  adjacent 
waters  on  the  8th  of  February,  the  day  of  its  surrender,  con 
sisted  of  three  sand  forts,  a  battery  of  two  32-pounders,  and  a 
redoubt  thrown  across  the  road  in  the  centre  of  the  island,  about 
seventy  or  eighty  feet  long,  on  the  right  of  which  Tas  a  swamp, 
on  the  left  a  marsh.  In  addition  to  these  defences  on  the 
shore  and  on  the  island,  there  was  a  barrier  of  piles,  extending 
from  the  east  side  of  Fnlker  Shoals,  towards  the  island.  Its 
object  was  to  compel  vessel?  passing  on  the  west  of  the  island 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  235 

to  approach  within  reach  of  the  shore  batteries ;  but  up  to  the 
8th  of  February,  there  was  a  span  of  1,700  yards  open  opposite 
to  Fort  Bartow,  the  most  southern  of  the  defences,  on  the  wesl 
side  of  the  island. 

The  entire  military  force  stationed  upon  the  island  prior  to, 
and  at  the  time  of,  the  late  engagement,  consisted  of  the  8th 
regiment  of  North  Carolina  State  troops,  under  the  command 
of  Col.  II.  M.  Shaw ;  the  31st  regiment  of  North  Carolina 
volunteers,  under  the  command  of  Col.  J.  Y.  Jordan  ;  and  three 
companies  of  the  17th  North  Carolina  troops,  under  the  com 
mand  of  Major  G.  H.  Hill.  After  manning  the  several  forts, 
on  the  7th  of  February,  there  were  but  one  thousand  and 
twenty-four  men  left,  and  two  hundred  of  them  were  upon  the 
cjick  list.  On  the  evening  of  the  7th  of  February,  Brig. -gen. 
Wise  sent  from  Nagg's  Head,  under  the  command  of  Lieut.- 
col.  Anderson,  a  reinforcement,  numbering  some  four  hundred 
and  fifty  men.  The  whole  force  was  under  the  command  of 
Brig.-gen.  Wise,  who,  upon  the  7th  and  8th  of  February,  was 
at  Nagg's  Head,  four  miles  distant  from  the  island,  confined 
to  a  sick-bed,  and  entirely  disabled  from  participating  in  the 
action  in  person.  The  immediate  command,  therefore,  devolved 
upon  Col.  H.  M.  Shaw,  the  senior  officer  present. 

On  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  February,  the  enemy's  fleet 
proceeded  steadily  towards  Fort  Bartow.  In  the  sound  be 
tween  Roanoke  Island  and  the  mainland,  upon  the  Tyrrell 
side,  Commodore  Lynch,  with  his  squadron  of  seven  vessels, 
had  taken  position,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  the  enemy's  fleet, 
consisting  of  about  thirty  gunboats  and  schooners,  advanced 
in  ten  divisions,  the  rear  one  having  the  schooners  and  trans 
ports  in  tow.  The  advance  and  attacking  division  again  sub 
divided,  one  assailing  the  squadron  and  the  other  firing  upon 
the  fort  with  nine-inch,  ten-inch,  and  eleven-inch  shell,  spheri 
cal  case,  a  few  round-shot,  and  every  variety  of  rifled  projec 
tiles.  The  fort  replied  with  but  four  guns  (which  were  all 
that  could  be  brought  to  bear),  and  after  striking  the  foremost 
vessels  several  times,  the  fleet  fell  back,  so  as  to  mask  one  of 
the  guns  of  the  fort,  leaving  but  three  to  reply  to  the  fire  of 
the  whole  fleet.  The  bombardment  was  continued  throughout 
the  day,  and  the  enemy  retired  at  dark.  The  squadron,  under 
the  command  of  Commodore  Lynch,  sustained  their  position 


236  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

most  gallantly,  and  only  retired  after  exhausting  all  their  am 
munition,  and  having  lost  the  steamer  Curlew  and  the  Foiest 
disabled. 

In  the  mean  time,* the  enemy  had  found  a  point  of  landing 
out  of  the  reach  of  our  field-pieces,  and  defended  by  a  swamp 
from  the  advance  of  our  infantry.  The  enemy  having  effected 
a  landing  here,  our  whole  force  took  position  at  the  redoubt  or 
breastwork,  and  placed  in  battery  their  field-pieces  with  neees> 
sary  artillerymen,  under  the  respective  commands  of  Captain 
Schemerhorn,  and  Lieutenants  Kinney  and  Seldon.  Two  com 
panies  of  the  Eighth  and  two  of  the  Thirty-first  were  placed  at 
the  redoubt  to  support  the  artillery.  Three  companies  of  the 
Wise  Legion,  deployed  to  the  right  and  left  as  skirmishers. 
The  remainder  of  the  infantry  were  in  position,  three  hundred 
yards  in  the  rear  of  the  redoubt,  as  a  reserve. 

The  enemy  landed  some  fifteen  thousand  men,  with  artillery, 
and,  at  7"  o'clock,  A.  M.,  of  the  8th,  opened  fire  upon  the  redoubt, 
which  was  replied  to  immediately  with  great  spirit,  and  the 
action  soon  became  general,  and  was  continued  without  inter 
mission  for  more  than  five  hours,  when  the  enemy  succeeded 
in  deploying  a  large  force  on  either  side  of  our  line,  flanking 
each  wing.  The  order  was  then  given  by  Col.  Shaw  to  spike 
the  guns  in  the  battery,  and  to  retreat  to  the  northern  end  of 
the  island.  The  guns  were  spiked,  and  the  whole  force  fell 
back  to  the  camps. 

During  the  engagement  at  the  redoubt,  the  enemy's  fleet  at 
tempted  to  advance  to  Croatan  Sound,  which  brought  on  a 
desultory  engagement  between  Fort  Bartow  and  the  fleet, 
which  continued  up  to  half-after  12  o'clock,  when  the  com 
manding  officer  was  informed  that  the  land  defences  had  been 
forced,  and  the  position  of  the  fort  turned ;  he  thereupon  order 
ed  the  guns  to  be  disabled  and  the  ammunition  destroyed, 
which  was  done,  and  the  fort  abandoned.  The  same  thing  was 
done  at  the  other  forts,  and  the  forces  from  all  the  forts  were 
marched  in  good  order  to  the  camp.  The  enemy  took  posses 
sion  of  the  redoubts  and  forts  immediately,  and  proceeded  in 
pursuit,  with  great  caution,  towards  the  northern  end  of  the 
island  in  force,  deploying  so  as  to  surround  our  forces  at  the 
oamp. 

Co..  Shaw  had  arrived  with  \ih  whole  force  at  his  camp  in 


THE    FIEST   YEAR.  237 

time  to  have  saved  his  whole  command,  if  transports  Lad  been 
furnished.  But  there  were  none.  His  situation  was  one  of 
extreme  exigency.  He  found  himself  surrounded  by  a  greatly 
superior  force  upon  the  open  island  ;  he  had  no  field-works  to 
protect  him ;  he  had  lost  his  only  three  field-pieces  at  the  re 
doubt  ;  and  he  had  either  to  make  an  idle  display  of  courage 
in  fighting  the  foe  at  such  immense  disadvantage,  which  would 
have  involved  the  sacrifice  of  his  command,  or  to  capitulate 
and  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war.  He  determined  upon  the 
latter  alternative. 

The  loss  on  our  side  was,  killed,  23 ;  wounded,  58 ;  missing, 
62.  Our  mortality  list,  however,  was  no  indication  of  the 
spirit  and  vigor  of  our  little  army,  as  in  its  position  it  had  but 
little  opportunity  of  contest  without  a  useless  sacrifice  of  human 
life  on  their  side.  Among  the  killed  was  Captain  O.  Jennings 
Wise,  of  the  Richmond  Blues,  son  of  General  Wise,  a  young 
man  of  brilliant  promise,  refined  chivalry,  and  a  courage  to 
which  the  softness  of  his  manners  and  modesty  of  his  behavior 
added  the  virtue  of  knightly  heroism.  His  body,  pierced  by 
wounds,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy?  in  whose  camp,  at 
tended  by  every  mark  of  respect,  he  expired.  The  disaster  at 
Roanoke  Island  was  a  sharp  mortification  to  the  public.  But 
for  the  unfortunate  general,  who  was  compelled  to  hear  on  a 
sick-bed — perhaps  to  witness  from  the  windows  of  a  sick-cham 
ber — the  destruction  of  his  army  and  the  death  of  his  son,  there 
was  not  a  word  of  blame. 

In  a»  message  to  Congress,  President  Davis  referred  to  the 
result  of  the  battle  at  Roanoke  Island  as  "  deeply  humiliating ;" 
a  committee  of  Congress,  appointed  to  investigate  the  affair, 
resented  the  attempt  to  attribute  a  disaster,  for  which  the  gov 
ernment  itself  was  notoriously  responsible,  to  want  of  spirit  in 
our  troops ;  declared  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  battle  of  Roanoke 
Island  was  "  one  of  the  most  gallant  and  brilliant  actions  of  the 
war ;"  and  concluded  that  whatever  of  blame  and  responsibility 
was  justly  attributable  to  any  one  for  the  defeat,  should  attach 
to  Gen.  Huger,  in  whose  military  department  the  island  was, 
and  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  whose  posi 
tive  refusal  to  put  the  island  in  a  state  of  defence  secured  it? 
fall.  There  was,  in  fact,  but  little  room  for  the  gorernment  to 
throw  reflection  upon  the  conduct  of  the  troops.  In  the  Ian 


238  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

guage  of  their  commanding  general,  "  both  officers  and  men 
fought  firmly,  coolly,  efficiently,  and  as  long  as  humanity  would 
allow." 

The  connection  of  the  War  Department  with  the  Roanoke 
Island  affair,  which  was  with  difficulty  dragged  to  light  in 
Congress,  is  decidedly  one  of  the  most  curious  portions  of  the 
history  of  the  war.  Gen.  Wise  had  pressed  upon  the  govern 
ment  the  importance  of  Roanoke  Island*  for  the  defence  of 
Norfolk.  He  assumed  the  command  of  the  post  upon  the  7th 
of  January.  In  making  a  reconnoissance  of  the  island  and  its 
defences,  on  the  13th  January,  he  addressed  Secretary  Benja 
min,  ai  id  declared  that  the  island,  which  was  the  key  of  all  the 
rear  defences  of  Norfolk,  and  its  canals  and  railroads,  was 
"  utterly  defenceless."  On  the  15th  of  January,  Gen.  Wise 
addressed  the  secretary  again.  He  wrote  that  twenty-four 
vessels  of  the  enemy's  fleet  were  already  inside  of  Hatteras 
Inlet,  and  within  thirty  miles  of  Roanoke  Island ;  that  all  there 
was  to  oppose  him  was  five  small  gunboats,  and  four  small 
land  batteries,  wholly  inefficient ;  that  our  batteries  were  not 
casemated ;  and  that  the  force  at  Hatteras,  independent  of  the 
Burnside  expedition,  was  "  amply  sufficient  to  capture  or  pass 
Roanoke  Island  in  any  twelve  hours." 

These  written  appeals  for  aid  in  the  defences  of  the  island 
were  neglected  and  treated  with  indifference.  Determined  to 
leave  nothing  wanting  in  energy  of  address,  Gen.  Wise  repaired 
in  person  to  Richmond,  and  called  upon  the  Secretary  of  War, 
and  urged,  in  the  most  importunate  manner,  the  absolute 

*  It  (Roanoke  Island)  was  the  key  to  all  the  rear  defences  of  Norfolk.  It 
unlocked  two  sounds,  Albemarle  and  Currituck ;  eight  rivers,  the  North, 
West,  Pasquotank,  the  Perquimmons,  the  Little,  the  Chowan,  the  Roanoke, 
and  the  Alligator ;  four  canals,  the  Albemarle  and  Chesapeake,  the  Dismal 
Swamp,  the  Northwest  Canal,  and  the  Suffolk  ;  two  railroads,  the  Petersburg 
and  Norfolk,  and  the  Seaboard  and  Roanoke.  It  guarded  more  than  four-fifths 
jf  all  Norfolk's  supplies  of  corn,  pork,  and  forage,  and  it  cut  the  command 
of  General  Huger  off  from  all  its  most  efficient  transportation.  It  endangers 
the  subsistence  of  his  whole  army,  threatens  the  navy-yard  at  Gosport,  and 
to  cut  off  Norfolk  from  Richmond,  and  both  from  railroad  communication 
with  the  South.  It  lodges  the  enemy  in  a  safe  harbor  from  the  storms  01 
Hatteras,  gives  them  a  rendezvous,  and  large  rich  range  of  supplies,  and  the 
command  of  the  seaboard  from  Oregon  Inlet  to  Cape  Henry.  It  should  have 
been  defended  at  the  expense  of  twenty  thousand  men,  and  of  many  milliona 
nf  dollars." — Report  of  Gen.  Wise. 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  239 

necessity  of  strengthening  the  defences  upon  that  island  with 
additional  men,  armament,  and  ammunition.  Mr.  Benjamin 
replied  verbally  to  his  appeals  for  reinforcements,  that  he  had 
not  the  men  to  spare  for  his  command.  Gen.  Wise  urged  upon 
the  secretary  that  Gen.  Huger  had  about  15,000  men  in  front 
of  Norfolk,  lying  idle  in  camp  for  eight  months,  and  that  a 
considerable  portion  of  them  could  be  spared  for  the  defence  of 
the  rear  of  Norfolk,  and  especially  as  his  (Gen.  Wise's)  district 
supplied  Norfolk  and  his  army  with  nearly  or  quite  all  of  his 
corn,  pork,  and  forage. 

The  reply  to  all  these  striking  and  urgent  appeals  was  a  per 
emptory  military  order  from  Secretary  Benjamin,  dated  the 
22d  of  January,  requiring  Gen.  Wise  to  proceed  immediately 
to  Koanoke  Island.  With  ready  military  pride  the  unfortunate 
general  received  the  orders,  without  a  murmur  in  public ;  it 
being  known  only  to  his  most  intimate  friends  the  circum 
stances  under  which  he  left  Richmond  on  the  stern  and  un- 
propitious  mission  which  promised  nothing  to  himself  but 
disaster,  the  mistaken  calumnies  of  the  public,  and  death  in 
the  midst  of  defeat. 

The  facts  we  have  referred  to  are  of  record.  The  committee 
of  Congress  that  investigated  the  affair  of  Roanoke  Island  de 
clared  that  the  Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  J.  P.  Benjamin,  was 
responsible  for  an  important  defeat  of  our  arms,  which  might 
have  been  safely  avoided  by  him  ;  that  he  had  paid  no  practical 
attention  to  the  appeals  of  Gen.  Wise ;  and  that  he  had,  by 
plain  acts  of  omission,  permitted  that  general  and  an  incon 
siderable  force  to  remain  to  meet  at  least  fifteen  thousand  men, 
well  armed  and  equipped.  The  committee  referred  to  was 
open  to  any  justification  that  might  have  been  sought  by  the 
Secretary  of  War,  or  his  friends :  none  was  offered ;  and  the 
unanimous  conclusion  of  the  committee,  in  sharp  and  distinct 
terms,  was  put  upon  the  public  record,  charging  a  Cabinet 
officer  with  a  matter  of  the  gravest  offence  known  to  the  laws 
and  the  interests  of  the  country. 

The  effect  of  war  is  always,  in  some  degree,  public  demoraAi- 
zation ;  and  the  gravest  charges  are  often  lost  and  swallowed 
np  in  the  quick  and  feverish  excitements  of  such  times.  But 
whatever  mav  have  been  the  charities  of  speedy  oblivion  with 
respect  to  the  charges  against  Mr.  Benjamin,  the  public  were 


240  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

at  least,  not  prepared  for  such  an  exhibition  of  tiust  and  honor 
as  was  given  him  by  the  President,  in  actually  promoting  him, 
after  the  developments  of  the  Roanoke  Island  disaster,  and 
giving  him  the  place  in  his  cabinet  of  Secretary  of  State 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  merits  of  this  act  of  the  Presi 
dent,  it  was  at  least  one  of  ungracious  and  reckless  defiance  to 
the  popular  sentiment;  and  from  the  marked  event  of  the 
surrender  of  Roanoke  Island  and  its  consequences,  we  must 
date  the  period  when  the  people  had  their  confidence  weakened 
in  the  government,  and  found  no  other  repose  for  their  trust 
than  in  the  undiir^ished  valor  and  devoted  patriotism  of  the 
troops  in  the  field 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  241 


CHAPTER  X. 

TLe  Situation  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky. — The  affair  at  Woodsonville. — Death  c  f 
Colonel  Terry.— The  Strength  and  Material  of  the  Federal  Force  in  Kentucky.— Con 
dition  of  the  Defences  on  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland  Rivers. — The  Confederate 
Congress  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.— The  Fall  of  Fort  Henry.— Fort  Donelson 
threatened. — The  Army  of  General  A.  S.  Johnston. — His  Interview  with  General 
Beauregard. — Insensibility  of  the  Confederate  Government  to  the  Exigency. — General 
Johnston's  Plan  of  Action.— BATTLE  OF  FORT  DONELSON. — Carnage  and  Scenery  of  the 
Battle-field. — The  Council  of  the  Southern  Commanders. — Agreement  to  surrender. 
—Escape  of  Generals  Floyd  and  Pillow. — The  Fall  of  Fort  Donelson  develops  the 
Crisis  in  the  West.— The  Evacuation  of  Nashville.— The  Panic.— Extraordinary 
Scenes. — Experience  of  the  Enemy  in  Nashville. — The  Adventures  of  Captain  Joh^i 
Morgan. — General  Johnston  at  Murfreesboro. — Organization  of  a  New  Line  of  Defenct 
South  of  Nashville. — The  Defence  of  Memphis  and  the  Mississippi. — Island  No.  10.— 
Serious  Character  of  the  Disaster  at  Donelson.— Generals  Floyd  and  Pillow  "  re 
lieved  from  Command." — General  Johnston's  Testimony  in  favor  of  these  Officers.- 
President  Davis's  Punctilio. — A  sharp  Contrast. — Negotiation  for  the  Exchange  o 
Prisoners. — A  Lesson  of  Yankee  Perfidy. — Mr.  Benjamin's  Release  of  Yanke* 
Hostages. 

THE  unequivocal  demonstrations  of  the  Federals  for  an  ad 
vance  upon  Tennessee  through  Kentucky,  urged  the  Confed 
erate  government  to  send  all  the  disposable  forces  at  its  com 
mand  to  strengthen  the  army  of  the  southwestern  division. 
Near  the  close  of  the  year  1861,  the  Floyd  Brigade  and  several 
regiments  belonging  to  Tennessee  and  other  Confederate  States 
were  sent  from  Virginia  to  Bowling  Green,  in  southern  Ken 
tucky,  the  principal  strategic  point  of  the  southwestern  army. 
The  command  of  that  army  was  given,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston. 

Early  in  December,  the  Federal  army  occupied  Muldraugh's 
Hill,  Elizabethtown,  Nolin,  Bacon's  Creek,  and  other  points  on 
the  railroad,  from  forty  to  sixty  miles  below  Louisville.  Later 
in  that  month,  a  body  of  them  advanced  to  Munfordville,  on 
Green  River,  about  seventy-five  miles  below  Louisville,  and 
about  thirty-five  miles  above  Bowling  Green.  A  portion  01 
this  advance  crossed  the  river  at  Munfordville  to  Woodsonville 
on  the  opposite  shore,  where  they  were  attacked  b,y  the  advance 
Confederate  forces  under  Brig. -general  Hindman  and  defeated 
with  a  loss  of  about  fifty  killed.  The  Confederates  lost  four 

16 


242  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

killed  and  nine  wounded.  Their  conduct  was  marked  by  the 
most  impetuous  valor.  On  charging  the  enemy,  Col.  Terry,  of 
the  Texas  Hangers,  was  killed  in  the  moment  of  victory. 
In  the  death  of  Col.  Terry,  said  General  Hardee,  in  his  official 
report,  "  his  regiment  had  to  deplore  the  less  of  a  beloved 
and  brave  commander,  and  the  whole  army  one  of  its  ablest 
officers."  His  name  was  placed  in  the  front  rank  of  the  gal 
lant  sons  of  Texas,  whose  daring  and  devoted  courage  had 
added  to  the  lustre  of  our  arms  and  to  the  fruits  of  more  than 
one  victory. 

The  fight  at  Woodsonville  was  on  the  17th  of  December. 
When  the  enemy  reached  that  place  in  force,  the  Confederates 
fell  back  some  fifteen  or  twenty  miles,  in  the  direction  of  Bowl 
ing  Green.  For  some  weeks  thereafter,  the  whole  South  waa 
excited  with  reports  to  the  effect  that  the  Federals  were  ad 
vancing  upon  .Bowling  Green  in  three  columns,  of  20,000  each. 
But  the  unanticipated  success  of  the  Federals  in  two  important 
movements  at  other  points  within  the  department  of  General 
Johnston,  enabled  them  to  accomplish  their  object  without  an 
attack  upon  Bowling  Green,  and  forced  upon  the  Confederates 
the  necessity  of  evacuating  that  post. 

The  North  had  collected  an  immense  army  in  Kentucky, 
under  command  of  Major-general  Buell,  a  general  of  great  skill, 
remarkable  for  the  caution  of  his  operations,  but  having  with 
this  quality  the  rare  combination  of  energy,  courage,  and  un 
wearied  activity.  The  whole  force  of  the  Federals  in  Ken 
tucky  consisted  of  about  one  hundred  thousand  infantry,  eleven 
thousand  cavalry,  and  three  thousand  artillerists,  divided  into 
Borne  twenty  odd  batteries.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  immense 
army  was  composed  almost  entirely  of  "Western  men,  and  that 
the  "Yankee"  proper  was  scarcely  represented  in  its  ranks. 
Of  the  Eastern  States,  only  Pennsylvania  had  troops  in  Ken 
tucky,  and  those  comparatively  few.  Every  Western  State, 
with  the  exception  of  Iowa,  Missouri,  and  Kansas,  was  repre 
sented  by  more  or  less  regiments. 

A  large  force  of  the  Federals  had  been  collected  at  Paducah, 
at  Uie  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  river,  with  a  view  to  offensive 
operations  on  the  water.  This  river  was  an  important  stream. 
It  penetrated  Tennessee  and  Alabama,  and  was  navigable  for 
steamers  for  two  or  three  hundred  miles.  The  Provisions 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  243 

Congress,  at  Richmond,  had  appropriated  half  a  million  dol 
lars  for  floating  defences  on  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland 
rivers :  but  owing  to  the  notorious  inefficiency  of  the  Navy 
Department,  presided  over  by  Mr.  Mallory  of  Florida,  who 
was  remarkable  for  his  obtuseness,  slow  method,  and  indiffer 
ent  intellect,  and  whose  ignorance  even  of  the  geography  of 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  had  been  broadly  travestied  in  Con 
gress,  both  rivers  were  left  open  to  the  incursions  of  the 
enemy.  On  the  Tennessee  there  was  nothing  to  resist  the 
enemy's  advance  up  the  stream  but  a  weak  and  imperfectly 
constructed  fort.  The  Cumberland  was  a  still  more  important 
river,  and  the  key  to  Nashville ;  but  nothing  stood  in  the  way 
of  the  enemy  save  Fort  Donelson,  and  from  that  point  the 
Federal  gunboats  could  reach  Nashville  in  six  or  eight  hours, 
and  strike  a  vital  point  of  our  whole  system  of  defences  in  the 
-West. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  the  enemy's  expedition  up  the 
Tennessee,  under  Gen.  Grant,  arrived  at  Fort  Henry,  the  only 
fortification  on  the  Tennessee  river  of  any  importance,  situ 
ated  near  the  lines  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  stream.  On  the  morning  of  the  6th,  the  fort  wap 
attacked. 

Our  works  were  untenable,  but  it  concerned  us  to  save  ou* 
little  army.  To  defend  the  position  at  the  time,  Gen.  Tilgh 
man,  commanding  division,  had  Col.  Heiman's  10th  Tennessee, 
Irish  volunteers,  eight  hundred  strong ;  Col.  Drake's  Missis 
sippi  volunteers,  four  hundred  strong ;  Col.  Hughes'  Alabama 
volunteers,  five  hundred  strong ;  and  Lieut.-col.  Gantt's  Ten 
nessee  volunteers,  cavalry,  three  hundred  strong ;  one  company 
of  light  artillery,  commanded  by  Lieut.  Culbertson,  Confed 
erate  States  artillery,  and  Captain  Jesse  Taylor's  company  of 
artillery,  sixty  strong,  forming  the  garrison  of  Fort  Henry, 
and  manning  its  batteries  of  nine  or  ten  guns. 

A  sudden  rise  in  the  river  found  Fort  Henry,  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  attack,  completely  surrounded  by  water,  containing 
only  Capt.  Taylor's  company  of  artillery.  The  two  thousand 
men  of  all  arms,  who  formed  Gen.  Tilghman's  command,  were 
half  a  mile  off,  beyond  a  sheet  of  back-water.  Gen.  Grant's 
army  was  on  the  direct  road,  between  them  and  Fort  Donel- 
*on,  on  the  Cumberland,  and  within  tw3  miles  of  the  fort,  and 


244  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

already  in  motion  to  invest  it.  It  was  an  embarrassing  ques 
tion  to  determine  what  was  to  be  done.  Gen.  Tilghman's  little 
army  was  in  the  jaws  of  the  lion,  and  the  question  was,  how 
could  it  be  extricated. 

Gen.  Tilghman  at  once  solved  the  problem,  by  ordering  it  to 
retreat  by  the  upper  route.  He  remained  with  his  sixty  men 
in  the  fort,  where  he  was  surrounded  by  water,  and  unable  to 
get  away. 

A  few  minutes  before  the  surrender,  the  scene  in  and  around 
the  fort  exhibited  a  spectacle  of  fierce  grandeur.  Many  of  the 
cabins  and  tents  in  and  around  the  fort  were  in  flames  :  added 
to  the  scene  were  the  smoke  from  the  burning  timber,  and  the 
curling  but  dense  wreaths  of  smoke  from  the  guns ;  the  con 
stantly  recurring  spattering  and  whizzing  of  fragments  of 
crashing  and  bursting  shells  ;  the  deafening  roar  of  artillery ; 
the  black  sides  of  five  or  six  gunboats,  belching  fire  at  every 
port-hole ;  the  volumes  of  smoke  settled  in  dense  masses  along 
the  surrounding  back-waters  ;  and  up  and  over  that  fog,  on  the 
heights,  the  army  of  Gen.  Grant  (10,000)  deploying  around 
our  small  army,  attempting  to  cut  off  its  retreat.  In  the  midst 
of  the  storm  of  shot  and  shell,  the  small  force  outside  of  the 
fort  had  succeeded  in  gaining  the  upper  road,  the  gunboats 
having  failed  to  notice  their  movements  until  they  were  out  of 
reach. 

To  give  them  further  time,  the  gallant  Tilghman,  exhausted 
and  begrimed  with  powder  and  smoke,  stood  erect  at  the 
middle  battery,  and  pointed  gun  after  gun.  It  was  clear,  how 
ever,  that  the  fort  could  not  hold  out  much  longer.  A  white 
flag  was  raised  by  the  order  of  Gen.  Tilghman,  who  remarked, 
"  it  is  vain  to  fight  longer  ;  our  gunners  are  disabled  ;  our  guns 
dismounted  ;  we  can't  hold  out  five  minutes  longer."  As  soon 
as  the  token  of  submission  was  hoisted,  the  gunboats  came 
alongside  the  fort  and  took  possession  of  it,  their  crews  giving 
three  cheers  for  the  Union.  Gen.  Tilghman  and  the  small  gar 
rison  of  forty  were  taken  prisoners. 

The  fall  of  Fort  Henry  was  the  signal  for  the  direction  oi 
the  most  anxious  attention  to  Fort  Donelson,  on  the  Cumber 
land. 

We  have  noticed  before  the  extreme  inadequacy  of  Gun 
Johnston's  forces.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  ever  had  ovei 


THE    FIRST    YEAB.  245 

23,000  effective  troops  at  Bowling  Green.  Of  these,  after  re- 
inforcing  Fort  Donelson,  he  had  scarcely  more  than  eleven 
thousand  effective  men.  Shortly  after  the  disaster  at  MiU 
Springs,  Gen.  Beauregard  had  been  sent  from  the  Potomac  to 
Gen.  Johnston's  line  in  Kentucky.  At  a  conference  which 
took  place  between  the  two  generals,  Gen.  Beauregard  ex 
pressed  his  surprise  at  the  smallness  of  Gen.  Johnston's  forces, 
and  was  impressed  with  the  danger  of  his  position.  There  is 
nothing  more  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  war  than  the 
false  impressions  of  the  people  of  the  South  as  to  the  extent  of 
our  forces  at  the  principal  strategic  point  in  Kentucky,  and  the 
long  and  apathetic  toleration,  by  the  government  in  Richmond, 
of  a  prospect  that  promised  nothing  but  eventual  disaster. 
On  establishing  himself  in  Bowling  Green  early  in  October, 
General  Johnston  wrote  to  the  "War  Department :  "  We  have 
received  but  little  accession  to  our  ranks  since  the  Confederate 
forces  crossed  the  line — in  fact,  no  such  enthusiastic  demon 
stration  as  to  justify  any  movements  not  warranted  by  our 
ability  to  maintain  our  own  communications."  He  repeatedly 
called  upon  the  government  for  reinforcements.  He  made  a 
call  upon  several  States  of  the  Southwest,  including  Tennessee, 
for  large  numbers  of  troops.  The  call  was  revoked  at  the  in 
stance  of  the  authorities  in  Richmond,  who  declined  to  furnish 
twelve  months'  volunteers  with  arms ;  and  Gen.  Johnston,  thus 
discouraged  and  baffled  by  a  government  which  was  friendly 
enough  to  him  personally,  but  insensible  to  the  public  exigency 
for  which  he  pleaded,  was  left  in  the  situation  of  imminent 
peril,  in  which  Gen.  Beauregard  was  sp  surprised  to  find 
him. 

A  memorandum  was  made  of  the  conference  between  the 
two  generals.  In  the  plans  of  Gen.  Johnston,  Gen.  Beaure 
gard  entirely  concurred.  It  was  determined  to  fight  for  Nash 
ville  at  Donelson,  and  Gen.  Johnston  gave  the  best  part  of  his 
army  to  do  it,  retaining  only,  to  cover  his  front,  fourteen  thou 
sand  men,  about  three  thousand  of  whom  were  so  enfeebled  by 
recent  sickness  that  they  were  unable  to  march. 

BATTLE   OF   FORT   DONELSON. 

OD  tne  9th  February,  Gen.  Pillow  had  been  ordered  to  pro 


24:6  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK.« 

ceed  to  Fort  Donelson  and  take  command  at  that  place,  which 
it  was  supposed  would  be  an  immediate  object  of  attack  by 
Gen.  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  his  combined  land  and  naval  forces 
JS"o  time  was  lost  in  getting  the  works  in  defensible  condition. 
The  armament  of  the  batteries  consisted  of  thirteen  guns  01 
different  calibres.  The  site  of  the  fortification  was  plainly  un 
favorable  in  view  of  a  land  attack,  being  commanded  by  the 
heights  above  and  below  the  river,  and  by  a  continuous  range 
of  hills  all  around  the  work  to  its  rear.  A  line  of  intrench- 
ments  about  two  miles  in  extent  was  occupied  by  the  troops. 

On  the  morning  of  the  13th  of  February,  Gen.  Floyd,  who 
had  been  stationed  at  Kussellville,  reached  the  fort  by  orders 
transmitted  by  telegraph  from  Gen.  A.  S.  Johnston,  at  Bowling 
Green.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  the  intrenchments  were  fully 
occupied  from  one  end  to  the  other,  and  just  as  the  sun  rose 
the  cannonade  from  one  of  the  enemy's  gunboats  announced 
the  opening  of  the  conflict,  which  was  destined  to  continue  for 
several  days  and  nights.  The  fire  soon  became  general  along? 
our  whole  lines. 

During  the  whole  day  the  enemy  kept  up  a  general  and  ac 
tive  fire  from  all  arms  upon  our  trenches.  At  several  points 
along  the  line  he  charged  with  uncommon  vigor,  but  was  met 
with  a  spirit  of  courageous  resistance,  which  by  nightfall  had 
driven  him,  discomfited  and  cut  to  pieces,  back  upon  the  posi 
tion  he  had  assumed  in  the  morning.  The  results  of  the  day 
were  encouraging.  The  strength  of  our  defensive  line  had 
been  pretty  well  tested,  and  the  loss  sustained  by  our  forces 
was  not  large,  our  men  being  mostly  under  shelter  in  the  rifle 
pits. 

The  enemy  continued  his  fire  upon  different  parts  of  the  in 
trenchments  throughout  the  night,  which  deprived  the  Con 
federate  troops  of  any  opportunity  to  sleep.  They  lay  that 
night  upon  their  arms  in  the  trenches.  A  more  vigorous  at 
tack  from  the  enemy  than  ever,  was  confidently  expected  at  the 
dawn  of  day  ;  but  in  this  the  Confederates  were  entirely  mis 
taken.  The  day  advanced,  and  no  preparation  seemed  to  be 
making  for  a  general  onset.  The  smoke  of  a  large  number  of 
gunboats  and  steamboats  on  the  river  was  observed  a  short  dis 
tance  below,  and  information  at  the  same  time  was  received 
within  our  lines  of  the  arrival  of  a  large  number  of  new  troops 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  247 

greatly  increasing  the  strength  of  the  enemy's  forces,  already 
said  to  be  from  twenty  to  thirty  thousand  strong. 

About  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  enemy's  fleet  01 
gunboats,  in  full  force,  advanced  upon  the  fort  and  opened  fire 
They  advanced  in  the  shape  of  a  crescent,  and  kept  up  a  con 
stant  fire  for  an  hour  and  a  half.  Once  the  boats  reached  a 
point  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  fort.  The  effects  of 
our  shot  upon  the  iron-cased  boats  were  now  distinctly  visible. 
Two  or  three  well-directed  shots  from  the  heavy  guns  of  the 
fort  drove  back  the  nearest  boat ;  several  shot  struck  another 
boat,  tearing  her  iron  case  and  splintering  her  timbers,  and 
making  them  crack  as  if  by  a  stroke  of  lightning,  when  she, 
too,  fell  back.  A  third  boat  received  several  severe  shocks/ 
making  her  metal  ring  and  her  timbers  crack,  when  the  whole 
line  gave  way  and  fell  rapidly  back  from  the  fire  of  the  fort, 
until  they  passed  out  of  range. 

The  incidents  of  the  two  days  had  all  been  in  our  favor. 
We  had  repulsed  the  enemy  in  the  battle  of  fche  trenches, 
broken  the  line  of  his  gunboats,  and  discomfited  him  on  the 
water. 

In  the  mean  time,  however,  reinforcements  were  continually 
reaching  the  enemy  ;  and  it  might  have  been  evident  from  the 
first  that  the  whole  available  force  of  the  Federals  on  the  west 
ern  waters  could  and  would  be  concentrated  at  Fort  Donelson, 
if  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  reduce  it.  A  consultation  of  the 
officers  of  divisions  and  brigades  was  called  by  General  Floyd, 
to  take  place  after  dark.  It  was  represented  that  it  was  an  ab 
solute  impossibility  to  hold  out  for  any  length  of  time  with  our 
inadequate  number  and  indefensible  position ;  that  there  was 
no  place  within  our  intrenchments  but  could  be  reached  by 
the  enemy's  artillery  from  their  boats  or  their  batteries ;  that 
it  was  but  fair  to  infer  that,  while  they  kept  up  a  sufficient  fire 
upon  our  intrenchments  to  keep  our  men  from  sleep  and  pre 
vent  repose,  their  object  was  merely  to  give  time  to  pass  a 
column  above  us  on  the  river,  and  to  cut  off  our  communica 
tions  ;  and  that  but  one  course  was  left  by  which  a  rational 
hope  could  be  entertained  of  saving  the  garrison,  and  that  wai 
to  dislodge  the  enemy  from  his  position  on  our  left,  and  thus 
to  pass  our  troops  into  the  open  country  lying  southward 
towards  Nashville. 


243  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

It  was  thus  determined  to  remove  from  the  trenches  at  an 
early  hour  the  next  morning,  and  attack  the  enemy  in  his  posi 
tion.  There  was,  in  fact,  no  other  alternative.  The  enemy 
had  been  busy  in  throwing  his  forces  of  every  arm  around  the 
Confederates,  extending  his  line  of  investment  entirely  around 
their  position,  and  completely  enveloping  them.  Every  road 
and  possible  avenue  of  departure  was  intercepted,  with  the  cer 
tainty  that  our  sources  of  supply  by  the  river  would  soon  be 
cut  off  by  the  enemy's  batteries  placed  upon  the  river  above  us. 

The  sufferings  of  our  army  had  already  been  terrible.  The 
day  of  the  opening  of  the  battle  (Thursday)  was  very  cold,  the 
mercury  being  only  ten  degrees  above  zero,  and  during  the 
night,  while  our  troops  were  watching  on  their  arms  in  the 
trenches,  it  sleeted  and  snowed.  The  distance  between  the  two 
armies  was  so  slight  that  but  few  of  the  dead  of  either  could 
be  taken  off,  and  many  of  the  wounded  who  could  neither 
walk  nor  crawl  remained  for  more  than  two  days  where  they 
fell.  Some  of  our  men  lay  wounded  before  our  earth-works  at 
night,  calling  for  help  and  water,  and  our  troops  who  went 
out  to  bring  them  in  were  discovered  in  the  moonlight  and 
fired  upon  by  the  enemy.  Many  of  our  wounded  were  not  re 
covered  until  Sunday  morning — some  of  them  still  alive,  but 
blue  with  cold,  and  covered  with  frost  and  snow.  It  would 
have  been  merciful  if  each  army  had  been  permitted,  under  a 
flag  of  truce,  to  bring  off  its  wounded  at  the  close  of  each  day ; 
but  it  was  not  so,  and  they  lay  in  the  frost  and  sleet  between 
the  two  armies — many  to  hear,  but  none  to  help  them. 

For  nearly  a  week  a  large  portion  of  our  troops  had  been 
guarding  their  earth-works,  and  from  the  day  of  the  battle 
they  had  been  out  in  force  night  and  day.  Many  of  them  in 
the  rifle-pits  froze  their  feet  and  hands.  The  severity  of  the 
cold  was  such  that  the  clothes  of  many  of  the  troops  were  so 
stiff  from  frozen  water,  that  could  they  have  been  taken  off, 
they  would  have  stood  alone. 

At  the  meeting  of  general  officers  called  by  Gen.  Floyd  on 
Friday  night,  it  was  unanimously  determined  to  cut  open  a 
route  of  exit,  and  thus  to  save  our  army.  The  plan  of  attack 
agreed  upon  and  directed  by  Gen.  Floyd  was,  that  Gen.  Pillow 
assisted  by  Gen.  Bushrod  Johnson,  having  also  under  his  com 
mand  commanders  of  brigades,  Col.  Baldwin,  commanding 


THE    FIBST    YEAK.  249 

Mississippi  and  Tennessee  troops,  and  Col.  "Wharton  and  Col. 
McCausland,  commanding  Virginians,  should,  with  the  main 
body  of  the  forces  defending  our  left  wing,  attack  the  right 
wing  of  the  enemy  occupying  the  heights  reaching  to  the  bank 
of  the  river ;  that  Gen.  Buckner,  with  the  forces  under  his 
command,  and  defending  the  right  of  our  line,  should  strike 
the  enemy's  encampment  on  the  Winn's  Ferry  road ;  and  that 
each  command  should  leave  in  the  trenches  troops  to  hold 
them. 

The  attack  on  the  left  was  delayed,  as  Gen.  Pillow  moved 
out  of  his  position  in  the  morning.  He  found  the  enemy  pre 
pared  to  receive  him  in  advance  of  his  encampment.  For  two 
hours  this. principal  portion  of  the  battle-field  was  hotly  and 
stubbornly  contested,  and  strewn  with  piles  of  dead.  The 
Federal  troops  in  this  quarter  fought  with  a  steadiness  and  de 
termination  rarely  witnessed,  and  the  exhibition  of  their  cour 
age  on  this  field  afforded  a  lesson  to  the  South  of  a  spirit  that 
it  had  not  expected  in  an  enemy  whose  valor  it  had  been  ac 
customed  to  deride  and  sneer  at  since  the  battle  of  Manassas 
The  Federals  did  not  retreat,  but  fell  back  fighting  us  and  con 
testing  every  inch  of  ground.  Being  forced  to  yield,  they  re 
tired  slowly  towards  the  "Winn's  Ferry  road,  Buckner's  poirt 
of  attack. 

On  this  road,  where  Gen.  Buckner's  command  was  expected 
to  flank  the  enemy,  it  had  been  forced  to  retire  from  his  bat 
tery,  and  as  the  enemy  continued  to  fall  back,  Gen.  Buckner's 
troops  became  united  with  the  forces  of  Gen.  Pillow  in  engaging 
the  enemy,  who  had  again  been  reinforced.  The  entire  com 
mand  of  the  enemy  had  been  forced  to  our  right  wing,  and  in 
front  of  Gen.  Buckner's  position  in  the  intrenchment.  The 
advantage  was  instantly  appreciated.  The  enemy  drove  back 
the  Confederates,  advanced  on  the  trenches  on  the  extreme 
right  of  Gen.  Buckner's  command,  getting  possession,  after  a 
stubborn  conflict  of  two  hours,  of  the  most  important  and  com 
manding  position  of  the  battle-field,  being  in  the  rear  of  our 
river  batteries,  and,  advancing  with  fresh  forces  towards  our 
left,  drove  back  our  troops  from  the  ground  that  had  been  won 
in  the  severe  and  terrible  conflict  of  the  early  part  of  the  day 

The  field  had  been  won  by  the  enemy  after  nine  hours  of 
conflict.  Night  found  him  in  possession  of  all  the  ground  that 


250  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

had  been  won  by  our  troops  in  the  morning  and  occupying  the 
most  commanding  portion  of  onr  intrenched  work,  to  drive 
hivn  from  which  the  most  desperate  assaults  of  our  troops  had 
been  unsuccessful.  The  enemy  had  been  landing  reinforce 
ments  throughout  the  day.  His  numbers  had  been  augmented 
to  eighty-two  regiments.  We  had  only  about  13,000  troops 
all  told.  Of  these  we  had  lost  in  three  different  battles  a  large 
proportion.  The  command  had  been  in  the  trenches  night  and 
day,  exposed  to  the  snow,  sleet,  mud,  and  ice- water,  without 
shelter,  without  adequate  covering,  and  without  sleep.  To  re 
new  the  combat  with  any  hope  of  successful  result  was  obvi 
ously  vain. 

A  council  of  general  officers  was  called  at  night.  It  was 
suggested  that  a  desperate  onset  upon  the  right  of  the  enemy's 
forces  on  the  ground  might  result  in  the  extrication  of  a  con 
siderable  proportion  of  the  command.  A  majority  of  the  coun 
cil  rejected  this  proposition.  Gen.  Buckner  remarked,  that  it 
would  cost  the  command  three-fourths  its  present  numbers  to 
cut  its  way  out,  and  it  was  wrong  to  sacrifice  three-fourths  to 
save  one-fourth ;  that  no  officer  had  a  right  to  cause  such  a 
sacrifice.  The  alternative  of  the  proposition  was  a  surrender 
of  the  position  and  command.  Gen.  Floyd  and  Gen.  Pillow 
each,  declared  that  they  would  not  surrender  themselves  pris 
oners.  The  former  claimed  that  he  had  a  right  individually 
to  determine  that  he  would  not  survive  a  surrender.  He  said 
that  he  would  turn  over  the  command  to  Gen.  Buckner,  if  he 
(Gen.  Floyd)  could  be  allowed  to  withdraw  his  own  particular 
brigade.  To  this  Gen.  Buckner  consented.  Thereupon,  the 
command  was  turned  over  to  Gen.  Pillow,  he  passing  it  in 
stantly  to  Gen.  Buckner,  declaring  that  "  he  would  neither  sur 
render  the  command  nor  himself."  Col.  Forrest,  at  the  head 
of  an  efficient  regiment  of  cavalry,  was  directed  to  accompany 
Gens.  Floyd  and  Pillow  in  what  was  supposed  to  be  an  effort 
to  pass  through  the  enemy's  lines.  Under  these  circumstances, 
Gen.  Buckner  accepted  the  command.  He  sent  a  flag  of  truce 
to  the  enemy  for  an  armistice  of  six  n*ours,  to  negotiate  for 
terms  of  capitulation.*  Before  the  flag  and  communication 


*  The  following  is  a  correct  list  of  the  Confederate  prisoners  taken  at  Fort 
Oonelson,    The  number  was  reported  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time,  South 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  251 

were  delivered,  Gens.  Pillow  and  Floyd  had  retired  from  the 
garrison,  and  by  daylight  were  pursuing  their  retreat  towards 
STashville,  the  largest  portion  of  the  command  of  the  latter 
toiling  in  their  flight  along  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee,  but 
without  a  pursuing  enemy  to  harass  them. 

The  surrender  of  Donelson  was  rendered  memorable  by  the 
hardest  fighting  that  had  yet  occurred  in  the  war,  and  by  one 
of  the  most  terrible  and  sickening  battle-fields  that  had  yet 
marked  its  devastations,  or  had  ever  appealed  to  the  horror- 
stricken  senses  of  humanity.  The  conflict  had  run  through 
four  days  and  four  nights ;  in  which  a  Confederate  force  not 
exceeding  13,000,  a  large  portion  of  whom  were  illy  armed, 
had  contended  with  an  army  at  least  three  times  its  number. 
The  loss  of  the  Federals  was  immense,  and  the  proofs  of  an 
undeniable  courage  were  left  in  the  numbers  of  their  dead  on 
the  field.  In  his  official  report  of  the  battle,  Gen.  Floyd  con 
jectures  that  the  enemy's  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  reached  a 
number  beyond  5,000.  The  same  authority,  gives  our  loss  at 
1,500.  Both  statements  are  only  conjectural. 

The  scene  of  action  had  been  mostly  in  the  woods,  although 
there  were  two  open  places  of  an  acre  or  two  where  the  fight 
had  raged  furiously,  and  the  ground  was  covered  with  dead. 
All  the  way  up  to  our  intrenchments  the  same  scene  of  death 
was  presented.  There  were  two  miles  of  dead  strewn  thickly, 
mingled  with  fire-arms,  artillery,  dead  horses,  and  the  para 
phernalia  of  the  battle-field.  Federals  and  Confederates  were 
promiscuously  mingled,  sometimes  grappling  in  the  fierce  death 
throe,  sometimes  facing  each  other  as  they  gave  and  received 
the  fatal  shot  and  thrust,  sometimes  huddled  in  grotesque 
shapes,  and  again  heaped  in  piles,  which  lay  six  or  seven  feet 
deep.  Many  of  the  bodies  were  fearfully  mangled.  The  artil 
lery  horses  had  not  hesitated  to  tread  on  the  wounded,  dying, 

as  well  as  North,  to  have  been  much  larger :  Floyd's  Virginia  Artillery,  34 ; 
Cray's  Virginia  Artillery,  59 ;  French's  Virginia  Artillery,  43 ;  Murray's 
Battery,  97 ;  Cumberland  Battery,  55 ;  Fiftieth  Tennessee,  485  ;  Fourteenth 
Mississippi,  326 ;  Third  Mississippi,  330 ;  Seventh  Texas,  354 ;  Twenty-sixth 
Mississippi,  427 ;  Twenty-seventh  Alabama,  180 ;  Third  Tennessee,  627 ;  Tenth 
Tennessee,  608;  Forty-second  Tennessee,  494;  Forty-eighth  Tennessee,  249 
Forty-ninth  Tennessee,  450  ;  Twenty-sixth  Tennessee,  65 ;  Second  Kentucky 
136;  Third  Alabama,  34;  Fiftieth  Virginia,  10;  Fifty-first  Tennessee,  17 
Total,  5,079. 


252  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  dead,  and  the  ponderous  artillery  wheels  crushed  limbs 
and  skulls.  It  was  an  awful  sight  to  behold  weak,  wounded 
men  lifting  their  feeble  hands  beneath  the  horses'  hoofs.  The 
village  of  Dover,  which  was  within  our  lines,  contained  in  every 
room  in  every  house  sick,  wounded,  or  dead  men.  Bloody  rags 
were  everywhere,  and  a  door  could  not  be  opened  without 
hearing  groans. 

"  I  could  imagine,"  says  an  eye-witness  of  the  field  of  car 
nage,  "  nothing  more  terrible  than  the  silent  indications  of 
agony  that  marked  the  features  of  the  pale  corpses  which  lay 
at  every  step.  Though  dead  and  rigid  in  every  muscle,  they 
still  writhed  and  seemed  to  turn  to  catch  the  passing  breeze 
for  a  cooling  breath.  Staring  eyes,  gaping  mouths,  clinched 
hands,  and  strangely  contracted  limbs,  seemingly  drown  into 
the  smallest  compass,  as  if  by  a  mighty  effort  to  rend  asunder 
some  irresistible  bond  which  held  them  down  to  the  torture  of 
which  they  died.  One  sat  against  a  tree,  and,  with  mouth  and 
eyes  wide  open,  looked  up  into  the  sky  as  if  to  catch  a  glance 
at  its  fleeting  spirit.  Another  clutched  the  branch  of  an  over 
hanging  tree,  and  hung  half-suspended,  as  if  in  the  death-pang 
he  had  raised  himself  partly  from  the  ground ;  the  other  had 
grasped  his  faithful  musket,  and  the  compression  of  his  mouth 
told  of  the  determination  which  would  have  been  fatal  to  a  foe 
had  life  ebbed  a  minute  later.  A  third  clung  with  both  hands 
to  a  bayonet  which  was  buried  in  the  ground.  Great  num 
bers  lay  in  heaps,  just  as  the  fire  of  the  artillery  mowed  them 
down,  mangling  their  forms  into  an  almost  undistinguishable 
mass." 

The  display  of  courage  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  troops 
was  unquestionable.  The  battle,  however,  was  fought  against 
us  by  Western  men,  there  not  being  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy, 
as  far  as  known,  any  men  east  of  the  Ohio.  The  Southern 
people,  while  contemning  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  New 
England  "  Yankee"  and  the  Pennsylvania  Dutchman,  were 
constrained  to  give  to  the  Western  men  credit  for  their 
bravery ;  and  many  of  our  own  officers  did  not  hesitate  to  ex 
press  the  opinion  that  the  Western  troops,  particularly  from 
southern  Illinois,  Minnesota,  and  Iowa,  were  as  good  fighting 
material  as  there  was  to  be  found  on  the  continent.  A  Con 
federate  officer  relates  a  story  of  an  extraordinary  display  of 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  2f>3 

t  on  the  field  of  Donelson  by  a  regiment  c  f  Zouaves  from 
southern  Illinois — the  "  Egypt"  regiment,  as  it  was  called.  It 
had  been  completely  shattered  by  the  fire  of  artillery,  and  was 
scattered  over  the  fields  in  what  the  Confederates  supposed 
to  be  an  irretrievable  rout.  A  few  sharp  rallying  words  from 
their  color-bearer,  and  the  men,  who  a  few  minutes  ago  were 
fugitives,  flocked  to  their  colors,  at  the  double  quick,  from  dif 
ferent  parts  of  the  field,  and  re-formed  in  the  very  face  of  the 
advancing  foe. 

The  fall  of  Fort  Donelson  developed  the  crisis  in  the  "West, 
which  had  long  existed.  The  evacuation  of  Bowling  Green 
had  become  imperatively  necessary,  and  was  ordered  before 
and  executed  while  the  battle  was  being  fought  at  Donelson. 
Gen.  Johnston  awaited  the  event  opposite  Nashville.  The  re 
sult  of  the  conflict  each  day  was  announced  as  favorable.  At 
midnight  on  the  15th  February,  Gen.  Johnston  received  news 
of  a  glorious  victory — at  dawn  of  a  defeat. 

The  blow  was  most  disastrous.  It  involved  the  surrender  of 
Nashville,  which  was  incapable  of  defence  from  its  position, 
and  was  threatened  not  only  by  the  enemy's  ascent  of  the 
Cumberland,  but  by  the  advance  of  his  forces  from  Bowling 
Green.  Not  more  than  11,000  effective  men  had  been  left 
under  Gen.  Johnston's  command  to  oppose,  a  column  of  Gen 
Buell,  of  not  less  than  40,000  troops,  while  the  army  from 
Fort  Donelson,  with  the  gunboats  and  transports,  had  it  in 
their  power  to  ascend  the  Cumberland,  so  as  to  intercept  an 
cc mmunication  with  the  South.  No  alternative  was  left  but 
to  evacuate  Nashville  or  sacrifice  the  army. 

The  evacuation  of  Nashville  was  attended  by  scenes  of  panic 
and  distress  on  the  part  of  the  population  unparalleled  in  the 
annals  of  any  American  city.  The  excitement  was  intensified 
by  the  action  of  the  authorities.  Governor  Harris  mounted  a 
horse  and  galloped  through  the  streets,  proclaiming  to  every 
body  the  news  that  Donelson  had  fallen  ;  that  the  enemy  were 
coming  and  might  be  expected  hourly,  and  that  all  who  wished 
to  leave  had  better  do  so  at  once.  He  next  hastily  convened 
the  Legislature,  adjourned  it  to  Memphis,  and,  with  the  legis 
lators  and  the  State  archives,  left  the  town. 

An  earthquake  could  nut  have  shocked  the  city  more.  The 
congregations  at  the  churches  were  broken  up  in  confusion  anti 


254  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

dismay ;  women  and  children  rushed  into  the  streets,  wailing 
with  terror ;  trunks  were  thrown  from  three-story  windows  in 
the  haste  of  the  fugitives;  and  thousands  hastened  to  leave 
their  beautiful  city  in  the  midst  of  the  most  distressing  scenes 
of  terror  and  confusion,  and  of  plunder  by  the  mob. 

Gen.  Johnston  had  moved  the  main  body  of  his  command 
to  Murfreesboro' — a  rear-guard  being  left  in  Nashville  under 
Gen.  Floyd,  who  had  arrived  from  Donelson,  to  secure  the 
stores  and  provisions.  In  the  first  wild  excitement  of  the 
panic,  the  store-houses  had  been  thrown  open  to  the  poor. 
They  were  besieged  by  a  mob  ravenous  for  spoils,  and  who  had 
to  be  dispersed  from  the  commissariat  by  jets  of  water  from  a 
steam  fire-engine.  Women  and  children,  even,  were  seen 
scudding  through  the  streets  under  loads  of  greasy  pork,  which 
they  had  taken  as  prizes  from  the  store-houses.  It  is  believed 
that  hundreds  of  families,  among  the  lower  orders  of  the  popu 
lation,  secured  and  secreted  government  stores  enough  to  open 
respectable  groceries.  It  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that 
Gen.  Floyd  could  restore  order  and  get  his  martial  law  into 
any  thing  like  an  effective  system.  Blacks  and  whites  had  to 
be  chased  and  captured  and  forced  to  help  the  movement  of 
government  stores.  One  man,  who,  after  a  long  chase,  was 
captured,  offered  fight,  and  was  in  consequence  shot  and  badly 
wounded.  Not  less  than  one  million  of  dollars  in  stores  was 
lost  through  the  acts  of  the  cowardly  and  ravenous  mob  of 
Nashville.  Gen.  Floyd  and  Col.  Forrest  exhibited  extraordi 
nary  energy  and  efficiency  in  getting  off"  government  stores. 
Col.  Forrest  remained  in  the  city  about  twenty-four  hours,  with 
only  forty  men,  after  the  arrival  of  the  enemy  at  Edgefield. 
These  officers  were  assisted  by  the  voluntary  efforts  of  several 
patriotic  citizens  of  Nashville,  who  rendered  them  great  as 
sistance. 

These  shameful  scenes,  enacted  in  the  evacuation  of  Nash 
ville,  were  nothing  more  than  the  disgusting  exhibitions  of  any 
mob  brutalized  by  its  fears  or  excited  by  rapine.  At  any  rate, 
the  city  speedily  repaired  the  injury  done  its  reputation  by  a 
temporary  panic,  in  the  spirit  of  defiance  that  its  best  citizens 
ind  especially  its  ladies,  offered  to  the  enemy.  We  discover, 
m  fact,  the  most  abundant  evidence  in  the  Northern  news 
papers  that  the  Federals  did  not  find  the  v  Union"  sentiment 


THE    FIRST    YEAK.  255 

that  they  expected  to  meet  with  in  the  capital  of  Tennessee; 
and  that,  if  there  were  any  indications  whatever  of  such  senti 
ment,  they  were  "  found  only  among  the  mechanics  and  labor 
ing  classes  of  the  city."  The  merchants  and  business  men  of 
Nashville,  as  a  class,  showed  a  firm,  unwavering,  and  loyal  at 
tachment  to  the  cause  of  the  South.  The  ladies  gave  instances 
of  patriotism  that  were  noble  testimonies  to  their  sex.  They 
refused  the  visits  of  Federal  officers,  and  disdained  their  recog 
nition  ;  they  collected  a  fund  of  money  for  the  especial  pur 
pose  of  contributing  to  the  needs  of  our  prisoners ;  and,  says 
a  recipient  of  the  bounty  of  these  noble  women,  as  soon  as  a 
Confederate  prisoner  was  paroled,  ana  passed  into  the  next 
room,  he  found  pressed  in  his  hands  there  a  sum  of  money 
given  him  by  the  ladies  of  Nashville.  Many  of  the  most  re 
spectable  of  the  people  had  been  constrained  to  leave  their 
homes  rather  than  endure  the  presence  of  the  enemy.  The 
streets,  which,  to  confirm  the  predictions  of  Northern  news 
papers  of  the  welcomes  that  awaited  the  "  Union"  army  in  the 
South,  should  have  been  gay  and  decorated,  presented  to  the 
enemy  nothing  but  sad  and  gloomy  aspects.  Whole  rows  oi 
houses,  which,  but  a  short  while  ago,  were  occupied  by  families 
of  wealth  and  respectability,  surrounded  by  all  the  circum 
stances  that  make  homes  happy  and  prosperous,  stood  vacant, 
and  the  gaze  of  the  passer-by  was  met,  instead  of,  as  in  former 
days,  with  fine  tapestry  window-curtains  and  neatly  polished 
marble  steps,  with  panes  of  dust-dimmed  glass. 

On  the  whole,  the  experience  of  the  enemy  in  Nashville  was 
vastly  instructive.  The  fact  that,  wherever  he  had  'gone,  he 
had  converted  lukewarm  Southern  districts  into  Secession 
strongholds,  or  had  intensified  the  sentiment  of  opposition  to 
him,  was  as  unexpected  to  him  as  it  was  gratifying  to  us. 
This  experience  was  universal  in  the  war,  from  the  date  of  the 
occupation  of  Alexandria,  which  had  voted  overwhelmingly 
for  the  Union  in  the  preliminary  stages  of  the  revolution,  and 
was  subsequently  as  thoroughly  Southern  as  any  town  in  the 
Confederacy,  down  to  the  occupation  of  Nashville,  which  had 
at  first  given  some  signs  of  weak  submission  to  its  fate,  and 
afterwards  spurned  its  invaders  with  a  spirit  of  defiance,  reek- 
less  of  consequences. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  Nashville,  the  enemy  was  constantlj 


256  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

harassed  by  local  parties  of  adventurers,  who  shot  his  pickets, 
watched  his  movements,  and  attacked  detached  portions  of  hia 
forces  at  various  points.  The  whole  country  rang  with  the 
exploits  of  the  gallant  and  intrepid  cavalier,  Captain  John  EL 
Morgan  and  his  brave  men,  in  the  vicinity  of  Nashville.  Hi? 
squadron  belonged  to  Gen.  Hardee's  command,  and  he  had 
been  left  in  command  of  the  forces  at  Murfreesboro  to  watct 
the  movements  of  the  Federals,  which  he  not  only  did  effec 
tually,  but  enacted  a  number  of  daring  adventures  within  the 
lines  of  the  enemy. 

Scarcely  a  day  passed  without  some  such  exploit  of  Capt 
Morgan  and  his  intrepid  partisans.  Once  he  nearly  succeeded 
in  capturing  a  Federal  general.  Another  day  he  attacked  a 
party  of  scouts,  and  killed  the  captain.  The  next  exploit 
was  to  rush  into  the  camp  of  some  regiment,  and  carry  off  a 
train  of  wagons.  The  most  daring  of  his  adventures  was  his 
sudden  appearance  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  entering  with 
forty  brave  followers  the  town  of  Gallatin,  twenty-six  mile£ 
north  of  Nashville,  on  the  Louisville  and  Nashville  railroad. 
On  entering  the  town,  Capt.  Morgan  immediately  seized  upon 
the  telegraph  office  and  the  depot.  He  had  presented  himseli 
at  the  telegraph  office,  carelessly  asking  the  operator  what  waa 
the  news,  when  that  individual,  never  for  a  moment  imagining 
who  it  was  that  addressed  him,  replied  that  there  were  rumors 
that  "  the  rebel  scoundrel"  Morgan  was  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  proceeded  to  illustrate  his  own  valor  by  flourishing  a  re 
volver,  and  declaring  how  anxious  he  was  to  encounter  the  man 
who  was  creating  so  much  uneasiness  and  alarm  in  the  country. 
"  You  are  now  speaking  to  Captain  Morgan"  was  the  quiet 
reply  of  the  partisan  :  "  I  am  he !"  At  these  words,  the  pistol 
dropped  from  the  hands  of  the  operator,  who  entreated  the 
mercy  of  his  captor.  The  poor  fellow  easily  submitted  to  the 
task  assigned  to  him  of  sending  a  dispatch,  in  the  name  oi 
Capt.  Morgan,  to  Prentice,  the  notorious  editor  of  the  Louis 
ville  Journal,  politely  offering  to  act  as  his  escort  on  his  pro 
posed  visit  to  Nashville.  After  this  amusement,  Capt.  Morgan 
and  his  men  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  train  from  Bowling 
Green.  In  due  time  the  train  came  thundering  in  ;  Capt.  Mor 
gan  at  once  seized  it,  and  taking  five  Federal  officers  who  were 
passengers  and  the  engineer  or  the  train  prisoners,  he  burned 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  257 

to  cinders  all  of  the  cars,  with  their  contents,  and  then  filling 
the  locomotive  with  turpentine,  shut  down  all  the  valves,  and 
started  it  towards  Nashville.  Before  it  had  run  eight  hundred 
yards,  the  accumulation  of  steam  caused  it  to  explode,  shiver 
ing  it  into  a  thousand  atoms.  Capt.  Morgan  then  started 
southward  with  his  prisoners,  and  made  his  way  safely  to  the 
Confederate  camp. 

On  another  occasion,  while  returning  alone  towards  Mur- 
freesboro,  Capt.  Morgan  encountered  a  picket  of  six  of  the 
enemy,  and  captured  them  and  their  arms.  It  was  accom 
plished  by  a  bold  adventure.  He  discovered  the  pickets  in  a 
house,  and  having  on  a  Federal  overcoat,  assumed  a  bold  front, 
and  riding  up  to  the  sergeant  rebuked  him  for  not  attending 
properly  to  his  duty,  and  ordered  that  the  whole  party  should 
consider  themselves  under  arrest,  and  surrender  their  arms. 
The  soldiers,  not  doubting  for  a  moment  that  they  were  ad 
dressed  by  a  Federal  officer,  delivered  up  their  muskets.  A* 
they  were  marched  into  the  road,  with  their  faces  turned  fron 
their  camp,  the  sergeant  said,  "  We  are  going  the  wrong  way 
colonel."  "  We  are  not,"  was  the  reply.  "  I  am  Captain 
Morgan," 

The  name  of  Captain  Morgan  was  fast  becoming  famous  as . 
that  of  a  partisan  leader.  He  was  induced  to  abandon  his 
present  field  of  operations  to  accept  promotion  in  the  army, 
being  appointed  to  a  colonelcy  in  the  regular  military  ser 
vice,  for  which  he  had  been  urgently  recommended  by  Gen. 
Hardee. 

Since  falling  back  to  Murfreesboro,  Gen.  Johnston  had 
managed,  by  combining  Crittenden's  division  and  the  fugitives 
from  Donelson,  to  collect  an  army  of  17,000  men.  His  object 
was  now  to  co-operate  with  Gen.  Beauregard  for  the  defence 
of  the  Yalley  of  the  Mississippi,  on  a  line  of  operations  south 
of  Nashville.  The  line  extending  from  Columbus,  by  way  of 
Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  had  been  lost.  The  disaster  had 
involved  the  surrender  of  Kentucky,  and  a  large  portion  of 
Tennessee  to  the  enemy ;  and  it  had  become  necessary  to  re 
organize  a  new  line  of  defence  south  of  Nashville,  the  object 
of  which  would  be  to  protect  the  railroad  system  of  the 
Southwest,  and  to  insure  the  defence  of  Memphis  and  the  Mis 
sissippi. 

17 


258  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

The  work  of  putting  the  Mississippi  river  in  a  state  of  com 
plete  defence  had  bee^  intrusted  to  General  Beauregard.  On 
abandoning  Columbus,  he  had  taken  a  strong  position  about 
forty-five  miles  below  k,  at  Island  N"o.  10.  This  locality  was 
looked  upon  as  the  chief  barrier  to  the  progress  of  the  Federals 
down  the  Mississippi.  At  the  island,  a  bend  occurs  in  the 
river  of  several  miles  extent.  Around  and  upon  this  curve 
were  located  the  towns  of  New  Madrid  and  Point  Pleasant. 
The  distance  around  the  bend  was  about  thirty  miles,  whereas 
the  distance  across  by  land  from  Tiptonville  below  to  the  island 
above  did  not  exceed  five  miles.  It  was  calculated  that  even 
should  the  enemy  hold  Point  Pleasant,  and  get  possession  of 
"New  Madrid  by  our  evacuation  of  that  post  also,  our  communi 
cations  by  water  to  Tiptonville,  and  thence  by  land  across  the 
bend  to  Island  No.  10,  would  still  remain  intact.  The  island 
was  thought  to  be  impregnable.  It  was  flanked  on  the  Mis 
souri  side  by  an  extensive  swamp,  and  on  the  other  side  by  a 
lake  of  several  miles  extent,  which  rendered  it  impossible  for 
the  enemy  to  approach  the  position  by  land. 

With  this  indication  of  the  situation  in  the  West,  and  the 
operations  for  the  defence  of  Memphis  and  the  Mississippi,  to 
which  the  southward  movement  of  Gen.  Johnston  towards  the 
left  bank  of  the  Tennessee  was  expected  to  contribute,  we  must 
leave,  for  a  short  period,  our  narrative  of  the  movements  and 
events  of  the  war  in  this  direction. 

The  serious  disaster  at  Donelson  appears  to  have  been  fully 
appreciated  by  the  Confederate  government ;  and  its  announce 
ment  in  Eichmond  was  followed,  to  the  surprise  of  the  public, 
by  a  communication  from  President  Davis  to  Congress,  on  the 
1 1th  of  March,  declaring  the  official  reports  of  the  affair  in 
complete  and  unsatisfactory,  and  "  relieving  from  command" 
Gens.  Floyd  and  Pillow.  The  main  causes  of  dissatisfaction 
indicated  by  the  President  were,  that  reinforcements  were  not 
asked  for  by  the  commanding  generals  at  Donelson,  and  that 
the  senior  generals  "  abandoned  responsibility,"  by  transferring 
the  command  to  a  junior  officer.  This  act  of  President  Davis 
was  the  subject  of  warm  and  protracted  argument  in  Congress 
and  in  the  newspapers.  It  was  shown,  by  evidence  produced 
before  Congress,  that  no  reinforcements  had  been  asked  for, 
because  it  was  known  how  much  the  command  of  Gen.  Johns- 


THE    FIRST    YEAR,  259 

6011  liad  already  been  weakened  by  sending  Floyd's  and  Buck- 
ner's  forces  to  Donelson;  because  an  overwhelming  force  01 
the  enemy  was  pressing  on  his  rear ;  and  because  Gen,  Johns 
ton's  troops  were  on  the  march  between  Bowling  Green,  and 
Nashville,  and  could  not  reach  Fort  Donelson  in  time  to  change 
the  fortunes  of  the  day. 

"With  reference  to  the  second  assignment  of  cause  of  the 
Piesident's  displeasure,  it  was  agreed  on  all  sides  that  the 
transfer  of  the  command  by  the  senior  generals  was  irregular. 
In  a  letter,  however,  written  to  the  President  by  Gen.  Johns 
ton  himself,  which  was  understood  to  be  private  and  confiden 
tial,  and  was,  therefore,  wholly  relieved  from  any  suspicion  of 
the  gloze  of  an  official  report,  that  officer  had  directed  no  cen 
sure  upon  Gens.  Floyd  and  Pillow.  On  the  contrary,  in  the- 
confidence  of  this  private  letter,  he  wrote  to  the  President, 
"  the  command  was  irregularly  transferred,  and  devolved  on 
the  junior  general,  but  not  apparently  to  avoid  any  just  re 
sponsibility  or  from  any  want  of  personal  or  moral  intrepidity  ;" 
and  he  expressed  continued  "  confidence  in  the  gallantry,  the 
energy,  and  the  devotion  to  the  Confederacy,"  of  both  Gens. 
Floyd  and  Pillow,  which  was  testified  especially  in  the  case 
of  Gen.  Floyd,  by  assigning  him,  after  the  fall  of  Donelson,  to 
the  important  duty  of  proceeding  to  Chattanooga  to  defend 
the  approaches  towards  northern  Alabama  and  Georgia,  and 
the  communication  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Atlantic. 
This  was  the  private  and  unrestrained  testimony  of  Gen.  Johns 
ton.  "With  perhaps  a  superior  military  sensitiveness  of  "ir 
regularity,"  Mr.  Davis  repudiated  the  explanations  of  the  com 
manding  general  in  the  field ;  deprived  Generals  Floyd  and 
Pillow  of  their  commands;  and  offered  the  spectacle  to  the 
country  of  a  President  with  one  hand  sacrificing  two  brave 
officers  who  had  contributed  to  the  country's  glory  and  safety 
01  more  than  one  victory,  for  a  military  punctilio,  and  with 
the  other  elevating  to  the  highest  office  in  his  gift  a  man  who, 
as  Attorney-general,  Secretary  of  "War,  and,  at  last,  Secretary 
of  State,  seemed  to  enjoy  the  monopoly  of  the  lucre  and  hon 
ors  of  state,  and  who  had  been  charged,  by  the  official  report 
of  a  general  in  the  field,  and  by  the  deliberate  and  unanimous 
verdict  of  a  committee  of  Congress,  with  the  plain  and  exclu 
sive  responsibility  of  the  disaster  of  Roanoke  Island.  The 


260  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

contrast  between  these  two  acts  needed  no  addition  of  argu 
ment  to  convince  the  public  mind  that  its  government  was  not 
above  the  errors  of  judgment  or  the  partialities  of  human  affec 
tion. 

The  disposition  of  the  Confederate  prisoners  taken  at  For 
Donelson  gave  an  exhibition  of  vile  perfidy  on  the  part  of  the 
North,  to  which  there  is  no  parallel  to  be  found  in  the  history 
of  civilized  warfare,  or  in  all  the  crooked  paths  of  modern 
diplomacy.  Instead  of  these  prisoners  being  discharged  by  the 
North  according  to  the  understanding  existing  between  the 
two  governments,  they  were  carried  oif  into  the  Western 
interior,  where  they  were  treated  with  indignities  and  made  a 
spectacle  for  mobs,  who  jeered  at  them  because  they  did  not 
have  uniforms  and  warm  coats,  because  many  of  the  poor 
fellows  had  nothing  better  than  horse  blankets,  rags,  and  coffee 
sacks  around  their  shoulders,  and  because  the  "rebels" — 
whose  true  glory  a  just  and  generous  spirit  would  have  found 
in  their  coarse  and  tattered  garbs  and  marks  of  patient  suffer 
ing — lacked  the  fine  and  showry  equipments  of  the  Federal 
troops.  This  act  of  bad  faith  on  the  part  of  the  North  is  re 
markable  enough  for  a  full  and  explicit  history  of  the  circum 
stances  in  which  it  was  committed. 

Permission  had  been  asked  by  the  Northern  government  foi 
two  commissioners,  Messrs.  Fish  and  Ames,  to  visit  their 
prisoners  of  war  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  South.  Our 
government,  while  denying  this  permission,  sought  to  improve 
the  opportunity  by  concerting  a  settled  plan  for  the  exchange 
of  prisoners;  and  for  the  execution  of  this  purpose  Messrs. 
Conrad  and  Seddon  were  deputed  as  -commissioners  to  meet 
those  of  the  Northern  government  under  a  flag  of  truce  at 
Norfolk. 

Subsequently  a  letter  from  Gen.  Wool  was  addressed  to  Gen 
linger,  informing  him  that  he,  Gen.  Wool,  had  full  authority 
to  settle  any  terms  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  and  asking 
an  interview  on  the  subject.  General  Howell  Cobb  was  then 
appointed  by  the  government  to  mediate  with  Gen.  Wool,  and 
to  settle  a  permanent  plan  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners  during 
the  war. 

In  the  letter  to  General  Huger,  dated  the  13th  of  February 
1862,  General  Wool  wrote  : 


THE    FIEST    YEAK.  261 

"lam  alone  clothed  with  full  power  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  for  the 
exchange  of  prisoners.  Being  thus  empowered,  I  am  ready  to  confer  with  you 
on  the  subject,  or  the  Honorable  Messrs.  Seddon  and  Conrad,  or  any  other 
persons  appearing  for  that  purpose.  I  am  prepared  to  arrange  for  the  resto 
ration  of  all  the  prisoners  to  their  homes  on  fair  terms  of  exchange,  man  for 
man/and  officer  for  officer  of  equal  grade,  assimilating  the  grade  of  officers  of 
the  army  and  navy,  when  necessary,  and  agreeing  upon  equitable  terms  for 
the  number  of  men  or  officers,  of  inferior  grade,  to  be  exchanged  for  any  of 
higher  grade  when  the  occasion  shall  arrive.  That  all  the  surplus  prisoners 
on  either  side  be  exchanged  on  parole,  with  the  agreement  that  any  prisoners 
of  war  taken  ~by  the  other  party  shall  be  returned  in  exchange  as  fast  as  captured, 
and  this  system  to  be  continued  while  hostilities  continue. 

"  I  would  further  inform  you,  or  any  other  person  selected  for  the  purpose 
of  making  arrangements  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  that  the  prisoners 
taken  on  board  of  vessels,  or  otherwise  in  maritime  conflict,  b.y  the  forces  of 
the  United  States,  have  been  put,  and  are  now  held,  only  in  military  custody, 
and  on  the  same  footing  as  other  prisoners  taken  in  arms" 

The  proposition,  it  appears,  was  readily  accepted  by  our 
government,  and  a  memorandum  made  as  a  basis  for  a  cartel. 
It  was  proposed  in  this  memorandum  that  the  prisoners  of  war 
in  the  hands  of  each  government  should  be  exchanged,  man  for 
man,  the  officers  being  assimilated  as  to  rank,  &c. ;  that  our 
privateersmen  should  be  exchanged  on  the  footing  of  prisoners 
of  war ;  that  any  surplus  remaining  on  either  side,  after  these 
exchanges,  should  be  released,  and  that  hereafter,  during  the 
whole  continuance  of  the  war,  prisoners  taken  on  either  side 
should  be  paroled  within  ten  days  after  their  capture,  and  de 
livered  on  the  frontier  of  their  own  country. 

General  "Wool  promptly  agreed  to  all  the  propositions  except 
two.  In  lieu  of  the  compensation  basis  of  equivalents  contain 
ed  in  one  of  the  items  of  the  memorandum,  he  proposed  the 
cartel  of  equivalents  adopted  by  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States,  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  General  Cobb  accepted  it. 

He  also  objected  to  the  provisions  in  another  item,  which 
required  each  party  to  pay  the  expense  of  transporting  their 
prisoners  to  the  frontier  of  the  country  of  the  prisoners.  The 
provision  met  his  entire  approval,  but  he  did  not  feel  authorized, 
by  his  instructions,  to  incorporate  it  into  the  proposed  cartel, 
and,  therefore,  desired  time  to  consult  his  government  on  the 
subject. 

The  interview  closed  with  the  promise  from  General  "Wool 
that  he  would  notify  General  Cobb,  as  soon  as  he  could  hear 
from  his  government,  on  that  point. 


262  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    1HE    TTAB. 

On  the  first  of  March  General  Cobb  held  his  second  interview 
with  him,  in  which  he  (General  Cobb)  proposed  to  enter  into  a 
cartel^  containing  the  stipulations  previously  set  forth.  Gen. 
Wool  then  replied  that  his  government  would  not  agree  to  the 
proposition  that  each  party  should  pay  the  expense  of  trans 
porting  their  prisoners  to  the  frontier,  when  General  Cobb 
promptly  waived  it,  thus  leaving  the  cartel  free  from  all  his 
objections,  and  just  what  General  Wool  had  himself  proposed 
in  his  letter  of  the  13th  February,  to  General  Huger. 

Upon  this,  General  Wool  informed  General  Cobb  that  his 
government  had  changed  his  instructions,  and  abruptly  broke 
off  the  negotiation. 

In  the  mean  time  our  government,  in  a  very  curious  or  very 
foolish  anticipation  of  the  good  faith  of  the  North,  had  directed 
the  discharge  of  the  prisoners  held  by  us  as  hostages  for  the 
safety  and  proper  treatment  of  our  privateersmen,  who  were 
confined  in  felons'  cells  and  threatened  with  the  gallows.  Cols. 
Lee,  Cogswell,  and  Wood,  and  Major  Revere  were  sent  to  their 
own  country  ;  the  remaining  hostages  were  brought  on  parole 
from  distant  points  to  Richmond,  on  their  way  to  be  delivered 
up,  at  the  expense  of  this  government,  and  their  surrender 
was  only  suspended  on  receipt  of  intelligence  from  General 
Cobb,  that  he  saw  reason  to  suspect  bad  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  enemy. 

The  perfidy  of  the  North  was  basely  accomplished.*     The 


*  Tliis  act  of  deception  on  the  part  of  the  North  was  but  one  of  a  long 
series  of  acts  of  Yankee  perfidy,  and  of  their  abnegation  of  the  rights  oi 
civilized  war.  When  McDowell  left  Washington  city  to  take  Eichmond,  his 
army  was  supplied  with  handcuffs  to  iron  rebels.  After  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run  they  sent  a  white  flag  to  ask  permission  to  bury  their  dead.  It  was 
humanely  granted.  They  left  their  dead  to  bury  their  dead,  and  attempted, 
uuder  the  protection  of  that  white  flag,  to  erect  batteries  for  our  destruction. 
On  the  battle-field  of  Manassas  they  unfurled  a  Confederate  flag,  and  shouted 
to  our  troops  not  to  fire  upon  them,  that  they  were  our  friends,  and  then  they 
fired  upon  our  troops  and  fled.  At  Manassas  and  Pensacola  they  repeatedly 
and  deliberately  fired  upon  our  hospitals,  when  over  them  a  yellow  flag  was 
waving.  In  Hampton  Roads  they  hung  out  a  white  flag,  and  then  prostituted 
the  protection  it  secured  to  them  to  the  cowardly  assassination  of  our  brave 
eeamen.  At  Newbern,  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  war,  they  attempted  to  shell 
a  city  containing  several  thousand  women  and  children,  before  either  demand 
ing  a  surrender,  or  giving  the  citizens  notice  of  their  intentions.  A  Kentuckian 
w*nt  into  a  Federal  camp  to  reclaim  a  fugitive  slave,  and  they  tied  him  up 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  263 

correspondence  of  the  Federal  authorities,  to  which  we  have 
alluded,  on  this  subject,  constitutes  a  chapter  of  diplomacy 
(}ualin'ed  to  attract  the  scorn  of  all  civilized  and  honorable 
nations.  At  the  time  when  it  was  believed  our  government 
held  the  larger  number  of  prisoners,  the  Federal  government 
proposed  to  exchange  all  prisoners,  and  to  place  on  parole,  in 
their  own  country,  the  surplus  held  by  either  party ;  and  oui 
government  agreed  to  the  proposition.  Before  the  agreement 
could  be  reduced  to  writing,  and  signed  by  the  parties,  the 
casualties  of  war,  in  the  fall  of  Fort  Donelson,  reversed  this 
state  of  things,  and  gave  the  Federal  government  the  largei 
number  of  prisoners.  With  this  change  of  things  that  govern 
ment  changed  its  policy,  and  deliberately,  and  perfidiously, 
and  shamelessly  receded  from  the  propositions  to  which  it  had 
been  distinctly  committed  by  every  obligation  of  truth,  honor, 
and  good  faith. 

While  Mr.  Benjamin,  Secretary  of  War,  by  a  curious  act  of 
supererogation  was  releasing  our  most  important  prisoners  oi 
war  in  advance  of  the  conclusion  of  negotiations,  sending  them 
North  without  waiting  to  have  them  regularly  and  safely  ex 
changed  under  a  flag  of  truce  in  Norfolk  harbor,  the  enemy 
were  conveying  the  prisoners  captured  at  Fort  Donelson  to 
Chicago  and  other  points  more  distant  from  their  homes,  and 
were  parading  the  officers  who  fell  into  their  power  through 
the  entire  breadth  of  the  land,  from  western  Tennessee,  to  Fort 
Warren  in  Boston  harbor,  where  they  were  incarcerated.  Foi 
the  prisoners  so  curiously,  and  with  such  unnecessary  haste, 
dispatched  to  the  North  by  Mr.  Benjamin,  not  a  single  officer 
taken  at  Fort  Donelson,  nor  a  single  captive  privateersman,  had 
been  restored  to  his  home.  With  an  excess  of  zeal  well  calcu- 

and  gave  him  twenty-five  lashes  upon  his  bare  back,  in  the  presence  of  his 
runaway  slave.  It  was  repeatedly  proposed  by  the  people  of  the  South  to 
treat  such  an  enemy  without  ceremony  or  quarter,  by  hanging  out  the  black 
flag,  and  making  the  war  a  lellum  internetinum  ;  but  while  the  South  debated, 
talked,  and  threatened,  the  North  acted,  availing  itself  of  the  most  ferocious 
and  brutal  expedients  of  the  war,  arming  the  slaves,  breaking  faith  on  every 
occasion  of  expediency,  disregarding  flags  of  truce,  stealing  private  property, 
ravishing  women,  bombarding  hospitals,  and  setting  at  defiance  every  law  of 
civilized  warfare.  Such  was  the  perfidy  and  brutality  of  the  North,  to  which 
the  South  responded  with  the  puerile  threat  of  a  black  flag,  which  was  never 
hoisted,  and  which  did  not  even  serve  the  purposes  of  a  scarecrow  to  its  bold 
and  unscrupulous  enemy 


264  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

latea  to  draw  attention  from  bis  own  part  of  the  transaction, 
Mr.  Benjamin  proposed,  as  a  retaliation  upon  the  perfidy  of  the 
North,  to  discharge  our  own  citizens  who  were  subject  to 
parole ;  but  happily  a  counsel,  which  proposed  to  redress  a 
wrong  by  an  act  disreputable  to  ourselves  and  in  violation  of 
what  were  the  obligations  of  our  own  honor  in  the  sight  of  the 
civilized  world,  was  rejected  alike  by  the  government  and  the 
country,  who  were  content  to  commit  the  dishonor  of  their 
enemy,  without  attempting  to  copy  it  under  pleas  of  retaliation, 
to  the  justice  of  history  and  the  future  judgments  of  the  world. 


THE    FIEST    YEAR. 


CHAPTEK  XI. 

Organization  of  the  permanent  Government  of  the  South. — The  Policy  of  England. 
— Declaration  of  Earl  Kussell. — Onset  of  the  Northern  Forces. — President  Davis'a 
Alossage  to  Congress. — The  Addition  of  New  States  and  Territories  to  the  Southern 
Confederacy. — Our  Indian  Allies. — The  Financial  Condition,  North  and  South. — De 
ceitful  Prospects  of  Peace. — Effect  of  the  Disasters  to  the  South. — Action  of  Congress. 
— The  Conscript  Bill. — Provisions  vs.  Cotton. — Barbarous  Warfare  of  the  North. — The 
Anti-slavery  Sentiment. — How  it  was  unmasked  in  the  War. — Emancipation  Measures 
in  the  Federal  Congress. — Spirit  of  the  Southern  People. — The  Administration  of  Jef 
ferson  Davis. — His  Cabinet. — The  Defensive  Policy. — The  NAVAL  ENGAGEMENT  IN 
HAMPTON  KOADS. — Iron-clad  Vessels. — What  the  Southern  Government  might  have 
done. — The  Narrative  of  General  Price's  Campaign  resumed. — His  Ketreat  into  Ar 
kansas. — The  BATTLE  OB-  ELK  HORN. — Criticism  of  the  Result. — Death  of  General  Mc- 
Culloch. — The  BATTLE  OF  VALVERDE. — The  Foothold  of  the  Confederates  in  New 
Mexico. — Change  of  the  Plan  of  Campaign  in  Virginia.  —Abandonment  of  the  Potomao 
Line  by  the  Confederates. — The  BATTLE  OF  KERNSTOWN. — Colonel  Turner  Ashby. — 
Appearance  of  McClellan's  Army  on  the  Peninsula.— Firmness  of  General  Magruder. 
— The  New  Situation  of  the  War  in  Virginia. — Eecurrence  of  Disasters  to  the  South 
on  the  Water. — The  Capture  of  Newbern. — Fall  of  Fort  Pulaski  and  Fort  Macon. — 
Common  Sense  vs.  "  West  Point." 

THE  permanent  government  of  the  Confederate  States  was 
organized  on  the  22d  day  of  February,  in  a  season  of  reverses 
to  our  arms  and  at  a  dark  hour  in  our  national  fortunes. 

All  hopes  of  foreign  interference  were  positively  at  an  end. 
On  the  meeting  of  the  British  Parliament  in  the  early  part  of 
February,  Earl  Russell  had  declared  that  the  blockade  of  the 
American  ports  had  been  effective  from  the  15th  of  August, 
in  the  face  of  the  facts  that  the  dispatches  of  Mr.  Bunch,  the 
English  consul  at  Charleston,  said  that  it  was  not  so ;  and  that 
authentic  accounts  and  letters  of  merchants  showed  that  any 
ships,  leaving  for  the  South,  could  be  insured  by  a  premium  of 
seven  and  a-half  to  fifteen  per  cent.  England  had  accepted 
the  Treaty  of  Paris,  and  yet  did  not  hesitate  to  violate  the 
principles  that  had  been  definitely  consecrated  by  article  four 
of  that  treaty,  by  declaring  the  Federal  blockade  effective,  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  "  considerable  prudence  was  neces 
sary  in  the  American  question."  In  the  House  of  Commons, 
Mr.  Gregory  asserted  that  the  non-observation  of  the  Treaty  of 


206  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Paris  was  a  deception  for  the  Confederate  States,  and  an  am 
buscade  fjr  the  interests  of  commerce  throughout  the  world. 

The  Northern  army  had  remained  quiet  on  the  Potomac, 
amusing  the  Southern  people  with  its  ostentatious  parades  and 
gala-day  sham  fights,  while  the  government  at  Washington 
was  preparing  an  onset  all  along  our  lines  from  Hatteras  to 
Kansas.  Burnside  had  captured  Eoanoke  Island  in  the  east, 
while  Fort  Henry  on  the  Tennessee  and  Fort  Donelson  on  the 
Cumberland  had  sent  the  echo  back  to  Albemarle.  Buffeting 

O 

sleet  and  storm,  and  by  forced  marches,  the  enemy  had  seized 
Bowling  Green,  while  Sigel  fell  suddenly  upon  Springfield  ; 
the  enemy's  gunboats  threatened  Savannah,  and  Gen.  Butler 
hurried  off  his  regiments  and  transports  to  the  Gulf,  for  an  at 
tack  via  Ship  Island  upon  New  Orleans. 

In  his  message  to  Congress,  President  Davis  declared  that 
the  magnified  proportions  of  the  war  had  occasioned  serious 
disasters,  and  that  the  effort  was  impossible  to  protect  by  our 
arms  the  whole  of  the  territory  of  the  Confederate  States,  sea 
board  and  inland.  To  the  popular  complaint  of  inefficiency  in 
the  departments  of  the  government,  he  declared  that  they  had 
done  all  which  human  power  and  foresight  enabled  them  to 
accomplish. 

The  increase  of  our  territory  since  the  opening  of  the  war 
was  scarcely  a  cause  for  boast.  The  addition  of  new  States 
and  Territories  had  greatly  extended  our  lines  of  defence. 
Missouri  had  been  unable  to  wrest  from  the  enemy  his  occu 
pancy  of  her  soil.  Kentucky  had  been  admitted  into  the  Con 
federacy  only  to  becor ae  the  theatre  of  active  hostilities,  and, 
at  last,  to  be  abandoned  to  the  enemy.  The  Indian  treaties 
effected  by  the  Provisional  Congress,  through  the  mediation 
of  Gen.  Albert  Pike,  had  secured  us  a  rich  domain,  but  a  trou 
blesome  and  worthless  ally.*  It  was  possible,  however,  that 

*  In  December  last,  Col.  James  Mclntosli  was  sent  from  Arkansas  isto  tlio 
Cherokee  Nation  to  chastise  the  rebellious  Creek  chief  Opoth-lay-oho-la,  which 
he  did  with  good  effect.  The  results  of  the  incursion  were  thus  enumerated 
by  Col.  Mclntosh :  "  We  captured  one  hundred  and  sixty  women  and  children, 
twenty  negroes,  thirty  wagons,  seventy  yoke  of  oxen,  about  five  hundred  In 
dian  horses,  several  hundred  head  of  cattle,  one  hundred  sheep,  and  a  great 
quantity  of  property  of  much  value  to  the  enemy.  The  stronghold  of  Opoth 
lay-oho-la  was  completely  broken  up  and  his  force  scattered  in  every  direction, 
destitute  of  the  simplest  elements  of  subsistence." 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  267 

in  this  domain  there  might  be  secured  a  rich  inheritance  for 
posterity.  It  comprised  an  area  of  more  than  eighty  thousand 
square  miles,  diversified  by  mountains  filled  with  iron,  coal, 
and  other  mineral  treasures,  and  broad-reaching  plains,  with 
the  Ked  River  running  along  its  southern  border,  the  Arkansas 
river  almost  through  its  centre,  and  their  tributaries  reticulat 
ing  its  entire  surface. 

At  the  time  of  the  inauguration  of  our  permanent  govern 
ment,  there  was,  however,  one  aspect  of  our  affairs  of  striking 
encouragement.  It  was  the  condition  of  the  finances  of  the 
government.  We  had  no  floating  debt.  The  credit  of  the 
government  was  unimpaired  among  its  own  people.  The 
total  expenditures  for  the  year  had  been,  in  round  numbers, 
$170,000,000  ;  less  than  one-third  of  the  sum  expended  by  the 
enemy  to  conquer  us,  and  less  than  the  value  of  a  single  article 
of  export — the  cotton  crop  of  the  year. 

In  the  Federal  Congress  it  was  estimated  that,  at  the  end  of 
the  fiscal  year  (June,  1862),  the  public  debt  of  the  Northern 
government  would  be  about  $750,000,000,  and  that  the  de 
mands  on  the  treasury,  to  be  met  by  taxation,  direct  and  indi 
rect,  would  not  be  less  than  $165,000,000  per  annum. 

The  problem  of  the  Northern  finances  was  formidable  enough. 
It  was  calculated  that  the  Federal  tax  would  be  from  four  to 
six  times  greater  for  each  State  than  tkeir  usual  assessments 
heretofore,  and  doubts  were  expressed,  even  by  Northern  jour- 

The  Indian  Territory  (not  including  the  Osage  country — its  extent  being 
unknown — nor  the  800,000  acres  belonging  to  the  Cherokees,  which  lie  between 
Missouri  and  Kansas)  embraces  an  area  of  82,073  square  miles — more  than 
fifty-two  millions  of  acres,  to  wit : 

The  land  of  the  Cherokees,  Osages,  Quapaws,  Senecas,  and  Senecas  and 
Shawnees,  38,105  square  miles,  or  24,388,800  acres. 

That  of  the  Creeks  and  Seminoles,  20,531  square  miles,  or  13,140,000  acres. 

That  of  the  Eeserve  Indians,  and  the  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws,  23,437 
square  miles,  or  15,000,000  acres. 

Total  82,073  square  miles,  or  52,528,800  acres. 

Its  population  consists  of  Cherokees,  23,000  ;  Osages,  7,500  ;  Quapaws,  320 ; 
Creeks,  13,500  ;  Seminoles,  2,500 ;  Reserve  Indians,  2,000  ;  Choctaws,  17,500  ; 
and  Chickasaws,  4,700 — making  an  aggregate  of  71,520  souls. 

This  Indian  country  is,  in  many  respects,  really  a  magnificent  one.  Itr  is 
one  of  the  brightest  and  fairest  parts  of  the  great  West,  and  only  needs  the 
devel  )pment  of  its  resources  to  become  the  equal  of  the  most  favored  lands  on 
this  continent. 


268  SOUTHEEN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

nals  in  the  interest  of  the  government,  if  it  could  be  raised  in 
any  other  way  than  by  practical  confiscation. 

The  South,  however,  had  already  lingered  too  long  in  the 
delusive  promise  of  the  termination  of  the  war  by  the  breaking 
down  of  the  finances  of  the  Northern  government,  and  had 
entertained  prospects  of  peace  in  the  crude  philosophy  and  cal 
culations  of  the  newspaper  article,  without  looking  to  those 
great  lessons  of  history  which  showed  to  what  lengths  a  war 
might  be  carried  despite  the  difficulties  of  finance,  the  confines 
of  reason,  and  the  restraints  of  prudence,  when  actuated  by 
that  venom  and  desperation  which  were  shown  alike  by  the 
people  and  government  of  the  North.  The  very  extent  of  the 
Northern  expenditure  should  have  been  an  occasion  of  alarm 
instead  of  self-complacency  to  the  South ;  it  showed  the  tre 
mendous  energy  of  the  North  and  the  overpowering  measure 
of  its  preparation ;  it  argued  a  most  terrible  degree  of  despera 
tion  ;  and  it  indicated  that  the  North  had  plunged  so  far  into 
the  war,  that  there  was  but  little  sane  choice  between  striving 
to  wade  through  it,  and  determining  to  turn  back  with  certain 
and  inevitable  ruin  in  its  face. 

Fortunately,  the  lessons  of  its  late  disasters  were  not  entirely 
lost  upon  the  government  of  the  Confederate  States.  They 
happily  gave  fresh  impulses  to  the  authorities,  and  were  pro 
ductive  of  at  least  some  new  and  vigorous  political  measures. 
The  most  important  of  these  was  a  conscript  bill  for  increasing 
our  forces  in  the  field.  The  enlargement  of  the  proportions  of 
the  war  demanded  such  a  measure ;  the  conflict,  in  which  we 
were  now  engaged,  extended  from  the  shores  of  the  Chesapeake 
to  the  confines  of  Missouri  and  Arizona. 

The  measures  and  expressions  of  the  government  plainly 
intimated  to  the  people,  who  had  been  so  persistently  incredu 
lous  of  a  long  war,  that  it  had  become  probable  that  the  war 
would  be  continued  through  a  series  of  years,  and  that  prepa 
rations  for  the  ensuing  campaigns  should  be  commensurate  with 
such  a  prospect.  In  Congress,  resolutions  were  passed  urging 
the  planters  to  suspend  the  raising  of  cotton,  and  to  plant  pro 
vision  crops,  so  as  to  provide  for  the  support  of  the  army 
This  change  in  the  direction  of  our  industry,  besides  increasing 
the  capacity  of  the  South  to  sustain  itself,  aimed  a  blow  at  the 
well-known  selfish  calculations  of  England  to  repay  herself  for 


THE    FIRST    YEAE.  269 

past  losses  from  the  blockade,  in  the  cheap  prices  expected 
from  the  excessive  supply  of  two  years'  crops  of  cotton  in  the 
South.  The  South  was  not  to  be  the  only  or  chief  loser  in  the 
diminished  production  of  her  great  staple  and  the  forced  change 
in  her  industrial  pursuits.  For  every  laborer  who  was  divert 
ed  from  the  culture  of  cotton  in  the  South,  perhaps,  four  times 
as  many  elsewhere,  who  had  found  subsistence  in  the  various 
employments  growing  out  of  its  use,  would  be  forced  also  out 
of  their  usual  occupations.  The  prospect  of  thus  bringing  ruin 
upon  the  industrial  interests  of  other  countries  was  not  pleas 
ing  to  our  people  or  our  government ;  although  it  was  some 
consolation  to  know  that  England,  especially,  might  yet  feel, 
through  this  change  of  production  in  the  South,  the  conse 
quences  of  her  folly  and  the  merited  fruits  of  her  injustice  to  a 
people  who  had  been  anxious  for  her  amity,  and  had  at  one 
time  been  ready  to  yield  to  her  important  commercial  privi 
leges. 

In  the  growing  successes  of  the  Northern  armies,  the  spirit 
of  the  Southern  people  came  to  the  aid  of  their  government 
with  new  power,  and  a  generosity  that  was  quite  willing  to  for 
get  all  its  shortcomings  in  the  past.  The  public  sentiment  had 
been  exasperated  and  determined  in  its  resolution  of  resistance 
to  the  last  extremity  by  the  evidences  of  ruin,  barbarism,  and 
shameless  atrocities  that  had  marked  the  paths  of  the  progress 
of  the  enemy.  The  newspapers  were  filled  with  accounts  of 
outrages  of  the  enemy  in  the  districts  occupied  by  him.  By 
his  barbarous  law  of  confiscation,  widows  and  orphans  had  been 
stripped  of  death's  legacies ;  he  had  overthrown  municipalities 
and  State  governments ;  he  had  imprisoned  citizens  without 
warrant,  and  regardless  of  age  or  sex ;  he  had  destroyed  com 
merce,  and  beggared  the  mechanic  and  manufacturer ;  he  had 
ripped  open  the  knapsacks  of  our  captured  soldiery,  robbing 
them  of  clothing,  money,  necessaries  of  life,  and  even  of  the 
instruments  of  their  surgeons.  The  Southern  people  consider 
ed  that  they  were  opposing  an  enemy  who  had  proved  himself 
a  foe  to  mankind,  religion,  and  civilization. 

The  venomous  spirit  of  Abolition  had  been  free  to  develop 
itself  in  the  growing  successes  of  the  Northern  arms.  It  is  a 
curious  commentary  on  the  faith  of  the  people  of  the  North,  or 
rather  a  striking  exposure  of  the  subserviency  of  all  the  ex- 


270  SOUTHERN"    H1STOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

pressions  of  opinion  on  the  part  of  that  people  to  considerations 
of  expediency,  that,  in  the  beginning  of  hostilities,  even  aftoi 
the  proclamation  of  war  by  President  Lincoln,  when  it  was  yet 
thought  important  to  affect  moderation,  fugitive  slaves  from 
Virginia  were  captured  in  the  streets  of  Washington,  and,  by 
the  direct  authority  of  the  Northern  government,  returned  to 
their  masters!  A  few  months  later,  negro  slaves  were  kid 
napped  from  their  masters  by  the  Federal  army,  under  the 
puerile  and  nonsensical*pretence  of  their  being  "  contraband  of 
war."  The  anti-slavery  purposes  of  the  war  rapidly  developed 
from  that  point.  The  Northern  journals  declared  that  the  ex 
cision  of  slavery  was  one  of  the  important  objects  of  the  war ; 
thai  the  opportunity  was  to  be  taken  in  the  prosecution  of  hos 
tilities  to  crush  out  what  had  been  the  main  cause  of  difference, 
and  thus  to  assure  the  fruit  of  a  permanent  peace.  In  his  mes 
sage  to  the  Federal  Congress  in  December,  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
hinted  that  "  all  indispensable  means"  must  be  employed  to 
preserve  the  Union.  An  order  was  published  by  the  "War 
Department  making  it  the  occasion  of  a  court-martial  for  any 
army  officer  to  return  any  negro  slave  within  his  lines  to  his 
master.  It  was  followed  by  the  explanation  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
former  hint.  In  an  executive  message  to  the  Federal  Congress, 
the  policy  of  "  the  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,"  with  the 
pretence  of  "  pecuniary  aid"  to  States  adopting  such  policy, 
was  advised ;  it  was  approved  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
by  a  vote  of  88  to  31 ;  and  about  the  same  time  a  bill  was 
introduced  into  the  Senate  for  the  forcible  emancipation  of  the 
negro  slaves  in  the  District-  of  Columbia,  which  was  subse 
quently  passed. 

These  bitter  exhibitions  of  the  North  had  envenomed  the 
war ;  its  sanguinary  tides  rose  higher ;  its  battle-fields  emu 
lated  in  carnage  the  most  desperate  in  modern  history ;  flags 
of  truce  were  but  seldom  used,  and  the  amenities  of  intercourse 
between  belligerents  were  often  slighted  by  rude  messages  of 
defiance.   Battles  had  become  frequent  and  really  bloody.  But 
they  were  no  longer  decisive  of  a  nation's  fate.    The  campaign 
covered  the  whole  of  a  huge  territory,  and  could  only  be  de 
cided  by  complicated  movements,  involving  great  expenditure 
of  troops  and  time. 

The  Southern   people,  however,  were  again  aroused,  and 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.      •  271 

nothing  was  wanting  but  wisdom,  energy,  and  capacity  <.  n  the 
part  of  the  government  to  have  inaugurated  another  series  of 
brilliant  achievements,  such  as  those  which  rendered  illustrious 
the  first  months  of  the  war.  The  rush  of  men  to  the  battle 
field,  which  was  now  witnessed  in  every  part  of  the  South,  was 
beyond  all  former  example;  and  if  the  government  had  met 
this  mighty  movement  of  the  people  with  a  corresponding 
amplitude  of  provision  and  organization,  the  cause  of  the  South 
might  have  been  reckoned  safe  beyond  peradventure. 

Unfortunately,  however,  President  Davis  was  not  the  man  to 
consult  the  sentiment  and  wisdom  of  the  people ;  he  desired  to 
signalize  the  infallibility  of  his  own  intellect  in  every  measure 
of  the  revolution,  and  to  identify,  from  motives  of  vanity,  his 
own  personal  genius  with  every  event  and  detail  of  the  re 
markable  period  of  history  in  which  he  had  been  called  upon 
to  act.  This  imperious  conceit  seemed  to  swallow  up  every 
other  idea  in  his  mind.  By  what  was  scarcely  more  than  a 
constitutional  fiction,  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States 
was  the  head  of  the  army ;  but  Mr.  Davis,  while  he  made 
himself  the  supreme  master  of  the  civil  administration  of  the 
government,  so  far  as  to  take  the  smallest  details  within  his 
control,  and  to  reduce  his  cabinet  officers  to  the  condition  of 
head  clerks,  insisted  also  upon  being  the  autocrat  of  the  army, 
controlling  the  plans  of  every  general  in  the  field,  and  dictating 
to  him  the  precise  limits  of  every  movement  that  was  under 
taken.  Many  of  our  generals  fretted  under  this  pragmatism  of 
an  executive,  who,  instead  of  attending  to  the  civil  aifairs  of 
the  government  and  correcting  the  monstrous  abuses  that  were 
daily  pointed  out  by  the  newspapers  in  the  conduct  of  the 
departments,  was  unfortunately  possessed  with  the  vanity  that 
he  was  a  great  military  genius,  and  that  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  dictate,  from  his  cushioned  seat  in  Kichmond,  the  de 
tails  of  every  campaign,  and  to  conform  every  movement  in 
the  field  to  the  invariable  formula  of  "  the  defensive  policy"* 

*  The  following  extract  of  terse  criticism  on  offensive  and  defensive  warfare 
Is  taken  from  a  small  work  written  by  one  of  Napoleon's  generals  in  1815,  and 
revised  in  1855.  The  writer  could  not  have  written  with  more  aptitude  to 
the  existing  contest,  if  the  errors  and  unfortunate  demonstrations  of  President 
Davis's  defensive  policy  had  been  before  his  eyes  :  "  The  offensive  is  the  proper 
character  which  it  is  essential  to  give  to  every  war ;  it  exalts  the  courage  of 


272  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

In  a  revolutionary  leader,  something  more  is  wanted  than 
scholarly  and  polished  intellect.  The  history  of  the  w:>rld 
shows  that,  in  such  circumstances,  the  plainest  men,  in  point  o 
learning  and  scholarship,  have  been  the  most  successful,  and 
that  their  elements  of  success  have  been  quick  apprehension, 
practical  judgment,  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and,  above 
all,  a  disposition  to  consult  the  aggregate  wisdom  of  the  people, 
and  to  increase  their  stores  of  judgment,  by  deigning  to  learn 
from  ,every  possible  source  of  practical  wisdom  within  their 
reach. 

President  Davis  was  not  a  man  to  consult,  even  in  the  small 
est  matter  of  detail,  the  wisdom  of  others,  or  to  relax  his  pur 
poses  or  personal  preferences,  at  the  instance  of  any  consider 
ation  that  might  compromise  him  in  respect  of  conceit  or 
punctilio.  About  nothing  connected  with  the  new  government 
had  the  popular  will  been  so  clearly  and  emphatically  express 
ed,  as  the  necessity  of  a  reorganization  of  the  Cabinet.  Nobody 
expected  those  offices  to  be  permanently  filled  by  the  provi 
sional  appointees.  They  were  put  there  under  an  emergency ; 
in  some  instances  simply  as  compliments  to  certain  States,  and. 
without  the  slightest  expectation  that  they  would  be  imposed 
on  the  country  for  seven  long  years.  Had  the  Union  continued, 
and  Mr.  Davis  been  elected  to  the  Presidency,  the  selection  of 
such  a  Cabinet  of  intellectual  pigmies  from  the  nation  at  large 
would  have  astounded  the  public.  The  two  great  branches  of 
the  administration — the  War  and  the  Navy  Departments — 
were  in  the  hands  of  men  who  had  neither  the  respect,  nor  the 
confidence  of  the  public.  Mr.  Benjamin,  the  Secretary  of  War, 
had  been  seriously  injured,  by  a  number  of  doubtful  official 
acts,  in  the  public  estimation,  which  never  held  him  higher 

the  soldier ;  it  disconcerts  the  adversary,  strips  from  him  the  initiative,  and 
diminishes  his  means.  Do  not  wait  for  the  enemy  in  your  own  fireplaces,  go 
always  to  seek  him  in  his  own  home,  when  you  will  find  opportunity  at  the 
same  time  to  live  at  his  expense,  and  to  strip  from  him  his  resources.  In 
penetrating  his  territory,  commence  by  acting  en  masse  with  all  forces,  and  be 
sure  that  the  first  advantages  are  yours.  *  *  *  *  Never  adopt  the 
defensive,  unless  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  do  otherwise.  If  you  are  reduced 
to  this  sad  extremity,  let  it  be  in  order  to  gain  time,  to  wait  for  your  reinforce 
ments,  drill  your  soldiers,  strengthen  your  alliances,  draw  the  enemy  upon 
bad  ground,  lengthen  the  base  of  his  operations  ;  and  let  an  ulterior  design  to 
take  the  offensive  be  without  ceasing  the  end  of  all  your  actions." 


THE    FIKST    YEAK.  273 

than  a  smart,  expeditious,  and  affable  official.  Mr.  Mallory, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  had,  in  the  old  government,  in 
which  he  was  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Naval 
Affairs,  been  the  butt  of  every  naval  officer  in  the  country  for 
his  ignorance,  his  sang-froid,  his  slow  and  blundering  manner, 
and  the  engrossment  of  his  mind  by  provisions  to  provide 
gratifications  for  his  social  habits. 

President  Davis  refused  to  concede  any  thing  to  public  sen- 
timent  with  reference  to  the  reorganization  of  his  cabinet ; 
although  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  demand  for  change  was 
made  not  by  a  popular  clamor,  which  a  wise  ruler  would  have 
done  right  to  disregard  and  to  contemn,  but  by  that  quiet,  con 
servative,  and  educated  sentiment  which  no  magistrate  in  a  re 
publican  government  had  the  right  to  disregard.  Mr.  Mallory 
was  retained  at  the  head  of  the  navy;  Mr.  Benjamin  was  pro 
moted  to  the  Secretaryship  of  the  State,  and  the  only  material 
change  in  the  cabinet  was  the  introduction  as  Secretary  of  War 
of  General  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  a  gentleman  whose  sterling 
personal  worth  made  him  acceptable  to  all  parties,  and  prom 
ised  at  least  some  change  for  the  better  in  the  administration 
of  a  government  that  had  been  eaten  up  by  servility,  and  had 
illustrated  nothing  more  than  the  imperious  conceit  of  a  single 
man. 

The  Confederate  Congress  had  passed  a  bill  to  create  the 
office  of  commanding  general,  who  should  take  charge  of  the 
military  movements  of  the  war.  The  bill  was  vetoed  by  Presi 
dent  Davis ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  the  unsubstantial  show  of 
compliance  which  had  been  made  with  reference  to  the  Cabinet 
was  repeated  with  reference  to  the  commanding  general,  and 
Mr.  Davis  appointed  Gen.  Lee  to  the  nominal  office  of  com 
manding  general,  the  order,  however,  which  nominated  him 
providing  that  he  should  "  act  under  the  direction  of  the  presi 
dent."  Thus  it  was  that  Mr.  Davis  kept  in  his  hands  the 
practical  control  of  every  military  movement  on  the  theatre 
of  the  war ;  and  it  was  very  curious,  indeed,  that  the  servile 
newspapers,  which  applauded  in  him  this  single  and  imperious 
control  of  the  conduct  of  the  war,  were  unmindful  of  the  plain 
and  consistent  justice  of  putting  on  his  shoulders  that  exclu 
sive  responsibility  for  disasters  which  is  inseparable  fix/in  the 
honors  of  practical  autocracy. 

18 


274  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

We  have  referred  to  the  dark  period  and  uncompromising 
auspices  in  which  the  permanent  government  of  the  Confeder 
ate  States  was  inaugurated.  Across  the  dreary  tract  of  dis 
aster  there  were,  however,  sudden  and  fitful  gleams  of  light, 
such  as  the  undaunted  courage  of  our  troops  and  the  variable 
accidents  of  war  might  give  in  such  circumstances  of  misgov- 
ernment  as  were  adverse  or  embarrassing  to  a  grand  scale  of 
successes.  Of  these,  and  of  the  disasters  mingled  with  them, 
we  shall  proceed  to  treat  in  the  progress  of  the  narrative  of  the 
external  events  of  the  war. 

• 

THE   NAVAL   ENGAGEMENT   IN   HA.MPTON    EOADS. 

In  the  progress  of  the  war,  attention  had  been  directed,  on 
both  sides,  to  different  classes  of  naval  structure,  composed  of 
iron,  such  as  floating  batteries,  rams,  &c.  On  the  12th  of 
October,  an  affair  had  occurred  near  the  mouth  of  the  Missis 
sippi  river,  in  which  a  partially  submerged  iron  ram,  the  Ma- 
nassas,  attacked  the  Federal  blockading  fleet  at  the  head  of 
the  Passes,  sinking  one  of  them,  the  Preble,  and  driving  the 
remainder  of  the  fleet  out  of  the  river.  This,  the  first  of  our 
naval  exploits,  was  to  be  followed  by  adventures  on  a  largei 
and  more  brilliant  scale. 

As  far  back  as  the  month  of  June,  1861,  the  little  energy 
displayed  by  the  Navy  Department  had  been  employed  in 
building  a  single  iron-clad  naval  structure.  In  the  destruction 
of  the  navy-yard  at  Norfolk,  at  the  commencement  of  the  war, 
the  steam-frigate  Merrimac  had  been  burned  and  sunk,  and 
her  engine  greatly  damaged  by  the  enemy.  However,  the 
bottom  of  the  hull,  boilers,  and  heavy  and  costly  parts  of  the 
engine  were  but  little  injured,  and  it  was  proposed  of  these  to 
construct  a  casemated  vessel  with  inclined  iron-plated  sides 
and  submerged  ends.  The  novel  plan  of  submerging  the  ends 
of  the  ship  and  the  eaves  of  the  casement  was  the  peculiar  and 
distinctive  feature  of  the  Virginia,  as  the  new  structure  was 
called.  It  was  never  before  adopted.  The  resistance  of  iron 
plates  to  heavy  ordnance,  whether  presented  in  vertical  planes 
w  at  low  angles  of  inclination,  had  been  investigated  in  Eng 
land  before  the  Virginia  was  commenced ;  but,  in  the  absence 
of  accurate  data,  the  inclination  of  the  plates  of  the  Virginia 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  275 

and  their  thickness  and  form  had  to  be  determined  by  actual 
experiment. 

With  the  completion  of  the  Virginia,  the  Confederate  squad 
ron  in  the  James  river,  under  command  of  Flag-officer  Frank 
lin  Buchanan,  was  as  follows :  steamer  Yirginia,  ten  guns ; 
steamer  Patrick  Henry,  twelve  guns  ;  steamer  Jamestown,  two 
guns ;  and  gunboats  Teazer,  Beaufort,  and  Raleigh,  each  one 
gun — total,  27  guns. 

On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  March,  about  eleven  o'clock, 
the  Virginia  left  the  navy-yard  at  Norfolk,  accompanied  by 
the  Raleigh  and  Beaufort,  and  proceeded  to  Newport  News  to 
engage  the  enemy's  frigates  Cumberland  and  Congress,  and 
their  gunboats  and  shore  batteries.  On  passing  Sewell's  Point, 
Capt.  Buchanan  made  a  speech  to  the  men.  It  was  laconic. 
He  said :  "  My  men,  you  are  now  about  to  face  the  enemy. 
You  shall  have  no  reason  to  complain  of  not  fighting  at  close 
quarters.  Remember,  you  fight  for  your  homes  and  your 
country.  You  see  those  ships — you  must  sink  them.  I  need 
not  ask  you  to  do  it.  I  know  you  will  do  it." 

At  this  time,  the  Congress  was  lying  close  to  the  batteries 
at  Newport  News,  a  little  below  them.  The  Cumberland  was 
lying  immediately  opposite  the  batteries.  The  Yirginia  passed 
the  Congress,  giving  her  a  broadside,  which  was  returned  with 
very  little  effect,  and  made  straight  for  the  Cumberland.  In 
the  midst  of  a  heavy  fire  from  the  Cumberland,  Congress,  gun 
boats,  and  shore  batteries  concentrated  on  the  Yirginia,  she 
stood  rapidly  on  towards  the  Cumberland,  which  ship  Capt. 
Buchanan  had  determined  to  sink  with  the  prow  of  the  Yir 
ginia.  On  board  the  Yankee  frigate,  the  crew  were  watching 
the  singular  iron  roof  bearing  down  upon  them,  making  all 
manner  of  derisive  and  contemptuous  remarks,  many  of  them 
aloud,  and  within  hearing  of  those  on  board  the  Yirginia  ;  such 
as  :  "  Well,  there  she  comes."  "  What  the  devil  does  she  look 
like?"  "What  in  h— 11  is  she  after?"  "Let's  look  at  that 
great  Secesh  curiosity,"  etc.  These  remarks  were  cut  short  by 
a  discharge  from  the  Virginia's  bow  gun,  which  swept  from  one 
end  of  the  Cumberland's  deck  to  the  other,  killing  and  wound 
ing  numbers  of  the  poor  deluded  wretches.  In  a  few  minutes 
thereafter,  the  Virginia  had  struck  her  on  her  starboard  bow  ; 
the  crash  below  the  water  was  distinctly  heard,  and,  in  fifteen 


276  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

minntes  thereafter,  the  Yankee  vessel,  against  whom  an  old 
grudge  had  long  existed  for  her  participation  in  the  burning 
of  the  navy-yard,  sank  beneath  the  water,  her  guns  being 
fought  to  the  last,  and  her  flag  flying  at  her  peak. 

Just  after  the  Cumberland  sunk,  Commander  Tucker  was 
seen  standing  down  James  river  under  full  steam,  accompanied 
by  the  Jamestown  and  Teazer.  Their  escape  was  miraculous, 
as  they  were  under  a  galling  fire  of  solid  shot,  shell,  grape,  and 
canister,  a  number  of  which  passed  through  the  vessels  without 
doing  any  serious  injury,  except  to  the  Patrick  Henry,  through 
whose  boiler  a  shot  passed,  scalding  to  death  four  persons  and 
wounding  others. 

Having  sunk  the  Cumberland,  the  Virginia  turned  her  at 
tention  to  the  Congress.  She  was  some  time  in  getting  her 
proper  position,  in  consequence  of  the  shoalness  of  the  water. 
To  succeed  in  this  object,  Captain  Buchanan  was  obliged  to 
run  the  ship  a  short  distance  above  the  batteries  on  James  river 
in  order  to  wind  her.  During  all  the  time  her  keel  was  in  the 
mud,  and,  of  course,  she  moved  but  slowly.  The  vessel  was 
thus  subjected  twice  to  all  the  heavy  guns  of  the  batteries  in 
passing  up  and  down  the  river. 

It  appears  that  while  the  Virginia  was  engaged  in  getting 
her  position,  it  was  believed  on  the  Congress  that  she  had 
hauled  off.  The  Yankees  left  their  guns  and  gave  three  cheers. 
Their  elation  was  of  short  duration.  A  few  minutes  afterwards 
the  Virginia  opened  upon  the  frigate,  she  having  run  into  shoal 
water.  The  "  Southern  bugaboo,"  into  whom  the  broadside 
of  the  Congress  had  been  poured  without  effect,  not  even  faiz- 
ing  her  armor,  opened  upon  the  Yankee  frigate,  causing  such 
carnage,  havoc,  and  dismay  on  her  decks,  that  her  colors  were 
in  a  few  moments  hauled  down.  A  white  flag  was  hoisted  at 
the  gaft  and  half-mast,  and  another  at  the  main.  Numbers  oi 
the  crew  instantly  took  to  their  boats  and  landed.  Our  fire 
immediately  ceased.  The  Beaufort  was  run  alongside,  with 
instructions  from  Captain  Buchanan  to  take  possession  of  the 
Congress,  secure  the  officers  as  prisoners,  allow  the  crew  to 
land,  and  burn  the  ship.  Lieutenant  Parker,  commanding  the 
Beaufort,  received  the  flag  of  the  Congress  and  her  surrender 
from  Commander  William  Smith  and  Lieutenant  Pendergrast 
with  the  side-arms  of  these  officers.  After  having  delivered 


THE    FIEST   YEAR.  277 

themselves  as  prisoners  of  war  on  board  the  Beaufort,  ttey 
were  allowed,  at  their  own  request,  to  return  to  the  Congress 
to  assist  in  removing  the  wounded  to  the  Beaufort.  They 
never  returned,  although  they  had  pledged  their  honor  to  do 
so,  and  in  witness  of  that  pledge  had  left  their  swords  with 
Lieut.  Alexander,  on  board  the  Beaufort. 

The  Beaufort  had  been  compelled  to  leave  the  Congress 
under  a  perfidious  fire  opened  from  the  shore,  while  the  frigate 
had  two  white  flags  flying,  raised  by  her  own  crew.  Deter 
mined  that  the  Congress  should  not  again  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  Captain  Buchanan  remarked :  "  That  ship  must 
be  burned,"  when  the  suggestion  was  gallantly  responded  to 
by  Lieutenant  Minor,  who  volunteered  to  take  a  boat  and  burn 
her.  He  had  scarcely  reached  within  fifty  yards  of  the  Con 
gress,  when  a  deadly  fire  was  opened  upon  him,  wounding  him 
severely  and  several  of  his  men.  On  witnessing  this  vile 
treachery,  Captain  Buchanan  instantly  recalled  the  boat,  and 
ordered  the  Congress  to  be  destroyed  by  hot  shot  and  incendiary 
shell.  The  illumination  of  the  scene  was  splendid ;  the  explo 
sion  of  the  frigate's  magazine  a  little  past  midnight,  aroused 
persons  asleep  in  Norfolk,  and  signalled  to  them  the  complete 
ness  of  our  victory. 

In  the  perfidious  fire  from  the  shore,  Captain  Buchanan  had 
been  disabled  by  a  severe  wound  in  the  thigh  from  a  minie- 
ball,  and  the  command  of  the  ship  had  been  transferred  to 
Lieut.  Catesby  Jones,  with  orders  to  fight  her  as  long  as  the 
men  could  stand  to  their  guns.  At  this  time  the  steam-frigate 
Minnesota  and  Roanoke,  and  the  sailing-frigate  St.  Lawrence, 
which  had  come  up  from  Old  Point,  opened  their  fire  upon  the 
Virginia.  The  Minnesota  grounded  in  the  North  channel, 
where,  unfortunately,  the  shoalness  of  the  channel  prevented 
the  near  approach  of  the  Virginia.  She  continued,  however, 
to  fire  upon  the  Minnesota,  until  the  pilots  declared  that  it  was 
no  longer  safe  to  remain  in  that  position,  when  she  returned 
by  the  South  channel  (the  middle  ground  being  necessarily 
between  the  Virginia  and  Minnesota,  and  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  Roanoke  having  retreated  under  the  guns  of  Old  Point), 
and  again  had  an  opportunity  to  open  upon  her  enemy.  Night 
falling  about  this  time,  the  Virginia  was  anchored  off  SewelPi 
Point. 


278  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  next  morning  (Sunday)  the  contest  occurred  between 
the  Monitor  (the  Ericsson  battery)  and  the  Virginia.  The 
Yankee  frigates,  the  Roanoke  and  St.  Lawrence,  had  retreated 
to  Old  Point — "the  apothecary  shop,"  as  it  was  facetiously 
styled  by  our  men  ;  and  the  Monitor  had  gone  up  on  Saturday 
night  to  assist  the  Minnesota,  which  was  still  aground.  The 
daylight  revealed  lying  near  the  Minnesota  the  celebrated  iron 
battery,  a  wonderful-looking  structure  that  was  justly  compared 
to  a  prodigious  "  cheese-box  on  a  plank,"  said  "  cheese-box" 
being  of  a  Plutonian  blackness.  At  8  o'clock  the  Virginia  ran 
down  to  engage  the  Monitor.  The  contest  continued  for  the 
space  of  two  hours,  the  distance  between  the  two  vessels  vary 
ing  from  half  a  mile  to  close  quarters,  in  which  the  two  iron 
vessels  were  almost  side  to  side,  belching  out  their  fire,  the 
heavy  thugs  on  the  iron  sides  of  each  being  the  only  effect  of 
the  terrific  cannonade.  Again  and  again  the  strange-looking 
battery,  with  its  black,  revolving  cupola,  fled  before  the  Vir 
ginia.  It  was,  as  one  of  our  officers  remarked,  "  like  fighting 
a  ghost."  Now  she  ran  down  towards  Old  Point,  now  back 
towards  Newport  News,  now  approached  to  fire,  and  then  ran 
away  to  load.  The  rapidity  of  the  movements  of  the  Monitor 
gave  her  the  only  advantage  which  she  had  in  the  contest. 
The  great  length  and  draft  of  the  Virginia  rendered  it  exceed 
ingly  difficult  to  work  her.  Once  she  got  aground.  It  was  a 
moment  of  terrible  suspense  to  the  noble  ship,  against  which 
the  combined  batteries  of  the  Minnesota  and  Monitor  were  now 
directed.  The  shot  fell  like  hail,  the  shells  flew  like  rain-drops 
and  slowly,  steadily  she  returned  the  fire.  There  lay  the 
Minnesota  with  two  tugs  alongside.  Here,  there,  and  every 
where,  was  the  black  u  cheese-box."  The  Virginia  still  fired 
with  the  same  deliberate  regularity  as  before.  Presently  a 
great  white  column  of  smoke  shot  up  above  the  Minnesota, 
higher  and  higher,  fuller  and  fuller  in  its  volume,  and  beyond 
doubt,  carried  death  all  along  her  decks,  for  the  boiler  of  one 
of  the  tugs  had  been  exploded  by  a  shot,  and  that  great  white 
cloud  canopy  was  the  steam  thus  liberated. 

In  fifteen  minutes  the  Virginia  had  got  off  and  was  again  in 
motion.  The  pilots  declared  that  it  was  impossible  to  get 
nearer  the  Minnesota,  which  was  believed  to  be  entirely  disa- 
aMed.  The  Virginia  had  twice  silenced  the  fire  of  the  Moni- 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  279 

tor,  and  had  once  brushed  her,  narrowly  missing  the  coveted 
opportunity  of  sinking  her  with  her  prow,  and  the  continuation 
of  the  contest  being  declined  by  the  Monitor  having  run  into 
shoal  water,  the  Yirginia  ceased  firing  at  noon  and  proceeded 
to  Norfolk. 

She  steamed  back  amid  the  cheers  of  victory.  In  the  direc 
tion  of  Newport  News  could  be  seen  the  spars  of  the  Cumbei 
land  above  the  river  she  had  so  long  insolently  barred  ;  but  o/ 
her  consort  there  was  not  even  a  timber-head  visible  to  tell  hei 
story.  This  was  not  all  the  Yirginia  had  done.  The  Minne 
sota  was  disabled  and  riddled  with  shot.  Within  eight  and 
forty  hours  the  Yirginia  had  successfully  encountered  the 
whole  naval  force  of  the  enemy  in  the  neighborhood  of  Norfolk, 
amounting  to  2,890  men  and  230  guns;  had  sunk  the  Cumber 
land,  probably  the  most  formidable  vessel  of  her  class  in  the 
Federal  navy,  consigning  to  a  watery  grave  the  larger  portion 
of  her  crew  of  360  men ;  had  destroyed  the  crack  sailing-frigate 
Congress,  with  her  enormous  armament ;  and  had  crippled  in 
the  action  the  Minnesota,  one  of  the  best  steamers  of  the  en 
emy's  navy.  Our  casualties  were  two  killed  and  nineteen 
wounded,  and  the  Yirginia  had  come  out  of  the  action  with  the 
loss  of  her  prow,  starboard  anchor,  and  all  her  boats,  with  her 
smoke-stack  riddled  with  balls,  and  the  muzzles  of  two  of  her 
guns  shot  away,  but  with  no  serious  damage  to  her  wonderful 
armor,  that  had  sustained  a  cannonade  such  as  never  before 
was  inflicted  upon  a  single  vessel. 

The  exploits  of  the  Yirginia  created  immense  excitement  in 
the  North  and  a  marked  interest  in  Europe,  as  illustrating  a 
novel  and  brilliant  experiment  in  naval  architecture.  As  an 
example  of  the  sharp  and  practical  energy  of  the  Northern 
government,  and  its  readiness  to  avail  itself  of  all  means  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  war,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  in  five  days 
after  the  occurrence  of  the  Confederate  victory  in  Hampton 
Roads,  a  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Senate  at  Washington, 
appropriating  nearly  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  for  the  construc 
tion  of  additional  iron-clad  vessels. 

In  Great  Britain  and  France,  and  on  the  Continent  gener 
ally,  public  attention  was  strained  to  a  pitch  of  fearful  anxiotj 
on  the  subject  of  changes  in  naval  architecture,  and  their  adap 
tation  to  the  new  exigencies  that  had  arisen  in  warfare  on  the 


• 


280  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

water.  All  the  European  governments  that  had  a  strip  of  sea- 
coast  busied  themselves  to  turn  to  profit  the  lesson  the  Virginia 
had  given  them.  Denmark  voted  a  million  of  rix  dollars  for 
the  construction  of  iron-plated  vessels,  while  Sweden  sent  its 
Crown  Prince  to  assist  at  the  trial  trip  of  the  French  frigate 
La  Couronne,  the  largest  iron  war-steamer  afloat.  Italy  had 
already  some  very  fine  iron  vessels- of-war,  and  her  citizens 
were  hard  at  work  on  others.  Austria  was  officially  informed 
of  the  revolution  in  warfare  at  sea  on  the  very  day  that  an 
imperial  commission  reported  her  huge  land  fortresses  as  defi 
ant  of  every  known  means  of  assault ;  and  the  Prussians,  people 
and  government,  regarded  the  engagement  in  Hampton  Roads 
as  one  of  "  the  most  important  events  of  the  day." 

The  Confederate  States  government  might  have  learned  some 
instructive  lessons  from  the  victory  achieved  by  the  Virginia. 
Instead  of  one  such  vessel,  we  might  have  had  ten,  had  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Mallory,  possessed  the  ability  and 
zeal  essential  to  his  responsible  position.  The  cost  was  not  a 
matter  of  the  slightest  consideration.  A  vessel  built  at  an  ex 
pense  of  half  a  million  was  cheap  enough,  when  in  her  first 
essay  she  had  destroyed  thrice  her  value  of  the  enemy's  prop 
erty.  The  State  of  North  Carolina  and  the  Confederacy  had 
spent  at  least  a  million  of  dollars  already  in  futile  attempts  to 
defend  the  eastern  coast  of  that  State.  If  that  sum  had  been 
expended  in  building  iron-clad  vessels  suitable  to  the  waters 

r  on  the  Carolina  coast,  all  of  our  disasters  in  that  direction 
might  have  been  prevented,  except,  perhaps,  the  one  at  Hat- 
teras,  and  our  ports  on  that  portion  of  our  coast  kept  open,  at 
least  partially,  if  not  entirely.  In  no  possibly  better  manner 

•  could  ten  or  twenty  millions  of  dollars  have  been  expended 

:  than  by  augmenting  the  power  of  our  infant  navy. 

While  the  Virginia  was  achieving  her  memorable  victory  in 
Hampton  Roads,  a  battle  had  commenced  in  the  extreme 
northwest  portion  of  the  State  of  Arkansas,  which  had  but  one 
parallel  as  to  its  duration,  and  probably  few  as  to  its  desperate 
character,  since  the  opening  of  the  war. 

It  will  be  recollected  that,  in  a  previous  chapter,  we  left 
Gen.  Price  about  the  close  of  the  year  1861  occupying  Spring 
field,  Missouri,  for  the  purpose  of  being  within  reach  of  sup- 

;  pliqs,  .and  protecting  that  portion  of  the  State  from  domestic 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  281 

depredations  and  Federal  invasion.  About  the  latter  part  of 
January,  it  became  evident  that  the  enemy  were  concentrating 
in  force  at  Holla,  and  shortly  thereafter  they  occupied  Leba 
non.  Believing  that  this  movement  could  be  for  no  other  pur 
pose  than  to  attack  him,  and  knowing  that  his  command  was 
ir  ad  equate  for  such  successful  resistance  as  the  interests  of  the 
army  and  the  cause  demanded,  General  Price  appealed  to  the 
commanders  of  the  Confederate  troops  in  Arkansas  to  come  to 
his  assistance.  He  held  his  position  to  the  very  last  moment. 
On  the  12th  of  February,  his  pickets  were  driven  in,  and  re 
ported  the  enemy  advancing  upon  him  in  force.  Gen.  Price 
commenced  retreating  at  once.  He  reached  Cassville  with  loss 
unworthy  of  mention  in  any  respect.  Here  the  enemy  in  his 
rear  commenced  a  series  of  attacks,  running  through  four  days. 
Retreating  and  fighting  all  the  way  to  the  Cross  Hollows,  in 
Arkansas,  the  command  of  Gen.  Price,  under  the  most  ex 
hausting  fatigue,  all  that  time,  with  but  little  rest  for  either 
man  or  horse,  and  no  sleep,  sustained  themselves,  and  came 
through,  repulsing  the  enemy  upon  every  occasion,  with  great 
determination  and  gallantry. 

Gen.  Yan  Dorn  had  recently  been  appointed  to  the  command 
of  the  Confederate  forces  in  the  Trans-Mississippi  district.  A 
happy  accord  existed  between  him  and  Gen.  Price,  and  a  pri 
vate  correspondence  that  had  ensued  between  these  two  mili 
tary  chieftains,  on  the  occasion  of  Gen.  Yan  Dora's  appoint 
ment  by  President  Davis  to  take  command  in  Arkansas  and 
Missouri,  not  only  showed  a  spirit  of  mutual  appreciation  and 
compliment  highly  honorable  to  both,  but  developed  a  singu 
lar  similarity  of  views  (considering  that  the  letter  of  each  was 
written  without  knowledge  of  that  of  the  other)  with  reference 
to  the  conduct  of  the  war. 

Learning  that  Gen.  Price  had  rapidly  fallen  back  from 
Springfield  before  a  superior  force  of  the  enemy,  and  was  en 
deavoring  to  form  a  junction  with  the  division  of  Gen.  Me 
Culloch  at  Boston  Mountain,  Gen.  Yan  Dorn,  who  was  then 
at  Pocahontas,  Arkansas,  resolved  to  go  in  person  to  take  com 
mand  of  the  combined  forces  of  Price  and  McCulloch.  He 
reached  their  head-quarters  on  the  3d  of  March. 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAfi. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   ELK   HORN. 

The  enemy,  under  the  command  of  Gens.  Curtis  and  Sigel 
had  halted  on  Sugar  Creek,  fifty -five  miles  distant,  where>  with 
a  force  variously  estimated  at  from  seventeen  to  twenty-four 
thousand,  he  was  awaiting  still  further  reinforcements  before 
he  would  advance.  Gen.  Yan  Dorn  resolved  to  make  the  at 
tack  at  once.  He  sent  for  Gen.  Albert  Pike  to  join  him  with 
his  command  of  Indian  warriors,  and,  on  the  morning  of  the 
4th  of  March,  moved  with  the  divisions  of  Price  and  McCul- 
loch,  by  way  of  Fayetteville  and  Bentonville,  to  attack  the  en 
emy's  camp  on  Sugar  Creek.  The  whole  force  under  his  com 
mand  was  about  sixteen  thousand  men. 

At  Bentonville,  General  Sigel's  division,  seven  thousand 
strong,  narrowly  escaped  a  surprise  and  fell  back,  our  advance 
skirmishing  with  the  rear-guard  to  Sugar  Creek,  about  seven 
miles  beyond. 

On  the  morning  of  the  Vth  of  March,  Gen.  Yan  Dorn  made 
disposition  for  attack.  Before  eleven  o'clock,  the  action  had 
become  general.  The  attack  was  made  from  the  north  and 
west,  the  enemy  being  completely  surrounded.  About  two 
o'clock,  Gen.  Yan  Dorn  sent  a  dispatch  to  Gen.  McCulloch, 
who  was  attacking  the  enemy's  left,  proposing  to  him  to  hold 
his  position,  while  Price's  left  advance  might  be  thrown  for 
ward  over  the  whole  line,  and  easily  end  the  battle.  t  Before 
the  dispatch  was  penned,  Gen.  McCulloch  had  fallen,  and  the 
victorious  advance  of  his  division  upon  the  strong  position  of 
the  enemy's  front  was  checked  by  the  fall  of  himself  and  Gen. 
Mclntosh,  also,  in  the  heat  of  the  battle  and  in  the  full  tide  of 
success.  It  appears  that  two  musket-balls,  by  killing  the  gal 
lant  McCulloch  and  Mclntosh,  had  prevented  us  from  gaining 
a  great  victory.  Notwithstanding  the  confusion  that  succeeded 
this  untimely  occurrence,  Gen.  Yan  Dorn  pressed  forward  with 
the  attack,  sustained  by  the  resistless  charges  of  the  Missouri 
division.  At  nightfall,  the  enemy  had  been  driven  back  from 
the  field  of  battle,  and  the  Confederates  held  his  intrenchments 
and  the  greater  part  of  his  commissary  stores,  on  which  our 
half-famished  men  fed.  Our  troops  slept  upon  their  arms 
nearly  a  mile  beyond  the  point  where  the  enemy  had  made  nil 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  283 

last  stand,  and  Gen.  Yan  Dora's  head-quarters  for  the  night 
were  at  the  Elk  Horn  tavern — from  which  locality  the  battle 
field  derived  its  name.  We  had  taken  during  the  day  seven 
cannon  and  about  two  hundred  prisoners. 

On  the  morning  of  the  8th,  the  enemy,  having  taken  a 
strong  position  during  the  night,  reopened  the  fight.  The 
action  soon  became  general,  and  continued  until  about  half- 
past  nine  o'clock,  by  which  time  Gen.  Yan  Dora  had  com 
pleted  his  arrangements  to  withdraw  his  forces.  Finding  that 
his  right  wing  was  much  disorganized,  and  that  the  batteries 
were,  one  after  another,  retiring  from  the  field,  with  every  shot 
expended,  Gen.  Yan  Dora  had  determined  to  withdraw  his 
forces  in  the  direction  of  their  supplies.  This  was  accomplish 
ed  with  almost  perfect  success.  The  ambulances,  crowded 
with  the  wounded,  were  sent  in  advance ;  a  portion  of  McCul 
loch's  division  was  placed  in  position  to  follow,  while  Gen.  Yan 
Dora  disposed  of  his  remaining  force  as  best  to  deceive  the 
enemy  as  to  his  intention,  and  to  hold  him  in  check  while  exe 
cuting  it.  An  attempt  was  made  by  the  enemy  to  follow  the 
retreating  column.  It  was  effectually  checked,  however,  and, 
about  2  P.  M.,  the  Confederates  encamped  about  six  miles  from 
the  field  of  battle,  all  of  the  artillery  and  baggage  joining  the 
army  in  safety.  They  brought  away  from  the  field  of  battle 
300  prisoners,  four  cannon,  and  three  baggage  wagons. 

Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  stated  by  Gen.  Yan 
Dora  to  be  about  six  hundred,  as  nearly  as  could  be  ascertain 
ed,  while  that  of  the  enemy  was  conjectured  to  be  more  than 
seven  hundred  killed  and  at  least  an  equal  number  wounded. 
Gen.  Curtis,  in  his  official  report,  gives  no  statement  of  his  loss, 
but  simply  remarks  that  it  was  heavy.  The  entire  engagement 
had  extended  over  the  space  of  three  days,  the  6th,  7th,  and 
8th  of  March.  The  gallantry  of  our  soldiers  had  been  unrival 
led.  More  than  half  of  our  troops  were  raw  levies,  armed  with 
shot-guns  and  country  rifles.  The  enemy  were  armed  with 
superior  guns  of  the  latest  patents,  such  as  revolving  rifleSj 
sabre  bayonets,  rifled  cannon,  mounted  howitzers,  &c.  Our 
army  had  forced  them  by  inches  from  one  position  to  another, 
and,  although  compelled  to  fall  back  at  last,  were  able  to  make 
their  determination  good  never  to  permit  the  enemy  to  advance 
South. 


284  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  Indian  regiments,  under  Gen.  Fike,  had  not  come  up  in 
time  to  take  any  important  part  in  the  battle.  Some  of  the 
red -men  behaved  well,  and  a  portion  of  them  assisted  in  taking 
a  battery  ;  but  they  were  difficult  to  manage  in  the  deafening 
roar  of  artillery,  to  ^  hich  they  were  unaccustomed,  and  were 
naturally  amazed  at  the  sight  of  guns  that  ran  on  wheels. 
They  knew  what  to  do  with  the  rifle;  they  were  accustomed 
to  sounds  of  battle  as  loud  as  their  own  war-whoop ;  and  the 
amazement  of  these  simple  children  of  the  forest  may  be  imag 
ined  at  the  sight  of  such  roaring,  deafening,  crashing  monsters 
as  twelve-pounders  running  around  on  wheels.  Gen.  Yan 
Dorn,  in  his  official  report  of  the  battle,  does  not  mention  that 
any  assistance  was  derived  from  the  Indians — an  ally  that  had, 
perhaps,  cost  us  much  more  trouble,  expense,  and  annoyance, 
than  their  services  in  modern  warfare  could,  under  any  circum 
stances,  be  worth. 

In  the  action,  the  Missouri  troops,  from  the  noble  veteran, 
who  had  led  them  so  long,  down  to  the  meanest  private,  be 
haved  with  a  courage,  the  fire  and  devotion  of  which  never, 
for  a  moment,  slackened.  The  personal  testimony  of  Gen.  Yan 
Dorn  to  their  noble  conduct,  was  a  just  and  magnanimous  trib 
ute.  He  wrote  to  the  government  at  Richmond :  "  During  the 
whole  of  this  engagement,  I  was  with  the  Missourians  under 
Price,  and  I  have  never  seen  better  fighters  than  these  Mis 
souri  troops,  or  more  gallant  leaders  than  Gen.  Price  and  his 
officers.  From  the  first  to  the  last  shot,  they  continually 
rushed  on,  and  never  yielded  an  inch  they  had  won  ;  and  when 
at  last  they  received  orders  to  fall  back,  they  retired  steadily 
and  with  cheers.  Gen.  Price  received  a  severe  wound  in  the 
action,  but  would  neither  retire  from  the  field  nor  cease  to  ex 
pose  his  life  to  danger." 

Nor  is  this  all  the  testimony  to  the  heroism  of  Gen.  Price  on 
the  famous  battle-fields  of  Elk  Horn.  Some  incidents  are  re 
lated  to  us  by  an  officer  of  his  conduct  in  the  retreat,  that  show 
aspects  of  heroism  more  engaging  than  even  those  of  reckless 
bravery.  In  the  progress  of  the  retreat,  writes  an  officer, 
every  few  hundred  yards  we  would  overtake  some  wounded 
soldier.  As  soon  !is  he  would  see  the  old  general,  he  would 
cry  out,  "  General,  I  am  wounded !"  Instantly  some  vehicle 
was  ordered  to  st)p,  and  the  poor  soldier's  wants  cared  for 


THE    FIRST    YEAK  285 

Again  and  again  it  occurred,  until  our  conveyances  were 
covered  with  the  wounded.  Another  one  cried  out, '  General,  ] 
am  wounded !'  The  general's  head  dropped  upon  his  breast, 
and  his  eyes,  bedimmed  with  tears,  were  thrown  up,  and  he 
looked  in  front,  but  could  seen  no  place  to  put  his  poor  soldier. 
He  discovered  something  on  wheels  in  front,  and  commanded : 
Halt !  and  put  this  wounded  soldier  up ;  by  G — d,  I  will  save 
my  wounded,  if  I  lose  the  whole  army !'  This  explains  why 
the  old  man's  poor  soldiers  love  him  so  well." 

Although,  in  the  battle  of  Elk  Horn,  our  forces  had  been 
compelled  to  retire,  and  the  affair  was  proclaimed  in  all  parts 
of  the  North  as  a  splendid  victory  of  their  arms,  there  is  no 
doubt,  in  the  light  of  history,  that  the  substantial  fruits  of  vic 
tory  were  with  the  Confederates.  The  enemy  had  set  out  on  a 
march  of  invasion,  with  the  avowed  determination  to  subju 
gate  Arkansas,  and  capture  Fort  Smith.  But  after  the  shock 
of  the  encounter  at  Elk  Horn,  he  was  forced  to  fall  back  into 
Missouri,  leaving  several  hundred  prisoners  in  our  hands,  and 
more  than  two  thousand  killed  and  wounded  on  the  field.  The 
total  abandonment  of  their  enterprise  of  subjugation  in  Ar 
kansas  is  the  most  conclusive  evidence  in  the  world,  that  the 
Federals  were  worsted  by  Gen.  Yan  Dora,  and  that  this  brave 
and  honorable  commander  had  achieved  for  his  country  no  in 
considerable  success. 

The  fall  of  Gen.  Ben  McCulloch  was  esteemed  as  a  national 
calamity,  and,  in  his  official  report  of  .the  battle,  Gen.  Yan 
Dorn  declared  that  no  success  could  repair  the  loss  of  the  gal 
lant  dead,  who  had  fallen  on  the  well-fought  field.  Gen.  Mc- 
Culloch's  name  was  already  historical  at  the  time  of  the  break 
ing  out  of  the  revolution.  Twenty-six  years  ago  he  served  in 
the  battle  of  San  Jacinto,  afterwards  passed  his  time  on  the 
Texan  frontier,  in  a  succession  of  hardships  and  dangers  such 
as  few  men  have  seen,  and  subsequently,  in  the  Mexican  war 
on  the  bloody  field  of  Buena  Yista,  received  the  public  and  offi 
cial  thanks  of  Gen.  Taylor  for  his  heroic  conduct  and  services. 

McCulloch,  as  a  soldier,  was  remarkable  for  his  singular  ca 
pacities  for  partisan  warfare,  and,  in  connection  with  Walker, 
Hays,  and  Chevallie,  had  originated  and  rendered  renowned 
the  name  of  "  Texas  Ranger."  These  daring  adventurers  did 
much  in  achieving  the  independence  of  the  Texan  republic, 


286  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  in  defending  its  borders  from  the  ruthless  and  enterprising 
Camanche.  In  the  war  of  the  United  States  with  Mexico,  they 
rendered  invaluable  service  as  daring  scouts,  and  inaugurated 
the  best  and  most  effective  cavalry  service  that  has  ever  been 
known  in  the  world. 

The  moment  Lincoln's  election  became  known,  McCulloch 
identified  himself  as  an  unconditional  secessionist,  and  repaired 
to  Texas  to  take  part  in  any  movement  that  might  grow  out  of 
the  presence  of  over  3000  United  States  troops  in  that  State. 
He  was  unanimously  selected  by  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  to  raise  the  men  necessary  to  compel  the  surrender  01 
San  Antonio,  with  its  arsenal  and  the  neighboring  forts,  four 
or  five  in  number.  Within  four  days,  he  had  travelled  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  stood  before  San  Antonio  with 
eight  hundred  armed  men,  his  old  comrades  and  neighbors. 
His  mission  succeeded.  Texas  looked  to  him  with  confidence 
as  one  of  her  strong  pillars  in  case  of  war.  She  sent  him  abroad 
to  procure  arms;  but,  before  he  had  fully  succeeded,  President 
Davis  appointed  him  brigadier-general,  and  assigned  him  to 
the  command  of  the  Indian  Territory. 

He  was  killed  in  the  brush  on  a  slight  elevation  by  one  of 
the  sharp-shooters  of  the  enemy.  He  was  not  in  uniform,  but 
his  dress  attracted  attention.  He  wore  a  dress  of  black  velvet, 
patent-leather  high-top  boots,  and  he  had  on  a  light-colored, 
broad-brimmed  Texan  hat.  The  soldier  who  killed  him,  a 
private  in  an  Illinois  regiment,  went  up  and  robbed  his  body 
of  a  gold  watch. 

Gen.  Mclntosh,  who  had  been  very  much  distinguished  all 
through  the  operations  in  Arkansas,  had  fallen  on  the  battle 
field,  about  the  same  time  that  McCulloch  had  been  killed. 
During  the  advance  from  Boston  Mountain,  he  had  been  placed 
in  command  of  the  cavalry  brigade,  and  in  charge  of  the 
pickets.  He  was  alert,  daring,  and  devoted  to  his  duty.  His 
kindness  of  disposition,  with  his  reckless  bravery,  had  attached 
the  troops  strongly  to  him,  so  that,  after  McCulloch  fell,  had 
he  remained  to  lead  them,  all  would  have  been  well  with  the 
right  wing;  but,  after  leading  a  brilliant  charge  of  cavalry 
and  carrying  the  enemy's  battery,  he  rushed  into  the  thickest 
of  the  fight  again  at  the  head  of  his  old  regiment,  and  was  shot 
through  the  heart. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR  287 

A  noble  boj  from  Missouri,  Churchill  Clarke,  commanded  a 
battery  of  artiLery,  and,  during  the  fierce  artillery  action  of  the 
7th  and  8th,  was  conspicuous  for  the  daring  and  skill  which  he 
exhibited.  He  fell  at  the  very  close  of  the  action. 

While  there  was,  in  Richmond,  great  anxiety  to  construe 
aright  the  imperfect  and  uncertain  intelligence  which  had  ar 
rived  there,  by  devious  ways,  from  Arkansas,  news  reached 
the  Southern  capital  of  a  brilliant  and  undoubted  victory  still 
further  to  the  West,  in  the  distant  territory  of  New  Mexico. 
This  victory  had  been  achieved  weeks  before  the  slow  intelli 
gence  of  it  reached  Richmond.  Although  it  had  taken  place 
on  a  remote  theatre,  and  was  but  little  connected  with  the 
general  fortunes  of  the  war,  the  victory  of  Yalverde  had  a 
good  effect  upon  the  spirits  of  the  Southern  people,  which  had 
been  so  long  depressed  and  darkened  by  a  baleful  train  of 
disasters. 

THE   BATTLE    OF   VALVERDE. 

The  Confederates  marched  from  Mesilla,  in  Arizor^a,  upon 
Fort  Craig,  about  175  miles  distant,  and  there  fought  the  battle 
and  won  the  victory  of  Valverde,  on  the  21st  of  March.  Gen. 
Sibley,  with  his  command,  numbering,  rank  and  file,  two 
thousand  three  hundred  men,  left  Fort  Thorn,  eighty  miles 
below  Fort  Craig,  about  the  12th  of  February.  On  arriving  in 
the  vicinity  of  Fort  Craig,  he  learned  from  some  prisoners, 
captured  near  the  post,  that  Gen.  Canby  was  in  command  of 
the  Federal  forces  in  the  fort ;  that  he  had  twelve  hundred 
regular  troops,  two  hundred  American  volunteers,  and  five 
thousand  Mexicans,  making  his  entire  force  near  six  thousand 
four  hundred  men.  Notwithstanding  this  superior  force,  he 
boldly  advanced,  and,  on  the  19th,  crossed  the  river  near  Fort 
Craig,  and,  making  a  detour  of  some  miles,  arrived  on  the 
morning  of  the  21st  March  at  Valverde,  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  three  miles  above  the  fort,  where  a  large  body 
of  the  enemy  were  stationed  to  receive  him.  It  seems  that  all 
the  enemy's  forces,  with  the  exception  of  their  artillery  and  re 
serve,  were  upon  the  same  side  of  the  river  to  which  our  troops 
were  advancing.  A  portion  of  Col.  Baylor's  regiment,  under 
command  of  Major  Pyon,  numbering  250  men,  were  the  first 


283  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

to  engage  the  enemy.  Alone  and  unsupported  for  one  hour 
they  held  their  position  amid  a  hail  of  grape,  canister,  and 
round-shot.  At  that  time  they  were  reinforced,  and  the  battle 
became  general.  The  enemy  then  made  an  attack  upon  our 
right  wing,  and  were  repulsed.  A  general  movement  was  then 
made  upon  our  line  with  more  success,  a  portion  of  our  left 
wing  being  compelled  to  fall  back  and  take  a  new  position. 
This  was  about  2  o'clock.  The  enemy  now  supposed  they  had 
gained  the  day,  and  ordered  their  battery  across  the  river, 
which  was  done,  and  the  battery  planted  upon  the  bank.  As 
soon  as  the  battery  opened  General  Sibley  knew  it  had  crossed, 
and  immediately  ordered  a  general  charge,  which  was  per 
formed  only  as  Texans  can  do  it.  Starting  at  a  distance  of 
eight  hundred  yards,  with  their  Camanche  war-whoop,  they  re 
served  their  fire  until  within  thirty  yards  of  the  battery,  when 
they  poured  a  deadly  fire,  with  double-barrelled  shot-guns  and 
pistols,  immediately  into  the  horror-stricken  ranks  of  their  foes. 
They  sprung  into  the  river,  and  in  crossing,  numbers  were 
killed.  Captain  Teel's  battery  now  coming  up,  closed  this 
sanguinary  contest  with  shell  and  grape,  as  they  fled  down  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river  to  the  fort.  The  battle  lasted  nine 
hours.  It  afforded  one  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  of 
valor  in  the  war — the  taking  of  a  field-battery  with  shot-guns 
and  pistols.  Our  loss  was  thirty-eight  killed,  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty  wounded ;  that  of  the  enemy,  as  given  by  them 
selves,  was  three  hundred  killed,  four  or  five  hundred  wounded, 
and  two  thousand  missing.  The  enemy  suffered  the  most  while 
retreating  across  the  river,  where  the  slaughter  was  for  some 
moments  terrible. 

After  the  victory  of  Yalverde,  the  small  force  of  Texans  not 
being  in  any  condition  to  assault  Fort  Craig,  pressed  on  to  Al 
buquerque,  about  ninety  miles  north  of  the  battle-field.  This 
city,  the  second  in  size  and  importance  in  the  territory,  having 
a  population  of  seven  or  eight  thousand,  the  Federals  had 
evacuated.  The  victorious  Confederates  still  pressed  towards 
Santa  Fe,  the  capital  city  of  the  great  central  plateau  of  inte 
rior  America,  which  the  Federals  had  also  evacuated,  and 
fallen  back  on  Fort  Union,  about  sixty  miles  northeast  of  Santa 
Fe,  and  one  of  the  strongest  fortifications  in  America. 

Thus  the  Texans  had  marched  about  three  hundie^  mi>.3 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  289 

from  Mesilla,  defeated  the  Federals  and  destroyed  their  army 
in  a  pitched  battle,  ejected  them  from  their  two  chief  cities, 
and  driven  them  out  of  the  territory  to  their  outpost  on  its 
eastern  limits. 

The  result  of  the  battle  of  Yalverde  was  encouraging,  ana 
the  prospect  was  indulged  that  New  Mexico  was  already  con 
quered,  and  that  the  Confederate  States  held  the  Southern 
overland  route  to  California. 

Referring  to  the  progress  of  the  campaign  in  Virginia,  we 
shall  find  its  plans  and  locality  widely  changed,  the  line  of  the 
Potomac  abandoned,  tand  the  long  and  persistent  struggle  of 
the  Federals  for  the  possession  of  Richmond  transferred  to  a 
new  but  not  unexpected  theatre  of  operations. 

Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston  had  determined  to  change  his  line 
011  the  Potomac,  as  the  idea  of  all  offensive  operations  on  it 
had  been  abandoned,  and  it  had  become  necessary,  in  his  opin 
ion,  that  the  main  body  of  the  Confederate  forces  in  Virginia 
should  be  in  supporting  distance  and  position  with  the  army  of 
the  Peninsula ;  and  in  the  event  of  either  being  driven  back, 
that  they  might  combine  for  final  resistance  before  Richmond. 

The  discretion  of  falling  back  from  the  old  line  of  the  Poto 
mac  was  confided  by  President  Davis  entirely  to  the  discretion 
of  Gen.  Johnston,  who  enjoyed  a  rare  exemption  from  official 
pragmatism  at  Richmond,  and  was  in  many  things  very  much 
at  liberty  to  pursue  the  counsels  of  his  own  military  wisdom. 

For  the  space  of  three  weeks  before  the  army  left  its  intrench- 
ments  at  Manassas,  preparations  were  being  made  for  falling 
back  to  the  line  of  the  Rappahannock,  by  the  quiet  and  gradual 
removal  of  the  vast  accumulations  of  army  stores ;  and  with 
such  consummate  address  was  this  managed,  that  our  own 
troops  had  no  idea  of  what  was  intended  until  the  march  was 
taken  up.  The  first  intimation  the  enemy  had  of  the  evacua 
tion  of  Manassas  was  the  smoke  of  the  soldiers'  huts  that  had 
been  fired  by  our  army. 

That  the  strategic  plans  of  the  enemy  were  completely  foiled 
by  the  movement  of  Gen.  Johnston,  was  quite  evident  in  th« 
tone  of  disappointment  and  vexation  in  which  the  Northern 
newspapers  referred  to  the  evacuation  of  Manassas,  which, 
unless  there  had  been  some  disconcert  of  their  own  strategy  by 
such  an  event,  they  would  have  been  likely  to  regard  us  a  con- 

19 


290  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

siderable  advantage  on  their  side  in  letting  them  further  into 
the  territory  of  Virginia. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   KERNSTOWN. 

While  our  forces  deserted  the  old  line  of  the  Potomac,  it  was 
determined  not  to  leave  the  Yalley  of  Virginia  undefended,  and 
the  command  of  Gen.  Jackson  was  left  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Winchester,  to  operate  to  the  best  advantage. 

Near  the  town  of  Winchester  occurred,  on  the  23d  of  March, 
what  was  known  as  the  battle  of  Kernstown.  The  Federals 
were  attacked  by  our  forces  under  Gen.  Jackson,  the  engage 
ment  having  been  brought  on  by  the  gallant  Col.  Ashby,  who 
had  been  fighting  the  enemy  wherever  he  had  shown  himself  in 
the  Yalley.  The  Confederate  forces  amounted  to  six  thousand 
men,  with  Capt.  McLaughlin's  battery  of  artillery  and  Colonel 
Ashby's  cavalry.  All  the  trocrps  engaged  were  from  Yirginia, 
except  a  few  companies  from  Maryland.  It  was  thought  that 
there  would  be  but  a  very  small  force  at  the  point  of  attack, 
but  the  enemy  proved  to  be  nearly  eighteen  thousand  strong 
with  a  considerable  number  of  field-pieces.  They  occupied  a 
rising  ground,  and  a  very  advantageous  position. 

Qen.  Banks  had  concluded  that  there  was  no  enemy  in  front 
except  Ashby's  force  of  cavalry ;  that  Gen.  Jackson  would  not 
venture  to  separate  himself  so  far  from  the  main  body  of  the 
Confederate  army  as  to  offer  him  battle,  and  under  these  im 
pressions  he  had  left  for  Washington.  On  Sunday  morning, 
Oen.  Shields,  who  had  been  left  in  command  of  the  Federals, 
satisfied  that  a  considerable  force  was  before  him,  concentrated 
his  whole  force,  and  prepared  to  give  battle.  The  action  com 
menced  about  four  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  terminated  when 
night  closed  upon  the  scene  of  conflict.  Our  men  fought  with 
desperation  until  dark,  when  the  firing  on  both  sides  ceased. 
During  the  night,  Gen.  Jackson  decided  to  fall  back  to  Cedar 
creek,  and  prepare  there  to  make  successful  opposition  with 
Lis  small  force,  should  the  enemy  advance.  The  enemy  was 
left  in  possession  of  the  field  of  battle,  two  guns  and  four 
caissons,  and  about  three  hundred  prisoners.  Our  loss  waa 
bout  one  hundred  killed,  and  probably  twice  that  number 
wounded.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was  certainly  more  than 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  291 

double.  At  one  period  of  the  fight  our  men  had  got  posses- 
Bion  of  a  stone  wall,  which  formed  the  boundary  of  two  fields, 
and  dropping  on  their  knees,  had  fired  deadly  volleys  into  the 
advancing  lines  of  the  enemy.  The  Confederates  carried  off 
the  greater  portion  of  the  wounded  up  the  Valley.  Their  re 
treat  was  conducted  in  perfect  order ;  and  even  Gen.  Shields, 
in  his  accounts  of  the  affair,  which  were  very  much  exagger 
ated,  of  course,  for  the  purposes  of  popular  sensation  in  the 
North,  testified  of  the  Confederates,  that  "such  was  their  gal 
lantry  and  high  state  of  discipline,  that  at  no  time  during  the 
battle  or  pursuit  did  they  give  way  to  panic." 

The  enemy  had  but  little  reason  to  boast  of  the  battle  of 
Kernstown.  In  fact,  the  affair  was  without  general  significa 
tion.  It  was  an  attack  by  the  Confederates,  undertaken  on 
false  information,  gallantly  executed,  and,  although  unsuccess 
ful,  was  not  disastrous.  The  Northern  troops  had  made  no  ad 
vance  in  the  Valley ;  from  the  Manassas  line  they  had  actually 
retired ;  nor  had  they  any  considerable  body  of  troops  this  side 
of  Centreville.  Whether  they  would  ever  attempt  to  execute 
their  original  plan,  of  a  march  through  Piedmont  to  Richmond, 
was  now  more  than  problematical. 

The  greater  portion  of  our  dead  left  on  the  field  of  battle 
were  buried  under  the  direction  of  the  mayor  of  Winchester. 
Some  fifty  citizens  collected  the  dead,  dug  a  great  pit  on  the 
battle-field,  and  gently  laid  the  poor  fellows  in  their  last  rest 
ing-place.  It  was  a  sad  sight,  and  sadder  still  to  see  women 
looking  carefully  at  every  corpse  to  try  to  identify  the  bodies 
of  their  friends.  Scarcely  a  family  in  the  county  but  had  a 
relative  there.  But  their  suffering  did  not  mollify  the  noble 
Southern  women  of  Winchester.  Every  feeling,  testified  a 
Federal  ofiicer  who  witnessed  the  sad  and  harrowing  scenes  of 
the  battle-field,  seemed  to  have  been  extinguished  in  their  in 
tense  hatred  of  "  the  Yankees."  "  They  would  say,  '  You  may 
bring  the  whole  force  of  the  North  here,  but  you  can  never 
conquer  us, — we  will  shed  our  last  drop  of  blood,' "  &c. 

Col.  Ashby  covered  the  retreat  of  the  army,  and  by  his  tire 
less  energy,  made  himself,  as  on  many  other  occasions,  the 
terror  of  the  Yankees.  The  daring  feats  and  heroic  exploits  of 
this  brave  ofiicer  were  universal  themes  of  admiration  in  the 
and  were  rehearsed  by  the  people  of  the  Valley,  who 


292  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

idolized  him,  with  infinite  gratification  and  delight.  A  fer? 
months  before,  when  Winchester  had  been  evacuated,  under 
orders  from  the  War  Department,  he  had  been  unwilling  to 
leave  the  town,  and  had  lingered  behind,  watching  the  ap 
proach  of  the  haughty  and  unprincipled  foe  into  this  ancient 
town  of  the  Valley.  He  waited  until  the  Federal  columns  had 
filled  the  streets,  and,  within  two  hundred  yards  of  them, 
cheered  for  the  Southern  Confederacy,  and  then  dashed  off  at 
full  speed  for  the  Yalley  turnpike.  He  reached  it  only  to  find 
his  way  intercepted  by  two  of  the  enemy's  pickets.  Nothing 
daunted,  he  drew  his  pistol  and  shot  down  one  of  the  pickets, 
and,  seizing  the  other,  dragged  him  off  a  prisoner,  and  brought 
him  safely  to  the  Confederate  lines.  It  was  adventures  like 
these,  as  well  as  extraordinary  gallantry  in  the  field,  that  made 
the  name  of  the  brave  Virginia  cavalier  conspicuous  throughout 
the  South,  and  a  tower  of  strength  with  those  for  whose  homes 
and  firesides  he  had  been  struggling. 

The  personal  appearance  of  Col.  Ashby  was  not  striking. 
He  was  of  small  stature.  He  wore  a  long  black  beard,  and 
had  dark,  glittering  eyes.  It  was  not  generally  known  that 
the  man  who  performed  such  deeds  of  desperate  valor  and  en 
terprise,  and  who  was  generally  pictured  to  the  imagination  as 
a  fierce,  stalwart,  and  relentless  adventurer,  was  as  remarkable 
for  his  piety  and  devoutness  as  for  his  military  achievements. 
His  manners  were  a  combination,  not  unusual  in  the  truly  re 
fined  spirit,  of  gentleness  with  the  most  enthusiastic  courage 
It  was  said  of  him,  that  when  he  gave  his  most  daring  com 
mands,  he  would  gently  draw  his  sabre,  wave  it  around  his 
head,  and  then  his  clear,  sounding  voice  would  ring  out  the 
simple  but  thrilling  words,  "  Follow  me."  In  such  a  spirit  we 
recognize  the  fine  mixture  of  elements  that  the  world  calls 
heroism. 

The  Northern  forces  pursued  neither  the  retreat  of  Johnston 
from  Manassas,  nor  that  of  Jackson  from  Winchester.  On  the 
contrary,  they  withdrew  the  forces  first  advanced,  and  blocked 
the  road  between  Strasburg  and  Winchester.  It  was  known, 
however,  about  this  time,  that  the  camps  at  Washington  had 
been  rapidly  diminished,  and  that  McClellan  had  totally  disap 
peared  from  the  scene.  At  the  same  time  an  unusual  confi 
dence  was  expressed  in  the  Northern  journals  that  Richmond 


THE    FIRST    YEAR,  293 

would  now  fall  almost  immediately  into  the  hands  of  their 
generals.  Then  followed  the  daily  announcements  of  fleets  of 
transports  arriving  in  Hampton  Roads,  and  the  vast  extension 
of  the  long  line  of  tents  at  Newport  News.  These  were  evi 
dent  indications  of  the  intention  of  the  enemy  to  abandon  for 
the  present  other  projects  for  the  capture  of  Richmond,  so  as  tc 
make  his  great  effort  on  the  Peninsula  formed  by  the  York  and 
James  rivers. 

General  Magruder,  the  hero  of  Bethel,  and  a  conimandei 
who  was  capable  of  much  greater  achievements,  was  left  to  con 
front  the  growing  forces  on  the  Peninsula,  which  daily  men 
aced  him,  with  an  army  of  seventy-five  hundred  men,  while  the 
great  bulk  of  the  Confederate  forces  were  still  in  motion  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Rappahannock  and  the  Rapidan,  and  he 
had  no  assurance  of  reinforcements.  The  force  of  the  enemy 
was  ten  times  his  own ;  they  had  commenced  a  daily  cannon 
ading  upon  his  lines ;  and  a  council  of  general  officers  was  con 
vened,  to  consult  whether  the  little  army  of  seven  thousand 
five  hundred  men  should  maintain  its  position  in  the  face  of  ten 
fold  odds,  or  retire  before  the  enemy.  The  opinion  of  the 
council  was  unanimous  for  the  latter  alternative,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  one  officer,  who  declared  that  every  man  should  die 
in  the  intrenchments  before  the  little  army  should  fall  back. 
"By  G— ,  it  shall  be  so !"  was  the  sudden  exclamation  of  Gen. 
Magruder,  in  sympathy  with  the  gallant  suggestion.  The  res 
olution  demonstrated  a  remarkable  heroism  and  spirit.  Our 
little  force  was  adroitly  extended  over  a  distance  of  several 
miles,  reaching  from  Mulberry  Island  to  Gloucester  Point,  a 
regiment  being  posted  here  and  there,  in  every  gap  plainly 
open  to  observation,  and  on  other  portions  of  the  line  the  men 
being  posted  at  long  intervals,  to  give  the  appearance  of  num 
bers  to  the  enemy.  Had  the  weakness  of  Gen.  Magruder  at 
this  time  been  known  to  the  enemy,  he  might  have  suffered  the 
consequences  of  his  devoted  and  self-sacrificing  courage ;  but 
as  it  was,  he  held  his  lines  on  the  Peninsula  until  they  were 
reinforced  by  the  most  considerable  portion  of  Gen.  Johnston's 
forces,  and  made  the  situation  of  a  contest  upon  which  the  at 
tention  of  the  public  was  unanimously  fixed  as  the  most  de 
cisive  of  the  war. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  at  this  time  to  follow  up  the  develop 


294  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ments  of  the  situation  on  the  Peninsula.  "We  must,  for  the 
present,  leave  affairs  there  in  the  crisis  to  which  we  have 
brought  them,  while  we  refer  to  a  serious  recurrence  of  dis 
asters  about  this  time  on  our  sea-coast  and  rivers,  where  again 
the  lesson  was  repeated  to  us  of  the  superiority  of  the  enemy 
on  the  water,  not  by  any  mysterious  virtue  of  gunboats,  but 
solely  on  account,  as  we  shall  show,  of  inefficiency  and  improv 
idence  in  our  government. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  the  town  of  Newbern,  in  North  Caro 
lina,  was  taken  by  the  Federals,  under  command  of  General 
Burnside,  after  a  feeble  resistance.  The  day  before,  the  Fed 
erals  had  landed  about  ten  thousand  troops  fifteen  miles  below 
Newbern,  and  at  the  same  time  had  ascended  the  river  with  a 
fleet  of  gunboats,  which,  as  they  advanced,  shelled  the  woods 
in  every  direction.  The  next  morning  the  fighting  was  com 
rnenced  at  early  dawn,  and  continued  until  half-past  ten  o'clock, 
when  our  forces,  being  almost  completely  surrounded,  wer><> 
compelled  to  retreat.  All  the  forts  on  the  river  were  aban 
doned.  Fort  Thompson  was  the  most  formidable  of  these.  I* 
was  four  miles  from  Newbern,  and  mounted  thirteen  heav;> 
guns,  two  of  them  rifled  32-pounders.  The  guns  at  Fort  Ellis, 
three  miles  from  !Newbern,  were  dismounted  and  thrown  dowja 
the  embankment.  Fort  Lane,  mounting  eight  guns,  two  milea 
from  Kewbern,  was  blown  up.  In  the  first  attack  upon  our 
lines,  at  7  o'clock,  the  enemy  had  been  repulsed  three  times 
successively  "by  our  infantry,  with  the  assistance  of  Fort  Thomp 
son  ;  but  having  flanked  our  forces  on  the  right,  which  caused 
a  panic  among  the  militia,  he  had  changed  the  fortunes  oi 
the  day.  The  railroad  bridge  across  ISTeuse  river  was  not 
burnt  until  after  all  our  troops  had  crossed,  except  those  whose 
escape  had  been  effectually  cut  off  by  the  enemy.  The  Fed 
erals  achieved  a  complete  victory  after  a  contest  of  very  short, 
duration,  having  taken  about  five  hundred  prisoners,  over  fifty 
pieces  of  cannon,  and  large  quantities  of  arms  and  ammunition. 

The  easy  defeat  of  the  Confederate  forces  at  JSfewbern,  the 
surrender  of  our  fortifications,  on  which  thousands  of  dollars 
had  recently  been  expended,  and  the  abandonment  not  only  of 
our  heavy  guns,  but  of  some  of  our  field-guns  also,  was  a  sub 
iect  of  keen  mortification  to  the  South.  The  fact  was  known 
that  our  force  at  Xewbern  was  verv  inadequate — not  more  thac 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  295 

five  thousand — a  part  of  whom  were  militia,  and  had  been  left, 
despite  of  appeals  to  the  government  for  reinforcements,  to  en 
counter  whatever  force  Gen.  Burnside  should  choose  to  bring 
against  them.  Gen.  Branch,  who  was  in  command  of  the  Con 
federate  forces,  and  who  displayed  courage  and  judgment,  was 
compelled  to  fight  at  Newbern.  To  have  given  it  up  without 
a  struggle,  after  all  that  had  been  done  there,  would  have 
brought  him  into  discredit  with  the  government,  the  people, 
and  the  troops.  As  it  was,  the  enemy  had  gained  an  important 
position  within  easy  reach  of  the  Wilmington  and  Weldon 
road.  But  few  persons  remained  in  the  town.  Seven  trains  left 
for  Goldsboro',  all  crowded  to  overflowing  by  fugitive  sqldiers 
and  panic-stricken  people.  A  shell  from  the  enemy's  gunboats 
fell  within  twenty-five  feet  of  the  last  train  as  it  moved  off. 
Women  and  children  were  overtaken  by  the  trains  many  miles 
from  Newbern,  some  in  vehicles  of  various  kinds,  and  many  on 
foot.  The  panic  and  disorganization  extended  for  miles,  and 
yet  there  was  a  nobility  in  the  determination  of  the  population 
of  Newbern  to  fly  anywhere  rather  than  court  security  in  their 
homes  by  submission  to  the  enemy.  The  town  of  Newborn 
originally  contained  twelve  hundred  people ;  when  occupied  by 
the  enemy,  it  contained  one  hundred  people,  male  and  female, 
of  the  old  population. 

On  the  12th  day  of  April  one  year  ago,  the  guns  and  mor 
tars  of  the  South  Carolina  batteries  opened  upon  the  then  hos 
tile  walls  of  Fort  Sumter.  Strangely  enough,  the  first  anni 
versary  of  the  event  was  signalized  by  the  startling  and  un 
comfortable  announcement  that  Fort  Pulaski,  the  principal 
defence  of  the  city  of  Savannah,  had  surrendered  to  the  Yan 
kees,  after  a  brief  bombardment.  The  news  was  all  the  more 
unpleasant,  from  the  fact  that  the  day  before  the  public  had 
been  informed  by  telegraph  that  the  enemy's  batteries  had 
been  "  silenced."  It  seems  that  they  were  not  silent  until  our 
flag  was  struck.  The  surrender  was  unconditional,  and  the 
garrison,  consisting  of  more  than  three  hundred  men,  four  of 
whom  had  been  wounded  and  none  killed,  were  made  prisoners 
of  war. 

Another  Confederate  disaster  on  the  coast  shortly  ensued,  in 
the  surrender  of  Fort  Macon.  This  fort,  on  the  Not  th  Carolina 
coast,  svas  surrendered  on  the  25th  of  April,  after  a  bombard- 


296  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAE. 

inent  from  the  enemy's  land  batteries  of  less  than  twelve  hours 
It  commanded  the  entrance  to  Beaufort  harbor,  and  was  said 
to  be  the  most  formidable  fortification  on  the  North  Carolina 
coast. 

For  these  painful  and  almost  humiliating  disasters  on  our 
coast  and  rivers,  a  ready  but  very  silly  excuse  was  always  at 
hand.  A  most  pernicious  and  false  idea  appeared  to  have 
taken  possession  of  the  public  mind  with  reference  to  the  essen 
tial  superiority  of  the  enemy  on  water.  A  very  obvious  reflec 
tion  of  common  sense  dissipates  the  idea  of  any  essential  advan 
tage  which  the  enemy  had  over  us  on  the  water.  The  failures 
in  our  defences  had  been  most  unjustly  attributed  to  the  bug 
bear  of  gunboats,  when  they  ought  to  have  been  ascribed  to  n<s 
more  unavoidable  causes  than  our  own  improvidence  and  neg 
lect. 

The  suggestion  of  common  sense  is,  that  if  it  was  possible 
to  make  a  vessel  ball-proof,  it  was  certainly  much  easier  to 
make  a  fortification  ball-proof.  The  excuse  had  been  persist 
ently  made  for  our  lack  of  naval  defences,  that  it  was  difficult 
to  supply  the  necessary  machinery,  and  almost  impossible,  with 
the  limited  means  at  our  disposal,  to  construct  steam-engines. 
But  these  excuses  about  lack  of  machinery  and  steam-engines 
did  not  apply  to  our  land  defences.  ISTo  machinery  was  neces 
sary  ;  no  engine  was  necessary ;  and  no  consultation  of  curved 
lines  of  naval  architecture  was  required  to  make  a  land  fortifi 
cation  ball-proof.  The  iron  plate  that  was  fitted  on  the  side  of 
a  gunboat  had  only  to  be  placed  on  a  dead  surface,  to  make 
the  land  fortification  a  match  in  invulnerability  to  the  iron- 
plated  man-of-war.  This  was  common  sense.  Unfortunately, 
however,  it  was  a  common  sense  which  the  scientists  of  West 
Point  had  been  unable  to  appreciate.  While  the  public  mind 
had  been  busy  in  ascribing  so  many  of  our  late  disasters  to 
some  essential  and  mysterious  virtue  in  iron-plated  boats,  it 
seemed  never  to  have  occurred  to  it  that  it  was  much  easier  to 
construct  iron-plated  batteries  on  land  than  the  iron-plated 
Bides  of  a  ship,  besides  giving  the  structure  the  power  of  loco 
motion,  and  that  our  defeats  on  the  water,  instead  of  being 
charged  to  "gunboats,"  or  to  "the  dispensations  of  Provi 
dence,"  had  been  but  the  natural  results  of  human  neglect  and 
human  stupidity. 


THE    FIRST    YEAK.  297 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

The  Campaign  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.— Bombardment  of  Island  No.  10. — The 
Scenes,  Incidents,  and  Results.— Fruits  of  the  Northern  Victory.— Movements  of  the 
Federals  on  the  Tennessee  River.— The  BATTLE  OF  SHILOH.— A  "  Los*,  Opportunity." 
—Death  of  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston.— Comparison  between  the  Battles  of 
Shiloh  and  Mauassas. — The  Federal  Expeditions  into  North  Alabama. — Withdrawal 
of  the  Confederate  Forces  from  the  Trans-Mississippi  District. — General  Price  and 
his  Command.— The  FALL  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.— The  Flag  Imbroglio.— Major-general 
Butler.— Causes  of  the  Disaster.— Its  Results  and  Consequences.— The  Fate  of  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

THE  last  period  of  onr  narrative  of  events  in  Tennessee,  left 
Gen.  Johnston  making  a  southward  movement  towards  the  left 
bank  of  the  Tennessee  river,  for  the  objects  of  the  defence  of 
Memphis  and  the  Mississippi  river,  and  indicated  the  important 
position  of  Island  No.  10,  forty-five  miles  below  Columbus,  as 
still  in  possession  of  the  Confederates. 

This  important  position  in  the  Mississippi  river  was  defended 
by  General  Beauregard  with  extraordinary  vigor  and  success 
against  the  fleet  of  the  enemy's  gunboats,  under  the  command 
of  Flag-officer  Foote.  The  works  were  erected  with  the  highest 
engineering  skill,  were  of  great  strength,  and,  with  their  natural 
advantages,  were  thought  to  be  impregnable. 

The  bombardment  of  Madrid  Bend  and  Island  No.  10  com 
menced  on  the  15th  of  March,  and  continued  constantly  night 
and  day.  On  the  17th  a  general  attack,  with  five  gunboats 
and  four  mortar-boats,  was  made,  which  lasted  nine  hours. 
The  attack  was  unsuccessful.  On  the  first  of  April,  General 
Beauregard  telegraphed  to  the  War  Department  at  Richmond 
that  the  bombardment  had  continued  for  fifteen  days,  in  which 
time  the  enemy  had  thrown  three  thousand  shells,  expending 
about  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  powder,  with  the  result 
on  our  side  of  one  man  killed  and  none  seriously  wounded.  The 
gratifying  statement  was  also  made  in  General  Beauregard'a 
dispatches  that  our  batteries  were  entirely  intact.  "We  had 
disabled  one  of  the  enemy's  gunboats  and  another  was  reported 
to  be  sunk,  and  the  results  of  the  bor.ibardmont  so  far  as  it  had 


298  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAS. 

continued,  afforded  room  for  congratulation  that  the  fantasy  ot 
the  invincible  power  of  Yankee  gunboats  would  at  last  be  dis 
pelled,  and  that  the  miserable  history  of  the  surrender  of  all  our 
forts  to  this  power  was  destined  to  wind  up  in  a  decisive  and 
brilliant  Confederate  triumph  on  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  daily  bulletin  from  Island  "No.  10,  for  many  days,  repre 
sented  that  the  enemy,  after  an  incessant  bombardment  of 
many  hours,  had  inflicted  no  injury.  The  people  of  the  South 
were  constantly  assured  that  the  place  was  impregnable,  and 
that  the  enemy  never  could  pass  it. 

The  bombardment  had  been  one  of  unparalleled  length  in 
the  war.  Every  day  the  mortars  continued  to  boom,  and  still 
the  cannon  of  the  island  replied  with  dull,  sullen  roar,  wasting 
shot  and  temper  alike.  The  very  birds  became  accustomed  to 
the  artificial  thunder,  and  alighted  upon  the  branches  of  trees 
overhanging  the  mortars  in  the  sulphurous  smoke.  The  scenes 
of  this  long  bombardment  are  described  as  affording  some  of 
the  most  magnificent  spectacles — the  tongues  of  flame  leaping 
irom  the  mouths  of  the  mortars  amid  a  crash  like  a  thousand 
thunders,  and  then  the  columns  of  smoke  rolling  up  in  beauti 
ful  fleecy  spirals,  developing  into  rings  of  exquisite  proportions, 
It  is  only  necessary  for  one  to  realize  the  sublime  poetry  of 
war,  as  illustrated  in  the  remarkable  scenes  at  Island  No.  10, 
to  imagine  a  dozen  of  these  monsters  thundering  at  once,  the 
air  filled  with  smoke  clouds,  the  gunboats  belching  out  destruc 
tion  and  completely  hidden  from  sight  in  whirls  of  smoke,  the 
shells  screaming  through  the  air  with  an  unearthly  sound,  and 
the  distant  guns  of  the  enemy  sending  their  solid  shot  above 
and  around  the  island,  dashing  the  water  up  in  glistening  col 
umns  and  jets  of  spray. 

While  the  people  of  the  South  were  induced  to  anticipate  a 
decisive  and  final  repulse  of  the  enemy  on  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi,  the  news  reached  them  through  Northern  channels 
that  the  capture  of  Island  No.  10  had  been  effected  on  the  8th 
of  April,  and  that  not  only  had  the  position  been  weakly  sur 
rendered,  but  that  we  had  saved  none  of  our  cannon  or  muni 
tions,  had  lost  our  boats,  and  had  left  about  six  hundred  pris 
oners  on  the  island  in  the  hands  cf  the  enemy. 

The  evacuation  of  the  island,  which  was  effected  in  the  great- 
eat  precipitation — our  sick  being  abandoned,  there  being  no 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  299 

concert  of  action  whatever  between  tlie  Confederates  upon  the 
island  and  those  occupying  the  shore,  the  latter  fleeing,  leaving 
the  former  to  their  fate — had  taken  place  "but  two  days  after 
Gen.  Beauregard  had  left  command  of  the  post  for  important 
operations  to  check  the  movements  of  the  enemy  on  the  Ten* 
nessee  river,  which  were  developing  a  design  to  cut  off  his 
communication  in  west  Tennessee  with  the  eastern  and  southern 
States.  Gen.  Makall  had  been  appointed  to  take  command  oi 
the  post.  He  assumed  it  on  the  5th  of  April,  in  a  flaming  or 
der,  in  which  he  announced  to  the  soldiers  :  "  Let  me  tell  you 
who  I  am.  I  am  a  general  made  by  Beauregard — a  general 
selected  by  Gens.  Beauregard  and  Bragg."  In  the  mean  time, 
the  enemy  was  busy,  and  his  operations  were  suffered  to  es 
cape  the  vigilance  of  the  Confederate  com  nander.  The  Fed 
erals  had  cut  a  canal  across  the  peninsula  at  New  Madrid, 
through  which  the  steamers  and  several  barges  were  taken. 
The  undertaking  was  an  herculean  one.  The  canal  was  twelve 
miles  long,  through  heavy  timber,  which  had  to  be  sawed  off 
by  hand  four  feet  under  water. 

One  of  the  enemy's  gunboats  had  succeeded  in  passing  the 
island  in  a  heavy  fog.  On  the  night  of  the  5th  of  April,  the 
enemy,  with  a  gunboat  engaged  Rucker's  battery.  While  at 
tention  was  engaged  with  this  boat,  a  second  gunboat  slipped 
down  unperceived,  except  by  the  men  at  one  of  the  batteries, 
who  fired  two  shots  at  her  without  effect.  The  situation  was 
now  serious  ;  the  enemy  had  possession  of  the  river  beh  w  the 
island.  On  the  night  of  April  6,  Gen.  Makall  moved  the  in 
fantry  and  Stewart's  battery  to  the  Tennessee  shore,  to  pro 
tect  the  landing  from  anticipated  attacks.  The  artillerists 
remained  on  the  island.  The  enemy  having  effected  a  landing 
above  and  below  the  island  in  large  force,  its  surrender  might 
be  considered  as  a  military  necessity.  But  there  could  be  no 
excuse  for  the  wretched  management  and  infamous  scenes  that 
attended  the  evacuation.  All  our  guns,  seventy  in  number, 
varying  in  calibre  from  32  to  100  pounders,  rifled,  were  aban 
doned,  together  with  our  magazines,  which  were  well  supplied 
with  powder,  large  quantities  of  shot,  shell,  and  other  muni 
tions  of  war.  The  transports  and  boats  were  scuttled.  Noth 
ing  seems  to  have  been  done  properly.  The  guns  were  spiked 
with  rat-tail  files,  but  so  imperfectly  that  several  of  them 


300  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

were  rendered  serviceable  to  the  enemy  in  a  very  short  time. 
The  floating  battery,  formerly  the  Pelican  Dock  at  New  Or 
leans,  of  sixteen  heavy  guns,  after  being  scuttled,  was  cut  loose. 
At  daylight  it  was  found  lodged  a  short  distance  above  Point 
Pleasant,  and  taken  possession  of  by  the  enemy.  Four  steamers 
afloat  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  with  all  the  stores  on 
board. 

The  unhappy  men  on  the  island  were  abandoned  to  their 
fate,  the  Confederates  on  the  mainland  having  fled  with  pre 
cipitation.  On  one  of  the  hospital  boats  were  a  hundred  poor 
wretches,  half  dead  with  disease  and  neglect.  On  the  shore 
were  crowds  of  our  men  wandering  around  among  the  profu 
sion  of  ammunition  and  stores.  A  few  of  them  effected  their 
escape  through  the  most  remarkable  dangers  and  adventures. 
Some  trusted  themselves  to  hastily  constructed  rafts,  with 
which  to  float  down  the  Mississippi,  hoping  to  attract  the  at 
tention  and  aid  of  the  people  living  on  the  shore.  Others 
gained  the  upper  banks  of  the  river,  where,  for  several  days 
and  nights,  they  wandered,  lost  in  the  extensive  cane-brakes, 
•without  food,  and  in  severe  toil.  Some  two  or  three  hundred 
of  the  stragglers,  principally  from  the  forces  on  the  mainland, 
succeeded  in  making  their  way  to  Bell's  Station,  on  the  Ohio 
railroad,  and  reached  Memphis. 

The  disaster  was  considerable  enough  in  the  loss  of  Island 
"No.  10 ;  but  the  circumstances  attending  it,  and  the  conse 
quences  in  the  loss  of  men,  cannon,  ammunition,  supplies,  and 
every  thing  appertaining  to  an  army,  all  of  which  might  pos 
sibly  have  been  avoided,  increased  the  regrets  of  the  South, 
and  swelled  the  triumph  of  her  enemies.  Our  total  loss  in 
prisoners,  including  those  taken  on  the  mainland  as  well  aa 
those  abandoned  on  the  island,  was  probably  not  less  than  two 
thousand.  The  Federal  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Welles, 
had  reason  to  declare,  that  "the  triumph  was  not  the  less 
appreciated,  because  it  was  protracted,  and  finally  bloodless.' 
No  single  battle-field  had  yet  afforded  to  the  North  such  visible 
fruits  of  victory  as  had  been  gatherc  i  at  Island  No.  10. 


THK    FIKST    YEAR.  301 


THE   BATTLE   OF   SH1LQH. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  movements  of  the  eneiry  on  the  Ten 
nessee  river  were  preparing  the  situation  for  one  of  the  grand 
est  battles  that  had  yet  been  fonght  in  any  quarter  of  the  war, 
or  had  yet  illustrated  the  exasperation  and  valor  of  the  con 
testants.     Gen.  Beauregard  had  determined  to  foil  the  apparent 
designs  of  the  enemy  to  cut  off  his  communication  with  the 
south  and  east,  by  concentrating  all  his  available  forces  at  and 
around  Corinth.     This  town  is  situated  at  the  junction  of  the 
Memphis  and  Charleston  and  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railroads, 
about  ninety-two  miles  east  of  Memphis. 

'  Gen.  Johnston  had  taken  up  a  line  of  march  from  Murfrees- 
boro,  to  form  a  junction  of  his  forces  with  those  of  General 
Beauregard.  By  the  1st  of  April,  these  united  forces  were 
concentrated  along  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railroad  from  Bethel 
to  Corinth,  and  on  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad  from 
Qorinth  to  luka.  The  army  of  the  Mississippi  had  received 
other  important  accessions.  It  was  increased  by  several  regi 
ments  from  Louisiana,  two  divisions  of  Gen.  Folk's  command 
from  Columbus,  and  a  fine  corps  of  troops  from  Mobile  and 
Pensacola.  In  numbers,  in  discipline,  in  the  galaxy  of  tho 
distinguished  names  of  its  commanders,  and  in  every  article 
of  merit  and  display,  the  Confederate  army  in  the  vicinity  of 
Corinth  was  one  of  the  most  magnificent  ever  assembled  by  the 
South  on  a  single  battle-field. 

The  enemy  under  Gen.  Grant,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Teii 
nessee,  had  obtained  a  position  at  Pittsburg  and  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Savannah.  An  advance  was  contemplated  by  him,  as 
soon  as  he  could  be  reinforced  by  the  army  under  Gen.  Buell, 
then  known  to  be  advancing  for  that  purpose  by  rapid  marches 
from  Nashville  by  the  way  of  Columbus.  To  prevent  this 
demonstration,  it  was  determined  by  Gen.  Beauregard  to  press 
the  issue  without  delay.  By  a  rapid  and  vigorous  attack  on 
Gen.  Grant,  it  was  expected  he  would  be  beaten  back  into  his 
transports  and  the  river,  or  captured  in  time  to  enable  the 
Confederates  to  profit  by  the  victory,  and  remove  to  the  rear 
all  the  stores  and  munitions  that  would  fall  into  their  hands, 
in  such  an  event,  before  the  arrival  of  Gen.  Buell's  army  on 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY"    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  scene.  It  was  never  contemplated,  however,  to  retain  the 
position  thus  gained  and  abandon  Corinth,  the  strategic  point 
of  the  campaign. 

It  appears  to  have  been  Gen.  Beauregard's  plan  to  have  at 
tacked  the  enemy  in  their  encampments  on  Saturday,  the  5th. 
He,  therefore,  began  the  movement  on  Thursday,  but  the  roada 
were  heavy,  and  the  men  could  not  be  got  into  position  before 
Saturday.  Had  the  attack  been  made  on  that  day,  the  first 
day's  fighting  must  have  ended  the  conflict,  for  the  enemy 
could  have  had  no  hope  of  aid  from  Buell.  As  it  was,  one 
day  was  lost,  and  the  enemy  were  constantly  inspirited  by  the 
almost  momentary  expectation  of  the  arrival  of  Gen.  Buell.  In 
the  mean  time,  courier  after  courier  was  sent  by  Gen.  Grant 
for  Buell  to  hasten  on. 

The  Confederate  forces  did  not  reach  the  intersection  of  the 
roads  from  Pittsburg  and  Hamburg,  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  enemy,  until  late  on  Saturday  afternoon.  Their  march 
had  been  tedious  and  wearisome.  The  roads  were  narrow  and 
traversed  a  densely  wooded  country,  and  a  severe  rain-storm 
had  rendered  them  almost  impassable,  and  had  drenched  our 
troops  in  bivouac. 

The  morning  of  the  6th  of  April  (Sunday)  was  to  usher  in 
the  bloody  scenes  of  a  memorable  battle.  One  camp  of  the 
enemy  was  near  Shiloh  church — a  rude  log  chapel ;  and  an 
other  stretched  away  in  the  direction  of  the  road  leading  from 
Pittsburg  Landing  on  the  river  to  Corinth.  The  scene  of  the 
encampment  was  a  very  beautiful  and  magnificent  one,  there 
being  but  little  undergrowth,  and  the  thin  ranks  of  the  tall 
forest-trees  affording  open  views,  while  the  interlacing  of  their 
topmost  boughs  made  a  picturesque  and  agreeable  canopy.  In 
a  military  point  of  view,  the  battle-field  m'ght  be  described  as 
a  broken  country,  presenting  opportunities  for  a  great  variety 
of  manoeuvres  and  independent  operations  by  comparatively 
small  bodies  of  men. 

On  the  Saturday  evening  preceding  the  Sunday  fight  at 
Shiloh,  there  had  been  considerable  skirmishing  on  our  lines. 
Early  Sunday  morning,  before  sunrise,  Gen.  Hardee,  in  front 
of  the  enemy's  camp,  made  an  advance  upon  it.  The  enemy 
was  taken  completely  by  surprise>  not  expecting  to  be  attacked 
under  any  circumstances,  by  our  inferior  force.  Many  of  the 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  303 

neri  were  undressed  and  in  night  attire,  and  the  hot  breakfasts 
prepared  by  the  messes  were  left  untouched  for  the  entertain 
ment  of  our  men.  A  line  of  battle  was  hastily  formed  by  tbe 
enemy,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  our  forces  were  advancing  in 
every  direction.  The  plan  of  the  battle  on  our  side  was  to 
form  three  parallel  lines — the  front,  centre,  and  rear — each  line 
having  its  centre  and  two  flanks.  The  rear  constituted  the  re 
serve,  and  the  artillery  was  distributed  between  the  first  and 
second  lines.  The  front  was  commanded  by  Gen.  Hardee,  the 
centre  by  Gen.  Bragg,  and  the  rear  by  Gen.  Polk — Johnston 
and  Beau  regard  being  with  the  latter. 

From  daylight  until  a  little  after  six  o'clock,  the  fighting 
was  principally  between  the  pickets  and  skirmishers,  but,  at 
the  latter  hour,  a  portion  of  our  main  body  appearing  in  sight, 
fire  opened  with  artillery,  and  for  an  hour  or  more  one  heard 
Qothing  but  the  incessant  uproar  of  the  heavy  guns.  Our  men, 
though  many  of  them  were  unaccustomed  to  the  iron  hail,  re 
ceived  the  onset  coolly,  awaiting  the  orders  to  rise  from  their 
recumbent  position  and  advance.  In  due  time  these  ca'me,  and 
thenceforward  through  the  day,  brave  and  disciplined  as  were 
the  Federal  troops,  nothing  seemed  capable  of  resisting  the 
desperate  valor  of  the  Confedrates.  The  enemy  fell  like  chaff 
before  the  wind.  Broken  in  ranks,  they  rallied  behind  trees 
and  in  the  underbrush,  only  to  be  again  repulsed  and  driven 
back. 

The  scenery  of  the  battle-field  was  awfully  sublime.  Far  up 
in  the  air  shells  burst  into  flame  like  shattered  stars,  and  passed 
away  in  little  clouds  of  white  vapor,  while  others  filled  the  air 
with  a  shrill  scream,  and  burst  far  in  the  rear.  All  along  the 
line  the  faint  smoke  of  the  musketry  rose  lightly,  while,  from 
the  mouths  of  the  cannon,  sudden  gusts  of  intense  white  smoke 
burst  up  all  around.  Every  second  ot  time  had  its  especial 
tone.  Bullets  shredded  the  air,  and  whistled  swiftly  by,  or 
struck  into  trees,  fences,  wagons,  or  with  their  peculiar  "  chuck" 
into  men.  Every  second  of  time  had  its  especial  tone,  and  the 
forest,  among  whose  branches  rose  the  wreathing  smoke,  was 
packed  with  dead. 

The  irresistible  attack  of  our  troops  was  compared  by  Gen. 
Beauregard,  in  his  official  report  of  the  battle,  to  "an  Alpine 
a/alanehe."  The  enemy  were  driven  back  by  a  series  of  dar- 


304  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ing,  desperate,  and  successful  charges,  the  various  Confederate 
regiments  and  brigades  rolling  rapidly  forward  to  the  sound  of 
enthusiastic  cheers.  In  all  of  these,  both  general  and  field 
officers  displayed  a  bravery  that  amounted  to  sheer  recklessness, 
frequently  leading  the  men  into  the  very  teeth  of  the  opposing 
fire.  It  was  these"  inspiring  examples  of  personal  valor  which 
made  our  troops  invincible. 

At  half-past  two,  Gen.  Johnston,  the  commander -in-chief  of 
the  Confederates,  fell.  He  was  leading  a  charge  upon1  the  third 
camp  of  the  enemy.  The  fatal  wound  was  inflicted  by  a 
musket-ball  on  the  calf  of  his  right  leg,  and  was  considered  by 
him  as  only  a  flesh  wound.  Soon  after  receiving  it,  he  gave 
ah  order  to  Governor  Harris,  who  was  acting  as  volunteer  aid 
to  him,  who,  on  his  return  to  Gen.  Johnston,  in  a  different  part 
of  the  field,  found  him  exhausted  from  loss  of  blood,  and  reel 
ing  in  his  saddle.  Hiding  up  to  him,  Governor  Harris  asked : 
"Are  you  hurt?"  To  which  the  now  dying  hero  answered: 
"Yes,  and  I  fear  mortally  ;"  and  then  stretching  out  both  arms 
to  his  companion,  fell  from  his  horse,  and  soon  after  expired, 
No  other  wounds  were  discovered  upon  his  person. 

Prudently  the  information  of  Gen.  Johnston's  fall  was  kept 
from  the  army.  But  the  day  was  already  secured.  Amid  the 
roar  of  artillery  and  the  cheers  of  the  victorious  army,  the 
commander-in-chief  quietly  breathed  his  last.  Our  forces  were 
successfully  pushing  the  enemy  back  upon  the  Tennessee  river. 
It  was  after  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  when  his  last  position 
was  carried.  The  remnant  of  his  army  had  been  driven  in 
utter  disorder  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Pittsburg,  under  the 
shelter  of  the  heavy  guns  of  his  iron -clad  gunboats,  and  the 
Confederates  remained  undisputed  masters  of  his  well-selected, 
admirably  provided  cantonments,  after  over  twelve  hours  of 
obstinate  conflict  with  his  forces,  who  had  been  beaten  from 
them  and  the  contiguous  covert,  but  only  by  a  sustained  onset 
of  all  the  men  we  could  bring  into  action. 

The  substantial  fruits  of  our  victory  were  immense.  We 
were  in  possession  of  all  the  enemy's  encampments  between 
Owl  and  Lick  rivers,  nearly  all  of  his  field  artillery,  about 
thirty  flags,  colors,  and  standards,  over  three  thousand  pris 
oners,  including  a  division  commander  (General  Prentiss)  and 
several  brigade  command ers,  thousands  of  small-arms,  an  iin 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  305 

mense  supply  of  subsistence,  forage,  and  munitions  of  war,  and 
a  large  amount  of  means  of  transportation.  Never,  perhaps^ 
was  an  army  so  well  provided  as  that  of  the  enemy,  and  never, 
perhaps,  was  one  so  completely  stripped  on  a  single  battle-field. 
On  taking  possession  of  the  enemy's  encampments,  there  were 
found  therein  the  complete  muster-rolls  of  the  expedition  up 
the  river.  It  appeared  that  we  had  engaged  the  divisions  of 
Gens.  Prentiss,  Sherman,  Hurlbut,  McClernand,  and  Smith,  of 
9,000  men  each,  or  at  least  45,000  men.  Our  entire  force  in» 
the  engagement  could  not  have  exceeded  38,000  men.  The 
flower  of  the  Federal  troops  were  engaged,  being  principally 
Western  men,  from  the  States  of  Illinois,  Indiana,  Wisconsin, 
and  Iowa.  There  were  also  quite  a  number  of  Missourians 
opposed  to  us,  who  are  said  to  have  fought  with  great  spirit, 
opposite  Gen.  Gladden's  brigade,  on  the  extreme  right.  These 
men  were  accustomed  to  lives  of  hardihood  and  adventure. 
The  captured  Federal  general,  Prentiss,  did  not  hesitate  to 
testify  to  General  Beauregard,  "  You  have  whipped  our  best 
troops  to-day." 

The  enemy's  artillery  on  the  field,  according  to  Gen.  Pren 
ties'  statement,  numbered  in  all  one  hundred  and  eight  pieces, 
or  eighteen  batteries  of  six  pieces  each.  Their  small-arms 
were  of  every  description :  Minie  rifles,  Enfield  rifles,  Maynard 
rifles,  Colt's  six-shooters,  common  muskets,  &c.,  all  of  the  best 
quality  and  workmanship.  The  Federal  equipments  left 
nothing  to  be  desired.  Their  clothing  was  of  the  best  quality 
and  abundant,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  their  supplies. 
An  abundance  of  excellent  coffee  was  found  in  their  tents — • 
beef,  pork,  butter,  cheese,  navy  biscuit,  and  sugar.  The  famous 
expedition  to  the  plains  of  Manassas  was  not  better  fitted  out 
or  supplied. 

On  Sunday  night,  Gen.  Beauregard  established  his  head 
quarters  at  the  little  church  of  Shiloh,  and  our  troops  were 
directed  to  sleep  on  their  arms  in  the  enemy's  encampment. 
The  hours,  however,  that  should  have  been  devoted  to  the 
refreshment  of  nature  were  spent  by  many  of  the  troops  in  a 
disgraceful  hunt  after  the  spoils.  The  possession  of  the  rich 
camp  of  the  enemy  seemed  to  have  demoralized  whole  regi 
ments.  All  through  the  night  and  early  the  next  morning 
the  hunt  after  the  spoils  was  continued.  Cowardly  citi«e\i$. 


306  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAE. 

and  rapacious  soldiers  were  engaged  alike  in  the  wretched 
work.  They  might  be  seen  everywhere,  plundering  the  tents 
out  of  which  the  enemy  had  been  driven,  and  loading  them 
selves  down  with  the  spoils.  The  omission  of  discipline,  which 
permitted  these  scenes,  is  not  pardonable  even  in  the  license  and 
indulgences  which  generally  attend  the  victory  of  an  army. 
The  spoils  of  a  victorious  army  should  be .  carefully  gathered 
up  and  preserved  for  the  use  of  the  army  itself.  They  are  the 
just  possession  of  the  conqueror,  are  frequently  of  great  value, 
and  should  not  be  lost  or  carried  off,  where  they  can  be  of  use. 
But,  more  than  this,  nothing  could  be  more  likely  to  demoral 
ize  troops  than  the  indiscriminate  pillage  of  an  enemy's  camp. 
It  creates  disorganization  in  the  army ;  it  so  far  stands  in  the 
way  of  a  vigorous  pursuit  of  the  enemy ;  it  demoralizes  the 
spoiler  himself,  and  lets  him  down  at  one  step  from  an  honor 
able  soldier  to  a  plundering  brigand.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the 
troops  which  confronted  the  enemy  next  morning  in  the  vicinity 
of  Pittsburg  Landing  betrayed,  however  bravely  they  fought  in 
comparison  with  the  enemy,  a  diminution  of  spirit  and  visible 
signs  of  demoralization. 

Sunday  night  found  both  armies  in  a  critical  situation.  Gen. 
Beauregard  hoped,  from  news  received  by  a  special  dispatch, 
that  delays  had  been  encountered  by  Gen.  Buell  in  his  march 
from  Columbia,  and  that  his  main  force,  therefore,  could  not 
reach  the  field  of  battle  in  time  to  save  Gen.  Grant's  shattered 
fugitive  forces  from  capture  or  destruction  on  the  following 
day.  The  situation  of  Gen.  Grant  was  that  of  the  most  ex 
treme  anxiety  to  himself.  The  enemy  had  supposed  that  the 
last  act  of  the  tragedy  would  have  been  completed  on  Saturday 
evening.  The  reserve  line  of  the  Federals  was  entirely  gone. 
Their  whole  army  was  crowded  into  a  circuit  of  half  to  two- 
thirds  of  a  mile  around  the  landing.  They  had  been  falling 
back  all  day.  The  next  repulse  would  have  put  them  into  the 
river,  and  there  were  not  transports  enough  to  cross  a  single 
division  before  the  Confederates  would  be  upon  them.  As  the 
lull  in  the  firing  of  the  Confederates  took  place,  and  the  angry 
rattle  of  musketry  died  upon  the  ears  of  the  fugitive  Federals, 
they  supposed  that  the  pursuing  army  was  preparing  for  tho 
grand  final  rush  that  was  to  crown  the  day's  success.  But 
Gen.  Beauregard  had  been  satisfied  to  pursue  the  enemy  to  the 


THE    FIRST    YEAB.  307 

river,  and  to  leave  him  under  the  cover  of  his  gunboats,  with 
out  an  attempt  to  penetrate  it.  When  it  was  understood  that 
pursuit  was  called  off,  Gen.  Grant  could  ill  conceal  his  exulta 
tion.  His  anxiety  was  suddenly  composed,  and,  in  a  tone  ol 
confidence,  he  exclaimed  to  the  group  of  officers  around  him 
"  to-morrow  they  will  be  exhausted,  and  then  we  will  go  at 
them  with  fresh  troops."  * 

He  was  right.  Looking  across  the  Tennessee,  he  could  see 
a  body  of  cavalry  awaiting  transportation  over.  They  were 
gfcj.d  to  be  Buell's  advance;  yet  they  had  been  there  an  hour 
or  two  alone.  Suddenly  there  was  a  rustle  among  the  gazers. 
They  saw  the  gleaming  of  the  gun-barrels,  and  they  caught, 
amid  the  leaves  and  undergrowth  down  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river,  glimpses  of  the  steady,  swinging  tramp  of  trained  sol 
diers.  A  division  of  Buell's  army  was  there,  and  was  hailed 
with  tremendous  cheers  by  the  men  on  the  opposite  bank  oi 
the  river. 

The  enemy  was  reinforced  on  Monday  morning  by  more  troops 
than  Gen.  Beauregard  could  have  counted  upon.  The  divisions 
of  Gens.  Nelson,  McCook,  Crittenden,  and  Thomas,  of  Buell's 
army,  had  crossed  the  river,  some  25,000  strong ;  also,  Gen.  L. 
Wallace's  division  of  Gen.  Grant's  army  had  been  moved  uj 
the  river — making  at  least  33,000  fresh  troops.  Vigorous 
preparations  were  made  by  Gen.  Beauregard  to  resist  the  as 
sault,  which  was  deemed  almost  certain  on  Monday.  A  hot 
fire  of  musketry  opened  about  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  from 
the  enemy's  quarter  upon  his  advanced  lines,  and  assured  him 
of  the  junction  of  his  forces.  The  battle  soon  raged  with  fury, 
the  enemy  being  flushed  by  his  reinforcements,  and  confident 
in  his  largely  superior  numbers. 

*  The  evidence  of  a  "lost  opportunity"  in  the  battle  of  Shiloh  abundantly 
appeared  in  the  statements  of  the  Northern  commanders.  Gen.  Prentiss  is 
reported  to  have  made  the  following  statement :  "  Gen.  Beauregard,"  he  said, 
"  asked  me  if  we  had  any  works  at  the  river,  to  which  I  replied,  '  you  must 
consider  us  poor  soldiers,  general,  if  you  suppose  we  would  have  neglected  so 
plain  a  duty  1'  The  truth  is,  however,  we  had  no  works  at  all.  Gen.  Beaure 
gard  stopped  the  pursuit  at  a  quarter  to  six ;  had  he  used  the  hour  still  left 
him,  he  could  have  captured  the  last  man  on  this  side  of  the  river,  for  Buell 
did  not  cross  till  Sunday  night." 

According  to  Buell's  report,  our  shot  were  falling  among  the  fugitivea 
crouching  under  the  river-bank  when  our  troops  were  called  off. 


308  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

On  the  right  and  centre,  the  enemy  were  repulsed  in  ever^ 
attempt  he  made  with  his  heavy  columns  in  that  quarter  of  the 
field ;  on  the  left,  however,  and  nearest  to  the  point  of  arrival 
of  his  reinforcements,  he  drove  forward  line  after  line  of  his 
fresh  troops,  which  were  met  with  resolution  and  courage. 
&gain  and  again  our  troops  were  brought  to  the  charge,  inva 
riably  to  win  the  position  at  issue,  invariably  to  drive  back  their 
foe.  But  hour  by  hour,  thus  opposed  to  an  enemy  constantly 
reinforced,  the  ranks  of  the  Confederates  were  perceptibly 
thinned  under  the  unceasing  withering  fire  of  the  enemy.  By 
noon,  eighteen  hours  of  hard  fighting  had  sensibly  exhausted  a 
large  number ;  Gen.  Beauregard's  last  reserves  had  necessarily 
been  disposed  of,  and  the  enemy  was  evidently  receiving  fresh 
reinforcements  after  each  repulse ;  accordingly,  about  1  p.  M., 
he  determined  to  withdraw  from  so  unequal  a  conflict,  securing 
such  of  the  results  of  the  victory  of  the  day  before  as  was  then 
practicable.  % 

The  retreat  was  executed  with  uncommon  steadiness,  and 
the  enemy  made  no  attempt  to  follow.  Gen.  Breckinridge 
had  been  posted  with  his  command  so  as  to  cover  the  with 
drawal  of  the  rest  of  the  army.  Gen.  Beauregard  had  ap 
proached  him  and  told  him,  that  it  might  be  necessary  for  him 
to  sacrifice  himself;  for  said  he,  "  This  retreat  must  not  be  a 
rout !  You  must  hold  the  enemy  back,  if  it  requires  the  loss 
of  your  last  man!"  "Your  orders  shall  be  executed  to  the 
letter,"  said  the  chivalrous  Breckinridge ;  and  gathering  his 
command,  fatigued  and  jaded  and  decimated  by  the  toils  and 
terrors  of  a  two  days'  battle,  he  and  they  prepared  to  devote 
themselves,  if  necessary,  for  the  safety  of  the  army.  There, 
weary  and  hungry,  they  stood  guard  and  vigil.  The  enemy, 
sorely  chastised,  did  not  indeed  come  as  expected ;  but  Breck 
inridge  and  his  heroes  deserve  none  the  less  praise. 

Never  did  troops  leave  a  battle-field  in  better  order.  Even 
the  stragglers  fell  into  the  ranks,  and  marched  off  with  those 
fvho  had  stood  more  steadily  by  their  colors.  The  fact  that  the 
enemy  attempted  no  pursuit  indicates  their  condition.  They 
had  gained  nothing ;  we  had  lost  nothing.  The  Confederates 
left  the  field  only  after  eight  hours  of  incessant  battle  with  a 
superior  army  of  fresh  troops,  whcm  they  had  repulsed  in  every 
attack  on  their  lines, — so  repulseu  and  crippled,  indeed,  as  to 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  309 

Leave  it  unable  to  take  the  field  for  the  campaign  for  which  it 
was  collected  and  equipped  at  such  enormous  expense,  and  with 
such  profusion  of  all  the  appliances  of  war.  The  action  of 
Monday  had  not  eclipsed  the  glorious  victory  of  the  preceding 
day.  Sunday  had  left  the  Confederate  army  masters  of  the 
battle-field,  their  adversary  beaten,  and  a  signal  victory  achieved 
after  an  obstinate  conflict  of  twelve  hours. 

The  result  of  the  engagement  was  most  honorable  to  the 
South,  and  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
triumphs  to  its  arms.  The  exultations,  however,  of  victory  in 
the  public  mind  were  perceptibly  tempered  by  the  sad  intelli 
gence  of  the  death  of  Gen.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston. 

The  deceased  commander  had  led,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most 
eventful  military  lives  on  this  continent.  He  was  graduated  at 
the  West  Point  Academy  in  1820,  as  lieutenant  in  the  Sixth 
Infantry,  and  after  serving  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  left  the 
army,  and  in  1836  emigrated  to  Texas,  arriving  there  shortly 
after  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto.  He  entered  the  Texan  army 
as  a  private  soldier,  and  was  soon  promoted  to  succeed  Gen. 
Felix  Houston  in  the  chief  command — an  event  which  led  to  a 
duel  between  them,  in  which  Johnston  was  wounded.  Having 
held  the  office  of  senior  brigadier-general  until  1838,  he  was 
appointed  Secretary  of  War,  and  in  1839  organized  an  expedi 
tion  against  the  Cherokees,  who  were  totally  routed  in  an  en 
gagement  on  the  Neches.  In  1840,  he  retired  from  office,  and 
settled  upon  a  plantation  in  Brazoria  county.  He  was  an  ardent 
advocate  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States.  In 
1846,  at  the  request  of  Gen.  Taylor,  he  took  the  field  against 
Mexico,  as  commander  of  the  volunteer  Texan  rifle  regiment, 
in  which  capacity  he  served  six  months.  Subsequently,  he  was 
acting  inspector-general  to  Gen.  Butler,  and  for  his  services  at 
the  siege  of  Monterey  received  the  thanks  of  his  commander. 
In  October,  1849,  he  was  appointed  paymaster  by  President 
Taylor,  with  the  rank  of  major,  and,  upon  the  passage  of  the 
act  of  Congress  authorizing  the  raising  of  additional  regiments 
in  the  army,  he  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  Second  Cavalry. 
In  the  latter  part  of  1857,  he  received  the  command  of  the 
United  States  forces  sent  to  coerce  the  Mormons  into  obedience 
to  the  Federal  authority,  and  conducted  the  expedition  in 
eafety  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City  in  the  opening  of  the  succeeding 


310  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

year.  Since  then  he  commanded  the  military  district  of  Utah 
He  resigned  the  Federal  service  as  soon  as  the  intelligence  01 
the  opening  of  the  war  reached  him,  and,  travelling  from 
California  by  the  overland  route>  reached  New  Orleans  in 
August  last.  Proceeding  to  Kichmond,  he  was  appointed,  on 
his  arrival  there,  general,  to  take  command  of  the  Department 
of  the  Mississippi. 

It  is  known  that  Gen.  Johnston  was  the  subject  of  most  un 
just  and  hasty  public  censure  in  connection  with  his  late 
retreat  from  Bowling  Green  and  fall  of  Fort  Donelson.  He  is 
said,  but  a  few  days  before  the  battle  in  which  he  fell,  to 
have  expressed  the  determination  to  discharge  his  duties  and 
responsibilities  to  his  country,  according  to  the  best  convictions 
of  his  mind,  and  a  resolution  to  redeem  his  losses  at  no  distant 
day.  According  to  the  official  report,  he  fell  in  the  thickest  of 
the  fight. 

Keen  regrets  were  felt  by  the  friends  of  Gen.  Johnston  on 
learning  the  circumstances  of  the  manner  of  his  death,  as  these 
circumstances  appeared  to  leave  bat  little  doubt  that  his  life 
might  have  been  saved  by  surgical  attention  to  his  wound. 
His  only  wound  was  from  a  musket-ball  that  severed  an  incon 
siderable  artery  in  the  thigh.  He  was  probably  unconscious  oi 
the  wound,  and  never  realized  it  until,  from  the  loss  of  blood, 
he  fell  fainting  and  dying  from  his  horse. 

Gen.  Johnston  was  in  the  natural  vigor  of  manhood,  about 
sixty  years  of  age.  He  was  about  six  feet  in  height,  strongly 
and  powerfully  formed,  with  a  grave,  dignified,  and  command 
ing  presence.  His  features  were  strongly  marked,  showing  the 
Scottish  lineage,  and  denoted  great  resolution  and  composure 
of  character.  His  complexion,  naturally  fair,  was,  from  ex 
posure,  a  deep  brown.  His  manner  was  courteous,  but  rather 
grave  and  silent.  He  had  many  devoted  friends,  but  they  had 
been  won  and  secured  rather  by  the  native  dignity  and  nobility 
of  his  character,  than  by  his  power  of  address. 

Besides  the  conspicuous  loss  of  the  commander-iii-chief, 
others  had  fallen  whose  high  qualities  were  likely  to  be  missed 
in  the  momentous  campaign  impending.  Gen.  Gladden,  of 
South  Carolina,  had  fallen,  after  having  been  conspicuous  to 
his  whole  corps  and  the  army  for  courage  and  capacity.  Dis 
tinguished  in  Mexico,  on  the  bloody  fields  of  Contreras  and 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  311 

Churubusco,  he  received  honorable  wounds.     Having  become 
a  citizen  of  Louisiana,  and  selected  to  command  a  noble  bri 
gade,  he  again  accumulated  honor  upon  his  native  State,  illus 
trated  its  martial  fame,  served  her,  no  less  than  Louisiana,  with 
his  life,  and  sealed  the  great  cause  with  his  best  blood. 

George  M.  Johnston,  Provisional  Governor  of  Kentucky, 
had  gone  into  the  action  with  the  Kentucky  troops.  Having 
his  horse  shot  under  him  on  Sunday,  he  entered  the  ranks  of  a 
Kentucky  company,  commanded  by  Capt.  Monroe,  son  of  the 
venerable  Judge  Monroe.  At  night,  while  occupying  the  same 
tent  with  the  captain,  it  occurred  to  him  that  he  had  not  taken 
the  oath  which  entitled  him  to  be  enrolled  in  that  company. 
He,  therefore,  desired  the  oath  to  be  administered,  which  was 
done  with  due  solemnity ;  "  and  now,"  said  the  new  recruit, 
"I  will  take  a  night's  rest  and  be  ready  for  a  good  day's 
fighting."  Faithfally  he  kept  his  pledge,  and  fell  mortally 
wounded  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  In  making  official  men 
tion  of  his  death,  Gen.  Beauregard  declared  that  "  not  Ken 
tucky  alone,  but  the  whole  Confederacy  had  sustained  a  great 
loss  in  the  death  of  this  brave,  upright,  and  able  man."  He 
was  one  of  a  family  of  heroes,  the  nephew  of  the  dauntless 
chief  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames,  and  the  man  who,  during  a 
long  public  and  private  career,  had  been  ever  regarded  one  oi 
the  noblest  of  Kentucky  chevaliers,  true  and  worthy  governor 
of  all  that  was  left  of  Kentucky. 

The'  fearless  deportment  of  the  Confederate  commanders  in 
the  action  was  remarkable,  as  they  repeatedly  led  their  com 
mands  personally  to  the  onset  upon  their  powerful  adversary. 
Gen.  Bragg  had  two  horses  shot  under  him.  Gen.  Breckin- 
ridge  was  twice  struck  by  spent  balls.  Major-general  Hardee 
had  his  coat  rent  by  balls  and  his  horse  disabled,  but  escaped 
with  a  slight  wound.  Gen.  Cheatham  received  a  ball  in  the 
shoulder,  and  Gen.  Bushrod  Johnson  one  in  the  side.  Gen. 
Bowen  was  wounded  in  the  neck.  Col.  Adams,  of  the  First 
Louisiana  regulars,  succeeded  Gen.  Gladden  in  the  command 
of  the  right  wing,  and  was  soon  after  shot,  the  ball  striking  him 
just  above  the  eye  and  coming  out  behind  the  ear.  Col.  Kitt 
Williams,  of  Memphis,  and  Col.  Blythe,  of  Mississippi,  formerly 
consul  to  Havana,  were  killed. 

The  casualties  of  the  battle  of  Shiloh  were  terrible.     In  car 


312  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

nage,  the  engagement  might  have  compared  with  some  of  the 
most  celebrated  in  the  world.  Our  loss,  in  the  two  days, 
in  killed  outright,  was  1,728;  wounded,  8,012;  missing,  959— 
making  an  aggregate  of  casualties  of  10,699.  The  loss  of  the 
enemy  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners,  unquestionably  could 
not  have  been  less  than  15,000. 

The  suffering  among  the  large  numbers  of  our  wounded  was 
extreme.  They  continued  to  come  in  from  the  field  slowly, 
but  it  was  a  long  and  agonizing  ride  that  the  poor  fellows 
had  to  endure,  over  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  miles  of  the 
roughest  and  ruttiest  road  in  the  Southern  Confederacy.  The 
weather  was  horrible,  and  a  cold  northeast  storm  pelted  merci 
lessly  down  upon  them.  As  they  were  carried,  groaning,  from 
the  vehicle  to  the  floor  of  the  hospital,  or  laid  in  the  depot,  it 
was  sad  to  see  the  suffering  depicted  upon  their  pinched  and 
pallid  features.  Some  of  them  had  lain  on  the  ground,  in  the 
mud,  for  twq  nights,  and  were  wet  to  the  skin  and  shivering 
with  chills. 

In  view  of  the  immense  carnage  of  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  it 
was  popularly  esteemed  the  great  battle  of  the  war,  and  was 
declared  by  the  Southern  newspapers  to  take  preference  over 
the  celebrated  action  of  Manassas.  Indeed,  the  rank  which 
the  Manassas  battle  held  in  the  history  of  the  war,  was  disputed 
by  newspaper  critics  on  every  occasion  when  some  other  action 
presented  a  larger  list  of  casualties  or  more  prolonged  scenes 
of  conflict.  But  these  circumstances,  by  themselves,  certainly 
afford  no  standard  for  measuring  the  importance  and  grandeur 
of  battles.  It  is  true  that  the  action  of  Shiloh  was  a  brilliant 
Confederate  success.  But  in  dramatic  situation,  in  complete 
ness  of  victory,  in  interesting  details,  and  in  the  grand  histori 
cal  tragedy  of  the  enemy's  rout,  no  battle  has  yet  been  fought 
in  the  war  equal  to  that  of  Manassas,  and,  so  far,  it  must  hold 
its  place  in  the  history  of  the  first  year  of  the  war  as  its  grand 
battle,  despite  the  efforts  of  interested  critics  to  outrank  its 
grandeur  by  that  of  other  achievements,  and  to  do  violence  to 
the  justice  of  history. 

There  was  one  very  remarkable  circumstance  in  the  battle  01 
Manassas,  which  alone  must  give  it  an  interest  distinguished 
i  from    that   of   any  other   engagement   of  the  war.      It   was 
i  that,  in  the  army  which  achieved  that  victory,  there  was  rep 


THE    FIKST    YEAH.  313 

resented,  by  troops,  every  State  then  in  the  Southern  Con 
federacy. 

At  Shiloh,  the  troops  engaged  were  principally  Tennessee- 
ans,  Mississippians,  ^labamians,  Louisianians,  Floridians,  Tex- 
ans,  Arkansians,  and  Kentuckians.  There  was  also  a  battery 
of  Georgians  in  the  field.  The  behavior  of  these  troops  had 
given  us  additional  reason  for  the  pride  so  justly  felt  in  South 
ern  arms  and  Southern  prowess.  Each  and  all  of  them  fought 
so  bravely  that  no  distinction  can  be  made  between  corps  from 
different  States.  Battles  are  won,  by  each  soldier  feeling  that 
the  day  depends  upon  his  own  individual  efforts,  and,  on  the 
field  of  Shiloh,  this  spirit  was  displayed,  unless  in  rare  instances 
of  cowardice,  or  the  more  numerous  exceptions  of  demoraliza 
tion  by  the  pillage  which  had  unfortunately  been  permitted  of 
the  enemy's  camp. 

The  misrepresentations  of  the  North,  with  reference  to  the 
issue  of  the  war,  found  a  crowning  example  of  falsehood  and 
effrontery  in  the  official  declaration  made  at  Washington  of 
the  action  of  Shiloh  as  a  brilliant  and  glorious  Federal  vic 
tory.  The  Lincoln  government  had  not  hesitated  to  keep  up 
the  spirits  of  the  people  of  the  North  by  the  most  audacious 
and  flaming  falsehoods,  which  would  have  disgraced  even  the 
war  bulletins  of  the  Chinese,  and  which  have  always  been 
."ound  to  be,  in  nations  using  this  expedient  in  war,  evidences 
not  only  of  imperfect  civilization,  but  of  natural  cowardice. 
The  order  of  the  War  Department  at  Washington,  signalizing 
*.ts  impostured  victory  at  Shiloh,  was  as  disgusting  in  profanity 
as  it  was  brazen  in  falsehood.  It  declared  that  at  rieridian 
of  Sunday  next  after  the  receipt  of  this  order,  at  the  head  of 
every  regiment  in  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  there  should 
be  offered  by  its  chaplain  a  prayer,  giving  "  thanks  to  the  Lord 
of  Hosts  for  the  recent  manifestation  of  His  power  in  the  over 
throw  of  the  rebels  and  traitors."  One  of  the  Federal  generals 
who  was  incidentally  complimented  in  this  order— H.  W.  Hal- 
leek— for  his  "  success"  in  the  Missouri  campaign,  had  written 
a  voluminous  letter  to  the  Washington  Cabinet  recommending 
^.Q policy  of  representing  every  battle  in  the  progress  of  the 
war  as  a  Federal  victory.  A  government,  which  Mr.  Seward 
had  declared,  in  his  letter  to  the  British  premier  on  the  occa 
sion  of  his  cringing  surrender  to  that  power  of  the  Southern 


314:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

commissioners,  represented  "  a  civilized  and  humane  nation,  a 
Christian  people,"  had  been  persuaded  to  stoop  to  a  policy  which 
even  the  spirit  and  honor  of  brigands  might  have  scorned,  and 
which  is  never  recognized  but  as  a  weapon  of  the  vilest  and 
most  cowardly  of  humanity. 

Gen.  Beauregard  retired  to  Corinth,  in  pursuance  of  his 
original  design  to  make  that  the  strategic  point  of  his  cam 
paign.  The  Federals  had  sent  several  expeditions  into  North 
Alabama,  and  had  succeeded  in  occupying  Huntsville  and  De- 
catur ;  but  the  design  of  these  expeditions  did  not  appear  to 
extend  further  than  an  attempt  to  cripple  our  resources  by  cut 
ting  off  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad,  which  runs 
through  these  towns. 

In  the  mean  time,  it  was  decided  by  the  government  at  Bich- 
mond  to  remove  our  forces  from  the  Trans-Mississippi  district, 
and  to  unite  the  armies  of  Yan  Dorn  and  Price  with  such  force 
as  Gen.  Beauregard  already  had  at  Corinth.  The  order  for 
leaving  the  limits  of  their  States  was  responded  to  by  the  Mis 
souri  and  Arkansas  troops  with  ready  and  patriotic  spirit. 
These  brave  men  gave  an  example  of  gallantry  and  devotion, 
in  leaving  their  homes  and  soil  in  the  possession  of  the  enei^y, 
to  fight  for  other  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  which  was  made 
especially  conspicuous  from  the  contrast  afforded  by  the  troops 
of  some  other  States  which  had  made  unusually  large  preten 
sions  to  patriotism  and  gallantry,  regiments  of  which  had 
openly  mutinied  at  being  ordered  beyond  the  limits  of  their 
State,  or  had  marched  off  with  evident  discontent,  although 
no  enemy  held  their  territory,  or  was  left  in  possession  of  their 
homes  and  the  treasures  they  contained. 

The  noble  "  State  Guard"  of  Missouri  had  a  better  apprecia 
tion  of  the  duties  of  patriotism  than  many  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  of  the  Confederacy,  whose  contracted  and  boastful 
spirit  had  made  them  louder  in  professions  of  chivalry  and  de 
votion.  They  followed  their  beloved  commander  without  a 
murmur  across  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  turning  their 
backs  upon  their  homes,  for  which  they  had  fought  with  a 
gallantry  and  devotion  unequalled  by  any  other  struggle  of  the 
war.  They  felt  that  while  they  were  fighting  for  the  fortunes 
of  the  Confederacy,  they  were  also  contending  for  the  ultimate 
restoration  of  Missouri,  and  that  they  would  serve  their  State 


THE    FIKST    YEAR  315 

most  effectually  by  following  promptly  and  cheerfully  Gens 
Yai:  Dorn  and  Price  to  Tennessee.  Their  leader  had  been 
made  a  major-general  in  the  Confederate  service ;  the  tardy 
act  of  promotion  having  been  at  last  done  from  motives  ol 
policy,  after  all  efforts  had  been  made  in  vain  to  wring  it  from 
the  obtuse  official  sense  of  justice.  His  influence  was  used  to 
lead  the  troops  of  Missouri  to  new  and  distant  fields  of  ser 
vice,  and  his  noble,  patriotic  appeals  could  not  but  be  effectual 
to  men  who  loved  him,  who  had  suffered  with  him,  and  were 
almost  as  his  children.* 


*  The  annexed  address  of  Gen.  Price  to  the  troops,  who  followed  him  across 
the  Mississippi  into  the  Confederate  camp,  will  strike  the  reader  as  an  ad 
mirable  appeal.  Comprehensive  in  its  terms,  Napoleonic  in  spirit,  and  glow 
ing  with  patriotic  fire,  it  challenges  comparison  with  some  of  the  military 
orders  of  the  most  celebrated  commanders  in  history. 

HEADQUARTERS,  MISSOURI  STATE  GUARD, 
Des  Arc,  Arkansas,  April  3, 1862. 
Soldiers  of  the  State  Gucvrd : 

I  command  you  no  longer.  I  have  this  day  resigned  the  commissioD 
which  your  patient  endurance,  your  devoted  patriotism,  and  your  dauntless 
bravery  have  made  so  honorable.  I  have  done  this  that  I  may  the  better 
serve  you,  our  State,  and  our  country — that  I  may  the  sooner  lead  you  back 
to  the  fertile  prairies,  the  rich  woodlands  and  majestic  streams  of  our  beloved 
Missouri,  that  I  may  the  more  certainly  restore  you  to  your  once  happy  homes, 
and  to  the  loved  ones  there. 

Five  thousand  of  those  who  have  fought  side  by  side  with  us  under  the 
grizzly  bears  of  Missouri,  have  followed  me  into  the  Confederate  camp.  They 
appeal  to  you,  as  I  do,  by  all  the  tender  memories  of  the  past,  not  to  leave  us 
now,  but  to  go  with  us  wherever  the  path  of  duty  may  lead,  till  we  shall  have 
conquered  a  peace,  and  won  our  independence  b^  brilliant  deeds  upon  new 
fields  of  battle. 

Soldiers  of  the  State  Guard !  veterans  of  six  pitched  battles  and  nearly 
twenty  skirmishes !  conquerors  in  them  all !  your  country,  with  its  "  ruined 
hearths  and  shrines,"  calls  upon  you  to  rally  once  more  in  her  defence,  and 
rescue  her  forever  from  the  terrible  thraldom  which  threatens  her.  I  know 
that  she  will  not  call  in  vain.  The  insolent  and  barbarous  hordes  which  have 
dared  to  invade  our  soil,  and  to  desecrate  our  homes,  have  just  met  with  F 
signal  overthrow  beyond  the  Mississippi.  Now  is  the  time  to  end  this  ur 
happy  war.  If  every  man  will  but  do  his  duty,  his  own  roof  will  shelter  ML. 
in  peace  from  the  storms  of  the  coming  winter. 

Let  not  history  record  that  the  men  who  bore  with  patience  the  privations 
»f  Cowskin  Prairie,  who  endured  uncomplainingly  the  burning  heats  of  a 
Missouri  summer,  and  the  frosts  and  snows  of  a  Missouri  winter ;  that  the 
men  who  met  the  enemy  at  Carthage,  at  Oak  Hills,  at  Fort  Scott,  at  Lexing 
ion,  and  in  numberless  lesser  battle-fields  in  Missouri,  and  met  them  but  tc 


316  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

It  was  generally  considered  in  the  South  that  the  victory  of 
its  arms  at  Shiloh  fully  compensated  the  loss  of  Island  No.  10, 
and  that  the  Mississippi  river  below  Fort  Pillow,  with  its  rich 
and  productive  valley,  might  be  accounted  safe,  with  the  greal 
army  at  Corinth  covering  Memphis,  and  holding  the  enemy  in 
check  on  the  land.  But  a  great  disaster  was  to  occur  where  it 
was  least  expected,  and  where  it  involved  the  most  immense 
consequences — a  disaster  which  was  to  astound  the  South,  which 
was  to  shake  the  confidence  of  the  world  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
Confederacy,  and  which  was  to  lead,  by  unavoidable  steps,  to 
the  abandonment  to  the  enemy  of  the  great  Yalley  of  the  Mis 
sissippi. 

THE   FALL   OF  NEW   ORLEANS. 

"When  it  was  known  in  Richmond  that  the  Federal  fleet, 
which  had  so  long  threatened  New  Orleans,  had  at  last  com 
menced  an  attack  on  the  Mississippi  river  forts,  Jackson  and 
St.  Philip,  no  uneasiness  was  felt  for  the  result.  The  enemy's 
fleet,  which  was  to  be  engaged  in  this  demonstration,  was  of 
formidable  size.  It  consisted  of  forty-six  sail,  carrying  two 
hundred  and  eighty-six  guns  and  twenty-one  mortars;  the 
whole  under  the  command  of  Flag-officer  Farragut,  a  renegade 
Tennesseean.  But  it  was  declared,  with  the  most  emphatic 
confidence,  that  New  Orleans  was  impregnable;  the  forts, 
Jackson  and  St.  Philip,  were  considered  but  as  the  outer  line 
of  defences ;  vast  sums  of  money  had  been  expended  to  line  the 
shores  of  the  river  with  batteries ;  the  city  itself  was  occupied 
by  what  was  popularly  supposed  to  be  a  large  and  disciplined 
Confederate  force  under  Gen.  Lovell,  and  in  its  harbor  was  a 
fleet  consisting  of  twelve  gunboats,  one  iron-clad  steamer,  and 
the  famous  ram  Manassas. 

The  authorities  at  Richmond  did  not  hesitate  to  express  the 
most  unlimited  confidence  in  the  safety  of  New  Orleans,  and  ' 

conquer  them  ;  that  the  men  who  fought  so  bravely  and  so  well  at  Elk  Horn  • 
that  the  unpaid  soldiery  of  Missouri  were,  after  so  many  victories,  and  aftei 
eo  much  suffering,  unequal  to  the  great  task  of  achieving  the  independence 
of  their  magnificent  State. 
Soldiers !  I  go  but  to  mark  a  pathway  to  our  homes.     Follow  me  I 

STERLING  PRICE. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  317 

refused  even  to  entertain  the  probability  of  the  enemy's  pene 
trating  the  outer  line  of  defence,  constituted  by  the  river  forts, 
which  were  about  sixty  miles  below  the  city.  General  Duncan, 
who  was  said  to  be  the  best  artillerist  in  the  Confederate  ser 
vice,  was  in  command  of  the  forts.  On  the  23d  of  April  lie 
had  telegraphed  the  most  encouraging  account  of  their  condi 
tion.  The  bombardment  had  then  been  continued  for  a  week 
with  extraordinary  vigor.  Nearly  25,000  thirteen-inch  shell 
had  been  thrown  by  the  enemy's  mortar-boats,  many  thousands 
having  fallen  within  the  fort.  But,  in  spite  of  this  unremitting 
bombardment,  the  works  were  not  at  all  damaged ;  only  three 
guns  had  been  dismounted,  and  the  garrison  had  suffered  only 
to  the  extent  of  five  killed  and  ten  wounded. 

The  public  were  inspired  with  confidence  of  a  favorable 
result.  The  citizens  ef  New  Orleans,  never  doubting 'the  im 
pregnability  of  the  defences  of  their  city,  were  occupied  as 
usual  with  the  avocations  of  business  and  trade.  The  morning 
succeeding  the  date  of  the  encouraging  telegram  of  General 
Duncan  was  to  witness  scenes  of  the  most  extraordinary  con 
sternation,  and  to  usher  in  the  appalling  intelligence  of  the 
enemy's  approach  to  the  city. 

At  half-past  three  o'clock,  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  of 
April,  the  Federal  fleet  steamed  up  the  river  and  opened  on 
our  gunboats  and  both  the  forts,  Jackson  and  St.  Philip.  The 
fire  was  vigorously  returned  by  our  side,  and  in  a  very  short 
time  became  perfectly  furious,  the  enemy's  fleet  and  our  whole 
force  being  engaged.  In  about  one  hour  several  of  the  enemy's 
vessels  passed  the  forts — the  first  one  in  the  advance  having 
our  night  signal  flying,  which  protected  her  from  the  fire  ot 
our  boats,  until  she  ran  up  close  and  opened  the  fire  herself. 

The  citizens  of  New  Orleans  were  awakened  from  their  dream 
of  security  to  hear  the  tolling  of  the  alarm  bells  announcing 
the  approach  of  ther  foe.  It  was  about  9  o'clock,  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  24th,  that  the  intelligence  was  received.  The  whole 
city  was  at  once  thrown  into  intense  commotion ;  every  one 
-ushed  into  the  streets — to  the  public  places — to  head-quarters 
—to  the  City  Hall — inquiring  the  meaning  of  the  agitation 
which  prevailed,  the  extent  of  the  danger,  and  its  proximity. 
It  was  soon  announced,  on  authority,  that  the  enemy's  vessels 
had  succeeded  in  passing  the  forts  and  were  then  on  their  waj 


318  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

to  the  city.  The  number  was  not  known,  but  was  afterwards 
ascertained  to  amount  to  five  heavy  sloops-of-war  and  seven  or 
eight  gunboats. 

The  attempt  of  the  enemy  had  been  audacions,  but  was  aided 
by  various  contingencies.  The  defences  of  the  Mississippi 
consisted  of  the  two  forts  already  mentioned — Jackson  and  St. 
Philip — the  former  situated  on  the  left  bank,  and  the  latter  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  river.  About  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
below,  the  river  had  been  obstructed  by  means  of  a  raft  con 
sisting  of  a  line  of  eleven  dismasted  schooners,  extending  from 
bank  to  bank,  strongly  moored,  and  connected  together  with 
BIX  heavy  chains.  Unfortunately,  a  violent  storm  had  rent  a 
large  chasm  in  the  raft,  which  could  not  be  closed  in  time. 

It  appears,  too,  that  on  the  night  of  the  attack,  the  river 
had  not  been  lighted  by  fire-rafts,  although  General  Lovell  had 
several  times  requested  that  it  should  be  done.  Moreover,  the, 
person  in  charge  of  the  signals  neglected  to  throw  up  rockets 
on  the  approach  of  the  fleet,  and,  by  a  strange  coincidence,  the 
enemy's  signals,  on  that  night,  were  identically  the  same  as 
those  used  by  our  gunboats.  The  consequence  was,  that  the 
advance  of  the  enemy's  vessels  was  not  discovered  until  they 
were  abreast  of  the  forts. 

The  conflict  between  the  Federal  fleet  and  our  fleet  and  forts, 
was  of  a  desperate  character.  The  forts  opened  fire  from  all 
their  guns  that  could  be  brought  to  bear ;  but  it  was  too  late 
to  produce  much  impression.  The  ships  passed  on,  the  Hart 
ford,  Commodore  Farragut's  flag-ship  in  the  van,  delivering 
broadsides  of  grape,  shrapnell,  and  round-shot  at  the  forts  en 
either  side.  On  arriving  at  this  point  they  encountered  the 
Confederate  fleet,  consisting  of  seventeen  vessels  in  all,  only 
about  eight  of  which  were  armed.  The  Confederate  gunboats 
carried,  some  of  them,  two  guns,  and  others  only  one.  Never 
theless,  they  fought  with  desperation  against  the  enemy's  over 
whelming  force,  until  they  were  all  driven  on  shore  and  scuttled 
or  burned  by  their  commanders.  The  Manassas  was  not 
injured  by  the  enemy's  fire.  She  was  run  ashore  and  then 
sunk.  The  Louisiana,  the  great  iron-clad  vessel,  built  to  com 
pete  with  the  success  lately  won  by  the  famous  Virginia,  was 
not  in  good  working  order.  She  could  not  manoeuvre,  and 
only  her  three  bow-guns  could  be  used,  although  her  full  com 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  319 

plement  consisted  of  eighteen  She  emerged  from  the  action 
totally  uninjured.  The  broadsides  of  the  Pensacola,  delivered 
three  times,  within  a  distance  of  ten  yards,  failed  to  loosen  a 
single  fastening,  or  to  penetrate  a  single  plate.  The  forts 
likewise,  remained  intact ;  but  the  garrisons  lost  52,  in  killed 
and  wounded.  Commander  Mclntosh  was  desperately  wounded. 
He  and  Commander  Mitchell  both  stood  on  the  deck  of  the 
Louisiana  during  the  whole  engagement. 

Gen.  Lovell  arrived  just  in  time  to  see  the  Federal  fleet  pass 
ing  Fort  St.  Philip,  and  to  witness  the  desperate  but  ineffectual 
attempt  of  the  Confederate  gunboats  to  check  its  progress  up 
the  river.  Just  at  this  moment,  the  Iroon,  one  of  the  enemy's 
vessels  started  in  pursuit  of  the  Doubloon,  Gen.  Lovell's  boat, 
and  was  rapidly  overhauling  her,  when  the  Governor  Moore 
darted  upon  the  Iroon,  and  ran  into  her  three  times.  The 
Federal  vessel  managed  to  escape  from  this  assault,  and  was 
again  chasing  the  Doubloon,  when  the  Quitman  attacked  her, 
ran  into  her  amidships,  and  sank  her.  Thus  General  Lovell 
narrowly  escaped  capture.  In  the  mean  time,  Captain  Kennon, 
commanding  the  gunboat  Governor  Moore,  sped  down  the 
river  into  the  midst  of  the  enemy's  fleet,  darting  hither  and 
thither,  attacking  first  one  and  then  another  of  his  monstrous 
antagonists,  until  he  had  fired  away  his  last  round  of  ammu 
nition.  He  then  drove  his  vessel  ashore,  and  applied  the  torch 
to  her  with  his  own  hand.  In  this  way  the  forts  were  eluded, 
the  Confederate  naval  forces  destroyed,  and  the  great  city  of 
New  Orleans  placed  at  the  mercy  of  the  Federal  squadron. 

At  2  o'clock,  p.  M.,  on  the  24th,  General  Lovell  arrived  at 
the  city,  having  driven  and  ridden  almost  the  whole  way  up 
along  the  levee.  He  was  immediately  called  on  by  the  mayor 
and  many  other  citizens,  and  in  reply  to  the  inquiries  of  these 
gentlemen,  stated  that  the  intelligence  already  received  was 
correct ;  that  the  enemy's  fleet  had  passed  the  forts  in  force, 
and  that  the  city  was  indefensible  and  untenable. 

The  hasty  withdrawal  of  Gen.  Lovell's  army  from  the  city 
drew  upon  him  severe  public  censure ;  but  the  applications  of 
this  censure  were  made  m  ignorance  of  the  facts,  and  the  evi 
dence  which  afterwards  transpired  showed  that  the  evacuation 
had  been  made  at  the  urgent  instance  of  the  civiJ  authorities 
themselves  of  New  Orleans,  who  had  entreated  the  Confederate 


'::/  SOUTHERN     HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

commander  to  retire  from  their  midst,  in  order  to  save  the  citj 
from  the  risk  of  bombardment.  Gen.  Lovell  expressed  a  readi 
ness  and  willingness  to  remain  with  all  the  troops  under  his 
command.  But  it  was  the  undivided  expression  of  public 
opinion  that  the  army  had  better  retire  and  save  the  city  from 
destruction ;  and,  accordingly,  the  general  ordered  his  troops 
to  rendezvous  at  Camp  Moore,  about  seventy  miles  above  New 
Orleans,  on  the  Jackson  railroad. 

A  demand  was  made  by  Farragut  for  the  surrender  of  the 
command,  which  Gen.  Lovell  positively  refused,  but  told  the 
officer  who  bore  the  message,  that  if  any  Federal  troops  were 
landed  he  would  attack  them.  Two  days  after  he  retired,  it 
was  said  that  the  city  had  changed  its  purpose,  and  preferred 
a  bombardment  to  occupation  by  the  enemy.  General  Lovell 
promptly  ordered  a  train  and  proceeded  to  New  Orleans,  and 
immediately  had  an  interview  with  Mayor  Monroe,  offering,  if 
such  was  the  desire  of  the  authorities  and  people,  to  return 
with  his  command  and  hold  the  city  as  long  as  a  man  and  shot 
were  left. 

This  offer  not  being  accepted,  it  was  decided  that  the  safety 
of  the  large  number  of  unprotected  women  and  children  should 
be  looked  to,  and  that  the  fleet  would  be  permitted  to  take 
possession.  The  raw  and  poorly  armed  infantry  could  by  this 
time  have  done  nothing  against  the  fleet. 

The  impression  which  prevailed,  that  General  Lovell  had  a 
large  army  under  his  command,  was  singularly  erroneous. 
His  army  had  been  stripped  to  reinforce  that  at  Corinth,  and, 
since  the  1st  of  March,  he  had  sent  ten  full  regiments  to  Gen. 
Beauregard,  besides  many  companies  of  cavalry  and  artillery 
The  morning  report  on  the  day  of  the  evacuation  of  New  Or 
leans  showed  his  force  to  be  about  twenty-eight  hundred  men, 
two-thirds  of  whom  were  the  volunteer  and  military  companies 
which  had  recently  been  put  in  camp. 

Notwithstanding,  however,  these  facts,  the  circumstances  in 
which  Gen.  Lovell  agreed  to  evacuate  the  city  under  the 
persuasion  of  the  civil  authorities,  appeared  by  no  means  to  be 
in  that  desperate  extremity  that  would  have  justified  the  step 
in  military  judgment;  and  it  was  thought  by  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  public,  not  without  apparent  rea&on,  that  the 
evacuation,  at  the  time  it  was  undertaken,  was  ill-advised, 


THE    FIRST    YEAK.  321 

hasty,  and  the  result  of  panic  or  selfish  clamors  in  the  com 
munity. 

The  evacuation  was  begun  on  the  24th  of  April.  At  this 
time  the  river  forts  (had  not  fallen ;  but  two  of  the  enemy's 
gunboats  actually  threatened  the  city ;  and  the  works  at  Chal- 
mette— five  32-pounders  on  one  side  of  the  river,  and  nine  on 
the  other — were  still  intact.  But  it  is  known  that  there  were 
reasons  other  than  those  which  were  apparent  to  the  public, 
which  decided  Gen.  Lovell  to  evacuate  the  city,  and  which 
were  kept  carefully  to  himself  for  obvious  reasons.  Gen.  Lovell 
was  fully  aware  that  a  single  frigate  anchored  at  Kenner's 
plantation,  ten  miles  above  the  city,  where  the  swamp  and  the 
river  approached  within  less  than  a  mile  of  each  other,  and 
through  which  narrow  neck  the  railroad  passes,  would  have 
effectually  obstructed  an  exit  of  troops  or  stores  from  the  city 
by  land. 

This  was  doubtless  the  real  or  most  powerful  reason  for  the 
evacuation  of  the  city.* 

On  the  morning  of  the  next  day,  the  Federal  ships  appeared 
off  the  Chalmette  batteries,  which  exchanged  a  few  shots  with 
them,  but  without  effect.  Passing  the  lower  batteries,  the  ships 
came  up  the  river  under  full  headway,  the  Hartford  leading, 
then  the  Brooklyn,  the  Richmond,  the  Pensacola,  and  six  gun 
boats.  On  and  on  they  came,  until  they  had  extended  their 
line  a  distance  of  about  five  miles,  taking  positions  at  intervals 
of  about  900  yards  apart.  The  scene  on  the  water  and  in  th@ 
city  was  alike  extraordinary.  The  Confederate  troops  were  still 
busy  in  the  work  of  evacuation,  and  the  streets  were  thronged 
with  carts,  drays,  vehicles  of  all  description L«,  laden  with  the 
multifarious  articles  constituting  the  paraphernalia  and  imple 
ments  of  warfare.  Officers  on  horseback  were  galloping  hither 
and  thither,  receiving  and  executing  orders.  The  streets  were 


*  The  water  at  Kenner's  was  so  high  that  a  ship's  guns  could  have  had  a 
clear  sweep  from  the  river  to  the  swamp,  and  there  would  have  been  no  neces 
sity  of  any  bombardment ;  the  people  and  the  army  of  New  Orleans  would 
have  been  cut  off  and  starved  into  a  surrender  in  a  short  time.  The  failure  oi 
the  enemy  to  occupy  Kenner's,  for  which  it  is  impossible  to  account,  enabled 
Gen.  Lovell  to  bring  out  of  the  city  nearly  all  the  portable  government 
property  necessary  for  war  purposes,  as  well  as  a  large  part  of  the  /State 
property. 

21 


322  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Crowded  with  persons  rushing  about  with  parcels  of  sugar, 
buckets  of  molasses,  and  packages  of  provisions  plundered 
from  the  public  stores.  Others  were  busying  themselves  with 
patriotic  zeal  to  destroy  property  of  value  to  the  enemy,  and 
huge  loads  of  cotton  went  rumbling  along  on  the  way  to  the 
levee. 

No  sooner  had  the  Federal  fleet  turned  the  point  and  come 
within  sight  of  the  city,  than  the  work  of  destruction  of  prop 
erty  commenced,  Vast  columns  of  smoke  ascended  to  the  sky, 
darkening  the  face  of  heaven,  and  obscuring  the  noon-day  sun ; 
for  five  miles  along  the  levee  fierce  flames  darted  through  the 
lurid  atmosphere,  their  baleful  glare  struggling  in  rivalry  with 
the  sunlight ;  great  ships  and  steamers,  wrapped  in  fire,  floated 
down  the  river,  threatening  the  Federal  vessels  with  destruc 
tion  by  their  fiery  contact.  In  front  of  the  various  presses, 
and  at  other  points  along  the  levee,  the  cotton  had  been  piled 
up  and  submitted  to  the  torch.  It  was  burned  by  order  of 
the  governor  of  Louisiana  and  of  the  military  commander  of 
ihe  Confederate  States.  Fifteen  thousand  bales  were  con 
sumed,  the  value  of  which  would  have  been  about  a  million 
and  a  half  of  dollars.  The  tobacco  stored  in  the  city,  being  al 
held  by  foreign  residents  on  foreign  account,  was  not  destroyed. 
The  specie  of  the  banks,  to  the  amount  of  twelve  or  fifteen  mil 
lions,  was  removed  from  the  city  and  placed  in  a  secure  place ; 
so  were  nearly  all  the  stores  and  movable  property  of  the 
Confederate  States.  But  other  materials  were  embraced  in  the 
awful  conflagration.  About  a  dozen  large  river  steamboats, 
twelve  or  fifteen  ships,  some  of  them  laden  with  cotton,  a  grea: 
floating  battery,  several  unfinished  gunboats,  the  immense  ram 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  docks  on  the  other  side  of  the  river ; 
were  all  embraced  in  the  fiery  sacrifice.  The  Mississippi  was 
an  iron-clad  frigate,  a  superior  vessel  of  her  class,  and  accounted 
to  be  by  far  the  most  important  naval  structure  the  Confederate 
government  had  yet  undertaken. 

On  evacuating  the  city,  Gen.  Lovell  had  left  it  under  the  ex 
clusive  jurisdiction  of  Mayor  Monroe.  That  officer,  although 
be  had  appealed  to  Gen.  Lovell  to  evacuate  the  city,  so  as  to 
avoid  such  exasperation  or  conflict  as  might  put  the  city  in 
peril  of  bombardment,  was  not  willing  to  surrender  it  to  the 
enemy ;  but  was  content,  after  due  protestations  of  patriotic 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  323 

fervor,  that  the  enemy  should  perform,  without  interruption, 
the  ceremony  of  surrender  for  himself  in  taking  down  the  flags 
flying  over  all  the  public  buildings  of  the  city  A  correspond 
ence  ensued  between  the  mayor  and  the  flag-officer  of  the 
enemy's  fleet.  The  correspondence  was  certainly  of  very  un 
necessary  length  on  the  part  of  the  mayor,  and  was  travestied 
in  the  Northern  newspapers  as  a  controversy  between  "  Far 
rago  and  Farragut"  But  the  sentiments  of  the  mayor,  al 
though  tedious  and  full  of  vain  repetitions,  were  just  and 
honorable.  He  declared,  with  explanations  that  were  not 
necessary  to  be  given  to  the  enemy,  and  at  a  length  that 
showed  rather  too  much  the  vanity  of  literary  style,  that  the 
citizens  of  New  Orleans  yielded  to  physical  force  alone,  and 
that  they  maintained  their  allegiance  to  the  government  of  the 
Confederate  States. 

On  the  morning  of  the  26th  of  April,  a  force  landed  from  the 
sloop-of-war  Pensacola,  lying  opposite  Esplanade-street  and 
hoisted  a  United  States  flag  upon  the  mint.  It  had  not  remained 
there  long  before  some  young  men,  belonging  to  the  Pinckney 
battalion,  mounted  to  the  dome  of  the  mint,  tore  it  down  and 
dragged  it  through  the  streets. 

Whether  Flag-officer  Farragut  was  exasperated  or  not  by  this 
circumstance,  is  not  known ;  but  he  seemed  to  have  determined 
to  spare  no  mortification  to  the  city,  which  its  civil  officers  had 
already  assured  him  was  unprepared  to  resist  him,  and  to  hesi 
tate  at  no  misrepresentation  in  order  to  vilify  its  citizens.  In 
one  of  his  letters  to  the  mayor,  he  had  sought  to  publish  the 
fact  to  the  world,  that  helpless  men,  women,  and  children  had 
been  fired  upon  by  the  citizens  of  New  Orleans  "  for  giving 
expression  to  their  pleasure  at  witnessing  the  old  flag ;"  when 
the  fact  was,  that  the  cheering  on  the  levee  referred  to  had 
been,  in  defiance  of  the  enemy,  for  "the  Southern  Confederacy," 
and  the  only  firing  in  the  crowd  was  that  of  incautious  and 
exasperated  citizens  at  the  Federal  fleet. 

The  State  flag  of  Louisiana  still  floated  from  the  City  Hall. 
It  was  an  emblem  of  nothing  more  than  State  sovereignty,  and 
yet  it  too  was  required  to  be  lowered  at  the  unreasonable  and 
harsh  demand  of  the  invader.  A  memorial,  praying  the  com 
mon  council  to  protect  at  least  the  emblem  of  State  sovereign 
ty  from  insult,  was  signed  by  a  large  number  of  the  noble 


324  SOUTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    TBS    WAR. 

women  of  New  Orleans,  including  many  of  the  wealthiest, 
fairest,  and  highest  in  social  position  in  the  city.  The  reply 
of  the  council  was  feeble  and  embarrassed.  They  passed  a 
resolution  declaring  that  "  no  resistance  would  be  made  to  the 
forces  of  the  United  States  ;"  approving,  at  the  same  time,  the 
"  sentiments"  expressed  by  the  mayor,  and  requesting  him  "  to 
act  in  the  spirit  manifested  by  them." 

On  the  28th  of  April,  Flag-officer  Farragut  addressed  his 
ultimatum  to  the  mayor,  complaining  of  the  continued  display 
of  the  flag  of  Louisiana  on  the  City  Hall,  and  concluding  with 
a  threat  of  bombardment  of  the  city  by  notifying  him  to  re 
move  the  women  and  children  from  its  limits  within  forty-eight 
hours.  The  mayor  replied  with  new  spirit,  that  the  satisfac-  g 
tion  which  was  asked  at  the  hands  of  a  vanquished  people, 
that  they  should  lower  with  their  own  hands  their  State  flag, 
and  perform  an  act  against  which  their  natures  rebelled,  woula 
not,  under  any  circumstances,  be  given;  that  there  was  no 
possible  exit  from  the  city  for  its  immense  population  of  thu 
women  and  children^  and  that  if  the  enemy  chose  to  murder 
them  on  a  question  of  etiquette,  he  might  do  his  pleasure. 

In  the  delay  of  the  enemy's  actual  occupation  of  the  city 
while  the  correspondence  referred  to  between  the  mayor  and 
the  enemy  was  in  progress,  the  confidence  of  the  people  of 
New  Orleans  had,  in  a  measure,  been  rallied.  There  were  yet 
some  glimmers  of  hope.  They  thought  that,  with  the  forts 
Btill  holding  out,  and  the  enemy's  transports  unable  to  get  up 
the  river,  the  city  might  be  saved.  The  fleet  had  no  forces 
with  which  to  occupy  it,  and  there  was  no  access  for  an  army 
except  by  way  of  the  lakes.  They  had  determined  to  cut  the 
levee  below  should  Gen  Butler,  in  command  of  the  land  forces, 
attempt  an  approach  from  Lake  Borgne,  and  above  the  city, 
should  he  make  the  effort  from  Lake  Pontchartrain.  In  the 
last  resort,  they  were  determined  to  man  the  lines  around  the 
city,  armed  with  such  weapons  as  they  could  procure,  aryd 
fight  the  Federal  land  forces  whenever  they  might  make  their 
appearance. 

These  hopes  were  suddenly  dispelled  by  the  unexpected  news 
of  the  fall  of  Forts  Jackson  and  St.  Philip.  Fort  Jackson  had 
been  very  little  damaged  in  the  bombardment.  It  yielded 
because  of  a  mutiny  of  three  or  four  hundred  of  the  garrison, 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  325 

who  refused  to  obey  the  commands  of  its  brave  officer,  Gen, 
Duncan.  He  had  no  alternative  but  to  give  up  the  place.  At 
the  first  signs  of  the  mutinous  disposition,  he  threatened  to 
turn  his  guns  on  his  own  men,  but  found  a  large  number  01 
them  spiked.  He  surrendered,  in  fact,  to  his  own  garrison. 
The  post  could,  probably,  have  been  held,  if  the  men  had  stood 
to  their  guns.  He  stated  this  in  an  address  on  the  levee  to  the 
people,  and,  while  stating  it,  cried  like  a  child. 

The  news  of  the  surrender  of  the  river  forts  effected  a  sud 
den  change  in  the  views  of  Flag-officer  Farragut.  He  was 
evidently  anxious  lest  Gen.  Butler,  to  whose  transports  a  way 
had  now  been  opened  to  the  city,  should  arrive  before  he  could 
consummate  the  objects  of  his  expedition.  He  had  already 
involved  himself  in  a  maze  of  incongruities  and  contradictions. 
First,  he  demanded  peremptorily  that  the  flag  should  be  taken 
down ;  then  he  insisted  that  it  should  be  removed  before  12  M. 
on  Saturday,  the  28th ;  on  Monday,  he  repeated  the  demand, 
under  a  threat  of  bombardment,  giving  forty-eight  hours  for 
the  removal  of  the  women  and  children.  On  Tuesday  morn 
ing,  he  reiterated  his  peremptory  demand,  but,  within  an  hour, 
he  agreed  to  waive  every  thing  he  had  claimed,  and  reluctantly 
consented  to  send  his  own  forces  to  take  down  the  flag. 

About  noon,  a  Federal  force,  consisting  of  about  two  hun 
dred  armed  marines  and  a  number  of  sailors,  dragging  two 
brass  howitzers,  appeared  in  front  of  the  City  Hall,  and  the 
officer  in  command,  mounting  to  the  dome  of  the  building,  re 
moved  the  flag  of  the  State  in  sight  of  an  immense  crowrd  of 
the  citizens  of  New  Orleans.  K~o  interruption  was  offered  to 
the  small  party  of  the  Federals, 'and  the  idle  utterances  of 
curiosity  were  quelled  by  the  sadness  and  solemnity  of  the 
occasion.  Profound  silence  pervaded  the  immense  crowd.  Not 
even  a  whisper  was  heard.  The  very  air  was  oppressive  with 
stillness.  The  marines  stood  statue-like  within  the  square, 
their  bayonets  glistening  in  the  sunbeams,  and  their  faces  stolid 
with  indifference.  Among  the  vast  multitude  of  citizens,  the  wet 
cheeks  of  women  and  the  compressed  lips  and  darkened  brows 
of  men  betrayed  their  consciousness  of  the  great  humiliation 
which  had  overtaken  them.  But  among  them  all  there  was  not 
one  spirit  to  emulate  the  devotion  of  the  martyr-hero  of  Vir- 
ginia,  who,  a"hnr  and  unaided,  on  the  steps  of  the  Marshall 


326  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    0*    THE    WAR. 

House,  in  Alexandria,  had  avenged  with  hia  life  the  first  insult 
ever  offered  by  the  enemy  to  the  flag  of  his  country. 

Thus  was  the  surrender  of  the  city  of  New  Orleans  complet 
ed.  Gen.  Butler  took  possession  on  the  1st  of  May,  and  in 
augurated  an  administration,  the  despotism  and  insolence  o 
which  might  have  been  expected  from  one  of  his  vile  personal 
character  and  infamous  antecedents.  He  was  a  man  who  had 
all  the  proverbially  mean  instincts  of  the  Massachusetts  Yan 
kee  ;  he  had  been  a  disreputable  jury  lawyer  at  home ;  as  a 
member  of  the  old  Democratic  party,  he  had  been  loud  in  his 
professions  of  devotion  to  the  South ;  but  his  glorification  in 
this  particular  had  been  dampened  in  the  Charleston  Conven 
tion,  where  he  pocketed  an  insult  from  a  Southern  delegate,  and 
turned  pale  at  the  threat  of  personal  chastisement.  The  war 
gave  him  an  opportunity  of  achieving  one  of  those  easy  repu 
tations  in  the  North  which  were  made  by  brazen  boastfnlness, 
coarse  abuse  of  the  South,  and  aptitude  in  lying.  We  shall 
have  future  occasion  to  refer  to  the  brutal  and  indecent  des 
potism  of  this  vulgar  tyrant  of  New  Orleans,  who,  in  inviting 
his  soldiers  to  treat  as  prostitutes  every  lady  in  the  street  who 
dared  to  show  displeasure  at  their  presence,  surpassed  the 
atrocities  of  Haynau,  and  rivalled  the  most  barbarous  and 
fiendish  rule  of  vengeance  ever  sought  to  be  wreaked  upon  a 
conquered  people.  If  any  thing  were  wanting  to  make  the 
soldiers  of  the  South  devote  anew  whatever  they  had  of  life, 
and  labor,  and  blood  to  the  cause  of  the  safety  and  honor  of 
their  country,  it  was  the  infamous  swagger  of  Butler  in  New 
Orleans,  his  autocratic  rule,  his  arrest  of  the  best  citizens,  his 
almost  daily  robberies,  and  his  "  ingenious"  war  upon  the  help 
lessness  of  men  and  the  virtue  of  women. 

The  narrative  of  the  fall  of  New  Orleans  furnishes  its  own 
comment.  Never  was  there  a  more  miserable  story,  where 
accident,  improvidence,  treachery,  vacillation,  and  embarrass 
ment  of  purpose,  each,  perhaps,  not  of  great  importance  in  it 
self,  combined  under  an  evil  star  to  produce  the  astounding 
result  of  the  fall,  after  an  engagement,  the  casualties  of  which 
might  be  counted  by  hundreds,  of  a  city  which  was  the  commer 
cial  capital  of  the  South,  which  contained  a  population  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy  thousand  souls,  and  which  was  the  largest 
exporting  city  in  the  world. 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  327 

The  extent  of  the  disaster  is  not  to  be  disguised.  It  was  a 
heavy  blow  to  the  Confederacy.  It  annihilated  us  in  Louisi 
ana  ;  separated  us  from  Texas  and  Arkansas ;  diminished  oui 
resources  and  supplies  by  the  loss  of  one  of  the  greatest  graic 
and  cattle  countries  within  the  limits  of  the  Confederacy  ;  gave 
to  the  enemy  the  Mississippi  river,  with  all  its  means  of  navi 
gation,  for  a  base  of  operations ;  and  finally  led,  by  plain  and 
irresistible  conclusion,  to  our  virtual  abandonment  of  the  great 
and  fruitful  Yalley  of  the  Mississippi. — It  did  all  this,  and  yet 
it  was  very  far  from  deciding  the  fate  of  the  war. 


328  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  XHL 

CONCLUSION. 

Prospects  of  the  War.— The  Extremity  of  the  South.— Lights  and  Shadows  of  the 
Campaign  in  Virginia. — Jackson's  Campaign  in  the  Valley. — The  Policy  of  Concen 
tration.— Sketch  of  the  Battles  around  Richmond.— Effect  of  McClellan's  Defeat  upon 
the  North. — President  Davis's  congratulatory  Order. — The  War  as  a  great  Money 
Job.— Note :  Gen.  Washington's  Opinion  of  the  Northern  People.— Statement  of  tho 
Northern  Finances. — Yankee  Venom.— Gen.  Pope's  Military  Orders. — Summary  of 
the  War  Legislation  of  the  Northern  Congress.— Retaliation  on  the  part  of  the  Con 
federacy. — The  Cartel. — Prospects  of  European  Interference. — English  Statesmanship. 
—Progress  of  the  War  in  the  West.— The  Defence  of  Vicksburg.— Morgan's  great 
Raid. — The  Tennessee-Virginia  Frontier. — A  Glance  at  the  Confederate  Congress. — 
Mr.  Footo  and  the  Cabinet. — The  Campaign  in  Virginia  again.— Rapid  Movements 
and  famous  March  of  the  Southern  Troops. —  The  signal  Victory  of  the  Thirtieth  of 
August  on  the  Plains  of  Manassas. — Reflections  on  the  War. — Some  of  its  Character 
istics. — A  Review  of  its  Military  Results. — Three  Moral  Benefits  of  the  War. — Pros 
pects  and  Promises  of  the  Future. 

WE  have  chosen  the  memorable  epoch  of  the  fall  of  New  Or 
leans,  properly  dated  from  the  occupation  of  the  enemy  on  the 
1st  of  May,  1862,  as  an  appropriate  period  for  the  conclusion 
of  our  historical  narrative  of  the  events  of  the  first  year  of  the 
war.  Hereafter,  in  the  future  continuation  of  the  narrative, 
which  we  promise  to  ourselves,  we  shall  have  to  direct  the  at 
tention,  of  the  reader  to  the  important  movements,  the  sorrow 
ful  disasters,  and  the  splendid  achievements,  that  more  than 
compensated  the  inflictions  of  misfortune,  in  the  famous  summer 
campaign  in  Virginia.  In  these  we  shall  find  full  confirmation 
of  the  judgment  which  we  have  declared,  that  the  fall  of  New 
Orleans,  and  the  consequent  loss  of  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  did 
not  decide  the  fate  of  the  war;  and,  indeed,  we  shall  see  that 
the  abandonment  of  our  plan  of  frontier  defence  made  the  way 
for  the  superior  and  more  fortunate  policy  of  the  concentration 
of  our  forces  in  the  interior. 

The  fall  of  New  Orleans  and  consequent  loss  of  our  command 
of  the  Mississippi  river  from  New  Orleans  to  Memphis,  with 
all  its  immense  advantages  of  transportation  and  supply ;  the  re 
treat  of  Gen.  Johnston's  forces  from  Yorktown;  the  evacuation 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  329 

cf  Norfolk,  with,  its  splendid  navy-yard — an  event  acccmpiish- 
ed  by  a  mere  brutum  fulmen,  and  without  a  blow ;  the  stupid 
and  unnecessary  destruction  of  the  Virginia,  "  the  iron  diadeni 
of  the  South ; "  *  the  perilous  condition  of  Charleston,  Savan- 

*  The  destruction  of  the  Virginia  was  a  sharp  and  unexpected  blow  to  the 
confidence  of  the  people  of  the  South  in  their  government. 

How  far  the  government  was  implicated  in  this  foolish  and  desperate  act, 
was  never  openly  acknowledged  or  exactly  ascertained ;  but,  despite  the  pains 
of  official  concealment,  there  are  certain  well-attested  facts  which  indicate 
that  in  the  destruction  of  this  great  war-ship,  the  authorities  at  Richmond 
were  not  guiltless.  These  facts  properly  belong  to  the  history  of  one  of  the 
most  unhappy  events  that  had  occurred  since  the  commencement  of  the  war. 

The  Virginia  was  destroyed  under  the  immediate  orders  of  her  commander, 
Commodore  Tatnall,  a  little  before  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  llth  of 
May,  in  the  vicinity  of  Craney  Island.  During  the  morning  of  the  same  day  a 
prominent  politician  in  the  streets  ofRichmond  was  observed  to  be  very  much 
dejected ;  he  remarked  that  it  was  an  evil  day  for  the  Confederacy. 

On  being  questioned  by  his  intimate  friends,  he  declared  to  them  that  the 
government  had  determined  upon,  or  assented  to,  the  destruction  of  the  Vir 
ginia,  and  that  he  had  learned  this  from  the  highest  sources  of  authority  in  the 
capital.  At  this  time  the  news  of  the  explosion  of  the  Virginia  could  not  have 
possibly  reached  Richmond  ;  there  was  no  telegraphic  communication  between 
the  scene  of  her  destruction  and  the  city,  and  the  evidence  appears  to  be  com- 
plete,  that  the  government  had  at  least  a  prevision  of  the  destruction  of  this 
vessel,  or  had  assented  to  the  general  policy  of  the  act,  trusting,  perhaps,  to 
acquit  itself  of  the  responsibility  for  it  on  the  unworthy  plea  that  it  had  given 
no  express  orders  in  the  matter. 

Again,  it  is  well  known  that  for  at  least  a  week  prior  to  the  destruction  of 
the  Virginia,  the  evacuation  of  Norfolk  had  been  determined  upon ;  that  dur 
ing  the  time  the  removal  of  stores  was  daily  progressing;  and  that  Mr. 
Mallory,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  had  within  this  period,  himself,  visited 
Norfolk  to  look  after  the  public  interests.  The  evacuation  of  this  port  clearly 
involved  the  question,  what  disposition  was  to  be  made  of  the  Virginia. 

If  the  government  made  no  decision  of  a  question,  which  for  a  week  stared 
it  in  the  face,  it  certainly  was  very  strangely  neglectful  of  the  public  interest, 
[f  Mr.  Mallory  visited  Norfolk  when  the  evacuation  was  going  on,  and  never 
thought  of  the  Virginia,  or,  thinking  of  her,  kept  dumb,  never  even  giving  so 
much  as  an  official  nod  as  to  what  disposition  should  be  made  of  her,  he  must 
have  been  even  more  stupid  than  the  people  who  laughed  at  him  in  Rich 
mond,  or  the  members  of  Congress  who  nicknamed  without  mercy,  thought 
him  to  be. 

It  is  also  not  a  little  singular  that  when  a  court  of  inquiry  had  found  that 
the  destruction  of  the  Virginia  was  unnecessary  and  improper,  Mr.  Mallory 
should  have  waived  the  calling,  of  a  court-martial,  forgotten  what  was  due  to 
the  ptiblic  interest  on  such  a  finding  as  that  made  by  the  preliminary  court, 
and  expressed  himself  satisfied  to  let  the  matter  rest.  The  fact  is  indisputable, 
that  the  court-martial  was  called  at  the  demand  of  Commodore  Tatnall  him 
self  It  resulted  in  his  acq  uttal. 


330  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

nah,  and  Mobile,  and  the  menace  cf  Richmond  by  one  of  the 
largest  armies  of  the  world,  awakened  the  people  of  the  South 
to  a  full  appreciation  of  the  crisis  of  the  war,  and  placed  their 
cause  in  an  extremity  which  nothing  could  have  retrieved  but 
the  undiminished  and  devoted  spirit  of  their  brave  soldiers  in 
the  field. 

We  shall  have,  however,  to  mingle  with  this  story  of  disas 
ters,  the  triumphs,  not  indeed  of  the  government,  but  of  brave 
and  adventurous  spirits  in  thevfield.  We  shall  tell  how  it  was 
that  the  retreat  from  Yorktown,  although  undertaken  without 
any  settled  plan  as  to  the  line  of  defence  upon  which  it  was  to 
be  reorganized,  led  to  the  successful  battle  of  Williamsburg ; 
we  shall  recount  the  events  of  the  glorious  battle  of  Seven 
Pines,  the  sound  of  whose  guns  was  heard  by  the  people  of 
Richmond,  and  was  followed  by  the  'speedy  messages  of  a 
splendid  victory ;  and  we  shall  tell  how  it  was  that,  while  the 
news  of  the  destruction  of  the  Virginia  was  still  the  bitterest 
reminiscence  of  the  people  of  the  South,  and  while  Secretary 
Mallory  was  making  a  drivelling  show  of  alacrity  to  meet  the 
enemy  by  advertising  for  "timber"  to  construct  new  naval 
defences,  a  powerful  flotilla  of  Yankee  gunboats  was  repulsed 
by  a  battery  of  four  guns  on  the  banks  of  James  river,  and  the 
scale  of  war  turned  by  even  such  a  small  incident  as  the  action 
of  Drury's  Bluff.  In  this  connection,  too,  we  shall  have  to 
record  the  evidences  of  the  heroic  spirit  that  challenged  the 
approaching  enemy ;  the  noble  resolution  of  the  citizens  of 
Richmond  to  see  their  beautiful  city  consigned  to  the  horrors 
of  a  bombardment,  rather  than  to  the  hands  of  the  enemy ; 
and  the  brave  resolution  of  the  Virginia  Legislature,  which 
put  the  Confederate  authorities  to  shame,  and  infused  the 
hearts  of  the  people  with  a  new  and  lively  spirit  of  courage 
and  devotion.* 


*  "  Resolved  by  the  General  Assembly :  That  the  General  Assembly  hereby 
express  its  desire  that  the  capital  of  the  State  be  defended  to  the  last  ex 
tremity,  if  such  defence  is  in  accordance  with  the  views  of  the  President  of  the 
Confederate  States  ;  and  that  the  President  be  assured  that  whatever  destruc 
tion  or  loss  of  property  of  the  State  or  individuals  shall  thereby  result,  will  bo 
cheerfully  submitted  to." — Resolution  Va.  Legislature,  May  14. 

"  Some  one  said  to  me  the  other  day,  that  the  duty  of  surrendering  tho  city 
would  devolve  either  upon  tiie  President,  the  Mayor,  or  myself.  I  said  to  him 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  331 

But  we  shall  have  occasion  to  tell  of  even  more  brilliant 
triumphs  of  Southern  spirit,  and  to  explain  how,  for  some  time 
at  least,  the  safety  of  Eichmond  was  trusted  not  so  much  to 
the  fortunes  of  the  forces  that  immediately  protected  it,  as  to 
the  splendid  diversion  of  the  heroic  Jackson  in  the  Valley  01 
Virginia. 

We  shall  see  how  this  brave  general,  whom  the  government 
had  determined  to  recall  to  Gen.  Johnston's  lines,  rejected  the 
suggestions  of  the  surrender  of  the  Valley,  and  his  personal 
ease,  and  adventured  upon  a  campaign,  the  most  successful  and 
brilliant  in  the  war.  We  shall  trace  with  particular  interest 
the  events  of  this  glorious  expedition,  and  we  shall  find  reason 
to  ascribe  its  results  to  the  zeal,  heroism,  and  genius  of  its  com 
mander  alone.  We  shall  recount  the  splendid  victory  over 
Banks,  the  recovery  of  Winchester,  the  capture  of  four  thou 
sand  prisoners,  the  annihilation  of  the  invading  army  of  the 
Valley,  and  the  heroic  deeds  which  threw  the  splendor  of  sun 
light  over  the  long  lines  of  the  Confederate  host.  The  reader 
will  have  occasion  to  compare  the  campaign  of  General  Jack 
son  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  with  some  of  the  most  famous 
in  modern  history.  We  shall  show  that,  in  this  brief,  but  bril 
iiant  campaign,  a  gallant  Southern  army  fought  four  battles 
and  a  number  of  skirmishes ;  killed  and  wounded  a  considera 
ble  number  of  the  enemy,  took  several  thousand  prisoners, 
secured  millions  of  dollars  of  stores,  destroyed  many  millions 
of  dollars'  worth  for  the  enemy,  and  chased  the  Federal  army, 
commanded  by  General  Banks,  out  of  Virginia  and  across  the 
Potomac ;  and  that  all  these  events  were  accomplished  within 
the  period  of  three  weeks,  and  with  a  loss  scarcely  exceeding 
one  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded. 

In  this  story  of  disaster,  mingled  with  triumph,  we  shall  be 


if  the  demand  is  made  upon  me,  with  the  alternative  to  surrender  or  be 
eshelled,  I  shall  reply,  BOMBARD  AND  BE  DAMNED." — Speech  of  Gov.  Letcher 
Hay  1(5. 

"  I  say  now,  and  will  abide  by  it,  when  the  citizens  of  Richmond  demand  01 
Kie  to  surrender  the  capital  of  Virginia  and  of  the  Confederacy  to  the  enemy 
they  must  find  some  other  man  to  fill  my  place.  I  will  resign  the  mayoralty 
And  when  that  other  man  elected  in  my  stead  shall  deliver  up  the  city,  i  hope 
I  have  physical  courage  and  strength  enough  left  to  shoulder  a  musket  and  go 
.nto  tne  ranks." — Speech  of  Mayor  Mayo,  May  16. 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

disappointed  if  we  do  not  discover  the  substantial  prospect  o! 
brighter  fortunes  and  final  triumph  for  the  South'. 

Indeed,  the  fact  will  be  shown  to  be,  that  events,  although 
mixed  and  uncertain  to  the  views  taken  of  them  at  the  time  of 
their  occurrence,  were  preparing  the  way  for  a  great  victory 
and  a  sudden  illumination  of  the  fortunes  of  the  South. 

The  disasters  on  the  Mississippi  frontier  and  in  other  direc 
tions  had  constrained  the  government  to  adopt  the  policy  of 
concentrating  its  forces  in  the  interior  of  Yirginia.  The  ob 
ject  of  all  war  is  to  reach  a  decisive  point  of  tne  campaign, 
and  this  object  was  realized  by  a  policy  which  it  is  true  the 
government  had  not  adopted  at  the  instance  of  reason,  but 
which  had  been  imposed  upon  it  by  the  force  of  disaster. 
There  were  childish  complaints  that  certain  districts  and  points 
on  the  frontier  had  been  abandoned  by  the  Confederates  for 
the  purpose  of  a  concentration  of  troops  in  Yirginia.  These 
complaints  were  alike  selfish  and  senseless,  and,  in  some  cases, 
nothing  more  than  the  utterance  of  a  'demagogical,  short 
sighted,  and  selfish  spirit,  which  would  have  preferred  the 
apparent  security  of  its  own  particular  State  or  section  to  the 
fortunes  of  the  whole  Confederacy.  The  fact  was,  that  there 
was  cause  of  intelligent  congratulation  even  in  those  districts 
from  which  the  Confederate  troops  had  been  withdrawn  to 
make  a  decisive  battle,  that  we  had  at  last  reached  a  crisis, 
the  decision  of  which  might  reverse  all  our  past  misfortunes, 
ind  achieve  results  in  which  every  State  of  the  Confederacy 
\vould  have  a  share. 

On  the  Richmond  lines,  two  of  the  greatest  and  most  splen 
did  armies  that  had  ever  been  arrayed  on  a  single  field  con 
fronted  each  other;  every  accession  that  could  be  procured 
from  the  most  distant  quarters  to  their  numbers,  and  every 
thing  that  could  be  drawn  from  the  resources  of  the  respective 
countries  of  each,  had  been  made  to  contribute  to  the  strength 
and  splendor  of  the  opposing  hosts. 

Since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  the  North  had  taxed 
its  resources  for  the  capture  of  Richmond  ;  nothing  was  omit 
ted  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  event ;  the  way  had  to  be 
opened  to  the  capita,  by  tedious  and  elaborate  operations  on 
the  frontier  of  Yirginia :  this  accomplished,  the  city  of  Rich 
mond  was  surrounded  by  an  army  whose  numbers  was  all  that 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  333 

could  be  desired;  composed  of  picked  forces;  having  every 
advantage  that  science  and  art  could  bestow  in  fortifications 
and  every  appliance  of  war ;  assisted  by  gunbi.  at  flotillas  in 
two  rivers,  and  endowed  with  every  thing  that  could  assure 
success. 

The  Northern  journals  were  unreserved  in  the  statement 
that  the  commands  of  Fremont,  Banks,  and  McDowell,  had 
been  consolidated  into  one  army,  under  Major-general  Pope, 
with  a  view  of  bringing  all  the  Federal  forces  in  Virginia,  to 
co-operate  with  McClellan  on  the  Richmond  lines.  A  portion 
of  this  army  must  have  reached  McClellan,  probably  at  an 
early  stage  of  the  engagements  in  the  vicinity  of  Richmond. 
There  is  little  doubt  but  that,  in  the  memorable  contest  for  the 
safety  of  Richmond,  we  engaged  an  army  whose  superiority 
in  numbers  to  us  was  largely  increased  by  -timely  reinforce 
ments,  and  with  regard  to  the  operations  of  which  the  North 
ern  government  had  omitted  no  conditions  of  success. 

Of  this  contest,  unparalleled  in  its  duration  ;  rich  in  dra 
matic  incident  and  display  ;  remarkable  for  a  series  of  battles, 
any  one  of  which  might  rank  with  the  most  celebrated  in  his 
tory  ;  and  distinguished  by  an  obstinacy,  on  the  part  of  the 
sullen  and  insolent  enemy,  that  was  broken  only  by  the  most 
tremendous  exertions  ever  made  by  Southern  troops,  we  shall 
have  to  treat  in  a  future  continuation  of  this  work,  with  the 
utmost  care  as  to  the  authenticity  of  our  narrative,  and  with 
matured  views  as  to  the  merits  and  importance  of  what  is  now 
supposed  to  be  a  great  and  decisive  event. 

For  the  present,  merely  for  the  purpose  of  extending  the 
general  record  of  events  in  this  chapter  to  the  present  stand 
point  of  intelligent  reflection  on  the  future  of  the  war,  we  must 
content  the  reader  with  a  very  brief  and  summary  sketch  of 
the  battles  around  Richmond.  Such  a  sketch  is  necessarily 
imperfect,  written  amid  the  confusion  of  current  events,  and  ia 
limited  to  the  design  of  acquainting  the  reader  with  the  gen 
eral  situation  at  this  writing,  without  venturing,  to  a  great  de 
gree,  upon  statements  of  particular  facts. 


334:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


SKETCH    OF   THE   BATTLES   AROUND   EICHMOND. 

Upon  taking  command  of  the  Confederate  army  in  the  field, 
after  Gen.  Johnston  had  been  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Seven 
Pines,  Gen  Lee  did  not  hesitate  to  adopt  the  spirit  of  that 
commander,  which  had  already  been  displayed  in  attacking 
the  enemy,  and  which  indicated  the  determination  on  his  part 
that  the  operations  before  Richmond  should  not  degenerate 
into  a  siege. 

The  course  of  the  Chickahominy  around  Richmond  affords 
an  idea  of  the  enemy's  position  at  the  commencement  of  tho 
action.  This  stream  meanders  through  the  tide- water  district 
of  Yirginia — its  course  approaching  that  of  the  arc  of  a  circle 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Richmond — until  it  reaches  the  lower 
end  of  Charles  City  county,  where  it  abruptly  turns  to  the  south 
and  empties  into  the  James.  A  portion  of  the  enemy's  forces 
had  crossed  to  the  south  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  were 
fortified  on  the  Williamsburg  road.  On  the  north  bank  of  the 
stream  the  enemy  was  strongly  posted  for  many  miles ;  the 
heights  on  that  side  of  the  stream  having  been  fortified  with 
great,  energy  and  skill  from  Meadow  Bridge,  on  a  line  nearly 
due  north  from  the  city,  to  a  point  below  Bottom's  Bridge, 
which  is  due  east.  This  line  of  the  enemy  extended  for  about 
twenty  miles. 

Reviewing  the  situation  of  the  two  armies  at  the  commence 
ment  of  the  action,  the  advantage  was  entirely  our  own.  McClel- 
tan  had  divided  his  army  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Chickahomi 
ny,  and  operating  apparently  with  the  design  of  half  circum- 
vallating  Richmond,  had  spread  out  his  forces  to  an  extent 
that  impaired  the  faculty  of  concentration,  and  had  made  a 
weak  and  dangerous  extension  of  his  lines. 

On  Thursday,  the  26th  of  June,  at  three  o'clock,  Major- 
general  Jackson — fresh  from  the  exploits  of  his  magnificent 
campaign  in  the  Valley — took  up  his  line  of  march  from  Ash 
land,  and  proceeded  down  the  country  between  the  Chicka 
hominy  and  Pamunkey  rivers.  The  enemy  collected  on  the 
north  bank  of  the  Chickahomin}-,  at  the  point-where  it  is  cross 
ed  by  the  Brooke  turnpike,  were  driven  off",  and  Brigadier 
general  Branch,  crossing  the  stream,  directed  his  movement? 


O  E  N.  A.  P,  H  I  LL. 


THE    FIKST    YEAR. 

for  a  junction  with  the  column  of  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill,  which  had 
crossed  at  Meadow  Bridge.  General  Jackson  having  borne 
away  from  the  Chickahominy,  so  as  to  gain  ground  towards 
the  Pamunkey,  marched  to  the  left  of  Mechanicsville,  while 
Gen.  Hill,  keeping  well  to  the  Chickahominy,  approached  that 
village  and  engaged  the  enemy  there. 

With  about  fourteen  thousand  men  (Gen.  Branch  did  not  ar 
rive  till  nightfall),  Gen.  Hill  engaged  the  forces  of  the  enemy 
until  night  put  an  end  to  the  contest.  "While  he  did  not  suc 
ceed,  in  that  limited  time,  in  routing  the  enemy,  his  forces 
stubbornly  maintained  the  possession  of  Mechanicsville  and 
the  ground  taken  by  them  on  the  other  side  of  the  Chicka 
hominy.  Driven  from  the  immediate  locality  of  Mechanics 
ville,  the  enemy  retreated  during  the  night  down  the  river  to 
Powhite  swamp,  and  night  closed  the  operations  of  Thursday. 

The  road  having  been  cleared  at  Mechanicsville,  Gen.  Long- 
street's  corps  cParmee,  consisting  of  his  veteran  division  of  the 
Old  Guard  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill's 
division,  debouched  from  the  woods  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Chickahominy,  and  crossed  that  river.  Friday  morning  the 
general  advance  upon  the  enemy  began;  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill  L\ 
the  centre,  and  bearing  towards  Coal  Harbor,  while  Gen. 
Longs treet  and  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill  came  down  the  Chickahominy 
to  New  Bridge.  Gen.  Jackson  still  maintained  his  position  in 
advance,  far  to  the  left,  and  gradually  converging  to  the  Chicka- 
hominy  again. 

The  position  of  the  enemy  was  now  a  singular  one.  One 
portion  of  his  army  was  on  the  south  side  of  the  Chickahominy, 
fronting  Richmond,  and  confronted  by  Gen.  Magruder.  The 
other  portion,  on  the  north  side,  had  fallen  back  to  a  new  line  of 
lefences,  where  McClellan  proposed  to  make  a  decisive  battle. 

As  soon  as  Jackson's  arrival  at  Coal  Harbor  was  announced, 
Gen.  Lee  and  Gen.  Longstreet,  accompanied  by  their  respective 
staffs,  rode  by  Gaines's  Mill,  and  halted  at  New  Coal  Harbor, 
where  they  joined  General  A.  P.  Hill.  Soon  the  welcome 
sound  of  Jackson's  guns  announced  that  he  was  at  work. 

The  action  was  now  to  become  general  for  the  first  time  on 
the  Richirond  lines;  and  a  collision  of  numbers  was  about  to 
take  place  equal  to  any  that  had  yet  occurred  in  the  histojy  of 
the  war. 


336  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

From  four  o'clock  until  eight  the  battle  raged  with  a  display 
of  the  utmost  during  and  intrepidity  on  the  part  of  the  Con 
federate  army.  The  enemy's  lines  were  finally  broken,  and  his 
strong  positions  all  carried,  and  night  covered  the  retreat  01 
McClellan's  broken  and  routed  columns  to  the  south  side  of  the 
Chickahominy. 

The  assault  on  the  enemy's  works  near  Gaines's  Mills  id  a 
memorable  part  of  the  engagement  of  Friday,  and  the  display 
of  fortitude,  as  well  as  quick  and  dashing  gallantry  of  our 
troops  on  that  occasion,  takes  its  place  by  the  side  of  the  most 
glorious  exploits  of  the  war.  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill,  had  made  the 
first  assault  upon  the  lines  of  the  enemy's  inirenchments  near 
Gaines's  Mills.  A  fierce  struggle  had  ensued  between  his 
division  and  the  garrison  of  the  line  of  defence.  Repeated 
charges  were  made  by  Hill's  troops,  but  the  formidable  charac 
ter  of  the  works,  and  murderous  volleys  of  grape  and  canister 
from  the  artillery  covering  them,  kept  our  troops  in  check.  It 
was  past  four  o'clock  when  Pickett's  brigade,  from  Longstreet's 
division,  came  to  HilFs  support.  Pickett's  regiments  fought 
with  the  most  determined  valor.  At  last  Whiting's  division, 
composed  of  the  "  Old  Third"  and  Texan  brigades,  advanced  at 
a  u  double  quick,"  charged  the  batteries,  and  drove  the  enemy 
from  his  strong  line  of  defence.  The  works  carried  by  these 
noble  troops  would  have  been  invincible  to  the  bayonet  had 
they  been  garrisoned  by  men  less  dastardly  than  the  Yankees. 

To  keep  the  track  of  the  battle,  which  had  swept  around 
Richmond,  we  must  have  reference  to  some  of  the  principal 
points  of  locality  in  the  enemy's  lines.  It  will  be  recollected 
that  it  was  on  Thursday  evening  when  the  attack  was  com 
menced  upon  the  enemy  near  Meadow  Bridge.  This  locality 
is  about  six  miles  distant  from  the  city,  on  a  line  almost  due 
north.  This  position  was  the  enemy's  extreme  right.  His 
lines  extended  from  here  across  the  Chickahominy,  near  the 
Powhite  Creek,  two  or  three  miles  above  the  crossing  of  the 
York  River  railroad.  From  Meadow  Bridge  to  this  railroad, 
the  distance  along  the  Chickahominy  on  the  north 'side  is  about 
ten  miles.  The  different  stages  between  the  points  indicated, 
along  which  the  enemy  were  driven,  are  Mechanicsville,  about 
a  mile  north  of  the  Chickahominy;  further  on,  Beaver  Dam 
Creek,  emptying  into  the  Chickahominy  ;  then  the  New  Bridge 


THE    FIEST    YEAR.  33V 

road,  on  which  Coal  Harbor  is  located;  and  then  Powhite 
Creek,  where  the  enemy  had  made  his  last  stand,  and  been  re 
pulsed  from  the  field. 

The  York  River  railroad  runs  in  an  easterly  direction,  inter 
secting  the  Chickahominy  about  ten  miles  from  the  city. 
South  of  the  railroad  is  the  Williainsburg  road,  connecting  with 
the  Nine  Mile  road  at  Seven  Pines.  The  former  road  connects 
with  the  New  Bridge  road,  which  turns  off  and  crosses  the 
Chickahominy.  From  Seven  Pines,  where  the  Nine  Mile  road 
joins  the  upper  one,  the  road  is  known  as  the  old  Williamsburg 
road,  and  crosses  the  Chickahominy  at  Bottom's  Bridge. 

With  the  bearing  of  these  localities  in  his  mind,  the  reader 
will  readily  understand  how  it  was  that  the  enemy  was  driven 
from  his  original  strongholds  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicka 
hominy,  and  how,  at  the  time  of  Friday's  battle,  he  had  been 
compelled  to  surrender  the  possession  of  the  Fredericksburg  and 
Central  railroads,  and  had  been  pressed  to  a  position  where  he 
was  cut  off  from  the  principal  avenues  of  supply  and  escape. 
The  disposition  of  our  forces  was  such  as  to  cut  off  all  commu 
nication  between  McClellan's  army  and  the  White  House,  on 
the  Pamunkey  river ;  he  had  been  driven  completely  from  his 
northern  line  of  defences ;  and  it  was  supposed  that  he  would 
be  unable  to  extricate  himself  from  his  position  without  a  vic 
tory  or  a  capitulation.  In  front  of  him  being  the  Chickahominy, 
which  he  had  crossed — in  his  rear,  were  the  divisions  of  Generals 
Longstreet,  Magrnder,  and  Huger,  and,  in  the  situation  as  it 
existed  Saturday  night,  all  hopes  of  his  escape  were  thought  to 
be  impossible. 

On  Sunday  morning,  it  appears  that  our  pickets,  on  the 
Nine  Mile  road,  having  engaged  some  small  detachments  of 
the  enemy,  and  driven  them  beyond  their  fortifications,  found 
them  deserted.  In  a  short  while,  it  became  known  to  our 
generals  that  McClellan,  having  massed  his  entire  force  on  this 
side  of  the  Chickahominy,  was  retreating  towards  James  river. 

The  intrenchments  which  the  enemy  had  deserted,  were 
found  to  be  formidable  and  elaborate.  That  immediately  across 
the  railroad,  at  the  six-mile  post,  which  had  been  supposed  to 
be  light  earth-work,  designed  to  sweep  the  railroad,  turned  out 
to  be  an  immense  embrasured  fortification,  extending  for  hun 
dreds  of  vards  on  either  side  of  the  track.  Within  this  work 


338  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

were  found  great  quantities  of  fixed  ammunition,  which  had 
apparently  been  prepared  for  removal,  and  then  deserted.  All 
the  cannon,  as  at  other  in  trench  m  en  ts.  had  been  carried  off.  A 
dense  cloud  of  smoke  was  seen  issuing  from  the  woods  two 
miles  in  advance  of  the  battery,  and  half  a  mile  to  the  right  of 
1  the  railroad.  The  smoke  was  found  to  proceed  from  a  perfect 
mountain  of  the  enemy's  commissary  stores,  consisting  of  sugar, 
coffee,  and  bacon,  prepared  meats,  vegetables,  &c.,  which  he 
had  fired.  The  fields  and  woods  around  this  spot  were  covered 
with  every  description  of.  clothing  and  camp  equipage.  No 
indication  was  wanting  that  the  enemy  had  left  this  encamp 
ment  in  haste  and  disorder. 

The  enemy  had  been  imperfectly  watched  at  a  conjuncture 
the  most  critical  in  the  contest,  and  through  some  omission  of 
our  guard — the  facts  of  which  have  as  yet  been  but  imperfectly 
developed — McClellan  had  succeeded  in  massing  his  entire 
force,  and  taking  up  a  line  of  retreat,  by  which  he  hoped  to 
reach  the  cover  of  his  gunboats  on  the  James.  But  the  most 
unfortunate  circumstance  to  us  was,  that  since  the  enemy  had 
escaped  from  us  in  his  fortified  camp,  his  retreat  was  favored 
by  a  country,  the  characteristics  of  which  are  unbroken  forest* 
and  wide  swamps,  where  it  was  impossible  to  pursue  him  with 
rapidity,  and  extremely  difficult  to  reconnoitre  his  position  so 
as  to  bring  him  to  decisive  battle. 

On  Sunday  morning,  the  divisions  of  Generals  Hill  and 
Longstreet  crossed  the  Chickahominy,  and  were,  during  the 
whole  of  the  day,  moving  in  the  hunt  for  the  enemy.  The  dis 
position  which  was  made  of  our  forces  brought  General  Long- 
street  on  the  enemy's  front,  immediately  supported  by  General 
Hill's  division  consisting  of  six  brigades.  The  forces  com 
manded  by  General  Longstreet  were  his  old  division,  consisting 
of  six  brigades. 

The  position  of  the  enemy  was  about  five  miles  northeast 
of  Darbytown,  on  the  New  Market  road.  The  immediate 
scene  of  the  battle  was  a  plain  of  sedge  pines,  in  the  cover  of 
which  the  enemy's  forces  were  skilfully  disposed — the  locality 
being  known  as  Frazier's  farm.  In  advancing  upon  the  enemy, 
batteries  of  sixteen  heavy  guns  were  opened  upon  the  advance 
columns  of  Gen.  Hill.  Our  troops,  pressing  heroically  forward, 
had  no  sooner  got  within  musket  range  than  the  enemy,  form 


THE    F1KST    YEAR. 

mg  several  lines  of  battle,  poured  upon  them  from  his  heavy 
masses  a  devouring  fire  of  musketry.  The  conflict  became 
terrible,  the  air  being  filled  with  missiles  of  death,  every  mo 
ment  having  its  peculiar  sound  of  terror,  and  every  spot  its 
sight  of  ghastly  destruction  and  horror.  It  is  impossible  that 
in  any  of  the  series  of  engagements  which  had  taken  place 
within  the  past  few  days,  and  had  tracked  the  lines  of  Rich 
mond  with  fire  and  destruction,  there  could  have  been  more 
desperate  fighting  on  the  part  of  our  troops.  Never  was  a  more 
glorious  victory  plucked  from  more  desperate  and  threatening 
circumstances  While  exposed  to  the  double  fire  of  the  enemy's 
batteries  and  his  musketry,  we  were  unable  to  contend  with  him 
with  artillery.  But  although  thus  unmatched,  our  brave  troops 
pressed  on  with  unquailirig  vigor  and  a  resistless  courage,  driving 
the  enemy  before  them.  This  was  accomplished  without  artillery, 
there  being  but  one  battery  in  Gen.  Hill's  command  on  the  spot, 
and  that  belonged  to  Longstreet's  division,  and  could  not  be  got 
into  position.  Thus  the  fight  continued  with  an  ardor  and  devo 
tion  that  few  battle-fields  have  ever  illustrated.  Step  by  step 
the  enemy  were  driven  back,  his  guns  taken,  and  the  ground 
he  abandoned  strewn  with  his  dead.  By  half-past  eight  o'clock 
we  had  taken  all  his  cannon,  and,  continuing  to  advance,  had 
driven  him  a  mile  and  a  half  from  his  ground  of  battle. 

Our  forces  were  still  advancing  upon  the  retreating  lines  of 
the  enemy.  It  was  now  about  half-past  nine  o'clock,  and  very 
dark.  Suddenly,  as  if  it  had  burst  from  the  heavens,  a  sheet 
of  fire  enveloped  the  front  of  our  advance.  The  enemy  had 
made  another  stand  to  receive  us,  and,  from  the  black  masses 
of  his  forces,  it  was  evident  that  he  had  been  heavily  reinforced, 
and  that  another  whole  corps  (Tarmee  had  been  brought  up  to 
contest  the  fortunes  of  the  night.  Line  after  line  of  battle  was 
formed.  It  was  evident  that  his  heaviest  columns  were  now 
being  thrown  against  our  small  command,  and  it  might  have 
been  supposed  that  he  would  only  be  satisfied  with  its  annihi 
lation.  The  loss  here  on  our  side  was  terrible. 

The  situation  being  evidently  hopeless  for  any  further  pur 
suit  of  the  fugitive  enemy,  who  had  now  brought  up  such  over 
whelming  forces,  our  troops  retired  slowly. 

At  this  moment,  seeing  their  adversary  retire,  the  most  vocif 
erous  cheers  arose  along  the  whole  Yankee  line.  They  were 


340  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

taken  up  in  the  distance  by  the  masses  which  for  miles  and 
miles  beyond  were  supporting  McClellan's  front.  It  was  a 
moment  when  the  heart  of  the  stoutest  commander  might  have 
been  appalled.  The  situation  of  our  forces  was  now  as  desper 
ate  as  it  well  could  be,  and  required  a  courage  and  presence  of 
mind  to  retrieve  it,  which  the  circumstances  which  surrounded 
them  were  not  well  calculated  to  inspire.  They  had  fought  for 
five  or  six  hours  without  reinforcements.  All  our  reserves  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  action.  Wilcox's  brigade,  which  had 
been  almost  annihilated,  was  re-forming  in  the  rear. 

Riding  rapidly  to  the  position  of  this  brigade,  Gen.  Hill 
brought  them,  by  great  exertions,  up  to  the  front,  to  check  the 
advance  of  the  now  confident,  cheering  enemy.  Catching  the 
spirit  of  their  commander,  the  brave,  but  jaded  men,  moved  up 
to  the  front,  replying  to  .the  enemy's  cheers  with  shouts  and 
yells.  At  this  demonstration,  which  the  enemy,  no  doubt, 
supposed  signified  heavy  reinforcements,  he  stopped  his  ad 
vance.  It  was  now  about  half-past  ten  o'clock  in  the  night. 
The  enemy  had  been  arrested ;  and  the  fight — one  of  the  most 
remarkable,  long-contested,  and  gallant  ones  that  had  yet  oc 
curred  on  our  lines — was  concluded  with  the  achievement  of  a 
field  under  the  most  trying  circumstances,  which  the  enemy, 
with  the  most  overpowering  numbers  brought  up  to  reinforce 
him,  had  not  succeeded  in  reclaiming. 

Gen.  Magruder's  division  did  not  come  up  until  11  o'clock 
at  night,  after  the  fight  had  been  concluded.  By  orders  from 
Gen.  Lee,  Magruder  moved  upon  and  occupied  the  battle 
ground  ;  Gen.  Hill's  command  being  in  such  a  condition  of 
prostration  from  their  long  and  toilsome  fight,  and  suffering  in 
killed  and  wounded,  that  it  was  proper  they  should  be  relieved 
by  the  occupation  of  the  battle-ground  by  a  fresh  corps  cTarmee. 

Early  on  Tuesday  morning  the  enemy,  from  the  position  to 
which  he  had  been  driven  the  night  before,  continued  his 
retreat  in  a  southeasterly  direction  towards  his  gunboats  on 
James  river.  At  eight  o'clock  Magruder  recommenced  the 
pursuit,  advancing  cautiously,  but  steadily,  and  shelling  the 
forests  and  swamps  in  front  as  he  progressed.  This  method  or 
advance  was  kept  up  throughout  the  morning  and  until  four 
o'clock,  P.  M.,  without  coming  up  with  the  enemy.  But  be 
tween  four  and  five  o'clock  our  troops  reached  a  lar^e  open 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  341 

field,  a  mile  long  and  three-quarters  in  width,  on  the  faim  of 
Dr.  Carter.  The  enemy  were  discovered  strongly  intrenched 
in  a  dense  forest  on  the  other  side  of  this  field.  Their  artillery, 
numbering  fifty  pieces,  could  be  plainly  seen  bristling  over 
their  freshly  constructed  earth -works.  At  ten  minutes  before 
five  o'clock,  P.  M.,  Gen.  Magruder  ordered  his  men  to  charge 
across  the  field  and  drive  the  enemy  from  their  position.  Gal 
lantly  they  sprang  to  the  encounter,  rushing  into  the  field  at 
a  full  run.  Instantly,  from  the  line  of  the  enemy's  breastworks, 
a  murderous  storm  of  grape  and  canister  was  hurled  into  their 
ranks,  with  the  most  terrible  effect.  Oflicers  and  men  went 
down  by  hundreds ;  but  yet,  undaunted  and  unwavering,  our 
line  dashed  on,  until  two-thirds  of  the  distance  across  the  field 
was  accomplished.  Here  the  carnage  from  the  withering  fire 
of  the  enemy's  combined  artillery  and  musketry  was  dreadful.  ., 
Our  line  wavered  a  moment,  and  fell  back  to  the  cover  of  the 
woods.  Twice  again  the  effort  to  carry  the  position  was  re 
newed,  but  each  time  with  the  same  result.  Night,  at  length, 
rendered  a  further  attempt  injudicious,  and  the  fight,  until  ten 
o'clock,  was  kept  up  by  the  artillery  of  both  sides.  To  add 
to  the  horrors,  if  not  to  the  dangers,  of  this  battle,  the  enemy's 
gunboats,  from  their  position  at  Curl's  Neck,  two  and  a  half 
miles  distant,  poured  on  the  field  continuous  broadsides  from 
their  immense  rifle-guns.  Though  it  is  questionable  whether 
any  serious  loss  was  inflicted  on  us  by  the  gunboats,  the  hor- ' 
rors  of  the  fight  were  aggravated  by  the  monster  shells,  which 
tore  shrieking  through  the  forests,  and  exploded  with  a  con 
cussion  which  seemed  to  shake  the  solid  earth  itself. 

The  battle  of  Tuesday,  properly  known  as  that  of  Malvern 
Hill,  was  perhaps  the  most  sanguinary  of  the  series  of  bloody 
conflicts  which  had  taken  place  on  the  lines  about  Richmond. 
It  was  made  memorable  by  its  melancholy  monument  of  car 
nage.  But  it  had  given  the  enemy  no  advantage,  except  in  the 
unfruitful  sacrifice  of  the  lives  of  our  troops,  and  the  line  of  his 
retreat  was  again  taken  up,  his  forces  toiling  towards  the  river 
through  mud,  swamp,  and  forest. 

The  skill  and  spirit  with  which  McClellan  had  managed  to 
retreat  was,  indeed,  remarkable,  and  afforded  no  mean  proofa 
of  his  generalship.  At  every  stage  of  his  retreat  he  had  con 
fronted  our  forces  with  a  string  rear-guard,  and  had  encountered 


342  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

us  with  well-organized  lines  of  battle,  and  regular  dispo 
sitions  of  infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery.  His  heavy  rilled 
cannon  had  been  used  against  us  constantly  on  his  retreat.  A 
portion  of  his  forces  had  now  effected  communication  with  the 
river  at  points  below  City  Point.  The  plan  of  cutting  off  his 
communication  with  the  river,  which  was  to  have  been  exe 
cuted  by  a  movement  of  Holmes'  division  between  him  and 
the  river,  was  frustrated  by  the  severe  fire  of  the  gunboats, 
and  since  then  the  situation  of  the  enemy  appeared  to  be  that 
of  a  division  or  dispersion  of  his  forces,  one  portion  resting 
on  the  river,  and  the  other,  to  some  extent,  involved  by  our 
lines. 

It  had  been  stated  to  the  public  of  Richmond,  with  great 
precision  of  detail,  that  on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  the  28th 
of  June,  we  had  brought  the  enemy  to  bay  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Chickahominy,  and  that  it  only  remained  to  finish  him  in 
a  single  battle.  Such,  in  fact,  appeared  to  have  been  the 
situation  then.  The  next  morning,  however,  it  was  perceived 
that  our  supposed  resources  of  generalship  had  given  us  too 
much  confidence;  that  the  enemy  had  managed  to  extricate 
himself  from  the  critical  position,  and,  having  massed  his  forces, 
had  succeeded,  under  cover  of  the  night,  in  opening  a  way  to 
the  James  river.* 


*  A  great  deal  was  claimed  ix>r  "  generalship"  in  the  battles  around  Rich 
mond  ;  and  results  achieved  by  the  hardy  valor  of  our  troops  were  busily 
ascribed  by  hollow-hearted  flatterers  to  the  genius  of  the  strategist.  Without 
going  into  any  thing  like  military  criticism,  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  difficult 
to  appreciate  the  ascription  of  a  victory  to  generalship,  in  the  face  of  the 
exposure  and  terrible  slaughter  of  our  troops  in  attacking,  in  front,  the 
formidable  breastworks  of  the  enemy.  The  benefit  of  "  generalship"  in  such 
circumstances  is  unappreciable :  when  troops  are  thus  confronted,  the  honors 
of  victory  belong  rather  to  the  spirit  of  the  victors  than  the  genius  of  the 
commander. 

With  reference  to  McClellan's  escape  from  White  Oak  Swamp  to  the  river, 
letters  of  Yankee  officers,  published  in  the  Northern  journals,  stated  that 
when  McClellan  on  Saturday  evening  sent  his  scouts  down  the  road  to  Turkey 
Inland  Bridge,  lie  was  astonished  and  delighted  to  find  that  our  forces  had  not 
occupied  that  road,  and  immediately  started  his  wagon  and  artillery  trains, 
which  were  quietly  passing1  down  that  road  all  night  to  the  James  river, 
ivliih;  our  forces  were  quietly  sleeping  within  four  miles  of  the  very  road  they 
»hould  have  occupied,  and  should  have  captured  evef^  one  of  the  enemy's  on* 
thousand  wagons,  and  four  hundred  cannon 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  34:3 

Upon  tin's  untoward  event,  the  operations  of  our  army  on  the 
Richmond*  side  of  the  Chickahominy  were  to  follow  the  fugitive 
enemy  through  a  country  where  he  had  admirable  opportuni 
ties  of  concealment,  and  through  the  swamps  and  forests  or 
which  he  had  retreated  with  the  most  remarkable  judgment, 
dexterity,  and  spirit  of  fortitude. 

The  glory  and  fruits  of  our  victory  may  have  been  seriously 
diminished  by  the  grave  mishap  or  fault  by  which  the  enemy 
was  permitted  to  leave  his  camp  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Chickahominy,  in  an  open  country,  and  to  plunge  into  the 
dense  cover  of  wood  and  swamp,  where  the  best  portion  of  a 
whole  week  was  consumed  in  hunting  him,  and  finding  out  his 
new  position  only  in  time  to  attack  him  under  the  uncertainty 
and  disadvantage  of  the  darkness  of  night. 

But  the  successes  achieved  in  the  series  of  engagements 
which  had  already  occurred  were  not  to  be  lightly  esteemed, 
or  to  be  depreciated,  because  of  errors  which,  if  they  had  not 
occurred,  would  have  made  our  victory  more  glorious  and  more 
complete.  The  siege  of  Richmond  had  been  raised  :  an  army 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  had  been  pushed 
from  their  strongholds  and  fortifications,  and  put  to  flight ;  we 
had  enjoyed  the  eclat  of  an  almost  daily  succession  of  victories; 
we  had  gathered  an  immense  spoil  in  stores,  provisions,  and 
artillery ;  and  we  had  demoralized  and  dispersed,  if  we  had  not 
succeeded  in  annihilating,  an  army  which  had  every  resource 
that  could  be  summoned  to  its  assistance,  every  possible  ad 
dition  of  numbers  within  the  reach  of  the  Yankee  government, 
and  every  material  condition  of  success  to  insure  for  it  the 
great  prize  of  the  capital  of  the.  Confederacy,  which  is  now,  as 
far  as  human  judgment  can  determine,  irretrievably  lost  to 
them,  and  secure  in  the  protection  of  a  victorious  army. 

The  Northern  papers  claimed  that  the  movements  of  McClel- 
lan  from  the  Chickahominy  river  were  purely  strategic,  and 
that  he  had  obtained  a  position,  where  he  would  establish  a  new 


It  is  further  stated  in  these  letters,  that  if  we  had  blocked  up  that  only 
passage  of  escape,  their  entire  army  must  have  surrendered  or  been  starved 
out  in  twenty-four  hours.  These  are  the  Yankees'  own  accounts  of  how  much 
they  were  indebted  to  blunders  on  our  part  for  the  success  of  McClellan'a 
retreat — a  kind  of  admission  not  popular  with  a  vain  and  self-adulatory 
enemy. 


344  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

base  of  operations  against  Richmond.  Up  to  the  first  decisive 
stage  in  the  series  of  engagements — Coal  Harbor — there  were 
certainly  plain  strategic  designs  in  his  backward  movement. 
His  retirement  from  Mechanicsville  was  probably  voluntary 
and  intended  to  concentrate  his  troops  lower  down,  where  he 
might  fight  with  the  advantages,  of  numbers  and  his  own 
selection  of  position.  Continuing  his  retreat,  he  fixed  the 
decisive  field  at  Coal  Harbor.  Again  having  been  pushed 
from  his  strongholds  north  of  the  Chickahominy,  the  enemy 
made  a  strong  attempt  to  retrieve  his  disasters  by  renewing  a 
concentration  of  his  troops  at  Frazier's  farm. 

From  the  time  of  these  two  principal  battles,  all  pretensions 
of  the  enemy's  retreat  to  strategy  must  cease.  His  retreat  was 
now  unmistakable ;  it  was  no  longer  a  falling  back  to  concen 
trate  troops  for  action ;  it  is,  in  fact,  impossible  to  disguise  that 
it  was  the  retreat  of  an  enen»y  who  was  discomfited  and  whip 
ped,  although  not  routed.  He  had  abandoned  the  railroads ; 
he  had  given  up  the  strongholds  which  he  had  provided  to 
secure  him  in  case  of  a  check ;  he  had  destroyed  from  eight  to 
ten  millions  dollars'  worth  of  stores;  he  had  deserted  his 
ifiospitals,  his  sick  and  wounded,  and  he  had  left  in  our  hands 
r  thousands  of  prisoners,  and  innumerable  stragglers. 

Regarding  all  that  had  been  accomplished  in  these  battles  ; 

rthe  displays  of  the  valor  and  devotion  of  our  troops;  the  ex- 

:  peiaditure  of  blood  ;  and  the  helpless  and  fugitive  condition  to 

-which  the  enemy  had  at  last  been  reduced,  there  w?,s  cause  for 

:  the  keenest  regrets  that  an  enemy  in  this  condition  was  per- 

i  mitted  to  secure  his  retreat.     It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  in 

failing  to  cut  off  McClellan's  retreat  to  the  river,  we  failed  to 

accomplish  the  most  important  condition  for  the  completion  or 

.  our  victory.     But  although  the  result  of  the  conflict  had  fallen 

below  public  expectation,  it  was  sufficiently  fortunate  to  excite 

popular  joy,  and  grave  enough  to  engage  the  most  serious 

;  speculation  as  to  the  future. 

The  effect  of  the  defeat  of  McClellan  before  Richmond  was 

received   at  the  North  with   ill-concealed  mortification   and 

;  anxiety.     Beneath  the  bluster  of  the  newspapers  and  the  af 

fectations  of  public  confidence,  disappointment,  embarrassment, 

;  and  alarm  .--were  perceptible.     The  people  of  the  North  had 

;  oeea. so,, assured  of  the  capture  of  Richmond,  that  it  was  diffi 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  345 

cult  to  reanimate  them  on  the  heels  of  McClellan's  retreat 
The  pi  )spects  held  out  to  them  so  long,  of  ending  the  war  in 
"  sixty  days,"  "  crushing  out  the  rebellion,"  and  eating  victo 
rious  dinners  in  Richmond,  had  been  bitterly  disappointed  and 
were  not  to  be  easily  renewed.  The  government  at  Washing 
ton  showed  its  appreciation  of  the  disaster  its  arms  had  sus 
tained  by  making  a  call  for  three  hundred  thousand  additional 
troops  ;  and  the  people  of  the  North  were  urged  by  every  vari 
ety  of  appeal,  including  large  bounties  of  money,  to  respond 
to  the  stirring  call  of  President  Lincoln. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  North  was  seriously  discour 
aged  by  the  events  that  had  taken  place  before  Richmond. 
But  it  was  a  remarkable  circumstance,  uniformly  illustrated  in 
the  war,  that  the  North,  though  easily  intoxicated  by  triumph, 
was  not  in  the  same  proportion  depressed  by  defeat.  There  is 
an  obvious  explanation  for  this  peculiarity  of  temper.  As  long 
as  the  North  was  conducting  the  war  upon  the  soil  of  the  South, 
a  defeat  there  involved  more  money  expenditure  and  more  calls 
for  troops  ;  it  involved  scarcely  any  thing  else  ;  it  had  no  other 
horrors,  it  did  not  imperil  their  homes ;  it  might  easily  be  re 
paired  by  time.  Indeed,  there  was  some  sense  in  the  exhorta 
tions  of  some  of  the  Northern  orators,  to  the  eifect  that  defeat 
made  their  people  stronger  than  ever,  because,  while  it  required 
them  to  put  forth  their  energies  anew,  it  enabled  them  to  take 
advantage  of  experience,  to  multiply  their  means  of  success, 
and  to  essay  new  plans  of  campaign.  No  one  can  doubt  but 
that  the  celebrated  Manassas  defeat  really  strengthened  the 
North  ;  and  doubtless  the  South  would  have  realized  the  same 
consequence  of  the  second  repulse  of  the  enemy's  movements 
on  Richmond,  if  it  had  been  attended  by  the  same  conditions 
on  our  part  of  inaction  and  repose. 

In  his  congratulatory  address  to  the  army  on  their  victory 
before  Richmond,  President  Davis  referred  to  the  prospect  of 
carrying  the  war  into  the  North.  His  friends  declared  that 
the  President  had  at  last  been  converted  from  his  darling  mili 
tary  formulas  of  the  defensive  policy;  that  he  was  sensible  that 
the  only  way  to  bring  the  war  to  a  decisive  point  was  to  invade 
the  North.  But  it  was  urged  that  our  army  was  too  feeble  to 
undertake  at  present  an  aggressive  policy  ;  although  the  facts 
were  that,  counting  in  our  immense  forces  under  Gen.  Bragg 


M6  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

in  the  West,  which  for  months  had  been  idly  lying  in  Missis 
sippi,  we  had  probably  quite  as  many  troops  in  the  field  as  the 
North  had ;  that  delay  could  accomplish  but  little  addition  to 
our  forces,  while  it  would  multiply  those  of  the  North,  its 
resources  of  conscription  and  draft  being  intact ;  that  if  out 
army  was  small,  it  was  due  to  the  neglect  of  the  executive  in 
enforcing  the  Conscription  Law,  which  should  have  furnished 
three  quarters  of  a  million  of  men ;  and  that  if  reduced  and 
demoralized  by  desertion  and  straggling,  it  was  because  of  the 
weak  sentimentalisin  of  our  military  authorities,  which  hesi 
tated  to  enforce  the  death  penalty  in  our  armies,  or  to  maintaip 
military  discipline  by  a  system  much  harsher  than  that  ol 
moral  suasion.  Judgment  must  be  taken  subject  to  these  facts 
as  to  how  far  the  government  was  responsible  for  lingering  in 
a  policy  which,  though  of  its  own  choosing  at  first,  it  at  last 
confessed  to  be  wrong,  and  from  which,  when  discovered  to  be 
an  error  and  a  failure,  it  professed  to  be  unable  to  extricate 
itself  on  account  of  a  weakness  of  which  itself  was  sole  cause 
and  author.  Happily,  however,  the  valor  and  devotion  of  our 
troops  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  government,  and  opened  a 
way  in  which  it  had  so  long  hesitated,  and  found  paltry  excuses 
for  its  tame  and  unadventurous  temper.  But  to  this  we  shall 
refer  hereafter. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  how  completely  the  ordinary  aspects 
of  war  were  changed  and  its  horrors  diminished,  with  refer 
ence  to  the  North,  by  the  false  policy  of  the  South,  in  keeping 
the  theatre  of  active  hostilities  within  her  own  borders.  Defeat 
did  not  dispirit  the  North,  because  it  was  not  brought  to  her 
doors.  Where  it  did  not  immediately  imperil  the  safety  of 
the  country  and  homes  of  the  Yankees,  where  it  gave  time  for 
the  recovery  and  reorganization  of  the  attacking  party,  and 
where  it  required  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  nothing  but 
more  money  jobs  in  Congress  and  a  new  raking  up  of  the  scum 
of  the  cities,  the  effects  of  defeat  upon  the  North  might  well 
be  calculated  to  be  the  exasperation  of  its  passions,  the  inflam 
mation  of  its  cupidity,  and  the  multiplication  of  its  exertions 
to  break  and  overcome  the  misapplied  power  of  our  armies. 

Indeed,  the  realization  of  the  war  in  the  North  was,  in  many 
aspects,  nothing  more  than  that  of  an  immense  money  job. 
The  large  money  expenditure  at  Washington  supplied  &  vast 


THE    FIRST    YiSAB.  347 

fund  of  corruption  ;  it  enriclied  the  commercial  centres  of  the 
North,  and  by  artificial  stimulation  preserved  such  cities  as 
New  York  from  decay ;  it  interested  vast  numbers  of  politi 
cians,  contractors,  and  dissolute  public  men  in  continuing  the 
war  and  enlarging  the  scale  of  its  operations  ;  and,  indeed,  the 
disposition  to  make  money  out  of  the  war  accounts  for  much 
of  that  zeal  in  the  North,  which  was  mistaken  for  political  ar 
dor  or  the  temper  of  patriotic  devotion.* 


*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  an  unpublished  letter  from  Gen.  Wash 
ington  to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  and,  as  an  exposition  of  the  character  of  the 
Northern  people  from  a  pen  sacred  to  posterity,  is  deeply  interesting.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  of  the  authenticity  of  the  letter.  It  has  been  preserved  in 
the  Lee  family,  who,  though  applied  to  by  Bancroft,  Irving,  and  others  for  a 
copy  for  publication,  have  hitherto  refused  it,  on  the  -ground  that  it  would  be 
improper  to  give  to  the  world  a  private  letter  from  the  Father  of  his  Country 
reflecting  upon  any  portion  of  it  while  the  old  Union  endured.  But  now,  that 
"  these  people"  have  trampled  the  Constitution  under  foot,  destroyed  the  gov 
ernment  of  our  fathers,  and  invaded  and  desolated  Washington's  own  county 
in  Virginia,  there  can  be  no  impropriety  in  showing  his  private  opinion  of  the 
Massachusetts  Yankees : 

[Copy.] 

CAMP  AT  CAMBRIDGE,  Aug.  29, 1775. 
Dear  Sir :    *    *    * 

As  we  have  now  nearly  completed  our  lines  of  defence,  we  have  nothing 
more,  in  my  opinion,  to  fear  from  the  enemy,  provided  we  can  keep  our  men 
to  their  duty,  and  make  them  watchful  and  vigilant ;  but  it  is  among  the  most 
difficult  tasks  I  ever  undertook  in  my  life  to  induce  these  people  to  believe 
that  there  is  or  can  be  danger,  till  the  bayonet  is  pushed  at  their  broasts  ;  not 
that  it  proceeds  from  any  uncommon  prowess,  but  rather  from  an  unaccount 
able  kind  of  stupidity  in  the  lower  class  of  these  people,  which,  believe  me, 
prevails  but  too  generally  among  the  officers  of  the  Massachusetts  part  of  the 
army,  who  are  nearly  of  the  same  kidney  with  the  privates,  and  adds  not  a 
little  to  my  difficulties,  as  there  is  no  such  thing  as  getting  officers  of  this 
stamp  to  exert  themselves  in  carrying  orders  into  execution.  To  curry  favor 
with  the  men  (by  whom  they  were  chosen,  and  on  whose  smiles  possibly  they 
may  think  they  may  again  rely)  seems  to  be  one  of  the  principal  objects  ol 
their  attention.  I  submit  it,  therefore,  to  your  consideration,  whether  there 
is,  or  is  not,  a  propriety  in  that  resolution  of  the  Congress  which  leaves  the 
ultimate  appointment  of  all  officers  below  the  rank  of  general  to  the  govern 
ments  where  the  regiments  originated,  now  the  army  is  become  Continental  ? 
To  me,  it  appears  improper  in  two  points  of  view— first,  it  is  giving  that 
power  and  weight  to  an  individual  Colony  which  ought  of  right  to  belong  to 
the  whole.  Then  it  damps  the  spirit  and  ardor  of  volunteers  from  all  but 
the  four  New  England  Governments,  as  none  but  their  people  have  the  least 
chance  of  getting  into  office.  Would  it  not  be  better,  therefore,  to  have  the 
warrants,  which  the  Commander-in-Chief  is  authorized  to  give  pro  tempore, 


34:8  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

But  while  politicians  plundered  the  government  at  Washing 
ton  and  coi. tractors  grew  rich  in  a  single  day,  and  a  fictitious 
prosperity  dazzled  the  eyes  of  the  observer  in  the  cities  .of  the 
North,  the  public  finances  of  the  Yankee  government  had  long 
ago  become  desperate.  It  is  interesting  at  this  point  to  make 
a  brief  summary  of  the  financial  condition  of  the  North  by  a 
comparison  of  its  public  debt  with  the  assets  of  the  govern 
ment. 

The  debt  of  the  present  United  States,  audited  and  float 
ing,  calculated  from  data  up  to  June  30,  1862,  was  at  least 
$1,300,000,000.  The  daily  expenses,  as  admitted  by  the  chair 
man  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  was  between  three 
and  four  millions  of  dollars ;  the  debt,  in  one  year  from  this 
time,  could  not  be  less  than  two  thousand  five  hundred  millions 
of  dollars. 

Under  the  census  of  1860,  all  the  property  of  every  kind  in 
all  the  States  was  estimated  at  less  than  $  12,500,000,000.  Since 


approved  or  disapproved  by  the  Continental  Congress,  or  a  committee  of  their 
body,  which  I  should  suppose  in  any  long  recess  must  always  sit  ?  In  this 
case,  every  gentleman  will  stand  an  equal  chance  of  being  promoted,  accord 
ing  to  his  merit :  in  the  other,  all  offices  will  be  confined  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  four  New  England  Governments,  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  impolitic  to  a 
degree.  I  have  made  a  pretty  good  slam  among  such  kind  of  officers  as  the 
Massachusetts  Government  abounds  in  since  I  came  to  this  camp,  having 
broken  one  colonel  and  two  captains  for  cowardly  behavior  in  the  action  on 
Bunker's  Hill,  two  captains  for  drawing  more  provisions  and  pay  than  they 
had  men  in  their  company,  and  one  for  being  absent  from  his  post  when  the 
enemy  appeared  there  and  burnt  a  house  just  by  it.  Besides  these,  I  have  at 
this  time  one  colonel,  one  major,  one  captain,  and  two  subalterns  under  arrest 
for  trial.  In  short,  I  spare  none,  and  yet  fear  it  will  not  all  do,  as  these  peo 
ple  seem  to  be  too  inattentive  to  every  thing  but  their  interest. 

********* 

There  have  been  so  many  great  and  capital  errors  and  abuses  to  rectify — so 
many  examples  to  make,  and  so  little  inclination  in  the  officers  of  inferior 
rank  to  contribute  their  aid  to  accomplish  this  work,  that  my  life  has  been 
nothing  else  (since  I  came  here)  but  one  continual  round  of  vexation  and 
fatigue.  In  short,  no  pecuniary  recompense  could  induce  me  to  undergo  what 
I  have  ;  especially,  as  I  expect,  by  showing  so  little  countenance  to  irregular 
ities  and  public  abuses  as  to  render  myself  very  obnoxious  to  a  great  part  ol 
these  people.  But  as  I  have  already  greatly  exceeded  the  bounds  of  a  letter 
I  will  not  trouble  you  with  matters  relative  to  my  feelings. 
Your  affectionate  friend  and  obedient  servant, 

(Signed  GEO.  WASHINGTON 

"Richard  Henry  Lee,  Esq. 


THE    FIKST    YEAR.  34:9 

the  war  commenced,  the  depreciation  has  been  at  least  one- 
fourth,  $3,175,000,000.  From  $9,375,000,000  deduct  the  prop 
erty  in  the  seceded  States,  at  least  one-third— $3,125,000,000; 
leaving  in  the  present  United  States,  $6,250,000,000. 

It  will  thus  be  seen,  that  the  present  debt  of  the  North  is 
one-fifth  of  all  the  property  of  every  kind  it  possesses ;  and  in 
one  year  more  it  will  be  more  than  one-third.  No  people  on 
earth  has  ever  been  plunged  in  so  large  a  debt  in  so  short  a 
time.  No  government  in  existence  has  so  large  a  debt  in  pro 
portion  to  the  amount  of  property  held  by  its  people. 

In  continuing  the  narrative  of  the  campaign  in  Virginia,  we 
shall  have  to  observe  the  remarkable  exasperation  with  which 
the  North  re-entered  upon  this  campaign,  and  to  notice  many 
deeds  of  blackness  which  illustrated  the  temper  in  which  she 
determined  to  prosecute  the  desperate  fortunes  of  the  war. 
The  military  authorities  of  the  North  seemed  to  suppose  that 
better  success  would  attend  a  savage  war,  in  which  no  quarter 
was  to  be  given  and  no  age  or  sex  spared,  than  had  hitherto 
been  secured  to  such  hostilities  as  are  alone  recognized  to  be 
lawful  by  civilized  men  in  modern  times.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  comment  at  length  upon  this  fallacy.  Brutality  in  war  was 
mistaken  for  vigor.  War  is  not  emasculated  by  the  observ 
ances  of  civilization ;  its  vigor  and  success  consist  in  the  re 
sources  of  generalship,  the  courage  of  troops,  the  moral  ardors 
of  its  cause.  To  attempt  to  make  up  for  deficiency  in  these 
great  and  noble  elements  of  vigor  by  mere  brutal  severities — 
such  as  pillage,  assassination,  &c.,  is  absurd  ;  it  reduces  the  idea 
of  war  to  the  standard  of  the  brigand ;  it  offends  the  moral 
sentiment  of  the  world,  and  it  excites  its  enemy  to  the  last 
stretch  of  determined  and  desperate  exertion. 

The  North  had  placed  a  second  army  of  occupation  of  Yir- 
ginia  under  command  of  Gen.  Pope,  who  boasted  that  he  was 
fresh  from  a  campaign  in  the  West,  where  he  had  "  seen  only 
the  backs  of  rebels.*  This  brutal  braggart  threatened  that  fire, 

*  This  notorious  Yankee  commander,  Major-general  John  Pope,  was  a  man 
nearly  forty  years  of  age,  a  native  of  Kentucky,  but  a  citizen  of  Illinois.  He 
was  born  of  respectable  parents.  He  was  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1843, 
and  served  in  the  Mexican  war,  where  he  was  brevetted  a  captain. 

In  1849,  he  conducted  the  Minnesota  exploring  expedition,  and  afterwards 
acted  as  topographical  engineer  of  New  Mexico,  until  1853,  when  he  was  as 


350  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

famine,  and  slaughter  should  be  the  portions  of  the  concpered. 
He  declared  that  he  would  not  place  any  guard  over  any  private 
property,  and  invited  the  soldiers  to  pillage  and  murder.  He 
issued  a  general  order,  directing  the  murder  of  peaceful  in 
habitants  of  Virginia  as  spies  if  found  quietly  tilling  their 
farms  in  his  rear,  even  outside  of  his  lines ;  and  one  of  his 
brigadier-generals,  Steinwehr,  seized  upon  innocent  and  peace 
ful  inhabitants  to  be  held  as  hostages,  to  the  end  that  they 
might  be  murdered  in  cold  blood,  if  any  of  his  soldiers  were 
killed  by  some  unknown  persons,  whom  he  designated  as  "  bush- 
wackers." 

signed  to  the  command  of  one  of  the  expeditions  to  survey  the  route  of  the 
Pacific  railroad.  He  distinguished  himself  on  the  overland  route  to  the  Pacific 
by  "  sinking"  artesian  wells  and  government  money  to  the  amount  of  va  mil 
lion  of  dollars.  One  well  was  finally  abandoned  incomplete,  and  afterwards 
a  perennial  spring  was  found  by  other  parties  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  In 
a  letter  to  Jefferson  Davis,  then  Secretary  of  War,  urging  this  route  to  the 
Pacific  and  the  boring  these  wells,  Pope  made  himself  the  especial  champion 
of  the  South. 

On  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  Pope  was  made  a  brigadier-general  of 
volunteers.  He  held  a  command  in  Missouri  for  some  time  before  he  became 
particularly  noted.  When  General  Halleck  took  charge  of  the  disorganized 
department,  Pope  was  placed  in  command  of  the  District  of  Central  Missouri. 
He  was  afterwards  sent  to  southeastern  Missouri.  The  cruel  disposition  of 
the  man,  of  which  his  rude  manners  and  a  vulgar  bearded  face,  with  coarse 
skin,  gave  indications,  found  an  abundant  field  for  gratification  in  this  un 
happy  State.  His  proceedings  in  Missouri  will  challenge  a  comparison  with 
the  most  infernal  record  ever  bequeathed  by  the  licensed  murderer  to  the  ab 
horrence  of  mankind.  And  yet  it  was  his  first  step  in  blood,  the  first  oppor 
tunity  he  had  ever  had  to  feast  his  eyes  upon  slaughter  and  regale  his  ears 
with  the  cries  of  human  agony.  • 

Having  been  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major-general,  Pope  was  next  appoint 
ed  to  act  at  the  head  of  a  corps  to  co-operate  with  Halleck  in  the  reduction  oi 
Corinth.  After  the  evacuation  of  Corinth  by  General  Beauregard,  Pope  was 
Bent  by  Halleck  to  annoy  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  army,  but  Beauregard 
turned  upon  and  repulsed  his  pursuit.  The  report  of  Pope  to  Halleck,  that 
he  had  captured  10,000  of  Beauregard's  army,  and  15,000  stand  of  arms,  when 
he  had  not  taken  a  man  or  a  musket,  stands  alone  in  the  history  of  lying. 
It  left  him  without  a  rival  in  that  respectable  art. 

Such  was  the  man  who  took  command  of  the  enemy's  forces  in  northern 
Virginia.  His  bluster  was  as  excessive  as  his  accomplishments  in  falsehood. 
He  was  described  in  a  Southern  newspaper  as  "  a  Yankee  compound  of  Bob- 
adil  and  Munchausen."  His  proclamation,  that  he  had  seen  nothing  of  hi« 
enemies  "  but  their  backs,"  revived  an  ugly  story  in  his  private  life,  and  gave 
occasion  to  the  witty  interrogatory,  if  the  gentleman  who  cowhided  him  foi 
offering  an  indignity  to  a  lady,  was  standing  with  his  back  to  him  when  he  in 


THE    FIRST    YEAK.  351 

The  people  of  the  North  were  delighted  with  the  brigandisL 
pronunciamentoa  of  Pope  in  Virginia.  The  government  at 
Washington  was  not  slow  to  gratify  the  popular  passion  ;  it 
hastened  to  change  the  character  of  the  war  into  a  campaign 
of  indiscriminate  robbery  and  murder.  A  general  order  was 
issued  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  directing  the  militaiy  com 
manders  of  the  North  to  take  private  property  for  the  conve 
nience  and  use  of  their  armies,  without  compensation.  The 
public  and  official  expressions  of  the  spirit  of  the  North  in  the 
war  were  even  more  violent  than  the  clamors  of  the  mob.  The 
abolitionists  had  at  last  succeeded  in  usurping  complete  con 
trol  of  the  government  at  Washington,  and  in  imparting  to 
the  war  the  unholy  zeal  of  their  fanaticism.  Nine-tenths  of 
the  legislation  of  the  Yankee  Congress  had  been  occupied  in 
some  form  or  other  with  the  question  of  slavery.  Universal 
emancipation  in  the  South,  and  the  utter  overthrow  of  all 
property,  was  now  the  declared  policy  of  the  desperate  and 
demented  leaders  of  the  war.  The  Confiscation  Bill,  enacted 
at  the  close  of  the  session  of  Congress,  confiscated  all  the  slaves 
belonging  to  those  who  were  loyal  to  the  South,  constituting 
nine-tenths  at  least  of  the  slaves  in  the  Confederate  States.  In 
the  Border  States  occupied  by  the  North,  slavery  was  plainly 
doomed  under  a  plan  of  emancipation  proposed  by  Mr.  Lincoln 
with  the  flimsy  and  ridiculous  pretence  of  compensation  to 
slaveholders.*  Other  violent  acts  of  legislation  were  passed 

flicted  tlie  chastisement.  The  fact  was,  that  Pope  had  won  his  baton  of  mar 
8hal  by  bragging  to  the  Yankee  fill.  He  was  another  instance,  besides  that 
of  Butler,  of  the  manufacture  of  militaiy  reputation  in  the  North  by  cowardlj 
W  uster  and  acts  of  coarse  cruelty  to  the  defenceless. 

*  According  to  the  census  of  1860 — 

Kentucky  had 225,490    slaves. 

Maryland 87,188          " 

Virginia 490,887 

Delaware  .    .    1,798          " 

Missouri 114,965          " 

Tennessee 275,784 


Making  in  the  whole 1,196,112 

At  the  proposed  rate  of  valuation,  these  would  amount  to       $358,833,600 
Add  for  deportation  and  colonization  $100  each,  119,244,533 


And  we  have  the  enormous  sum  of  $478,078,133 


352  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

with  the  intention  to  envenom  the  war,  to  insult  and  torture 
the  South,  to  suppress  the  freedom  of  public  opinion  in  the 
North,  and  to  keep  the  government  in  the  hands  of  the  fanatics 
and  crusaders  of  Abolitioi  ism.  Disaffection  was  threatened 
with  a  long  list  of  Draconian  penalties.  The  political  scaffold 
was  to  be  erected  in  the  North,  while  the  insatiate  and  un 
bridled  fury  of  its  army  was  to  sweep  over  the  South.  "  Ke- 
bellion"  was  to  be  punished  by  a  warfare  of  savages,  and  the 
devilish,  skulking  revenge,  that  pillages,  burns,  and  assass 
inates,  was  to  follow  in  the  bloody  footsteps  of  the  invading 
armies. 

To  this  enormous  mass  of  brutality  and  lawlessness,  the  Con 
federate  States  government  made  but  a  feeble  response.  It 
proposed  a  plan  of  retaliation,  the  execution  of  which  was 
limited  to  the  commissioned  officers  of  the  army  of  Gen.  Pope  ; 
which,  by  declaring  impunity  to  private  soldiers,  encouraged 
their  excesses ;  and  which,  in  omitting  any  application  to  the 
army  of  Butler  in  New  Orleans,  who  had  laughed  at  female 
virtue  in  the  conquered  districts  of  the  South,  and  murdered  a 
citizen  of  the  South  for  disrespect  to  the  Yankee  bunting,*  was 
lamentably  weak  and  imperfect.  The  fact  was,  that  the  gov- 

It  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  a  proposition  could  be  made  in  good  faith, 
or  that  in  any  event  the  proposition  could  be  otherwise  than  worthless,  to  add 
this  vast  amount  to  the  public  debt  of  the  North  at  a  moment  when  the 
treasury  was  reeling  under  the  enormous  expenditures  of  the  war. 

*  The  act  for  which  William  B.  Mumford  was  executed  by  Butler,  was 
taking  down  the  Yankee  ensign  from  the  Mint  in  that  city  on  the  24th  of 
April.  This  act  of  Mumford  was  committed  before  the  city  of  New  Orleans 
had  surrendered.  Indeed,  the  flag  was  hoisted  in  the  city  while  negotiations 
were  being  conducted  between  the  commander  of  the  Yankee  fleet  and  the 
authorities  ;  and  under  these  circumstances  the  raising  of  the  enemy's  flag 
was  a  plain  violation  of  the  rules  and  amenities  of  war,  and  an  outrage  on  the 
authorities  and  people  of  the  city.  Taking  the  harshest  rule  of  construction, 
the  act  of  Mumford,  having  been  committed  before  the  city  of  New  Orleans 
had  surrendered,  was  nothing  more  than  an  act  of  war,  for  which  he  was  no 
more  responsible  than  as  a  prisoner  of  war. 

The  unhappy  man  was  hung  in  the  open  day  by  order  of  the  Federal  tyrant 
of  New  Orleans.  The  brutal  sentence  of  death  on  the  gallows  was  carried 
into  effect  in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  spectators.  The  crowd  looked  onf 
scarcely  believing  their  senses,  unwilling  to  think  that  even  such  a  tyrant  as 
Butler  could  really  have  the  heart  for  such  a  wanton  murder  of  a  citizen  of 
the  Confederate  States,  and  hoping  every  moment  for  a  reprieve  or  a  pardon  ; 
but  none  came,  and  the  soul  of  the  martyr  was  ushered  by  violent  hands  into 
the  presence  of  its  God. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  353 

eminent  of  President  Davis  had  been  weakly  swindled  in  ita 
military  negotiation  with  the  North.  It  was  persuaded  to  sign 
a  cartel  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners,  in  which  it  made  a  pres 
ent  to  its  enemy  of  a  surplus  of  about  six  thousand  prisoners  t 
and  its  weak  generosity  was  immediately  rewarded,  not  only 
by  the  barbarous  orders  of  Pope,  which  were  issued  just  at  the 
time  the  cartel  was  signed,  but  by  the  practical  proclamation 
in  all  the  invaded  districts  of  the  South  of  the  policy  of  the 
seizure  and  imprisonment  of  unarmed  inhabitants.  Our  gov 
ernment  had  left  out  of  the  recent  cartel  any  provisions  for 
private  citizens  kidnapped  by  the  enemy;  it  had  left  the 
North  in  the  undisturbed  enjoyment,  in  many  places,  of  the 
privilege  it  claimed  of  capturing  in  our  country  as  many  polit 
ical  prisoners  as  it  pleased  ;  and  it  had,  to  a  considerable  ex 
tent,  practically  abandoned  the  protection  of  its  own  citizens. 

Before  the  eyes  of  Europe  the  mask  of  civilization  had  been 
taken  from  the  Yankee  war  ;  it  degenerated  into  unbridled 
butchery  and  robbery.  But  the  nations  of  Europe,  which 
boasted  themselves  as  humane  and  civilized,  had  yet  no  inter 
ference  to  .offer  in  a  war  which  shocked  the  senses  and  appealed 
to  the  common  offices  of  humanity.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that 
during  the  entire  continuance  of  the  war  up  to  this  time,  the 
British  government  bad  acted  with  reference  to  it  in  a  spirit 
of  selfish  and  inhuman  calculation  ;  and  there  is,  indeed,  but 
little  doubt  that  an  early  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by 
France  was  thwarted  by  the  interference  of  that  cold  and 
sinister  government,  that  ever  pursues  its  ends  by  indirection, 
and  perfects  its  hypocrisy  under  the  specious  cloak  of  extreme 
conscientiousness.  No  greater  delusion  could  have  possessed 
the  people  of  the  South  than  that  the  government  of  England 
was  friendly  to  them.  That  government,  which  prided  itself 
on  its  cold  and  ingenious  selfishness,  seemed  to  have  discovered 
a  much  larger  source  of  profit  in  the  continuation  of  the  Ameri 
can  war,  than  it  could  possibly  derive  from  a  pacification  of  the 
contest.  It  was  willing  to  see  its  operatives  starving,  and  to 
endure  the  distress  of  a  "cotton  famine,"*  that  it  might  have 


*  Great  pains  were  taken  alike  by  the  Yankee  and  the  English  press  to 
conceal  the  distress  caused  in  the  manufacturing  districts  of  Europe  by  the 
vi'hholding  of  Southern  cotton  ;  and  the  specious  fallacy  was  being  con- 


354:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  ultimate  satisfaction,  which  it  anticipated,  of  seeing  both 
parties  in  the  American  war  brought  to  the-point  of  exhaustion 
and  its  own  greatness  enlarged  on  the  ruins  of  a  hated  com 
mercial  rival.  The  calculation  was  far-reaching  ;  it  was  char 
acteristic  of  a  government  that  secretly  laughed  at  all  senti 
ment,  made  an  exact  science  of  selfishness,  and  scorned  the 
weakness  that  would  sacrifice  for  any  present  good  the  larger 
fruits  of  the  future. 

In  the  regular  continuation  of  our  historical  narrative,  in 
which  much  that  has  been  said  here  by  way  of  general  reflec 
tion  will  be  replaced  by  the  record  of  particular  facts,  and 
special  comments  upon  them,  we  shall  have  occasion  before 


stantly  put  forward  that  the  cotton  product  in  the  colonial  dominions  of 
Great  Britain  and  elsewhere  was  being  rapidly  stimulated  and  enlarged ;  that 
it  would  go  far  towards  relieving  the  necessities  of  Europe  ;  and  that  one  ef 
fect  of  the  American  war  would  be  to  free  England  from  her  long  and  galling 
dependence  on  the  Slave  States  of  the  South  for  the  chief  article  of  her  manu 
facturing  industry. 

The  proofs  in  reply  to  the  latter  fallacy  and  falsehood  are  striking  and  un 
answerable.  The  shipments  of  cotton  from  the  British  colonies,  Egypt,  Brazil, 
&«.,  are  actually  falling  off,  and  were  much  less  this  last  summer  than  for  a 
corresponding  period  of  the  year  before.  The  evidence  of  this  fact  is  furnished 
la  the  cotton  circulars  of  Manchester. 

India  seems  to  have  been  cleared  out  by  the  large  shipments  of  last  year, 
and  the  shipments  to  Europe,  from  the  first  of  January  to  the  last  week  in 
May,  showed  a  decrease  of  100,000  bales ;  the  figures  being  251,000  bales 
ngainst  351,000  last  year.  From  the  large  proportional  consumption  of  Surat 
cotton,  the  stock  at  Liverpool  of  this  description,  which,  on  the  1st  of  January 
last,  stood  at  295,000  bales  against  130,000  last  year,  was,  about  the  close  of 
May,  reduced  to  170,000  against  133,000  last  year-;  while  in  the  quantity 
afloat  the  figures  were  still  more  unfavorable,  viz. :  184,000  bales  against 
258,000. 

The  downward  progress  of  the  stock  of  American  cotton  is  illustrated 
roughly  by  the  following  quarterly  table  prepared  from  the  Manchester 
circulars : 

March,  1861.          June. 

In  American  ports 750,000  100,000 

Afloat  and  at  Liverpool 918,000  971,000 

1,668,000        1,071,000 

March,  1862.  May. 

In  American  ports  t 30,000  20,000 

Afloat  and  at  Liverpool 160,000  108,000 

193.000  128,000 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  355 

tracing  the  active  prosecution  of  the  campaign  in  Virginia,  to 
direct  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  progress  cf  events  in 
the  West. 

We  shall  find  many  remarkable  events  to  record  in  thia 
direction.  We  shall  see -how  it  was  that  the  evacuation  of 
Corinth  was  determined  upon ;  that  the  retreat  was  conducted 
with  great  order  and  precision  ;  and  that,  despite  the  boasts  ol 
the  North  to  the  contrary,  we  lost  no  more  prisoners  than  the 
enemy  did  himself,  and  abandoned  to  him  in  stores  not  more 
than  would  amount  to  one  day's  expense  of  our  army. 

We  shall  find  in  the  defence  of  Yicksburg  a  splendid  lesson 
of  magnanimity  and  disinterested  patriotism.  We  shall  see 
how  for  several  weeks  this  city  resisted  successfully  the  attack 
of  the  enemy's  gunboats,  mortar  fleets,  and  heavy  siege-guns ; 
how  it  was  threatened  by  powerful  fleets  above  and  below,  and 
with  what  unexampled  spirit  the  Queen  City  of  the  Bluffs  sus 
tained  the  iron  storm  that  was  rained  upon  her  for  weeks  with 
continued  fury. 

New  Orleans,  Baton  Rouge,  Natchez,  and  Memphis  were  in 
the  hands  of  the  Yankees,  and  their  possession  by  the  enemy 
might  have  furnished  to  Yicksburg,  in  its  exposed  and  des 
perate  situation,  the  usual  excuses  of  timidity  and  selfishness 
for  its  surrender.  But  the  brave  city  resisted  these  vile  and 
unmanly  excuses,  and  gave  to  the  world  one  of  the  proudest 
and  most  brilliant  illustrations  of  the  earnestness  and  devotion 
of  the  people  of  the  South  that  had  yet  adorned  the  war. 

The  fact  that  but  little  hopes  could  be  entertained  of  the 
eventual  success  of  the  defence  of  Yicksburg  against  the  pow 
erful  concentration  of  the  enemy's  navy,  heightened  the  no 
bility  of  the  resistance  she  made.  The  resistance  of  an  enemy 
in  circumstances  which  afford  but  a  feeble  and  uncertain  pros 
pect  of  victory,  requires  a  great  spirit ;  but  it  is  more  invalu 
able  to  us  than  a  hundred  easy  victories ;  it  teaches  the  enemy 
that  we  are  invincible,  and  overcomes  him  with  despair;  it 
exhibits  to  the  world  the  inspirations  and  moral  grandeur  of 
our  cause  ;  and  it  educates  our  people  in  chivalry  and  warlike 
virtues  by  the  force  of  illustrious  examples  of  self-devotion. 

We  shall  have,  however,  the  satisfaction  of  recording  an 
unexpected  issue  of  victory  in  the  siege  of  Yicksburg,  and 
have  occasion  to  point  to  another  lesson  that  the  history  of  al] 


356  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

wars  indicates,  that  the  practical  test  of  resistance  affords  the 
only  sure  determination  whether  a  place  is  defensible  or  not. 
With  a  feeling  of  inexpressible  pride  did  Vicksburg  behold  two 
immense  fleets,  each  of  which  had  been  heretofore  invincible, 
brought  to  bay,  and,  unable  to  cope  with  her,  kept  at  a  re 
spectable  distance,  and  compelled  to  essay  the  extraordinary 
task  of  digging  a  new  channel  for  the  Mississippi. 

In  following  the  track  of  detachments  of  our  forces  in  the 
West,  we  shall  refer  to  the  brilliant  movements  across  the 
Mississippi  that  drove  the  enemy  from  Arkansas,  and  harassed 
him  on  the  Missouri  border  with  ceaseless  activity,  and  to  the 
dashing  expedition  of  the  celebrated  John  Morgan  into  Ken 
tucky.  We  shall  see  that  the  expedition  of  this  cavalier  was 
one  of  the  most  brilliant,  rapid,  and  successful  raids  recorded 
in  history.  He  left  Tennessee  with  a  thousand  men,  only  a 
portion  of  whom  were  armed ;  penetrated  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  into  a  country  in  full  possession  of  the  Yankees ; 
captured  a  dozen  towns  and  cities ;  met,  fought,  and  captured 
a  Yankee  force  superior  to  his  own  in  numbers ;  captured  three 
thousand  stand  of  arms  at  Lebanon ;  and,  from  first  to  last, 
destroyed  daring  his  raid,  military  stores,  railroad  bridges,  and 
other  property  to  the  value  of  eight  or  ten  millions  of  dollars. 
He  accomplished  all  this,  besides  putting  the  people  of  Cincin 
nati  into  a  condition,  described  by  one  of  their  newspapers,  as 
"  bordering  on  frenzy,"  and  returned  to  Tennessee  with  a 
loss  in  all  his  engagements  of  fifteen  men  killed,  and  forty 
wounded. 

While  some  activity  was  shown  in  extreme  portions  of  the 
West,  we  shall  see  that  our  military  operations  from  Green- 
brier  county,  Virginia,  all  the  way  down  to  Chattanooga,  Ten 
nessee,  were  conducted  with  but  little  vigor.  On  the  bounda 
ries  of  East  Tennessee,  southwestern  Virginia,  and  Kentucky, 
we  had  a  force  in  the  aggregate  of  thirty  thousand  men,  con 
fronted  by  probably  not  half  their  number  of  Yankee  troops  ; 
yet  the  southwestern  counties  of  Virginia,  and  the  valley  oi 
the  Clinch,  in  Tennessee,  were  entered  and  mercilessly  plun 
dered  by  the  enemy  in  the  face  of  our  troops. 

Turning  for  a  moment  from  the  military  events  of  this 
period,  wre  shall  notice  the  reassembling  of  the  Confederate 
Congress  on  the  18th  6f  August,  1862.  We  shall  then  find 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  357 

occasion  to  review  the  conduct  of  this  branch  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  to  observe  how  it  fell  below  the  spirit  and  virtue  oi 
the  people ;  what  servility  to  the  Executive  it  displayed,  and 
what  a  singular  destitution  of  talents  and  ability  was  remark- 
able  in  this  body,  Not  a  single  speech  that  has  yet  been  made 
in  it  will  live.  It  is  true,  that  the  regular  Congress  elected  by 
the  people  was  an  improvement  upon  the  ignorant  and  unsa-  ' 
vory  body  known  as  the  Provisional  Congress,  which  was  the 
creature  of  conventions,  and  which  was  disgraced  in  the  char 
acter  of  some  of  its  members ;  among  whom  were  conspicuous, 
corrupt  and  senile  politicians  from  Virginia,  who  had  done  all 
they  could  to  sacrifice  and  disgrace  their  State,  who  had 
toadied  in  "  society,"  as  well  as  in  politics,  to  notabilities  of 
New  England,  and  who  had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  emas 
culating,  and,  in  fact,  annulling  the  Sequestration  Law,  in  order 
to  save  the  property  of  relatives  who  had  sided  with  the  North 
against  the  land  that  had  borne  them  and  honored  their  fathers. 
But  the  regular  Congress,  although  it  had  no  taint  of  dis 
loyalty  or  Yankee  toadyism  in  it,  was  a  weak,  sycophantic,  and 
trifling  body.  It  has  made  no  mark  in  the  history  of  the  gov 
ernment  ;  it  was  utterly  destitute  of  originality.  Its  measures 
were  those  which  were  recommended  by  the  Executive  or  sug 
gested  by  the  newspapers.  It  produced  no  great  financial 
measure  ;  it  made  not  one  stroke  of  statesmanship  ;  it  uttered 
not  a  single  fiery  appeal  to  the  popular  heart,  such  as  is  cus 
tomary  in  revolutions.  The  most  of  the  little  ability  it  had 
was  eaten  up  by  servility  to  the  Executive ;  and  the  ignorance 
of  the  majority  was  illustrated  by  a  trifling  and  undignified 
style  of  legislation,  in  which  whole  days  were  consumed  with 
paltry  questions,  and  the  greatest  measures — such  as  the  Con 
script  Law* — embarrassed  by  demagogical  speeches  made  for 
home  effect. 


*  The  execution  of  the  Conscript  Law  was  resisted  by  Governor  Brown,  of 
Georgia.  The  correspondence  between  him  and  the  President  on  this  subject, 
which  was  printed  and  hawked  in  pamphlet-form  through  the  country,  is  a 
cariosity.  What  will  posterity  think  of  a  correspondence  between  such  dig 
nitaries,  taking  place  at  a  time  when  the  destinies  of  the  country  trembled  in 
the  balance,  composed  of  about  equal  parts  of  hairsplitting  and  demagogue- 
ism,  and  illustrated  copiously  by  Mr.  Brown  with  citations  from,  the  Virginia 
and  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798,  and  exhumed  opinions  of  members  of  tho 


358  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE 

It  is  difficult,  indeed,  for  a  legislative  body  to  preserve  ifcj 
independence,  and  to  resist  the  tendency  of  the  Executive  to 
absorb  power  in  a  time  of  war,  and  this  fact  was  well  ilh  s 
trated   by  the  Confederate  Congress.      One  of  the  greatest 
political  scholars  of  America,  Mr.  Madison,  noticed  this  dan 
ger  in  the  political  constitution  of  the  country.     He  said  :- 
"War  is  in  fact  the  true  nurse  of  Executive  aggrandizement. 
.  In  war  a  physical  force  is  to  be  created,  and  it  is  the  Execu 
tive  will  which  is  to  direct  it.     In  war  the  public  treasures 
are  to  be  unlocked,  and  it  is  the  Executive  hand  which  is  to 
dispense  therm     In  war  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  office 
are  to  be  multiplied,  and  it  is  the  Executive  patronage  under 
which  they  are  to  be  enjoyed.     It  is  in  war,  finally,  that  laurels 
are  to  be  gathered,  and  it  is  the  Executive  brow  they  are  to 
encircle/' 

There  was  but  little  opposition  in  Congress  to  President 
Davis  ;  but  there  was  some  which  took  a  direction  to  his  Cab 
inet,  and  this  opposition  was  represented  by  Mr.  Eoote  of  Ten 
nessee — a  man  of  acknowledged  ability  and  many  virtues  oi 
character,  who  had  re-entered  upon  the  political  stage  aftej 
a  public  life,  which,  however  it  lacked  in  the  cheap  merit  oi 
partisan  consistency,  had  been  adorned  by  displays  of  won 
derful  intellect  and  great  political  genius.  Mr.  Foote  was  not 
a  man  to  be  deterred  from  speaking  the  truth  ;  his  quickness 
to  resentment  and  his  chivalry,  which,  though  somewhat 
Quixotic,  was  founded  in  the  most  noble  and  delicate  sense 
of  honor,  made  those  who  would  have  bullied  or  silenced  a 
weaker  person,  stand  in  awe  of  him.  A  man  of  such  tem 
per  was  not  likely  to  stint  words  in  assailing  an  opponent ; 
and  his  sharp  declamations  in  Congress,  his  searching  com 
ments,  and  his  great  powers  of  sarcasm,  used  upon  such  men 
as  Mallory,  Benjamin,  and  Huger,  were  the  only  relief  of  the 
dulness  of  the  Congress,  and  the  only  historical  features  of  its 
debates. 


old  Federal  Convention  of  1787  ?  The  display  was  characteristic  of  Southern 
politicians;  in  the  most  vital  periods  of  the  country's  destiny  they  had  an  eye 
to  making  political  capital  for  themselves,  and  in  the  fierce  tumults  of  a  revo- 
1  ution,  refreshed  the  country  with  exhumations  from  the  politicians  of  1 787 
a<nd  the  usual  amount  of  clap-trap  about  our  "forefathers/'  and  the  old 
political  system  that  had  rotted  over  our  heads. 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  359 

Returning  to  the  history  of  the  campaign  in  "Viiginia,  w* 
shall  have  occasion  to  enumerate  another  briJiant  victory  of 
our  arms,  achieved  on  that  fortunate  theatre  of  the  war.  We 
refer  to  the  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain.  We  shall  find  othei 
topics  to  record  in  the  events  which,  at  the  time  of  this  wri 
ting,  are  developing  themselves,  and  reaching  to  the  most  im 
portant  consequences,  both  in  Virginia  and  Tennessee.  We 
shall  see  how  the  great  army  which  McClellan  had  brought 
for  the  reduction  of  Richmond,  and  in  sight  of  the  church 
steeples  of  that  city,  was  compelled  to  retire  towards  the  Poto 
mac,  with  its  proud  columns  shattered,  humiliated,  and  de 
moralized  ;  how  Pope,  who  had  entered  Virginia  with  a  splendid 
army  and  the  most  insolent  boasts,  was  ignominiously  whipped 
on  more  than  one  occasion,  and  with  what  agony  of  cowardice 
he  sought  safety  for  his  retreat ;  how  considerable  portions  of 
Virginia  and  Tennessee  were  surrendered  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Confederacy ;  how  the  enemy  in  various  quarters  waa 
pushed  back  to  his  old  lines ;  and  how  intelligent  men  in  the> 
South  saw  for  the  first  time  certain  and  unmistakable  indica 
tions  of  demoralization  in  the  armies  of  the  North,  brought  on* 
by  the  remarkable  train  of  victories  in  Virginia,  extending  from 
early  June  to  September. 

In  these  events  we  shall  find  bright  and  flattering  prospecta 
renewed  to  the  South.  Much  of  these  we  shall  nnd  already 
realized  in  the  events  in  the  midst  of  which  we  wrte  this  im 
perfect  sketch.  We  shall  trace  the  painful  steps  by  which  our 
worn  troops  advanced  to  meet  another  invading  army  in  Vir 
ginia,  reinforced  not  only  by  the  defeated  army  of  McClellan, 
but  by  the  fresh  corps  of  Generals  Burnside  and  Hunter.  We 
shall  tell  what  hardships  were  endured  by  our  troops,  and  what 
exploits  of  valor  were  performed  by  them  on  this  celebrated 
expedition  ;  how  they  were  compelled  to  toil  their  way  with 
inadequate  transportation  ;  how  they  crossed  streams  swollen 
to  unusual  height,  and  bore  all  the  fatigues  and  distresses  of 
forced  marches;  how  their  spirit  and  endurance  were  tested  by 
repeated  combats  with  the  enemy;  how  at  last  they  succeeded 
iti  turning  hir,  position;  and  how,  having  formed  a  junction  of 
their  columns  in  the  face  of  greatly  superior  forces  on  tl\^ 
historic  and  blood-stained  plains  of  Manassas,  they  achieve* 
there  the  ever-memorable  victory  of  the  thirteenth  of  Angus' 


360  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

1862,  the  crowning  triumph  of  their  toil  and  valor.  A  nation's 
gratitude  is  evoked  to  repay  all  that  is  due  to  the  valor  of  our 
troops  and  the  providence  of  Almighty  God.* 

We  do  not  trust  ourselves  to  predict  the  consequences  of  cur 
rent  events  ;  and  the  brilliant  story  of  Manassas,  grouped  with 
contemporary  victories  in  the  West,  must  be  left  to  the  decisions 
of  the  future — trusting  as  we  do  that  we  may  have  occasion  to 
record  in  another  volume  the  consequences  as  well  as  the  de 
tails  of  these  events,  and  to  find  in  the  future  the  fulfilment  of 
the  promises  of  to-day. 

*  *  *  *  A  few  general  reflections  on  the  material  and 
moral  phenomena  of  the  war  will  appropriately  conclude  our 
work  for  the  present. 

It  is  a  censurable  practice  to  flatter  the  people.     It  is  equally 


*  The  vulgar  and  unintelligent  mind  worships  success.  The  extraordinary 
and  happy  train  of  victories  in  Virginia  seems  to  have  had  no  other  signifi 
cance  or  interest  to  a  number  of  grovelling  minds  in  the  South,  than  as  a 
contribution  to  the  personal  fame  of  General  Lee,  who  by  no  fault  of  his  own 
(for  no  one  had  more  modesty,  more  Christian  dignity  of  behavior,  and  a 
purer  conversation),  was  followed  by  toadies,  flatterers,  and  newspaper  sneaks 
in  epaulets,  who  made  him  ridiculous  by  their  servile  obeisances  and  excess 
of  praise.  The  author  does  not  worship  success.  He  trusts,  however,  that 
he  has  intelligence  enough  to  perceive  merit,  without  being  prompted  by  the 
vulgar  cry ;  he  is  sure  that  he  has  honesty  and  independence  enough  to  ac 
knowledge  it  where  he  believes  it  to  exist.  The  estimation  of  General  Lee, 
made  in  some  preceding  pages,  was  with  reference  to  his  unfortunate  cam 
paign  in  Western  Virginia ;  it  was  founded  on  the  events  of  that  campaign, 
in  which  there  is  no  doubt  Gen.  Lee  blundered  and  showed  an  absurd  mis 
conception  of  mountain  warfare ;  and  so  far  as  these  events  furnished  evi 
dence  for  the  historian,  the  author  believes  that  he  was  right,  unprejudiced, 
and  just  in  ascribing  the  failure  of  that  campaign  to  the  misdirection  of  the 
commanding  general.  If,  however,  it  can  be  shown,  as  now  seems  to  be 
likely  from  incomplete  events,  that  on  wider,  clearer,  and  more  imposing 
fields  Gen.  Lee  has  shown  qualities  which  the  campaign  in  the  mountains 
of  Virginia  had  not  illustrated,  the  friends  of  this  commander  may  be  assured 
that  the  author  will  be  honest  and  cordial  in  acknowledging  the  fact,  and 
that  in  a  future  continuation  of  these  annals,  justice  will  be  done  to  the 
recent  extraordinary  events  in  Virginia,  fraught  with  so  many  critical  issues 
of  the  war,  and  associated  with  so  many  reputations  dear  to  the  people  of  the 
South.  In  writing  the  facts  of  this  war,  the  author  takes  no  counsel  of  pop 
ular  cries,  and  notions  fashionable  in  the  newspapers  ;  he  is  neither  the 
panegyrist  nor  the  antagonist  of  any  clique  ;  he  is  more  pleased  to  praise 
than  to  censure,  but  his  aim  is  truth,  and  he  is  resolved  to  pursue  it,  no 
matter  what  popular  prejudice  or  affect; on  he  is  compelled  to  crush  in  ita 
attainment. 


THE    FIRST    YEAH.  361 

censurable  to  withhold  from  them  the  plain  recognition  of  their 
accomplishments.  The  present  war  will  win  the  respect  of  the 
world  for  the  masses  of  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States 
With  inferior  numbers,  with  resources  hampered  on  all  sides, 
we  are  yet  winning  the  issue  of  the  great  struggle  in  which  we 
are  involved.  No  one  claims  that  this  is  owing  to  the  wisdom 
of  our  government.  No  one  ascribes  it  to  the  ability  of  our 
military  chieftains ;  for  blunders  in  our  military  management 
have  been  as  common  as  in  our  civil  administration.  But 
there  is  a  huge,  unlettered  power  that  wages  the  war  on  our 
side,  overcoming  everywhere  the  power  of  the  enemy  and  the 
incumbrances  of  our  own  machinery.  It  is  the  determined, 
settled  will  of  the  people  to  be  free,  and  to  fight  themselves 
free,  that  has  constituted  our  strength  and  our  safety. 

The  existing  war  has,  doubtless,  disappointed  the  world  in 
its  meagre  phenomena  of  personal  greatness,  and,  to  some  ex 
tent,  has  disappointed  its  own  people  in  the  bigotry  of  its 
policy  and  the  official  restraint  put  upon  its  spirit.  It  may  be 
said  with  singular  truth,  that  it  has  produced  or  exhibited  but 
few  great  men — that  it  has  not  raised  up  to  public  admiration 
in  the  South  a  statesman,  an  orator,  a  poet,  or  a  financier,  all 
which  are  generally  considered  as  much  the  natural  products 
of  war  as  military  genius  itself.  For  this  disappointment, 
however,  we  may  find  an  explanation  in  some  degree  satisfac 
tory.  It  is,  that  the  very  circumstance  of  the  almost  universal 
uprising  of  the  people  of  the  South,  and  the  eqtfal  measures  of 
devotion  shown  by  all  classes  and  intellects,  have  given  but 
little  room  for  overshadowing  names,  and  presented  but  little 
opportunity  for  marked  personal  distinctions  of  greatness. 

After  all,  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  people  that  is  most  sure  to 
achieve  the  victorious  results  of  revolutions ;  and  on  this  firm 
reliance,  and  not  on  the  personal  fortunes  of  master-spirits,  or 
on  adventitious  aid,  or  on  the  calculations  of  any  merely  ex 
ternal  events,  do  we  rest,  under  Providence,  the  hopes  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  The  verdict  of  the  history  of  the  world 
is,  that  no  powerful  nation  has  ever  been  lost  except  by  its  own 
cowardice.  All  nations  that  have  fought  for  an  independent 
existence,  have  had  to  sustain  terrible  defeats,  live  through 
deep,  though  temporary  distress,  and  endure  hours  of  profound 
discouragement.  But  no  nation  was  ever  subdued  that  really 


362  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

determined  to  fight  while  there  was  an  inch  of  ground  or  a 
solitary  soldier  left  to  defend  it. 

As  far  as  the  war  has  been  fought,  its  results,  in  a  military 
point  of  view,  are  deeply  humiliating  to  the  North.  The  war 
was  commenced  by  the  North  with  the  most  intense  expres 
sions  of  contempt  for  its  adversary  ;  the  idea  of  the  contest 
being  extended  beyond  a  few  months,  was  derided  and  spit 
upon ;  in  that  short  time  it  was  believed  that  the  flag  of  the 
Union  would  float  over  the  cities  and  towns  of  the  South,  and 
the  bodies  of  "  traitors"  dangle  from  the  battlements  of  Wash 
ington. 

This  was  not  affectation.  It  was  calculated  by  many  people, 
in  a  spirit  of  candor,  that  a  contest  so  unequal  in  the  material 
elements  of  strength  as  that  between  the  North  and  the  South 
would  be  speedily  determined.  The  North  had  more  than 
twenty  millions  of  people  to  break  the  power  of  eight  millions ; 
it  had  a  militia  force  about  three  times  as  strong  as  that  of  the 
South ;  it  had  the  regular  army ;  it  had  an  immense  advantage 
over  the  South  in  a  navy,  the  value  of  which  may  be  appre 
ciated  when  it  is  known  that  its  achievements  in  the  war  have 
been  greater  than  those  of  the  land  forces,  and  that  its  strength, 
with  proposed  additions  to  its  active  war  vessels,  is  estimated 
to-day  in  the  North  as  equivalent  to  an  army  of  half  a  million 
men. 

Nor  did  the  superiority  of  the  North  end  here.  While  the 
South  was  cu£  off  from  the  world  by  the  restrictions  of  the 
blockade,  without  commerce,  with  but  scanty  manufactures 
and  few  supplies  on  hand,  the  North  had  all  the  ports  of  the 
world  open  to  its  ships ;  it  had  furnaces,  foundries,  and  work 
tops  ;  its  manufacturing  resources  compared  with  those  of  the 
South  were  as  five  hundred  to  one ;  the  great  marts  of  Europe 
were  open  to  it  for  supplies  of  arms  and  stores ;  there  was 
nothing  of  material  resource,  nothing  of  the  apparatus  of  con 
quest  that  was  not  within  its  reach. 

These  immense  elements  of  superiority  on  the  part  of  the 
North  have  not  remained  idle  in  her  hands.  They  have  been, 
exercised  with  tremendous  energy.  Within  the  last  fifteen 
months  the  government  at  Washington  has  put  forth  all  its 
power  to  subjugate  the  South ;  it  has  contracted  a  debt  six 
or  seven  times  more  than  that  of  the  South;  it  has  called  out 


THE    FIRST    YEAR. 

nnre  than  half  a  million  soldiers :  it  has  put  Europe  under 
contribution  to  furnish  it  not  only  arms,  but  soldiers  to  use 
them  ;  it  has  left  no  resource  untried  and  omitted  no  condition 
of  success. 

The  result  of  all  this  immense  and  boasted  superiority  on 
the  part  of  the  North,  coupled  with  the  most  immense  exer 
tions  is,  that  the  South  remains  unconquered.  The  result  is 
humiliating  enough  to  the  warlike  reputation  of  the  North. 
It  has  not  been  separated  from  its  feeble  adversary  by  seas  or 
mountains,  but  only  by  a  geographical  line ;  nature  has  not 
interfered  to  protect  the  weak  from  the  strong ;  three  "  Grand 
Armies"  have  advanced  in  the  Confederate  territory ;  and  yet 
to-day,  the  Yankees  hold  in  Virginia  and  Tennessee  only  the 
ground  they  stand  upon,  and  the  South,  in  spirit,  is  more  in 
vincible  than  ever. 

Nor  has  the  war,  so  far  as  it  has  been  waged,  been  without 
great  moral  benefits  to  the  South.  We  may  indicate  at  least 
three  important  and  inestimable  blessings  which  it  has  confer 
red  upon  our  people. 

It  has  made  impossible  the  theory  of  the  "  reconstruction" 
of  the  old  Union,  which  was  no  doubt  indulged  in  the  early 
formation  of  the  Confederate  government.  It  has  carried  a 
revolution,  which,  if  no  war  had  taken  place,  would  probably 
have  ended  in  "reconstruction,"  on  the  basis  of  concessions 
from  the  Northern  States,  which  would  in  no  way  have  im 
paired  the  advantages  of  the  old  Union  to  them,  to  a  point 
where  the  demand  for  our  independence  admits  of  no  alterna 
tive  or  compromise.  It  has  revealed  to  us  the  true  character 
istics  of  the  people  of  the  North ;  it  has  repulsed  us  from  a 
people  wrhose  vices  and  black  hearts  we  formerly  knew  but  im 
perfectly  ;  and  it  has  produced  that  antagonism  and  alienation 
which  were  necessary  to  exclude  the  possibility  a  reunion 
with  them.  - 

Again :  the  war  has  shown  the  system  of  negro  slavery  in 
the  South  to  the  world  in  some  new  and  striking  aspects,  and 
lias  removed  m  ich  of  that  cloud  of  prejudice,  defamation, 
falsehood,  romance,  and  perverse  sentimentalism  through  which 
our  peculiar  institution  was  formerly  known  to  Europe.  It 
has  given  a  better  vindication  of  our  system  of  slavery  than  all 
the  books  thnt  could  be  written  in  a  generation.  Ilereaftei 


364:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

there  can  be  no  dispute  between  facts  plainly  exhibited  and 
the  pictures  of  romance  ;  and  intelligent  men  of  all  countries 
will  obtain  their  ideas  of  slavery  from  certain  leading  and  in 
disputable  facts  in  the  history  of  this  war,  rather  than  from 
partisan  sources  of  information  and  the  literary  inventions  of 
the  North.  The  war  has  shown  that  slavery  has  been  an  ele 
ment  of  strength  with  us ;  that  it  has  assisted  us  in  the  war  ; 
that  no  servile  insurrections  have  taken  place  in  the  South,  in 
spite  of  the  allurements  of  our  enemy  ;  that  the  slave  has  tilled 
the  soil  while  his  master  has  fought ;  that  in  large  districts  un 
protected  by  our  troops,  and  with  a  white  population  consisting 
almost  exclusively  of  women  and  children,  the  slave  has  con 
tinued  at  his  work,  quiet,  cheerful,  and  faithful  *  and  that,  as 


*  The  following  is  taken  from  the  letter  of  an  English  nobleman,  who 
visited  the  South  while  the  war  was  in  its  active  stages,  and  the  result  of 
whose  observations  there,  at  the  time  war  was  racking  the  country  and  many 
of  our  own  whites  were  houseless  and  starving,  was,  that  the  condition  of  the 
negro  slaves  in  the  South  was  "  better  than  that  of  any  laboring  population  in 
the  world." 

******* 

"  Among  the  dangers  which  we  had  heard  at  New  York  threatened  the 
South,  a  revolt  of  the  slave  population  was  said  to  be  the  most  imminent. 
Let  us  take,  then,  a  peep  at  the  cotton-field,  and  see  what  likelihood  there  is 
of  such  a  contingency.  On  the  bank  of  the  Alabama  river,  which  winds  its 
yellow  course  through  woods  of  oak,  ash,  maple,  and  pine,  thickened  with 
tangled  copse  of  varied  evergreens,  lie  some  of  the  most  fertile  plantations  of 
the  State.  One  of  these  we  had  the  advantage  of  visiting.  Its  owner  received 
us  with  all  that  hospitality  and  unaffected  bonhomie  which  invariably  distin 
guish  a  Southern  gentleman.  Having  mounted  a  couple  of  hacks,  we  started 
off  through  a  large  pine  wood,  and  soon  arrived  at  the  "  clearing"  of  about 
two  hundred  acres  in  extent,  on  most  of  which  was  gro  wing  an  average  cotton 
crop.  This  was  a  fair  sample  of  the  rest  of  the  plantation,  which  consisted 
altogether  of  7000  acres.  Riding  into  the  middle  of  the  field,  we  found  our 
selves  surrounded  by  about  forty  slaves — men,  women,  and  children — engaged 
in  "  picking."  They  were  all  well  dressed,  and  seemed  happy  and  cheerful. 

Wishing  to  know  what  time  of  day  it  was,  I  asked  Mr. the  hour,  where 

upon  one  of  the  darkies  by  my  side  took  out  a  watch  and  informed  me. 

"  '  Do  your  laborers  wear  watches,  sir  ?'  I  inquired. 

" '  A  great  many  of  them  have.  Why,  sir,  my  negroes  all  have  their  cotton 
plats  and  gardens,  and  most  of  them  have  little  orchards.' 

"  We  found  from  their  own  testimony  that  they  are  fed  well,  chiefly  upon 
pork,  corn,  potatoes,  and  rice,  carefully  attended  to  when  sick,  and  on  Sundays 
dress  better  than  their  masters.  We  next  visited  the  '  station,'  a  street  oi 

cottages  in  a  pine  wood,  where  Mr. 's  slaves  reside.  These  we  found 

and  comfortable.  Two  of  the  men  were  sick,  and  had  been  visited  that 


THE    FIRST    YEAR.  365 

a  conservative  element  in  our  social  system,  the  inst  tutioti  01 
slavery  has  withstood  the  shocks  of  war  and  been  a  faithful 
ally  of  our  arms,  although  instigated  to  revolution  by  every 
art  of  the  enemy,  and  prompted  to  the  work  of  assassination 
and  pillage  by  the  most  brutal  examples  of  the  Yankee  sol^ 
diery. 

Finally,  the  war  has  given  to  the  States  composing  the  Con 
federacy  a  new  bond  of  union.  This  was  necessary.  Com 
merce  and  intercourse  had  been  far  more  intimate  between  the 
Slave  States  on  the  Lower  Mississippi  and  those  on  the  Upper 
Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  than  between  any  portions  of 
the  Confederate  States.  The  war  has  broken  this  natural  affin 
ity  ;  it  has  supplanted  sympathy  by  alienation,  interest  by 
hate,  between  the  people  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Ohio,  and 
those  of  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi ;  and  by  the  prin 
ciple  of  repulsion  as  well  as  union,  by  the  tie  of  a  common 
bloodshed,  and  the  memory  of  a  common  labor  and  glory,  the 
stability  of  our  Confederacy  has  been  strengthened  and  se 
cured. 

Such  are  the  inestimable  blessings  which,  although  draped 
in  sorrow  and  suffering,  the  war  has  conferred  upon  the  people 
of  the  South. 

The  resolution  of  the  South  to  achieve  its  independence  has 
been  greatly  encouraged  as  the  war  has  advanced.  It  is  alike 
prompted  by  the  spirit  of  her  people,  and  strengthened  by  mo 
tives  which  address  the  judgment.  These  motives' are  explained 
*n  the  plain  consequences  of  subjugation.  The  spirit  of  the 
Isorth  in  the  existing  war  has  already  been  developed  far 
enough  to  indicate  the  certain  condition  of  the  South,  if  her 
enemy  should  succeed  in  establishing  his  dominion  over  her 
people.  That  condition  may  be  described  in  confiscation, 
brutality,  military  domination,  insult,  universal  poverty,  the 
beggary  of  millions,  the  triumph  of  the  vilest  individuals  in 
these  communities,  the  abasement  of  the  honest  and  indus 
trious,  the  outlawry  of  the  slaves,  the  destruction  of  agriculture 
and  commerce,  the  emigration  of  all  thriving  citizens,  farewell 
to  the  hopes  of  future  wealth,  and  the  scorn  of  the  world.  The 

morning  by  a  doctor ;  in  the  mean  time  they  were  looked  after  by  the  nurses 
of  the  establishment,  of  whom  there  were  three  to  take  care  of  the  children 
and  invalids." 


SOUTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

resistance  of  such  a  destiny,  properly  conceived,  will  restore 
the  worst  fortunes  of  war,  pluck  victory  from  despair,  and 
deserve  the  blessing  of  Providence,  which  "  can  save  by  many 
or  by  few,"  and  which  has  never  yet  failed  to  reward  a  just 
and  earnest  endeavor  for  independence. 


THE    SECOND  YEAR. 


CHAPTEE  XIT. 

The  Now  Orleans  Disaster.— Its  Consequences  and  Effects.— Dispatches  of  the 
European  Commissioners.— Butler  "the  Beast."— Public  Opinion  in  Europe.— The 
Atrocities  of  the  Massachusetts  Tyrant. — Execution  of  Mumford. — Lesson  of  New 
Orleans.— Spirit  of  Resistance  in  the  South.— Change  in  the  Fortunes  of  the  Con 
federacy.— Two  Leading  Causes  for  it. — The  Richmond  "Examiner." — The  Conscrip- 
ti»on  Law. — Governor  Brown  of  Georgia. — Reorganization  of  the  Army. — Abandon 
ment  of  our  Frontier  Defences. — The  Policy  of  Concentration. — Governor  Rector's 
Appeal. — First  Movements  of  the  Summer  Campaign  in  Virginia. — The  Retreat  from 
Yorktown. — Evacuation  of  Norfolk. — Destruction  of  the  "Virginia." — Commodore 
Tatnall's  Report.— Secretary  Mallory's  Visit  to  Norfolk. — The  Engagement  of  Wrl- 
liainsburg. — The  Affair  of  Barhamsville. — McClellan's  Investment  of  the  Lines  of  the 
Chickahoniiny. — Alarm  in  Richmond. — The  Water  Avenue  of  the  James. — The  Panic 
in  Official  Circles. — Consternation  in  the  President's  House. — Correspondence  be 
tween  President  Davis  and  the  Legislature  of  Virginia. — Noble  Resolutions  of  tho 
Legislature. — Response  of  the  Citizens  of  Richmond. — The  Bombardment  of  Drewry's 
Bluff.— The  Mass  Meeting  at  the  City  Hall.— Renewal  of  Public  Confidence.— The 
Occasions  of  this. — JACKSON'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  THE  VALLEY. — The  Engagement  o 
McDowell. — The  Surprise  at  Front  Royal. — Banks'  Retreat  down  the  Valley. — The 
Engagements  of  Port  Republic. — Results  of  the  Campaign. — Death  of  Turner  Ash- 
by. — Sufferings  of  the  People  of  the  Valley  of  the  Shenaudoah. — MEMOIR  OF  TURNKB 

ASHBY. 

THE  fall  of  New  Orleans  was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
triumphs  which  the  enemy  had  obtained.  It  was  the  crown 
ing  stroke  of  that  extraordinary  campaign  of  the  winter  and 
spring  of  the  year  1862,  in  which,  by  the  improvidence  of  the 
Southern  authorities,  and  a  false  military  policy  which  divided 
their  armies  and  weakened  them  by  undue  dispersion,  they 
had  lost  much  of  their  territory,  most  of  the  prestige  of  their 
arms,  and  had  fallen  upon  a  train  of  disasters  well  calculated 
to  affect  the  general  public,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  The 
close  of  this  campaign,  so  ill-starred  to  the  Confederacy,  found 
it  with  scarcely  more  than  three  entire  States — Texas,  Ala 
bama,  and  Georgia.  Large  portions  of  the  territories  of  Vir 
ginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Florida  were  occupied  by  the  enemy  - 
he  had  broken  our  line  of  defences  in  Tennessee,  and  held  im 


368  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

porlant  positions  on  the  Upper  Mississippi ;  and  now,  by  the 
capture  of  New  Orleans,  he  had  secured  the  great  Southern 
depot  of  the  trade  of  the  immense  central  valley  of  the  conti 
nent,  obtained  command  of  an  extent  of  territory  accessible  by 
his  gunboats  greater  than  the  entire  country  before  lost  to  the 
Confederacy,  and  had  good  reason  to  hope,  by  the  junction  oi 
his  fleets  on  the  Mississippi,  to  open  its  navigation,  and  give  to 
the  West  an  outlet  to  the  ocean. 

The  conquests  of  the  Federal  arms  made  in  the  winter  and 
spring  of  1862,  were  not  without  their  effect  in  Europe,  and 
presented  to  the  nations  in  that  part  of  the  world  a  sombre  pic 
ture  of  the  Confederacy.  The  dispatches  of  our  ministers  at 
the  courts  of  England  and  France  declared  that  the  prospect 
of  recognition,  of  which  they  had  formerly  given  such  warm 
and  sanguine  assurances,  had  been  overclouded  by  the  disaster 
at  New  Orleans.  Mr.  Slidell  wrote  from  Paris  that  the  French 
government  declared  that  "  if  New  Orleans  had  not  fallen, 
our  recognition  could  not  have  been  much  longer  delayed." 
He  added,  however,  that  he  had  been  assured  that  "  even  after 
that  disaster,  if  we  obtained  decided  successes  in  Virginia  and 
Tennessee,  or  could  hold  the  enemy  at  bay  a  month  or  two, 
the  same  result  would  follow" — a  promise,  to  the  breach  01 
which,  and  to  the  unhappy  expectations  which  it  excited,  we 
shall  hereafter  have  occasion  to  refer.  Mn  Mason,  our  minis 
ter  at  London,  also  referred  to  the  opinion  that  at  the  time  of 
the  enemy's  capture  of  New  Orleans,  our  recognition  was  on 
the  eve  of  accomplishment. 

The  immediate  sufferers  of  the  disaster  at  New  Orleans  were 
the  people  of  that  city.  It  was  aptly  rewarded  for  its  easy 
submission  by  the  scourge  of  a  tyrant.  The  corrupt  and  mer 
ciless  master  of  this  great  emporium,  General  Butler  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  was  a  man  who  found  no  merit  in  submission,  un 
less  such  as  grovelled  in  the  dust  and  paid  personal  court  and 
pecuniary  tribute  to  himself.  The  rule  of  this  vulgar  and 
drunken  man  excited  the  horror  and  disgust  of  the  civilized 

O 

world,  and  secured  for  him  in  the  South  the  popular  sobri 
quet  of  "  the  Beast."  His  order  which  stigmatized  as  prosti 
tutes  the  ladies  of  New  Orleans,  who  betrayed  in  the  streets 
or  from  the  balconies  their  indignation  against  the  invaders 
of  their  city,  while  it  made  him  the  hero  of  the  hour  in  the 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  369 

North  with  a  people  who  admired  the  coarse  spirit  of  the 
bully,  drew  upon  him  the  execrations  of  all  humane  and  honor 
able  people.  In  the  British  Parliament,  Lord  Palmerston  de 
clared  the  proclamation  to  be  "  infamous,"  and  the  condemna 
tion  of  the  indecent  and  dirty  edict  was  echoed  by  the  press  01 
Europe.* 

The  acts  of  the  tyrant  of  New  Orleans  surpassed  all  former 
atrocities  and  outrages  of  the  war.  In  frequent  instances, 
citizens,  accused  by  Butler  of  contumacious  disloyalty,  were 
confined  at  hard  labor,  with  balls  and  chains  attached  to  their 
limbs ;  and  sometimes  this  degrading  punishment  was  inflicted 
upon  men  whose  only  offence  was  that  of  selling  medicines  to 
the  sick  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy.  Helpless  women  were 
torn,  from  their  homes  and  confined  in  prison.  One  of  these — 
a  Mrs.  Phillips — was  accused  of  laughing  as  the  funeral  train 
of  a  Yankee  officer  passed  her  doors;  she  was  seized,  and 
with  an  ingenious  and  devilish  cruelty,  her  sentence  was  pro 
nounced  by  Butler — imprisonment  on  an  island  of  barren  sand 
under  a  tropical  sun.  Various  pretexts  were  invented  for 

*  The  "Order  28,"  which  has  stigmatized  its  brutal  author  throughou 
Christendom,  was  at  first  refused  publication  by  all  the  newspapers  in  New 
Orleans.  It  was  then  copied  on  sheets  of  paper  and  surreptitiously  posted 
on  many  of  the  principal  corners  of  the  streets  in  the  immediate  neighbor 
hood  of  the  St.  Charles  Hotel.  The  next  day  all  of  the  newspaper  offices 
were  ordered  to  be  closed  for  disobedience  of  orders.  On  this  becoming 
known,  the  True  Delta  paper  published  the  order,  and  the  other  newspapers 
timidly  submitted  to  the  force  of  circumstances,  and  published  it  also.  The 
natural  excitement  and  indignation  that  followed  throughout  the  community 
is  indescribable.  Several  lady  subscribers  sent  to  the  newspaper  offices  and 
indignantly  and  positively  forbade  that  such  papers  should  longer  be  left  at 
their  dwellings.  Mayor  Monroe,  with  a  party  of  influential  citizens,  at  once 
called  on  the  Beast  and  endeavored  to  obtain  some  qualification  of  the  order , 
but  they  could  get  no  satisfaction  and  were  rudely  dismissed.  Mayor  Monroe 
then  wrote  an  indignant  and  reproachful  communication  to  Butler,  and  again 
pressed  him  for  a  modification  of  the  hateful  order.  Butler  then  sent  for  the 
Mayor.  Mayor  Monroe  replied,  "Tell  General  Butler  my  office  is  at  the 
City  Hotel,  where  he  can  see  me,  if  desirable."  Butler  retorted,  that  unless 
the  Mayor  came  at  once  to  his  headquarters,  he  would  send  an  armed  force 
to  arrest  and  bring  him  there.  Further  opposition  being  useless,  the  Mayor 
chief  of  police,  and  several  friends,  then  went  to  the  St.  Charles  Hotel,  where 
they  found  the  Beast  in  a  towering  rage.  Butler  claimed  to  be  much  insulted 
at  the  conduct  of  the  Mayor,  and  without  ceremony  or  delay,  sent  Mr.  Mon 
roe  and  those  who  accompanied  him  to  prison.  In  a  few  days  they  were  al] 
shipped  down  to  Fort  Jackson. 

24 


370  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

plundering  the  inhabitants  of  the  conquered  city  ;  men  were 
forced  to  elect  between  starvation  by  the  confiscation  of  all 
their  property  and  taking  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  invaders 
of  their  country ;  fines  were  levied  at  pleasure,  and  recusants 
threatened  with  ball  and  chain. 

The  conduct  of  the  negroes  in  New  Orleans  became  intoler 
able  to  their  owners.  They  were  fed,  clothed,  and  quartered 
by  the  Yankees,  who  fraternized  with  them  generally  in  a 
shameful  way.  The  planters  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  city 
were  required  to  share  their  crops  with  the  commanding  gen 
eral,  his  brother,  Andrew  J.  Butler,  and  other  officers;  and 
when  this  partnership  was  refused,  the  plantations  were  robbed 
of  every  thing  susceptible  of  removal,  and  the  slaves  taken 
from  their  owners  and  compelled  to  work  under  the  bayonets 
of  Yankee  guards. 

It  would  occupy  many  pages  to  detail  what  the  people  of 
New  Orleans  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  invaders  whom  they 
had  so  easily  admitted  into  their  city,  in  insult,  wrongs,  confis 
cation  of  property,  seizure  of  private  dwellings,  and  brazen 
robbery.  The  Yankee  officers,  from  colonel  to  lieutenant,  as 
the  caprice  of  each  might  dictate,  seized  and  took  posseSoion 
of  gentlemen's  houses,  broke  into  their  wine-rooms,  forced 
open  the  wardrobes  of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  either  used 
or  sent  away  from  the  city  the  clothing  of  whole  families. 
Some  of  the  private  residences  of  respectable  citizens  were 
appropriated  to  the  vilest  uses,  the  officials  who  had  engaged 
them  making  them  the  private  shops  of  the  most  infamous 
female  characters. 

But  while  Butler  was  thus  apparently  occupied  with  the  op 
pression  of  "  rebels,"  he  was  too  much  of  a  Yankee  to  be  lost 
to  the  opportunity  of  making  his  pecuniary  fortune  out  of  the 
exigencies  which  he  had  created.  The  banker  and  broker  of 
the  corrupt  operations  in  which  ,he  was  engaged  was  his  own 
brother,  who  bought  confiscated  property,  shipped  large  con 
signments  from  New  Orleans,  to  be  paid  for  in  cotton,  and 
speculated  largely  in  powder,  saltpetre,  muskets,  and  other  war 
material  sold  to  the  Confederacy,  surreptitiously  sent  out  from 
the  city  and  covered  by  permits  for  prov.cions.  Of  the  trade 
.n  provisions  for  cotton,  Butler  received  iiis  share  of  the  gains^ 
while  the  robbery  was  covered  up  by  the  pretence  of  consump- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  371 

tion  in  New  Orleans  "  to  prevent  starvation,"  or  by  reported 
actual  issue  to  troops.  The  Yankee  general  did  not  hesitate  to 
deal  in  the  very  life-blood  of  his  own  soldiers. 

The  rule  of  Butler  in  New  Orleans  is  especially  memorable 
for  the  deliberate  murder  of  William  B.  Mumford.  a  citizen  01 
the  Confederate  States,  against  whom  the  tyrant  had  invented 
the  extraordinary  charge  that  he  had  insulted  the  flag  of  the 
United  States.  The  fact  was,  that  before  the  city  had  surren 
dered,  Mumford  had  taken  down  from  the  mint  the  enemy's 
flag.  The  ensign  was  wrongfully  there  ;  the  city  had  not  sur 
rendered;  and  even  in  its  worst  aspects,  the  act  of  Mumford 
was  simply  one  of  war,  not  deserving  death,  still  less  the  death 
of  a  felon.  The  horrible  crime  of  murdering  in  cold  blood  an 
unresisting  and  non-combatant  captive,  was  completed  by  But 
ler  on  the  7th  of  June.  On  that  day,  Mumford,  the  martyr, 
was  publicly  executed  on  the  gallows.  The  Massachusetts 
coward  and  tyrant  had  no  ear  or  heart  for  the  pitiful  pleadings 
made  to  save  the  life  of  his  captive,  especially  by  his  unhappy 
Vife,  who  in  her  supplications  for  mercy  was  rudely  repulsed, 
and  at  times  answered  with  drunken  jokes  and  taunts.  The 
execution  took  place  in  the  sight  of  thousands  of  panic-stricken 
citizens.  None  spoke  but  the  martyr  himself.  His  voice  was 
loud  and  clear.  Looking  up  at  the  stars  and  stripes  which 
floated  high  over  the  scene  before  him,  he  remarked  that  he 
had  fought  under  that  flag  twice,  but  it  had  become  hateful  to 
him,  and  he  had  torn  it  and  trailed  it  in  the  dust.  "  I  con 
sider,"  said  the  brave  young  man,  "  that  the  manner  of  my 
death  will  be  no  disgrace  to  my  wife  and  child ;  my  country 
will  honor  them." 

The  experience  of  New  Orleans  gave  a  valuable  lesson  to 
the  South.  It  exhibited  the  consequences  of  submission  to  the 
enemy  in  confiscation,  brutality,  military  domination,  insult, 
universal  poverty,  the  beggary  of  thousands,  the  triumph  of 
the  vilest  individuals  in  the  community,  the  abasement  of  the 
honest  and  industrious,  and  the  outlawry  of  the  slaves.  The 
spirit  of  resistance  in  the  South  was  fortified  by  the  enemy's 
exhibitions  of  triumph,  and  the  resolution  gained  ground  that 
t  was  much  better  to  consign  the  cities  of  the  Confederacy  to 
the  flames  than  to  surrender  them  to  the  enemy.  A  time  wa» 
approaching  when  Yankee  gunboats  were  to  lose  their  prestige 


372  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  terror,  when  cities  were  no  longer  to  be  abandoned  or  snr- 
rendered  on  the  approach  of  a  foe ;  and  when  the  freemen  oi 
the  South  were  to  be  taught  how,  by  a  spirit  above  fear  and 
ready  for  all  sacrifice,  they  might  defy  the  most  potent  agencies 
of  modern  warfare. 

With  the  bright  month  of  May  a  new  era  was  dawning  on 
the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy.  This  happy  change  of  for 
tune  was  due  not  only  to  the  improved  resolution  of  the  South. 
It  is  in  a  great  degree  to  be  attributed  to  two  leading  causes  in 
the  military  administration.  These  were,  first,  the  conscription 
law,  with  the  consequent  reorganization  of  the  army  ;  and, 
secondly,  the  abandonment  of  our  plan  of  frontier  defence,  which 
made  way  for  the  superior  and  more  fortunate  policy  of  the  con 
centration  of  our  forces  in  the  interior. 

The  first  suggestion  of  a  conscription  law  was  made  by  the 
Richmond  Examiner — a  bold  and  vigilant  leader  of  the  news 
paper  press  of  the  Confederacy.  It  was  met  with  violent  op 
position  from  the  administration,  with  the  clamor  of  demagogi 
cal  presses  that  the  suggestion  conveyed  a  reflection  upon  the 
patriotism  of  the  country,  and  with  the  fashionable  nonsense 
that  it  was  a  confession  calculated  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to 
the  enemy.  But  the  early  advocates  of  conscription  enjoyed 
the  singular  triumph  of  converting  public  opinion  completely 
to  their  side,  and  forcing  the  government  at  a  future  period  to 
the  confession  that  the  system  which  it  had  at  first  frowned 
upon  had  proved  the  salvation  of  the  country. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  we  had  nothing  that  deserved 
the  title  of  a  military  system.  There  was  no  lack  of  zeal  or 
determination  in  the  South ;  but  the  organization  of  the  army 
was  defective,  its  discipline  was  retarded  by  bad  laws,  and  at 
a  time  that  the  forces  of  the  enemy  in  Virginia  had  reached 
the  highest  state  of  efficiency,  our  own  army  was  passing 
through  successive  stages  of  disorganization  to  dissolution. 
The  army  of  the  enemy  was  superior  to  our  own  in  every  re 
spect,  except  courage  and  good  cause ;  they  had  every  guaranty 
of  success  that  numbers,  discipline,  complete  organization,  and 
perfect  equipments  could  effect. 

The  military  system  of  the  South  dates  from  the  passage  of 
the  conscription  law.  To  this  measure  must  be  attributed  thai 
solidity  in  the  organization  of  our  army,  and  that  efficiency 


THE    SECOND    YEAS.  373 

which  challenged  the  admiration  of  the  world.  The  beneficial 
effects  of  this  enactment  were  soon  manifest  as  well  to  our 
selves  as  to  the  world.  It  distributed  over  the  Confederacy 
the  levies  in  proportion  to  the  inhabitants  of  each  State  and 
county;  it  centralized  the  organization  of  the  army,  and  it 
introduced  a  regular  system  of  recruiting,  which  guaranteed 
that  the  efficiency  of  the  army  would  not  be  impaired  by  the 
lapse  of  time  and  the  loss  of  health  and  life  incident  to  war 
fare. 

The  conscription  law  came  not  a  moment  too  soon.  The 
acts  of  Congress  providing  for  re-enlistments  had  failed  to 
effect  the  desired  object.  Without  decadence  of  the  real  valor 
of  our  people,  or  their  invincible  determination  to  achieve  their 
independence,  the  spirit  of  volunteering  had  died  out,  and  the 
resolution  of  our  soldiers  already  in  the  field  was  not  sufficient 
to  resist  the  prospects,  cherished  for  months  amid  the  sufferings 
and  monotony  of  the  camps,  of  returning  to  their  homes. 
The  exigency  was  critical,  and  even  vital.  In  a  period  of 
thirty  days  the  terms  of  service  of  one  hundred  and  forty-eight 
regiments  expired.  There  was  good  reason  to  believe  that  a 
large  majority  of  the  men  had  not  re-enlisted,  and  of  those 
who  had  re-enlisted,  a  very  large  majority  had  entered  compa 
nies  which  could  never  be  assembled,  or  if  assembled,  could 
not  be  prepared  for  the  field  in  time  to  meet  the  invasion  ac 
tually  commenced. 

The  first  act  of  conscription  was  passed  on  the  16th  of 
April,  1862.  It  was  afterwards  enlarged  by  another  act  (27th 
September),  giving  the  Executive  the  power  to  call  into  ser 
vice  persons  between  the  ages  of  thirty-five  and  forty-five. 
Although  the  rush  of  volunteers  had  comparatively  ceased, 
and  the  ardor  of  the  individual  did  not  suffice  for  the  proffer  of 
self-devotion,  yet  the  sentiments  and  convictions  of  the  mass 
recognized  as  the  most  sacred  obligation  the  stern  duty  of  de 
fending,  if  needs  be,  with  their  entire  numbers,  their  imperilled 
liberty,  fortune,  and  honor.  The  conscription  law  was,  gener 
ally,  cheerfully  acquiesced  in.  In  every  State  one  or  more 
camps  of  instruction,  for  the  reception  and  training  of  con 
scripts  was  established ;  and  to  each  State  an  officer,  styled  a 
commandant  of  conscripts,  was  appointed,  charged  with  the 
supervision  of  the  enrolment  and  instruction  of  the  new  levies. 


374:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  execution  of  the  conscription  law  was  unfortunately  re 
sisted  for  a  time  by  Governor  Brown  of  Georgia.  The  cor 
respondence  between  him  and  the  President  on  the  subject, 
which  was  printed  and  hawked  in  pamphlet  form  through  the 
country,  was  a  curiosity.  It  was  illustrated  copiously  by  Mr 
Brown  with  citations  from  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolu 
tions  of  1798,  and  exhumed  opinions  of  members  of  the  old 
Federal  Convention  of  1787.  In  the  most  vital  periods  of  the 
country's  destiny,  and  in  the  fierce  tumults  of  a  revolution 
the  people  of  the  South  were  refreshed  with  exhumations  from 
the  politicians  of  1787,  and  the  usual  amount  of  clap-trap 
about  our  "forefathers,"  and  the  old  political  system  that  had 
rotted  over  our  heads. 

The  beneficial  effect  of  the  conscription  law  in  the  reorgani 
zation  of  our  army  was  assisted  by  some  other  acts  of  legisla 
tion.  That  reorganization  was  advanced  by  the  appointment 
of  lieutenant-generals,  some  commanding  separate  depart 
ments,  and  others  heading  army  corps  under  a  general  in  the 
field.  The  policy  of  organizing  the  brigades  with  troops  and 
generals  from  the  several  States  was  pursued,  as  opportunities 
offered,  without  detriment  to  the  public  service.  The  greater 
satisfaction  of  the  men  from  each  State,  when  collected  to 
gether,  the  generous  emulation  for  glory  to  their  State,  and  the 
fair  apportionment  of  officers  assured  to  each  State  according 
to  its  contribution  of  defenders  to  the  country,  overbalanced 
the  inconvenience  of  separating  regiments  or  companies  pre 
viously  associated,  and  the  liability  to  State  jealousies.  Mili 
tary  courts  were  organized  to  secure  the  prompt  administration 
of  the  military  law,  to  check  desertion  and  straggling,  to  re 
strain  license  of  all  kinds,  and  to  advance  temperance,  disci 
pline,  and  subordination. 

But  it  was  riot  only  the  reorganization  and  improved  morale 
of  the  army  that  came  to  the  aid  of  the  declining  fortunes  of 
the  South  in  the  war. 

The  disasters  on  the  Mississippi  frontier  and  in  other  direc 
tions  had  constrained  the  government  to  adopt  the  policy  ot 
concentrating  its  forces  in  the  interior  of  Virginia.     The  ob 
ject  of  all  war  is  to  reach  a  decisive  point  of  the  campaign,  and 
this  object  was  realized  by  a  policy  which  it  is  true  the  govern 
ment  had  not  adopted  at  the  instance  of  reason,  but  which  had 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  375 

been  imposed  upon  it  by  the  force  of  disaster.  There  were 
childish  complaints  that  certain  districts  and  points  on  the  fron 
tier  had  been  abandoned  by  the  Confederates  for  the  purpose  of 
a  concentration  of  troops  in  Virginia.  An  inflammatory  ap 
peal  was  made  by  Governor  Rector  of  Arkansas  to  the  State? 
of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  representing  that  the  government  haO 
deserted  them  in  transferring  its  troops  to  other  portions  of  the 
Confederacy,  and  suggesting  that  they  should  form  a  new  as 
sociation  for  their  safety.  But  the  appeal  was  severely  rebuked 
by  public  sentiment.  The  complaint  of  Governor  Rector  cost 
him  his  election,  and  the  display  of  the  demagogue  consigned 
him  to  the  reproaches  of  the  public. 

Such  complaints  were  alike  selfish  and  senseless,  and  in 
most  cases  nothing  more  than  the  utterances  of  a  demagogical, 
short-sighted,  and  selfish  spirit,  which  would  have  preferred 
the  apparent  security  of  its  own  particular  State  or  section  to 
the  fortunes  of  the  whole  Confederacy.  The  fact  was,  that 
there  was  cause  of  intelligent  congratulation,  even  in  those 
districts  from  which  the  Confederate  troops  had  been  withdrawn 
to  make  a  decisive  battle,  that'we  had  at  last  reached  a  crisis, 
the  decision  of  which  might  reverse  all  our  past  misfortunes  and 
achieve  results  in  which  every  State  of  the  Confederacy  would 
have  a  share. 

But. the  first  movements  of  the  famous  summer  campaign  in 
Virginia  that  was  to  change  the  fortunes  of  the  war  and  adorn 
our  arms,  were  not  auspicious.  The  designs  of  some  of  these 
movements  were  not  properly  appreciated  at  the  time,  and 
some  of  the  incidents  that  attended  them  were  real  disasters. 

We  have  seen  that  by  the  happy  boldness  of  General  Ma- 
gruder  in  keeping  the  enemy  in  check  on  the  line  between 
Yorktown,  on  York  river,  and  Mulberry  Island,  on  James 
river,  the  advance  of  the  grand  Federal  army,  destined  for  the 
capture  of  Richmond,  was  stayed  until  our  forces  were  rescued 
by  the  consummate  strategy  of  Gen.  Johnston  from  the  pres 
sure  of  enveloping  armies,  who  arrived  in  time  to  reinforce  our 
lines  on  the  Peninsula.  It  became  necessary,  however,  in  the 
judgment  of  that  commander,  to  fall  back  in  the  direction  of 
Richmond.  It  was  easily  seen  by  General  Johnston  that  at 
Yorktown  there  was  no  'prospect  of  a  general  action,  as  the 
attack  on  either  side  would  have  to  be  made  under  disadvan 


370  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tages  whicli  neither  army  was  willing  to  risk.  The  Yankees 
were  in  superior  force,  besides  their  additional  strength  in  their 
gunboats,  and  in  falling  back  so  as  to  invest  the  line  of  the 
Chickahominj,  General  Johnston  expected  to  force  the  enemy 
to  more  equal  terms.  The  difficulty  was  to  match  the  strength 
of  the  enemy  on  the  water ;  and  the  best  practical  equivalent 
for  this  was  considered  to  be  the  open  field,  where  gunboats 
being  out  of  the  question,  the  position  of  our  troops  would  be 
the  same  as  if  at  Yorktown  they  had  had  a  force  of  gunboats 
exactly  equal  to  that  of  the  enemy,  thus  neutralizing  his  ad 
vantage  in  respect  of  naval  armament. 

The  retreat  from  Yorktown  produced  uneasiness  in  the  pub 
lic  mind,  and  naturally  shook  the  confidence  of  the  many  who 
were  in  ignorance  of  the  plans  of  the  cautious  and  taciturn 
strategist  at  the  head  of  our  forces  in  Virginia.  It  involved 
our  surrender  of  Norfolk,  with  all  the  advantages  of  its  con 
tiguous  navy-yard  and  dock.  And  it  was  accompanied  by  a 
disaster  which,  in  so  far  as  it  was  supposed  to  be  unnecessary 
and  wanton,  occasioned  an  amount  of  grief  and  rage  in  the 
>  Confederacy  such  as  had  not  yet  been  exhibited  in  the  war. 

This  memorable  disaster  was  the  destruction  of  the  famous 
•mailed  steamer  Virginia — "  the  iron  diadem  of  the  South." 
This  vessel,  which  had  obtained  for  us  oirr  first  triumph  on  the 
-water,  was  an  object  of  pride,  and  almost  of  affection,  to  the 
people  of  the  South.  She  was  popularly  said  to  be  worth  fifty 
thousand  troops  in  the  field.  Nor  was  this  estimate  excessive, 
when  it  is  recollected  that  she  protected  Norfolk,  the  navy- 
yard,  and  James  river;  that  no  fleet  of  transports  could  safely 
land  its  troops,  designed  to  attack  those  places,  at  any  point 
from  '  Gape  Henry  to  the  upper  James,  as  far  as  she  could 
ascend ;  that  her  presence  at  Norfolk  had  annihilated  the  land 
and  water  blockade  at  Newport  News,  passed  the  control  of 
i  the  James  river  into  our  hands,  and  protected  the  right  flank 
of  our  army  on  the  Peninsula. 

The  Virginia  was  destroyed  under  the  immediate  orders  of 
her  commander,  Commodore  Tatnall,  on  the  morning  of  the 
llth  of  May,  in  the  vicinity  of  Craney  Island.  According  to 
his  statement,  he  had  been  betrayed  into  the  necessity  of  de 
stroying  his  vessel  by  firing  her  magazine,  by  the  deceitful 
representations;  of  his  pilots,  who  at  first  assured  him  that  they 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  377 

could  take  the  ship,  with  a  draft  of  eighteen  feet  of  water- 
within  forty  miles  of  Richmond,  and  after  having  lifted  her  so 
as  to  unfit  her  for  action,  then  declared  that  they  could  not  get 
he]  above  the  Jamestown  flats,  up  to  which  point  the  shore  on 
each  side  was  occupied  by  the  enemy.  It  is  proper  to  add 
that  this  statement  of  facts  was  contested  by  the  pilots,  who 
resented  the  reflections  made  upon  their  loyalty  or  courage. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  merits  of  this  controversy,  it  is 
certain  that  the  vessel  was  destroyed  in  great  haste  by  Com 
modore  Tatnall,  who,  in  the  dead  hour  of  night,  aroused 
from  his  slumbers  and  acquainted  with  the  decision  of  his 
pilots,  ordered  the  ship  to  be  put  ashore,  landed  his  crew  in  the 
vicinity  of  Craney  Island,  and  blew  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven 
the  only  naval  structure  that  guarded  the  water  approach  to 
Richmond.  0 

The  destruction  of  the  Virginia  was  a  sharp  and  unexpected 
blow  to  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  the  South  in  their  gov 
ernment.  How  far  the  government  was  implicated  in  this 
foolish  and  desperate  act,  was  never  openly  acknowledged  or 
exactly  ascertained ;  but  despite  the  pains  of  official  conceal 
ment,  there  are  certain  well-attested  facts  which  indicate  that 
in  the  destruction  of  this  great  war-ship,  the  authorities  at 
Richmond  were  not  guiltless.  These  facts  properly  belong  to 
the  history  of  one  of  the  most  unhappy  events  that  had  occurred 
since  the  commenceinent  of  the  war. 

The  Virginia  was  destroyed  at  5  A.  M.  of  the  llth  of  May. 
During  the  morning  of  the  same  day  a  prominent  politician  in 
the  streets  of  Richmond  was  observed  to  be  very  much  de 
jected  ;  he  remarked  that  it  was  an  evil  day  for  the  Confed 
eracy.  On  being  questioned  by  his  intimate  friends,  he  declared 
to  them  that  the  Government  had  determined  upon,  or  assented 
to,  the  destruction  of  the  Virginia,  and  that  he  had  learned 
this  from  the  highest  sources  of  authority  in  the  capital.  At 
this  time  the  news  of  the  explosion  of  the  Virginia  could  not 
have  possibly  reached  Richmond ;  there  was  no  telegraphic 
communication  between  the  scene  of  her  destruction  and  the 
city,  and  the  evidence  appears  to  be  complete,  that  the  Gov 
ernment  had  at  least  a  prevision  of  the  destruction  of  this  ves 
sel,  or  had  assented  to  the  general  policy  of  the  act,  trusting, 
perhaps,  to  acquit  itself  of  the  responsibility  for  it  on  the 


378  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAS. 

unworthy   plea  that  it  had    given    no  express  orders  in   the 
matter. 

Again,  it  is  well  known  that  for  at  least  a  week  prior  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Yirginia,  the  evacuation  of  Norfolk  had 
been  determined  upon;  that  during  this  time  the  removal  01 
stores  was  daily  progressing ;  and  that  Mr.  Mallory,  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Navy,  had  within  this  period,  himself,  visited 
Norfolk  to  look  after  the  public  interests.  The  evacuation  of 
this  port  clearly  involved  the  question,  what  disposition  was  to 
be  made  of  the  Yirginia.  If  the  Government  made  no  decision 
of  a  question,  which  for  a  week  stared  it  in  the  face,  it  cer 
tainly  was  very  strangely  neglectful  of  the  public  interest. 
If  Mr.  Mallory  visited  Norfolk  when  the  evacuation  was  going 
on,  and  never  thought  of  the  Yirginia,  or  thinking  of  her, 
kept  dumb,  never  even  giving  so  much  as  an  official  nod  as  to 
what  disposition  should  be  made  of  her,  he  must  have  been 
more  stupid  than  the  people  who  laughed  at  him  in  Richmond, 
or  the  members  of  Congress  who  nicknamed  without  mercy 
thought  him  to  be. 

It  is  also  not  a  little  singular  that  when  a  court  of  inquiry 
had  found  that  the  destruction  of  the  Yirginia  was  unnecessary 
and  improper,  Mr.  Mallory  should  have  waived  the  calling  01 
a  court-martial,  forgotten  what  was  due  to  the  public  interest 
on  such  a  finding  as  that  made  by  the  preliminary  court,  and 
expressed  himself  satisfied  to  let  the  matter  rest.  The  fact  is 
indisputable,  that  the  court-martial,  which  afterwards  sat  in 
the  case,  was  called  at  the  demand  of  Commodore  Tatnall  him 
self.  It  resulted  in  his  acquittal. 

The  evacuation  of  Norfolk  was  the  occasion  of  great  distress 
to  its  population.  But  it  was  the  part  of  a  wise  policy,  that  our 
military  lines  should  be  contracted  and  that  the  troops  of  Gen. 
Huger  should  be  consolidated  with  the  army  before  Richmond. 

The  retreat  from  Yorktown  to  the  Chickahominy  was  marked 
by  spirited  incidents  and  by  one  important  engagement. 
McClellan  becoming,  through  an  accident,  aware  of  the  move 
ment  of  General  Johnston,  immediately  pursued  our  columns 
which  recoiled  on  him  at  Williamsburg,  on  the  5th  of  May 
and  drove  back  his  army.  During  the  whole  of  that  day, 
General  Longstreet's  division,  which  brought  up  the  rear,  was 
engaged  with  the  enemy  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  The  day  was 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  379 

marked  by  sigTial  successes,  for  we  captured  three  hundred  and 
fifty  prisoners,  took  nine  pieces  of  artillery,  and  left  on  the 
field,  in  killed  and  wounded,  at  least  three  thousand  of  the 
enemy.  During  the  night  our  army  resumed  its  movement 
towards  Richmond,  and  half  an  hour  after  sunrise  it  had 
evacuated  the  town,  under  the  necessity  of  leaving  our  killed 
and  wounded  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

The  following  day,  the  insolence  of  the  ene^ny  was  again 
checked  on  the  route  of  our  retreat.  On  the  7th  of  May  he 
attempted  a  landing,  under  cover  of  his  gunboats,  at  Barhams- 
ville,  near  West  Point.  The  attempt  was  ineifectnal.  The 
Yankees  were  driven  back,  after  they  had  assaulted  our  posi 
tion  three  different  times — the  last  time  being  forced  to  the 
cover  of  their  gunboats  by  the  brave  Texans  of  General  Whi 
ting's  division,  who,  in  the  face  of  an  artillery  fire,  pressed  the 
fugitives  so  closely  that  many  were  driven  into  the  river  and 
drowned. 

The  investment  of  the  lines  of  the  Chickahominy  brought 
the  two  opposing  armies  within  sight  of  Richmond.  After  a 
desultory  military  experience,  a  useless  and  inglorious  march 
to  Manassas,  a  long  delay  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  and 
Chesapeake,  and  a  vague  abandonment  of  these  lines  for  opera 
tions  on  the  Peninsula,  McClellan,  who  was  the  "  Napoleon" 
of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North,  but  a  slow  and  con 
temptible  blunderer  in  the  estimation  of  the  Republicans, 
found  himself,  by  the  fortune  of  circumstances,  within  sight  of 
the  steeples  and  spires  of  the  long-sought  capital  of  'the  Con 
federacy. 

The  proximity  of  the  enemy  was  an  occasion  of  great  anxi 
ety  to  the  people  of  Richmond,  and  the  visible  tremor  of  the 
Confederate  authorities  in  that  city  was  not  a  spectacle  calcu 
lated  either  to  nerve  the  army  or  assure  the  citizens.  The  fact 
is,  that  the  Confederate  authorities  had  shamefully  neglected 
the  defences  of  Richmond,  and  were  now  making  preparations 
to  leave  it,  which  were  called  prudential,  but  which  naturally 
inspired  a  panic  such  as  had  never  before  been  witnessed  in 
the  history  of  the  war.  The  destruction  of  the  Virginia  had 
left  the  water  avenue  to  Richmond  almost  undefended.  The 
City  Council  had  for  months  been  urging  upon  the  Confederate 
Government  the  necessity  of  obstructing  the  river,  and  failing 


380  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

to  induce  them  to  hurry  on  the  work,  had,  with  pati.otic  zeal 
undertaken  it  themselves.  A  newspapei  in  Richmond — th 
Examiner — had  in  good  time  pointed  out  the  necessity  01 
obstructing  the  river  with  stone,  but  the  counsel  w^s  treated 
with  such  conceit  and  harshness  by  the  government,  that  it 
was  only  at  the  risk  of  its  existence  that  that  paper  continued 
for  weeks  to  point  out  the  insecurity  of  Richmond  and  the 
omissions  of  its  authorities.  The  government  was  at  last 
aroused  to  a  sense  of  danger  only  to  fall  to  work  in  ridiculous 
haste,  and  with  the  blindness  of  alarm.  The  appearance  of 
the  Yankee  gunboats  in  James  river  was  the  signal  for  Mr. 
Secretary  Mallory  to  show  his  alacrity  in  meeting  the  enemy 
by  an  advertisement  for  "  timber"  to  construct  new  naval 
defences.  The  only  obstruction  between  the  city  and  the 
dread  Monitor  and  the  gunboats  was  a  half-finished  fort  at 
Drewry's  Bluff,  which  mounted  four  guns.  Some  of  the  Con 
federate  officers  had  taken  a  "  gunboat  panic,"  for  the  line  of 
stone  obstructions  in  the  river  was  not  yet  complete.  They 
seized  upon  schooners  at  the  wharves  loaded  with  plaster  01 
paris,  guano,  and  other  valuable  cargoes,  carried  them  to  points 
where  they  supposed  the  passage  of  the  river  was  to  be  con 
tested,  and  in  some  instances  sunk  them  in  the  wrong  places. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  about  this  time  the  authorities  of  the 
Confederate  States  had  nigh  despaired  of  the  safety  of  Rich 
mond.  The  most  urgent  appeals  had  been  made  to  Congress 
by  the  press  and  the  people  to  continue  its  session  in  Rich 
mond  while  the  crisis  impended.  But  its  members  refused  to 
give  this  mark  of  confidence  to  the  government,  or  to  make 
any  sacrifice  of  their  selfish  considerations  for  the  moral 
encouragement  of  tlfeir  constituents.  They  had  adjourned  ir. 
haste  and  left  Richmond,  regarding  only  the  safety  of  their 
persons  or  the  convenience  of  their  homes. 

Nor  was  the  Executive  more  determined.  In  the  President's 
mansion  about  this  time  all  was  consternation  and  dismay.  A 
letter  written  by  one  of  his  family  at  a  time  \\hen  Richmond 
was  thought  to  be  imminently  threatened,  and  intercepted  bj? 
the  enemy,  afforded  excessive  merriment  to  the  Yanktes,  an 
made  a  painful  exhibition  to  the  South  of  the  weakness  and 
fears  of  those  intrusted  with  its  fortunes.  This  letter,  written 
with  refreshing  simplicity  of  heart,  overflowed  with  pitiful 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  381 

sympathy  for  the  President,  and  amused  the  enemy  with  refer« 
ences  to  the  sore  anxieties  of  "  Uncle  Jeff."  and  to  the  prospect 
of  his  sinking  under  the  misfortunes  of  his  administration. 
The  authenticity  of  this  letter  was  never  called  into  question 
it  is  a  painful  and  delicate  historical  evidence,  but  one  to 
which,  in  the  interests  of  truth,  alusion  should  not  be  spared.* 

*  The  following  is  a  portion  of  the  letter  referred  to.  The  rejections  which 
it  makes  upon  the  courage  of  our  noble,  suffering  soldiers  were  probably  hasty, 
and  may  be  spared  here  : 

.  .  .  .  "  When  I  think  of  the  dark  gloom  that  now  hovers  over  our 
country,  I  am  ready  to  sink  with  despair.  There  is  a  probability  of  General 
Jackson's  army  falling  back  on  Richmond,  and  in  view  of  this,  no  lady  is  allowed 
to  go  up  on  the  railroad  to  Gordonsville  for  fear,  if  allowed  to  one,  that  many 
others  would  wish  to  do  it,  which  would  incommode  the  army. 

General  Johnston  is  falling  back  from  the  Peninsula,  or  Yorktown,  and  Uncle 
Jeff,  thinks  we  had  better  go  to  a  safer  pla<v  than  Richmond. 

We  have  not  decided  yet  where  we  shall  go,  but  I  think  to  North  Carolina,  to 
some  far  off  country  town,  or,  perhaps,  to  South  Carolina.  If  Johnston  falls 
back  as  far  as  Richmond,  all  our  troops  from  Gordonsville  and  "  Swift  Run  Gap" 
will  also  fall  back  to  this  place,  and  make  one  desperate  stand  against  McClelhin. 
If  you  will  look  at  the  map,  you  will  see  that  the  Yankees  are  approaching 
Richmond  from  three  different  directions — from  Fredericksburg,  Harrisonburg, 
and  Yorktown.  0  God  !  defend  this  people  with  thy  powerful  arm,  is  my 
constant  prayer.  Oh,  mother,  Uncle  Jeff,  is  miserable.  He  tries  to  be  cheerful, 
and  bear  up  against  such  a  continuation  of  troubles,  but,  oh,  I  fear  he  cannot 
live  long,  if  he  does  not  get  some  rest  and  quiet. 

Our  reverses  distressed  him  so  much,  and  he  is  so  weak  and  feeble,  it  makes 
my  heart  ache  to  look  at  him.  He  knows  that  he  ought  to  send  his  wife  and 
children  away,  and  yet  he  cannot  bear  to  part  with  them,  and  we  all  dread  to 
leave  him  too.  Varina  and  I  had  a  hard  cry  about  it  to-day. 

Oh !  what  a  blow  the  fall  of  New  Orleans  was.     It  liked  to  have  set  us  all 

crazy  here.     Everybody  looks  depressed,  and  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy  looks 

*drooping  and  sinking  ;  but  if  God  is  with  us,  who  can  be  against  us?     Our  troops 

are  not  doing  as  well  as  we  expected The  regiments  that 

are  most  apt  to  run  are  from  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  I  am  thankful  to 
say  that  the  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  troops  behave  gloriously  whenever  called 
on  to  fight. 

Uncle  Jeff,  thinks  you  are  safe  at  home,  as  there  will  be  no  resistance  at  Vt<.ksburg, 
and  the  Yankees  will  hardly  occupy  it ;  and,  even  if  they  did,  the  army  would 
gain  nothing  by  marching  into  the  country,  and  a  few  soldiers  would  be  afraid 
to  iro  so  far  into  the  interior. 

P.  S.  We  all  leave  here  to-morrow  morning  for  Raleigh.  Three  gunboats 
are  in  James  river,  on  their  way  to  the  city,  and  may  probably  reach  here  in  a 
few  hours  ;  so  we  have  no  longer  any  time  to  delay.  /  only  hope  that  we  have  not 
delayed  too  long  already.  I  shall  then  be  cut  off  from  all  communication  with 
,  and  I  expect  to  have  no  longer  any  peace. 

I  will  write  again  from  Raleigh,  and  Fanny  must  write  me  a  letter  and  direct 
it  to  Raleigh  ;  perhaps  I  may  get  it.  I  am  afraid  that  Richmond  will  fall  into 


382  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

It  is  true  that  President  Davis,  when  invited  by  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Virginia  to  express  his  intentions  towards  Richmond, 
had  declared  that  he  entertained  the  prospect  of  holding  it. 
But  his  reply  was  full  of  embarrassment.  While  he  declared 
his  intention  not  to  surrender  the  city,  he  at  the  same  time 
suggested  the  fanciful  possibility,  that  even  with  the  loss  of 
Richmond  our  struggle  for  independence  might  be  protracted 
for  many  years  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  acts  of  the  Confederate  officials  gave  visible  and 
unmistakable  signs  of  their  sense  of  the  insecurity  of  the 
capital.  They  added  to  the  public  alarm  by  preparations  to 
remove  the  archives.  They  ran  off  their  wives  and  children 
into  the  country.  They  gave  the  public  every  reason  to 
believe  that  Richmond  was  to  become  the  prey  of  the  enemy, 
and  the  catastrophe  was  awaited  with  lively  alarm,  or  dull  and 
melancholy  expectation. 

In  the  early  weeks  of  May  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy 
presented  many  strange  and  humiliating  spectacles.  The  air 
was  filled  with  those  rumors  of  treason  and  disloyalty  which 
seem  invariably  to  grow  out  of  a  sense  of  insecurity.  Men 
who  had  been  loudest  in  their  professions  of  resistance  and 
self-devotion  when  the  Yankees  were  at  a  distance,  were  now 
engaged  in  secreting  their  property,  and  a  few  openly  nattered 
themselves  that  they  had  not  committed  themselves  in  tlie  war 
in  a  way  to  incur  the  enemy's  resentment.  Some  of  them  had 
their  cellars  packed  with  manufactured  tobacco.  The  railroad 
trains  were  crowded  with  refugees.  At  every  extortioner's 
shop  on  Main  street,  even  including  the  bookstores,  an  array 
of  packing  trunks  invited  attention,  and  suggested  the  necessity 
of  flight  from  Richmond.  At  the  railroad  depots  were  to  be 
Been  piles  of  baggage,  awaiting  transportation.  But  the  most 
abundant  and  humiliating  signs  of  the  panic  were  to  be  seen 

the  hands  of  the  enemy,  as  there  is  no  way  to  keep  back  the  gunboats.  James 
river  is  so  high  that  all  obstructions  are  in  danger  of  being  washed  away  ;  KO 
that  there  is  no  help  for  the  city.  She  will  either  submit  or  else  be  shelled,  and 
I  think  the  latter  alternative  will  be  resorted  to. 

Uncle  Jeff,  was  confirmed  last  Tuesday  in  St.  Paul's  Church  by  Bishop  Johns. 
He  was  baptized  at  home  in  the  morning  before  church. 

Do  try  to  get  a  letter  to  me  some  way.  Direct  some  to  Raleigh  and  some  tr 
RichmoB  .1.  Yours,  ever  devotedly, 


THE    SECOND    YEAR. 

in  the  number  of  pine  boxes  about  the  departments  ticketed 
"  Columbia,  South  Carolina,"  and  which  contained  the  most 
valuable  ot  the  public  archives. 

In  this  condition  of  the  public  mind,  a  new  appeal  was  made 
to  it.  When  it  was  ascertained  that  the  Monitor,  Galena,  and 
Aristook,  were  about  to  head  for  Kichmond,  the  Legislature  of 
Virginia  passed  resolutions  calling  upon  the  Confederate 
authorities  to  defend  it  to  the  last  extremity,  and  to  make 
choice  of  its  destruction  rather  than  that  of  surrender  to  the 
enemy.  This  resolution  was  worthy  of  the  noble  State  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  of  a  people  who  were  the  descendants  of  Wash 
ington's  contemporaries,  of  Hampden's  friends,  and  of  King 
John's  barons.  Its  terms  'were  too  explicit  to  admit  of  any 
doubt  in  their  construction,  or  any  wavering  on  the  part  of  the 
Confederate  authorities.  They  expressed  the  desire  that  Rich 
mond  should  be  defended  to  the  last  extremity,  and  declared 
that  "  the  President  be  assured,  that  whatever  destruction  or 
loss  of  property  of  the  State  or  individuals  shall  thereby  result, 
will  be  cheerfully  submitted  to." 

The  resolutions  of  the  Legislature  were  responded  to  in 
meetings  of  citizens.  The  magical  effects  of  the  spirit  which 
they  created  will  long  be  remembered  in  Richmond.  The 
Confederate  authorities  were  stimulated  by  the  brave  lesson ; 
inert  and  speculative  patriotism  was  aroused  to  exertion , 
mutual  inspiration  of  courage  and  devotion  passed  from  heart 
to  heart  through  the  community,  and  with  the  restoration  of 
public  confidence,  came  at  last  vigorous  preparations.  The 
James  was  rapidly  filled  up,  the  works  at  Drewry's  Bluff  were 
strengthened,  and  a  steady  defiance  offered  to  the  Yankee  gun 
boats,  which  had  appeared  within  a  few  miles  of  the  city  at  a 
moment  when  the  last  gap  in  our  river  obstructions  was  filled 
up  by  a  scuttled  schooner. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  the  fleet  of  Yankee  gunboats  in  the 
James  opened  an  attack  on  our  batteries  at  Drewry's  Bluff. 
Ihe  sound  of  the  guns  was  heard  in  the  streets  of  Richmond, 
and  various  and  uncertain  reports  of  the  fortunes  of  the  contest 
agitated  the  public.  In  the  midst  of  the  excitement,  an  extra 
ordinary  scene  occurred  in  the  city.  A  meeting  of  citizens 
had  been  called  at  the  City  Hall  on  an  accidental  occasion, 
and  at  the  enthusiastic  call  of  the  crowd,  impromptu  addresses 


384  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

were  made  by  the  Governor  of  Virginia  and  the  Major  of  the 
city.      Each  of  these   officials  pledged   his  faith   that  Eich 
mond  should  never  be  surrendered.     Gov.  Letcher  declared, 
with  a  peculiar  warmth  of  expression,  that  if  the  demand  was 
made  upon  him,  with  the  alternative  to  surrender  or  be  shelled, 

he  should  reply,  "bombard   and  be  d d."     Mayor  Mayo 

was  not  less  determined  in  the  language  which  he  addressed  to 
the  citizens.  He  told  them  that  even  if  they  were  to  require 
him  to  surrender  the  Capital  of  Virginia  and  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  he  would,  sooner  than  comply,  resign  the  mayoralty ; 
and  that,  despite  his  age,  he  still  had  the  nerve  and  strength 
to  shoulder  a  musket  in  defence  of  the  city  founded  by  one  oi 
his  ancestors.  These  fervid  declarations  were  responded  to  by 
the  citizens  with  wild  and  ringing  shouts.  Nor  were  these  the 
demonstrations  of  a  mob.  Among  those  who  so  enthusias 
tically  approved  the  resolution  of  consigning  Richmond  to  the 
flames  rather  than  to  the  possession  of  the  enemy,  were  some 
of  the  most  wealthy  and  respectable  citizens  of  the  place, 
whose  stakes  of  property  in  the  city  were  large,  and  whose 
beautiful  homes  were  exposed  to  the  shot  and  shell  of  tha 
malignant  foe. 

The  night  brought  the  news  of  a  signal  victory.  Our  batter 
ies,  under  the  skilful  command  of  Capt.  Farrand,  had,  after  a 
contest  of  four  hours  and  a  half,  given  a  decisive  repulse  to 
tne  gunboats,  with  the  inconsiderable  loss  of  five  killed  and 
seven  vvounded.  The  accuracy  of  our  fire  had  astonished  the 
enemy,  and  carried  dismay  through  his  fleet.  Eighteen  shots 
went  through  the  sides  of  the  Galena,  according  to  the  enemy's 
own  account ;  and  this  river  monster  lost  thirty  of  her  crew  in 
killed  and  wounded.  Seventeen  men  were  killed  on  another 
of  the  boats  by  the  explosion  of  a  gun.  The  boats  had  been 
unable  to  advance  in  the  face  of  the  accurate  and  deadly  fire 
of  our  artillerists,  and  the  next  day  they  had  dropped  down 
the  stream,  quite  satisfied  of  the  impracticability  of  the  water 
approach  to  Richmond. 

Regarding  all  the  circumstances  in  which  this  action  had 
taken  place,  there  is  no  extravagance  in  saying,  that  the  scale 
of  the  war  was  turned  in  our  favor  by  even  so  small  an  affair 
as  that  of  Drewry's  Bluff.  It  exploded  the  fanciful  theories 
of  the  enemy's  invincibility  on  the  water  and  went  far  to 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  3£5 

assure  the  safety  of  the  now  closely  threatened  capital  of  the 
Confederacy. 

But  there  were  other  causes  about  this  time  which  conspired 
to  renew  the  popular  confidence  in  our  arms,  and  to  swell  with 
gratitude  and  hope  the  hearts  which  had  so  long  throbbed 
with  anxiety  in  our  besieged  capital.  We  shall  see  how,  for 
some  time,  at  least,  the  safety  of  Richmond  was  trusted,  not 
so  much  to  the  fortunes  of  the  forces  that  immediately  pro 
tected  it,  as  to  the  splendid  diversion  of  the  heroic  Jackson  in 
the  Valley  of  Virginia.  To  this  famous  expedition  public 
•attention  was  now  turned,  in  the  North  as  well  as  in  the  South, 
and  its  almost  marvellous  results,  with  marked  unanimity, 
were  ascribed  to  the  zeal,  heroism,  and  genius  of  its  commander 
alone. 

JACKSON'S  CAMPAIGN  IN  THE  VALLEY. 

On  the  change  of  our  military  lines  in  Virginia,  and  tht» 
rapid  shifting  of  the  scene  of  active  hostilities  from  the  Poto 
mac,  Gen.  Jackson  had  been  assigned  with  a  small  force  t<» 
guard  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  and  the  approaches  in  that 
direction,  to  the  armies  of  the  enemy  which  enveloped  Rich 
mond. 

Our  first  success  was  obtained  in  the  upper  portion  of  the 
Valley.  On  the  morning  of  the  8th  of  May,  our  forces  had 
approached  the  position  of  Milroy,  the  Yankee  commander  at 
McDowell.  The  brig'ade  of 'General  Johnson  had  secured  an 
advantageous  position  on  a  hill,  and  the  enemy,  fearful  of 
being  surrounded,  decided  at  last,  after  some  signs  of  hesita 
tion,  to  deliver  battle.  The  action  was  not  joined  until  about 
two  hours  of  sunset.  The  fact  was,  that  we  engaged  the  enemy 
with  not  more  than  one-third  of  his  own  numbers,  which  were 
about  twelve  thousand.  But  the  contest  was  easily  decided 
by  the  brave  troops  of  Johnson's  brigade,  composed  of  Vir 
ginia  volunteers,  with  the  12th  Georgia  regiment.  They  had 
stood  for  nearly  two  hours,  receiving  with  composed  courage 
the  cross-fire  of  the  enemy's  artillery ;  and  then,  as  the  sua 
was  sinking,  they  made  the  charge  decisive  of  the  day,  and 
drove  the  enemy  in  consternation  and  utter  rout  from  the  field. 

Our  loss  in  this  action  was  considerable.  Of  three  hundred 
and  fifty  killed  and  wounded,  nearly  two-thirds  were  Georgians. 

25 


386  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  troops  of  this  State  on  other  occasions  than  thi&  had  left 
monuments  of  their  courage  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia 
The  loss  of  the  enemy  at  McDowell  exceeded  that  of  the  Con 
federates,  and  was  conjectured  to  be  double  our  own. 

It  was  probably  at  the  suggestion  of  his  own  judgment,  and 
at  the  instance  of  his  own  military  instincts,  that  Gen.  Jackson 
determined  to  act  on  the  aggressive,  and  to  essay  the  extraor 
dinary  task  of  driving  the  Yankees  from  the  Valley.  In  pur 
suance  of  this  determination,  his  resolution  was  quickly  taken 
to  make  a  dash  at  Fremont's  advance,  west  of  Staunton,  and 
then  to  turn  upon  Banks  with  the  adventurous  purpose  of 
driving  him  into  Maryland. 

Gen.  Banks,  one  of  the  military  pets  of  the  more  truculent 
party  of  the  abolitionists,  had  entered  Virginia  with  the  airs 
of  a  conqueror.  As  early  as  the  24th  of  April  he  had  tele 
graphed  to  his  government  the  story  of  uninterrupted  and 
triumphant  progress ;  he  announced  that  he  had  "  advanced 
near  Harrisonburg ;"  and,  with  a  characteristic  flourish,  he 
added :  "  The  rebel  Jackson  has  abandoned  the  Valley  of  Vir 
ginia  permanently,  and  is  en  route  for  Gordonsville  by  the  way 
of  the  mountains." 

The  first  intimation  the  obtuse  Yankee  general  had  of  his 
mistake  was  the  astounding  news  tl:at  reached  him  on  the 
evening  of  May  23d,  that  the  "  rebel  Jackson  "  had  descended 
on  the  guard  at  Front  Royal,  Cpl.  Kenly,  1st  Maryland  regi 
ment,  commanding,  burned  the  bridges,  driven  the  Federal 
troops  towards  Strasburg  with  great  loss,  captured  a  section  of 
artillery,  and  taken  about  fourteen  hundred  prisoners. 

It  was  now  Banks's  turn  to  betake  himself  to  flight,  or,  in 
the  official  circumlocution  of  that  commander,  "  to  enter  the 
lists  with  the  enemy  in  a  race  or  a  battle,  as  he  should  choose, 
for  the  possession  of  Winchester,  the  key  of  the  Valley."  But 
he  was  not  destined  to  reach  his  promised  haven  of  security 
without  disaster. 

On  the  day  following  the  sudden  apparition  of  Jackson  at 
Front  Royal,  the  untiring  commander  had  by  a  rapid  move 
ment  succeeded  in  piercing  Banks's  main  column  while  retreat 
ing  from  Strasburg  to  Winchester ;  the  rear,  including  a  bod> 
of  the  celebrated  Zouaves  d'Afrique,  retreating  towards  Stras 
burg. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  387 

The  Yankee  general  reached  Winchester  only  to  find  fresh 
causes  of  alarm.  The  people  of  that  ancient  town,  already 
fcure  of  their  deliverance,  received  the  Yankees  with  shouts  of 
derision  and  defiant  cheers  for  Jackson.  Some  Confederate 
officers  came  into  the  enemy's  camp  with  entire  unconcern, 
supposing  that  their  own  troops  occupied  the  town  as  a  matter 
of  course,  and  when  captured  gave  the  Yankees  the  delightful 
assurance  that  an  attack  would  be  made  by  the  terrible  Jackson 
at  daybreak. 

On  the  25th  of  May,  Gen.  Jackson  gave  the  crowning  stroke 
to  the  rapid  movements  of  the  past  two  days  by  attacking 
Winchester  and  driving  out  the  cowardly  enemy  almost  without 
resistance.  Gen.  Banks  speaks  of  his  retreat  with  a  shameless- 
ness  that  is  at  once  simple  and  refreshing.  He  says,  "  Pursuit 
by  the  enemy  was  prompt  and  vigorous ;  but  our  movements 
were  rapid  ;"  and  he  writes  to  the  authorities  at  Washington 
of  his  crossing  of  the  Potomac :  "  There  never  were  more 
grateful  hearts  in  the  same  number  of  men  than  when  at  mid 
day  on  the  30th  of  May,  we  stood  on  the  opposite  shore."  He 
had  escaped  with  the  loss  of  all  the  material  and  paraphernalia 
that  constitute  an  army.  He  had  abandoned  at  Winchester 
all  his  commissary  and  ordnance  stores.  He  had  resigned 
that  town  and  Front  Koyal  to  the  undisputed  possession  of  the 
Confederates.  He  had  left  in  their  hands  four  thousand 
prisoners,  and  stores  amounting  to  millions  of  dollars.  And 
all  these  prizes  had  been  obtained  by  the  Confederates  in  the 
brief  period  of  a  few  days,  and  with  a  loss  not  exceeding  one 
hundred  in  killed  and  wounded. 

When  General  Jackson  fell  back  from  Winchester,  after 
routing  Banks,  he  managed,  with  great  address,  boldness,  and 
energy,  to  carry  off  his  prisoners  and  spoils,  and  to  bring  off 
his  army  between  the  converging  columns  of  Fremont,  who 
approached  his  rear  from  the  west,  with  eight  brigades,  and 
Shields,  who  approached  from  the  east,  with  four  brigades. 
If  these  brigades  averaged  twenty -five  hundred  men,  the  force 
of  Fremont  was  twenty  thousand  and  that  of  Shields  ten 
thousand  men.  At  Harrisonburg,  Jackson  left  the  main  turn 
pike-road  of  the  Yalley  and  inarched  towards  Port  Republic, 
the  distance  between  these  two  places  being  about  twelve  miles. 
Port  Republic  is  situated  at  the  junction  of  Scuth  river,  flow- 


388  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ing  north,  and  North  river,  flowing  east.  Jackson  could  retire 
no  further  without  crossing  North  river,  which  was  swollen, 
and  there  was  then  no  bridge  over  it  except  at  Port  Republic. 
The  two  rivers  uniting  at  that  village  form  the  Shenandoah, 
which  flows  north,  and  which  could  not  then  be  crossed  by  an 
army.  On  the  east  side  of  that  stream  was  the  army  of  Shields, 
and  on  the  west  side  were  the  armies  of  Fremont  and  Jackson. 
The  latter  halted  near  North  river  without  crossing  it,  and, 
while -in  that  position,  his  rear  was  approached  and  attacked 
by  Fremont's  whole  army,  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  8th 
of  June,  and,  at  the  same  time,  Shields'  force  approached  on 
the  east  side  of  the  Shenandoah  near  Port  Republic. 

That  part  of  Jackson's  army  which  engaged  Fremont  on 
Sunday  was  commanded  by  General  Ewell,  while  the  rest  of 
the  army  under  General  Jackson  held  Shields  in  check  with 
artillery  firing  across  the  Shenandoah  near  Port  Republic. 
The  battle  of  Sunday  took  place  about  five  miles  from  that 
village  in  the  direction  of  Harrisonburg. 

It  began  early  in  the  morning  and  lasted  all  day,  with  occa 
sional  intervals.  It  was  mainly  an  artillery  fight,  but  now  and 
then,  here  and  there,  the  infantry  became  hotly  engaged. 
The  force  under  Fremont  was  much  larger  than  that  undea 
Ewell,  but  the  latter  was  strongly  posted  on  eminences  which 
favored  the  effectiveness  of  artillery,  and  sheltered  the  infantry, 
while  the  enemy  could  only  approach  through  open  fields. 
Swell's  command  was  handled  with  remarkable  skill,  whilo 
Fremont's  generalship  was  indifferent.  EwelPs  artillery  was 
served  with  admirable  precision  and  effect,  and  his  infantry, 
whenever  engaged,  displayed  great  steadiness  and  gallantry. 
The  result  was,  that  when  night  put  an  end  to  the  contest, 
Fremont  had  been  driven  back  between  one  and  two  miles,  with 
a  loss,  in  killed  and  wounded,  of  not  less  than  two  thousand, 
and  probably  much  larger,  while  our  loss  did  not  exceed  three 
hundred,  and  probably  not  two  hundred.  The  judicious  selec 
tion  of  a  position  in  which  to  receive  the  ene,my  favored  this 
result,  but  it  was  largely  due  to  the  superior  fighting  qualities 
of  our  men. 

Soon  after  nightfall,  General  Jackson  began  to  withdraw 
his  men  from  this  battle-field,  and  pass  them  over  North  river 
by  the  bridge  at  Port  Republic,  with  a  view  to  attack  Shields 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  389 

the  next  morning.  He  left  in  front  of  Frenjont  a  small  force 
to  amuse  and  detain  him,  and,  after  retiring  before  him  to  Port 
Republic,  to  burn  the  bridge  behind  him,  and  thus  to  prevent 
Fremont  from  rendering  any  aid  to  Shields.  All  this  was  ac 
complished. 

On  Monday  morning,  Jackson  passed  the  greater  part  01 
his  army  across  the  South  river  (the  smallest  of  the  streams) 
by  means  of  a  bridge  made  of  planks  laid  on  wagons  placed 
in  the  river.  Early  in  the  morning  a  sufficient  number  had 
crossed  to  commence  the  battle,  and  they  were  led  to  the  field 
between  one  and  two  miles  distant,  on  the  east  bank  of  the 
Shenandoah.  The  .enemy's  force  was  found  drawn  up  await 
ing  the  attack. 

The  enemy's  line  extended  from  the  river  about  half  a  mile 
across  a  flat  bottom,  free  from  timber,  and  covered  with  wheat, 
grass,  (fee.  His  left  rested  on  the  point  of  a  low  ridge  coming 
out  from  the  woods  which  skirt  the  bottom.  On  a  slight  ele 
vation  there  and  in  some  small  knolls  in  the  bottom,  he  had  his 
artillery  commanding  the  road  and  the  wide  uncovered  level 
plain,  over  which  Jackson's  army  was  obliged  to  advance.  The 
level  and  exposed  ground  offered  scarcely  any  suitable  position 
for  planting  our  artillery.  The  advantage  of  position  belonged 
altogether  to  the  enemy.  The  capital  fault  of  his  disposition 
for  battle  was  that  the  battery  on  his  extreme  left  was  posted 
near  the  woods  without  any  infantry  in  the  woods  to  defend  it, 
By  availing  himself  of  this  circumstance,  and  by  a  brilliant 
manoeuvre  and  charge,  Jackson  turned  the  fortune  of  the  day 
at  a  critical  moment. 

For  some  two  hours  the  battle  raged  with  great  fury.  Our 
infantry,  at  first  but  few,  advanced  with  marvellous  intrepidity 
in  the  face  of  a  withering  fire  of  artillery  arid  musketry.  At 
one  moment  the  enemy  advanced  a  section  of  a  battery  several 
hundred  yards,  so  as  to  enfilade  our  left  wing,  which  already 
suffered  terribly  from  the  fire  in  front.  It  seemed  that  nothing 
could  withstand  the  fury  of  the  enemy's  fire  of  all  arms.  His 
artillery  was  very  fine,  and  was  served  with  great  effect  by 
regulars.  But  other  troops  corning  at  double  quick  from  Port 
Republic,  came  on  the  field,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  Louisi 
ana  brigade,  under  Taylor,  emerged  from  the  woods  on  the 
enemy's  left.  They  had  been  sent  by  a  considerable  circuit 


390  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

through  the  woods,  which  extend  all  along  the  battle-field  be 
tween  the  cleared  ground  and  the  neighboring  mountain.  By 
a  slight  error  of  direction  they  came  out  of  the  woods  a  little 
too  soon,  and  found  themselves  almost  in  front  of  the  battery, 
which  instantly  began  to  shower  grape  upon  them.  But,  im 
mediately  rectifying  their  direction,  they  charged  the  battery 
with  irresistible  impetuosity,  and  carried  it.  The  contest  then 
was  speedily  ended.  The  enemy's  whole  line  gave  way  and 
was  presently  retreating  in  disorder,  pursued  by  our  cavalry. 
The  pursuit  was  kept  up  about  ten  or  twelve  miles,  but  the 
flight  continued  all  that  day  and  the  next.  About  five  hun 
dred  prisoners  were  taken  that  day,  and  others  after  that  were 
brought  in  daily.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  in  killed  and  wounded 
was  heavy,  and  so  was  our  own.  Six  splendid  cannon  were 
captured  on  the  field,  another  was  taken  in  the  pursuit,  and 
still  another  had  been  captured  on  Sunday.  The  force  of  the 
enemy  engaged  was  about  six  or  seven  thousand,  and  ours  a 
little  larger.  Shields  was  not  present,  but  his  troops  were  com 
manded  by  Gen.  Tyler. 

After  the  rout  of  the  enemy  had  commenced,  the  last  of  our 
troops  crossed  over  the  bridge  at  Port  Kepublic  and  burnt  it. 
Fremont,  cautiously  following,  appeared  some  time  afterwards, 
and  drew  up  his  army  in  line  of  battle  on  the  heights  along 
the  west  bank  of  the  Shenandoah,  from  which  he  overlooked 
the  field  of  battle.  While  he  stood  there  in  impotent  idleness, 
Jackson's  army,  having  finally  disposed  of  Shields,  moved  oil 
at  leisure  to  Brown's  Gap,  and  there  encamped,  to  rest  for  a 
few  days  from  the  fatigues  of  a  month's  campaign  more  ardu 
ous  and  more  successful  than  any  month's  operations  of  the 
war.  The  exhaustion  of  our  men  and  the  interposition  of  a 
river,  no  longer  bridged,  secured  Fremont  from  a  second  bat 
tle  or  a  hasty  flight.  The  next  day  he  commenced  his  retreat 
down  the  Yalley. 

This  famous  campaign  must,  indeed,  take  a  rank  in  the  his 
tory  of  .the  war,  unrivalled  by  any  other  in  the  rapidity  of  its 
movements  and  in  the  brilliancy  of  the  results  accomplished, 
compared  with  the  means  at  its  command.  Its  heroic  deeds 
revived  the  hopes  of  the  South,  and  threw  the  splendor  of  sun 
light  over  the  long  lines  of  the  Confederate  host.  By  a  scries 
of  rapid  movements,  which  occupied  but  a  few  wwks,  Genera) 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  391 

Jackson  had,  with  inferior  numbers,  defeated  successively  four 
generals,  with  as  many  armies,  swept  the  Yalley  of  Virginia  of 
hostile  forces,  made  the  Federal  authorities  tremble  in  their 
capital,  and  frustrated  the  combinations  by  which  the  enernj 
had  purposed  to  aid  General  McClellan  and  environ  Kichmond 
by  large  converging  armies. 

Our  loss  of  life  in  this  campaign  was  inconsiderable  in  num 
bers  ;  but  on  the  black  list  of  killed,  there  was  one  name  con 
spicuous  throughout  the  Confederacy,  and  especially  dear  to 
Virginians.  Colonel  Turner  Ashby,  whose  name  was  linked 
with  so  much  of  the  romance  of  the  war,  and  whose  gentle  and 
enthusiastic  courage  and  knightly  bearing  had  called  to  mind 
the  recollections  of  chivalry,  and  adorned  Virginia  with  a  new 
chaplet  of  fame,  had,  on  the  5th  of  June,  fallen  in  a  skirmish 
near  Harrisburg. 

"  The  last  time  I  saw  Ashby,"  writes  a  noble  comrade  in 
arms,  Colonel  Bradley  T.  Johnson  of  the  Maryland  Line,  "  he 
was  riding  at  the  head  of  the  column  with  General  Ewell — hia 
black  face  in  a  blaze  of  enthusiasm.  Every  feature  beamed 
with  the  joy  of  the  soldier.  He  was  gesticulating  and  pointing 
out  the  country  and  positions  to  General  Ewell.  I  could  iiu 
agine  what  he  was  saying  by  the  motions  of  his  right  arm.  1 
pointed  him  out  to  my  adjutant.  '  Look  a  Ashby  ;  see  how  ho 
is  enjoying  himself."1 

A  few  hours  later,  and  the  brave  Virginian,  so  full  of  life, 
was  a  corpse.  Our  men  had  fallen  upon  a  body  of  the  enemy 
concealed  in  a  piece  of  woods  and  under  the  cover  of  a  fence. 
Ashby  was  on  the  right  of  the  58th  Virginia.  He  implored 
the  men  to  stop  their  fire,  which  was  ineffectual,  and  to  charge 
the  enemy.  They  were  too  much  excited  to  heed  him,  and 
turning  towards  the  enemy  he  waved  Ms  hand — "  Virginians, 
.charge !"  In  a  second  his  horse  fell.  He  was  on  his  feet  in  an 
instant.  "Men,"  he  cried,  "cease  firing — charge,  for  God's 
sake,  charge  !"  The  next  instant  he  fell  dead — not  twenty 
yards  from  the  concealed  marksman  who  had  killed  him. 

To  the  sketch  we  have  briefly  given  of  this  campaign,  it  is 
just  to  add  one  word  of  reflection.  It  had  been  frequently  and 
very  unwarrantably  asserted  that  the  people  of  what  was  once 
the  garden  spot  of  the  South,  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  were 
favorably  inclined  to  the  Union  cause,  and  that  many  of  them 


392  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

had  shown  a  very  decided  spirit  of  disloyalty  to  the  Confed 
erate  authority.  The  best  refutation  of  this  slander  is  to  be 
found  in  the  enemy's  own  accounts  of  his  experiences  in  that 
region. 

The  fact  is,  that  the  people  of  this  Valley  had  suffered  to  a 
most  extraordinary  degree  the  fiery  trials  and  ravages  of  war. 
Their  country  had  been  bandied  about  from  the  possession  of 
the  Confederates  to  that  of  the  Yankees,  and  then  back  again, 
until  it  had  been  stripped  of  every  thing  by  needy  friends  on 
the  one  side,  and  unscrupulous  invaders  on  the  other.  Some 
portions  of  the  country  were  actually  overrun  by  three  armies 
in  two  weeks.  In  such  circumstances  there  were,  no  doubt, 
expressions  of  discontent,  which  had  been  hastily  misinter 
preted  as  disloyal  demonstrations ;  but,  despite  these,  there  is 
just  reason  to  believe  that  a  spirit  of  patriotism  and  integrity 
abided  in  the  Yalley  of  Virginia,  and  that  it  had  been  main 
tained  under  trials  and  chastisements  much  greater  than  those 
which  had  befallen  other  parts  of  the  Confederacy. 


MEMOIR  OF  TURNER  ASHBY. 
/ 

The  writer  had  proposed  a  record  in  another  and  more  ex 
tensive  form  of  the  principal  events  of  the  life  of  Turner 
Ashby ;  but  the  disappointment  of  assistance  to  sources  of 
information  from  persons  who  had  represented  themselves  as 
the  friends  of  the  deceased,  and  from  whom  the  writer  had 
reason  to  expect  willing  and  warm  co-operation,  has  com 
pelled  him  to  defer  the  execution  of  his  original  and  cherished 
purpose  of  giving  to  the  public  a  worthy  biography  of  one 
whose  name  is  a  source  of  immortal  pride  to  the  South,  and  an 
enduring  ornament  to  the  chivalry  of  Virginia.  But  the  fewi 
incidents  roughly  thrown  together  here  may  have  a  certain 
interest.  They  give  the  key  to  the  character  of  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  of  the  war ;  they  afford  an  example  to 
be  emulated  by  our  soldiers ;  they  represent  a  type  of  courage 
peculiarly  Southern  in  its  aspects;  and  they  add  an  unfading 
leaf  to  the  chaplet  of  glory  which  Virginia  has  gathered  on 
the  blood-stained  fields  of  the  war. 

It  is  not  improper  here  to  state  the  weight  and  significance 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  393 

given  to  the  present  revolution  by  the  secession  of  Virginia 
It  takes  time  for  revolutions  to  acquire  their  meaning  and 
proper  significance.  That  which  was  commenced  by  the  Cot 
ton  States  of  the  South,  attained  its  growth,  developed  ita 
purpose,  and  became  instantly  and  thoroughly,  in  earnest  at 
the  period  when  the  second  secessionary  movement,  inaugurated 
by  Virginia,  confronted  the  powers  at  Washington  with  its 
sublime  spectacles. 

Virginia  did  not  secede  in  either  the  circumstances  or  sense  in 
which  the  Cotton  States  had  separated  themselves  from  the 
Union.  She  did  not  leave  the  Union  with  delusive  prospects  of 
peace  to  comfort  or  sustain  her.  She  did  not  secede  in  the  sense 
in  which  separation  from  the  Union  was  the  primary  object  of 
secession.  Her  act  of  secession  was  subordinate  ;  she  was  called 
upon  to  oppose  a  practical  and  overt  usurpation  on  the  part  of 
the  Government  at  Washington  in  drawing  its  sword  against  the 
sovereignty  of  States  and  insisting  on  the  right  of  coercion  ;  to 
contest  this  her  separation  from  the  Union  was  necessary,  and 
became  a  painful  formality  which  could  not  be  dispensed  with. 

A  just  and  philosophical  observation  of  events  must  find  that 
in  this  second  secessionary  movement  of  the  Southern  States 
the  revolution  was  put  on  a  basis  infinitely  higher  and  firmei 
in  all  its  moral  and  constitutional  aspects ;  that  at  this  period 
it  developed  itself,  acquired  its  proper  significance,  and  was 
broadly  translated  into  a  war  of  liberty.  The  movement  of 
Virginia  had  more  than  any  thing  else  added  to  the  moral 
influences  of  the  revolution  and  perfected  its  justification  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world.  It  was  plain  that  she  had  not  seceded  on 
an  issue  of  policy,  but  one  of  distinct  and  practical  constitu 
tional  right,  and  that,  too,  in  the  face  of  a  war  which  frowned 
upon  her  own  borders,  and  which  necessarily  was  to  make  her 
soil  the  principal  theatre  of  its  ravages  and  woes.  Her  attach 
ment  to  the  Union  had  been  proved  by  the  most  untiring  and 
noble  efforts  to  save  it;  her  Legislature  originated  the  Peace 
Conference,  which  assembled  at  Washington  in  February 
1861;  her  representatives  in  Congress  sought  in  that  body 
every  mode  of  honorable  pacification  ;  her  Convention  sent 
delegates  to  Washington  to  persuade  Mr.  Lincoln  to  a  pacific 
policy  ;  and  in  every  form  of  public  assembly,  every  expedient 
of  negotiation  was  essayed  to  save  the  Union.  When  tLese 


894  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR, 

efforts  at  pacification,  which  Virginia  had  made  with  an  unsel 
fishness  without  parallel,  and  with  a  nobility  of  spirit  that 
Bcorned  any  misrepresentation  of  her  office,  proved  abortive, 
she  did  not  hesitate  to  draw  her  sword  in  front  of  the  enemy, 
and  to  devote  all  she  possessed  and  loved  and  hoped  for  to  the 
fortunes  of  the  war.  It  is  not  necessary  to  recount  at  length  the 
services  of  this  ancient  Commonwealth  in  the  war  for  Southern 
independence.  She  furnished  nearly  all  of  the  arms,  ammuni 
tion,  and  accoutrements  that  won  the  early  battles ;  she  gave 
the  Confederate  service,  from  her  own  armories  and  stores, 
seventy-five  thousand  rifles  and  muskets,  nearly  three  hundred 
pieces  of  artillery,  and  a  magnificent  armory,  containing  all 
the  machinery  necessary  for  manufacturing  arms  on  a  large 
scale ;  and  on  every  occasion  she  replied  to  the  call  for  troops, 
until  she  drained  her  arms-bearing  population  to  the  dregs. 

It  is  a  circumstance  of  most  honorable  remark,  that  such  has 
been  the  conduct  of  Virginia  in  this  war,  that  even  from  the 
base  and  vindictive  enemy  tributes  have  been  forced  to  the  de 
voted  courage  and  heroic  qualities  of  her  sons.  The  following 
extraordinary  tribute  from  the  "Washington  Republican,  the 
organ  of  abolition  at  the  Yankee  capital,  is  a  compliment  more 
expressive  than  any  thing  a  Virginian  could  say  for  his  own 
State  and  its  present  generation  of  heroes. 

"  If  there  has  been  any  decadence  of  the  manly  virtues  in 
the  Old  Dominion,  it  is  not  because  the  present  generation  has 
proved  itself  either  weak  or  cowardly  or  unequal  to  the  greatest 
emergencies.  No  people,  with  so  few  numbers,  ever  put  into 
the  field,  and  kept  there  so  long,  troops  more  numerous,  brave, 
or  more  efficient,  or  produced  generals  of  more  merit,  in  all  the 
kinds  and  grades  of  military  talent.  It  is  not  a  worn-out,  effete 
race  which  has  produced  Lee,  Johnston,  Jackson,  Ashby,  and 
Stuart.  It  is  not  a  worn-out  and  effete  race,  which,  for  two 
years,  has  defended  its  capital  against  the  approach  of  an  en 
emy  close  upon  their  borders,  and  outnumbering  them  thirty 
to  one.  It  is  not  a  worn-out  and  effete  race  which  has  pre 
served  substantial  popular  unity  under  all  the  straits  and 
pressure  and  sacrifices  of  this  unprecedented  war.  '  Let  his 
tory/  as  was  said  of  another  race, '  which  records  their  unhappy 
fate  as  a  people,  do  justice  to  their  rude  virtues  as  men.'  They 
are  fighting  madly  in  a  bad  cause,  but  they  are  fighting  bravely 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  395 

They  have  few  cowards  and  no  traitors.  The  hardships  of  war 
are  endured  without  a  murmur  by  all  classes,  and  the  dangers 
of  war  without  flinching,  by  the  newest  conscripts ;  while  their 
gentry,  the  offshoot  of  their  popular  social  system,  have  thrown 
themselves  into  the  camp  and  field  with  all  the  dash  and  high 
spirit  of  the  European  noblesse  of  the  middle  ages,  risking, 
without  apparent  concern,  upon  a  desperate  adventure,  all  that 
men  value ;  and  after  a  generation  of  peace  and  repose  and 
security,  which  had  not  emasculated  them,  presenting  to  their 
enemies  a  trained  and  intrepid  front,  as  of  men  born  and  bred 


to  war." 


What  has  been  said  here  of  Yirginia  and  her  characteristics 
in  the  present  revolution,  is  the  natural  and  just  preface  to 
what  we  have  to  say  of  the  man  who,  more  than  any  one  else 
in  this  war,  illustrated  the  chivalry  of  the  Commonwealth  and 
the  virtues  of  her  gentry.  Turner  Ashby  was  a  thorough  Yir- 
ginian.  He  was  an  ardent  lover  of  the  old  Union.  He  wa« 
brought  up  in  that  conservative  and  respectable  school  of  poli 
tics  which  hesitated  long  to  sacrifice  a  Union  which  had  been, 
in  part,  constructed  by  the  most  illustrious  of  the  sons  of 
Yirginia ;  which  had  conferred  many  honors  upon  her ;  and 
which  was  the  subject  of  many  hopes  in  the  future.  But  when 
it  became  evident  that  the  life  of  the  Union  was  gone,  and  the 
sword  was  drawn  for  constitutional  liberty,  the  spirit  of  Yir 
ginia  was  again  illustrated  by  Ashby,  who  showed  a  devotion 
in  the  field  even  more  admirable  than  the  virtue  of  political 
principles. 

Turner  Ashby  was  the  second  son  of  the  late  Colonel  Turner 
Ashby,  of  "  Rose  Bank,"  Fauquier  county,  and  Dorothea  F. 
Green,  the  daughter  of  the  late  James  Green,  Sr.,  of  Bappa- 
hannock  county.  Colonel  Ashby,  at  his  death,  left  three  sons 
and  three  daughters — the  eldest  of  whom  did  not  exceed  twelve 
years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  death — to  the  sole  care  of  their 
devoted  mother.  To  her  excellent  sense,  generous  disposition, 
and  noble  character,  the  Confederacy  is  indebted  for  two  as 
noble  and  gallant  men  as  have  won  soldiers'  graves  during 
this  war. 

The  father  of  Turner  Ashby  was  the  sixth  son,  that  reached 
manhood,  of  Captain  Jack  Ashby,  a  man  of  mark  in  the  day 
in  which  he  lived,  and  of  whom  many  anecdotes  are  stilJ 


S9f>  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

extant,  illustrative  of  his  remarkable  character.     One  of  these 
belongs  to  the  colonial  times,  and  is  interesting : 

"  When  the  news  of  the  disastrous  defeat  and  death  of 
Genera^  Braddock  reached  Fort  Loudoun  (now  "Winchester, 
Virginia),  John  Ash  by  was  there,  and  his  celebrity  as  a  horse 
man  induced  the  British  commandant  of  the  post  to  secure 
his  services  as  bearer  of  dispatches  to  the  vice-royal  governor 
at  "Williamsburg.  Ashby  at  once  proceeded  on  his  mission, 
and  in  an  incredibly  short  time  presented  himself  before  the 
commander  at  Fort  Loudoun.  This  official,  of  choleric  dispo 
sition,  upon  the  appearance  of  Ashby,  broke  out  in  severe 
reproach  for  his  delay  in  proceeding  on  his  mission,  and  was 
finally  struck  dumb  with  astonishment  at  the  presentation  of 
the  governor's  reply  to  the  dispatch  !  The  ride  is  said  to  have 
been  accomplished  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  and  the  fact 
is  certified  in  the  records  of  Frederick  county  court/' 

Upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  Eevolution  of  1776,  Captain 
Jack  Ashby  raised  a  company  in  his  neighborhood  in  the 
upper  part  of  Fauquier.  It  was  attached  to  the  third  Virginia 
regiment,  under  command  of  General  Marshall.  He  was  in 
the  battles  of  Brandywine,  Germantown,  and  several  other  of 
the  most  desperately  contested  fields  of  the  Revolution.  From 
exposure  and  hardships  endured  upon  the  frontiers  of  Canada, 
he  contracted  disease,  from  which  he  was  never  entirely  relieved 
to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  continued  in  the  service  during 
the  whole  period  of  the  Revolution,  and  after  the  proclama 
tion  of  peace,  quietly  settled  upon  his  beautiful  farm  not  far 
from  Markham  station,  upon  the  Manassas  Gap  railroad. 
Four  of  his  sons,  John,  Samuel,  Nimrod,  and  Thomson,  served 
in  the  war  of  1812. 

The  father  of  our  hero  died,  as  we  have  stated,  leaving  a 
family  of  children  of  tender  age.  Young  Turner  was  put  to 
school,  where  it  does  not  appear  that  he  showed  any  peculiar 
trait  in  his  studies  ;  but  he  was  remarkable  among  his  young 
associates  for  his  sedate  manners,  his  grave  regard  for  truth, 
and  his  appreciation  of  points  of  honor. 

Turner  Ashby  never  had  the  advantages  of  a  college  educa 
tion,  but  he  had  a  good,  healthy  mind ;  he  was  an  attentive 
student  of  human  nature,  and  a  convenient  listener  where 
information  was  to  be  gained  ;  and  he  possessed  those  ordinary 


THE    SECOND    YEAK. 

stares  of  knowledge  which  may  be  acquired  by  a  moderate  itse  of 
books  and  an  attentive  intercourse  with  men.  He  was  engaged 
for  some  time  in  merchandise  at  Markham's  Depot.  The  old 
homestead  of  his  father  still  stands  near  there,  and  not  far  from 
the  homestead  of  the  Marshalls.  The  tastes  of  Ashby  were 
too  domestic  for  politics.  He  was  at  one  time  Whig  candidate 
for  the  Virginia  Legislature  from  Fauquier,  but  was  defeated 
by  a  small  majority.  This  was  his  only  public  appearance  in 
any  political  strife,  and  but  little  else  is  known  of  him  as  a 
politician  beyond  his  ardent  admiration  of  and  personal  attach 
ment  to  Robert  E.  Scott. 

Ashby 's  attachment  to  domestic  life  was  enlivened  by  an 
extreme  fondness  for  manly  pastimes.  He  was  a  horseman 
from  very  childhood,  and  had  the  greatest  passion  for  eques 
trian  exercises.  His  delight  in  physical  excitements  was 
singularly  pure  and  virtuous ;  he  shunned  the  dissipations 
fashionable  among  young  men,  and  while  so  sober  and  steady 
in  his  habits  as  sometimes  to  be  a  joke  among  his  companions, 
yet  he  was  the  foremost  in  all  innocent  sports,  the  first  to  get  up 
tournaments  and  fox-chases,  and  almost  always  the  successful 
competitor  in  all  manly  games.  His  favorite  horse  was  trained 
for  tournaments  and  fox-hunting,  and  it  is  said  to  have  been  a 
common  pastime  of  Ashby  to  take  him  into  the  meadow  and 
jump  him  over  hay-cocks  and  stone  fences.  Some  of  his  feats 
of  horsemanship  are  memorable,  and  are  constantly  related  in 
his  neighborhood.  While  at  Fauquier  Springs,  which  he  fre 
quently  visited,  and  where  he  got  up  tournaments  after  the 
fashion  of  the  ancient  chivalry,  he  once  displayed  his  horse 
manship  by  riding  into  the  ball-room,  up  and  down  steep 
flights  of  steps,  to  the  mingled  terror  and  admiration  of  the 
guests.  No  cavalier  was  more  graceful.  The  reserve  of  his 
manner  was  thrown  aside  in  such  sports,  and  his  black  eyes 
and  dark  face  were  lighted  up  with  the  zeal  of  competition  or 
the  excitement  of  danger. 

The  gravity  so  perceptible  at  times  in  Ashby's  manner  was 
riot  the  sign  of  a  melancholy  or  blank  mind.  He  was  too  prac 
tical  for  reveries ;  he  was  rather  a  man  of  deep  feelings. 
While  he  scorned  the  vulgar  and  shallow  ambition  that  seeks 
for  notoriety,  he  probably  had  that  ideal  and  aspiration  which 
silent  men  often  have,  and  which,  if  called  "  ambition"  at  aU 


398  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

is  to  be  characterized  as  the  noble  and  spiritual  ambition  that 
wins  the  honors  of  history,  while  others  contend  for  the  baubles 
of  the  populace. 

"  He  was,"  writes  a  lady  of  his  neighborhood,  "  a  person  of 
very  deep  feelings,  which  would  not  have  been  apparent  to 
strangers,  from  his  natural  reserve  of  manner ;  but  there  was 
no  act  of  friendship  or  kindness  he  would  have  shrunk  to  per 
form,  if  called  on.  While  he  was  not  a  professor  of  religion, 
there  was  always  a  peculiar  regard  for  the  precepts  of  the 
Bible,  which  showed  itself  in  his  irreproachable  walk  in  life. 
Often  have  I  known  him  to  open  the  Sabbath  school  at  the  re 
quest  of  his  lady  friends,  in  a  little  church  near  his  home,  by 
reading  a  prayer  and  a  chapter  in  the  Bible.  Turner  Ashby 
seldom  left  his  native  neighborhood,  so  strong  were  his  local 
attachments,  and  would  not  have  done  so,  save  at  his  country'* 
call." 

That  call  was  sounded  sooner  than  Ashby  expected.  At  the 
first  prelude  to  the  bloody  drama  of  the  war — the  John  Brown 
raid — he  had  been  conspicuous,  and  his  company  of  horse 
then  called  "  The  Mountain  Rangers,"  did  service  on  that  oc 
casion.  He  appeared  to  have  felt  and  known  the  consequences 
which  were  to  ensue  from  this  frightful  crusade.  Thencefor 
ward  his  physical  and  intellectual  powers  were  directed  to  the 
coming  struggle.  On  the  occasion  of  the  irruption  of  John 
Brown  and  his  felon  band  at  Harper's  Ferry,  he  remarked  to 
Mr.  Boteler,  the  member  of  Congress  from  that  district,  that  a 
crisis  was  approaching,  and  that  the  South  would  be  continu 
ally  subject  to  such  inroads  and  insults,  unless. some  prevention 
was  quickly  effected.  He  continued,  however,  a  strong  Union 
man  until  the  election  of  Lincoln :  he  was  anxions  that  har 
mony  should  be  effected  between  the  States,  and  the  legacies 
of  the  past  should  be  preserved  in  a  constitutional  and  frater 
nal  Union;  but  this  hope  was  instantly  dispelled  by  the  result 
of  the  election ;  and  as  soon  as  it  was  announced,  he  went 
quietly  and  energetically  to  work,  drilling  his  men,  promoting 
their  efficiency,  and  preparing  for  that  great  trial  of  anna 
which  he  saw  rapidly  approaching. 

The  next  time  that  Mr.  Boteler  met  Ashby  at  Harper's  Ferry 
was  on  the  night  of  the  17th  of  April,  1861.  Mr.  Boteler  took 
him  aside,  and  said  to  him,  "  What  flag  are  we  going  to  fight 


THE    SECOND    YEAE.  399 

.mder— the  Palmetto,  or  what?"  Ashby  lifted  his  hat,  and 
within  it  was  laid  a  Virginia  flag.  Pie  had  had  it  painted  at 
midnight,  before  he  left  Eichmond.  "  Here,"  said  he,  "  is  the 
flag  I  intend  to  fight  under."  That  night  the  flag  was  run  up 
by  the  light  of  the  burning  buildings  fired  by  the  Yankees 
and  the  next  morning  the  glorious  emblem  of  the  Old  Domin 
ion  was  seen  floating  from  the  Federal  flag-staff — the  first 
ensign  of  liberty  raised  by  Virginia  in  this  war. 

It  was  not  long  after  the  arrival  of  Capt.  Ashby  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  with  his  cavalry,  that  he  was  placed  in  command  at 
Point  of  Eocks,  by  Gen.  Johnston,  supported  by  Capt.  E. 
Welby  Carter's  company  of  cavalry  and  Capt.  John  Q.  Win- 
field's  infantry  corps  of  "  Brock's  Gap  Eiflemen." 

About  the  same  time  Col.  Angus  "W.  McDonald,  senior,  of 
"Winchester,  Virginia,  was  commissioned  to  raise  a  legion  of 
mounted  men  for  border  service,  the  lieutenant-colonelcy  of 
which  was  at  once  tendered  to  Capt.  Ashby.  Without  final 
acceptance  of  this  position,  he,  with  his  command,  entered  the 
legion,  the  organization  of  which  was  soon  accomplished. 

The  original  captains  were  Ashby,  Winfield,  S.  W.  Myers 
Mason,  Shands,  Jordan,  Miller,  Harper,  and  Sheetz. 

This  force  was  assembled  at  Eomney,  Hampshire  county,  very 
Boon  after  the  evacuation  of  Harper's  Ferry  by  Gen.  Johnston. 

The  difficulty  which  existed  as  to  Capt.  Ashby's  acceptance 
of  the  lieutenant-colonelcy  of  the  legion,  consisted  in  the  fact 
that  he  felt  under  special  obligations  to  his  company,  who  were 
unwilling  to  dispense  with  his  personal  command.  The  arrival 
of  his  brother,  Eichard  Ashby,  from  Texas,  who  joined  the 
company  as  an  independent  volunteer,  appeared  to  open  the 
way  of  relieving  this  difficulty,  as  the  company  was  prepared 
to  accept  in  him  a  captain,  in  order  to  secure  the  promotion  of 
their  beloved  leader. 

But  a  melancholy  providence  was  to  occur  at  this  time, 
which  was  to  color  the  life  of  Turner  Ashby,  and  affect  it  more 
deeply  than  any  thing  he  had  yet  experienced.  The  county 
of  Hampshire  had  already  been  invaded  by  the  enemy,  and 
Colonel,  now  Major-general,  A.  P.  Hill  had  already  visited  the 
county  with  several  regiments  of  infantry,  in  order  to  repel  the 
invader.  This  county  was  also  chosen  for  the  labor  of  the 
mounted  legion. 


4:00  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 

It  was  shortly  after  the  organization  of  the  command,  i  j 
its  active  duty  entered  upon,  that  Capt.  Ashbj  led  a  detain- 
ment  to  Green  Spring  station,  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  rail 
road,  for  the  purpose  of  observation.  He  had  with  him  eleveu 
men,  and  his  brother  Richard  led  another  small  band  of  six. 
The  latter  was  proceeding  along  the  railroad  westward,  in  the 
direction  of  Cumberland — some  ten  miles  away — when  he  was 
ambuscaded  at  the  mouth  of  a  ravine  just  beside  the  railroad 
there,  running  just  between  the  river  bank  and  the  steep  moun 
tain  side.  The  enemy  Vforce  consisted  of  about  eighteen  men, 
commanded  by  Corporal  Hays,  of  the  Indiana  Zouave  regi 
ment,  which  was  stationed  at  Cumberland.  His  men,  at 
length  compelled  to  fall  back  before  superior  numbers,  hasten 
ed  down  the  railroad  to  rejoin  Turner  Ashby.  Covering  their 
retreat  himself,  he  hastened  to  the  rescue  of  one  of  his  men, 
severely  wounded  in  the  face  by  a  sabre  stroke,  and  in  a  hand 
to  hand  fight  with  Corporal  Hays,  severely  wounded  him  in 
the  head  with  his  sabre.  Following  immediately  his  retreating 
companions,  the  horse  which  he  rode  proved  false,  and  fell  into 
a  cattle-stop  of  the  railroad  with  his  unfortunate  rider.  He 
was  overtaken,  beaten,  bruised,  wounded,  and  left  for  dead. 
He  was  removed  many  hours  afterwards,  and  lived  for  several 
days,  enjoying  every  kind  attention,  but  his  wounds  proved 
mortal.  He  was  buried  in  the  beautiful  Indian  Mound  Ceme 
tery  at  Romney,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1861. 

During  the  engagement  of  his  brother,  Turner  Abhby  started 
up  the  railroad  to  his  rescue ;  but  in  passing  along  the  river's 
brink,  his  force  was  fired  upon  from  Kelly's  Island,  on  the 
north  branch  of  the  Potomac,  about  twelve  miles  east  of  Cum 
berland.  The  island  lies  some  sixty  feet  from  the  Virginia 
bank,  which  is  precipitous,  and  directly  laid  with  the  railroad 
track.  On  the  other  side  of  the  island,  which  was  reached 
through  water  to  the  saddle  girth,  there  is  a  gently  rising 
beach,  some  thirty  yards  to  the  interior,  which  is  thickly 
wooded,  and  contains  a  dense  undergrowth.  Here  in  ambush 
lay,  as  was  afterwards  reported,  about  forty  of  the  Indiana 
troops,  and  about  sixty  of  Merley's  branch  riflemen— Maryland 
Union  men  of  the  vicinity — woodmen,  skilled  with  the  rifle, 
and  many  of  them  desperate  characters.  After  receiving  the 
eneray's  fire,  Turner  Ashby  and  his  eleven  at  once  charged, 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  401 

and  after  a  sharp  engagement,  routed  and  dispersed  their  forces. 
It  has  been  declared  that  not  less  than  forty  shots  were  tired  at 
Ashby  on  that  occasion,  but  not  he  nor  his  horse  were  harmed 
and  at  least  five  of  the  enemy  were  probably  slain  by  hi 
hand. 

From  the  date  of  his  brother's  death,  a  change  passed  over 
the  life  of  Turner  Ashby.  He  always  wore  a  sad  smile  after 
that  unhappy  day,  and  his  life  became  more  solemn  and  earn 
est  to  the  end  of  his  own  evanescent  and  splendid  career. 
"  Ashby,"  said  a  lady  friend,  speaking  of  him  after  this  period, 
"  is  now  a  devoted  man"  His  behavior  at  his  brother's  grave, 
as  it  is  described  by  one  of  the  mourners  at  the  same  spot,  was 
most  touching.  He  stood  over  the  grave,  took  his  brother's 
sword,  broke  it  and  threw  it  into  the  opening;  clasped  his 
hands  and  looked  upward  as  if  in  resignation  ;  and  then  press 
ing  his  lips,  as  if  in  the  bitterness  of  grief,  while  a  tear  rolled 
down  his  cheek,  he  turned  without  a  word,  mounted  his  horse 
and  rode  away.  Thenceforth  his  name  was  a  terror  to  the 
enemy. 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  his  brother,  his  company  consented 
to  yield  him  up  in  order  that  he  might  accept  the  lieutenant 
colonelcy  of  the  Legion,  and  elected  First  Lieut.  William  Tur 
ner  (his  cousin)  captain  in  his  stead.  The  Legion,  numbering 
at  that  time  nearly  nine  hundred  effective  men  tolerably 
equipped  and  mounted,  continued  on  duty  in  Hampshire  until 
the  16th  of  July,  1861,  when  it  started  for  Manassas,  but  did 
not  arrive  until  after  the  battle.  The  command  was  immedi 
ately  afterwards  ordered  to  Staunton  to  join  Gen.  Lee's  forces — 
subsequently  to  Hollingsworth,  one  mile  south  of  Winchester. 
In  the  mean  time,  Col.  Ashby,  with  several  companies,  was  sent 
on  detached  duty  to  Jefferson,  into  which  county  the  enemy 
was  making  frequent  incursions  from  Harper's  Ferry  and 
Maryland. 

In  Jefferson,  Ashby  had  command  of  four  companies  of 
cavalry  and  about  eight  hundred  militia.  Yankee  raids  were 
kept  from  the  doors  of  the  inhabitants,  and  the  enemy  made 
but  little  appearance  in  this  portion  of  Yirginia,  until  Banks 
crossed  the  Potomac  in  February,  1862. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Ashby's  cavalry  acquired  its 
great  renown.  The  Lincoln  soldiers  dreaded  nothing  so  much 

26 


402  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

as  they  did  these  hated  troopers.  Go  where  they  would,  out 
of  sight  of  their  encampments,  they  were  almost  sure  to  meet 
some  of  Ashby's  cavalry,  who  seemed  to  possess  the  power  01 
ubiquity.  And,  in  truth,  they  had  good  cause  both  to  hate 
and  to  fear  Ashby's  cavalry ;  for  many  a  Federal  horseman 
dropped  from  his  saddle,  and  many  a  Federal  soldier  on  foot 
dropped  in  his  tracks,  at  the  crack  of  Confederate  rifles  in  the 
hands  of  Ashby's  fearless  sharpshooters. 

During  the  time  of  the  encampment  at  Flowing  Springs, 
Col.  Ashby  rarely  ever  came  into  town,  which  was  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  distant.  Nothing  could  seduce  him  from  his 
duties ;  no  admiration,  no  dinner  parties  or  collations,  could 
move  him  to  leave  his  camp.  He  always  slept  with  his  men. 
No  matter  what  hour  of  the  night  he  was  aroused,  he  was 
always  wakeful,  self-possessed,  and  ready  to  do  battle.  He  was 
idolized  by  his  men,  whom  he  treated  as  companions,  and 
indulged  without  reference  to  rules  of  military  discipline.  Ho 
had  great  contempt  for  the  military  arts,  was  probably  incapa 
ble  of  drilling  a  regiment,  and  preserved  among  his  men  scarce 
ly  any  thing  more  than  the  rude  discipline  of  camp-hunters 
But  though  not  a  stickler  for  military  rules,  he  would  have  IK 
toward  or  eye-soldier  in  his  command.  If  a  man  was  dissatis 
;fied,  he  at  once  started  him  off  home.  He  allowed  his  men 
?many  liberties.  A  gentleman  asked  him  one  day  where  his 
*men  were.  "  "Well,"  said  he,  "  the  boys  fought  very  well  yes 
terday,  and  there  are  not  more  than  thirty  of  them  here  to-day." 

Ashby's  influence  over  his  men  was  principally  due  to  the 
brilliant  and  amazing  examples  of  personal  courage  which  he 
always  gave  them  in  front  of  the  battle.  His  men  could  never 
find  him  idle.  In  battle  his  eye  kindled  up  most  gloriously. 
He  wore  a  gray  coat  and  pants,  with  boots  and  sash  ;  he  always 
'•  looked  like  work,  was  frequently  covered  with  mud,  and  ap 
peared  to  be  never  fatigued  or  dejected.  He  would  come  and 
go  like  a  dream.  He  would  be  heard  of  at  one  time  in  one 
.part  of  the  country,  and  then,  when  least  expected,  would  come 
dashing  by  on  the  famous  white  horse,  which  was  his  pride. 

When  the  fight  occurred  at  Boteler's  Mill,  the  militia  wero 
:  for  the  first  time  under  fire.     The  enemy  had  encamped  on  tho 
other  side  of  the  Potomac,  opposite  the  mill.     Our  troops  qui 
v€tly  crept  upon  them,  and  planted  two  pieces  of  cannon  within 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  403 

range,  and  let  drive  at  them  with  terrible  effect,  whereupon 
they  fled.  They  afterwards  returned  in  force,  and  ranged 
themselves  on  the  other  side  with  long-range  guns.  Ashby, 
to  encourage  the  militia,  who  were  raw,  advanced  to  the  bank 
of  the-  river,  and  rode  his  white  horse  up  and  down  within 
point-blank  range  of  the  enemy's  fire.  When  the  balls  were 
hurtling  thickest,  he  would  rein  in  his  horse  and  stand  perfectly 
still,  the  very  picture  of  daring  and  chivalry. 

At  Bolivar  Heights,  when  the  enemy  were  firing  upon  our 
men  and  had  shot  down  the  gunners  at  the  cannon,  he  sprang 
from  his  horse  and  seized  the  rammer  himself.  He  was  con 
spicuous  in  action  at  every  point.  His  friends  used  to  implore 
him  not  to  ride  his  white  horse — for  he  had  also  a  black  one — 
but  he  was  deaf  to  every  caution  that  respected  the  safety  of 
his  person. 

The  key  to  Ashby's  character  <was  his  passion  for  danger. 
He  craved  the  excitement  of  battle,  and  was  never  happier 
than  when  riding  his  noble  steed  in  the  thickest  of  the  storm 
of  battle.  There  are  some  minds  which  find  a  sweet  intoxica 
tion  in  danger,  and  Macaulay  has  named  a  remarkable  instance 
in  William  III.,  the  silent  and  ascetic  king  of  England,  who 
was  transformed  into  gayety  by  the  excitement  of  personal 
peril.  "Danger,"  says  the  historian,  "acted  upon  him  like 
wine ;"  it  made  him  full  of  animation  and  speech.  Ashby's 
delight  in  danger  was  a  royal  one.  It  came  from  no  brutal 
hardihood  or  animal  spirits ;  and  the  Virginia  cavalier  is  thus 
so  far  superior  to  other  famous  partisans  in  this  war,  that  he 
united  with  the  adventurousness  of  courage  the  courtesies  of 
a  gentleman  and  Christian,  and  the  refinements  of  a  pure  and 
gentle  soul.  He  was  never  rude ",  he  was  insensible  to  the  hu 
mors  of  the  vulgar ;  and  he  never  even  threw  into  the  face  of  his 
enemy  a  coarse  taunt  or  a  specimen  of  that  wit  common  in  the 
army. 

Turner  Ashby  was  doubtless  as  perfect  a  specimen  of  modern 
chivalry  as  the  South  even  has  ever  produced.  His  brilliant 
daring,  his  extreme  courtesy  to  woman,  his  devotion  to  the 
horse,  his  open-hearted  manner,  and  his  scorn  of  mean  actions, 
are  qualities  as  admirable  now  as  in  the  days  of  Froissart's 
Chronicles.  After  the  battle  of  Winchester,  the  Yankee 
women  and  families  of  officers  sometimes  came  to  Ashby  to 


SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

get  passes.  They  were  surprised  to  find  with  what  readiness 
permits  were  granted.  They  would  say,  "  Colonel  Ash  by,  you 
may  search  our  baggage.  We  assure  you  we  are  carrying 
away  nothing  which  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  do."  His  reply 
was,  "  I  have  no  right  to  look  into  ladies'  baggage,  or  to  ex 
amine  their  trunks.  Southern  gentlemen  do  no  such  thing." 
They  said,  "  Colonel,  you  may  search  our  persons,  and  see  if 
we  carry  away  any  thing  contraband."  The  reply  was,  "  Vir 
ginia  gentlemen  do  not  search  the  persons  of  ladies." 

Few  young  men  of  Ashby's  age  could  have  resisted  the  in 
toxication  of  praise  heaped  upon  him  from  every  quarter.  The 
fact  was,  no  aged  and  stern  devotee  to  duty  was  ever  more  in 
sensible,  in  the  performance  of  his  task,  to  the  currents  of  popu 
lar  favor  than  the  young  Paladin  of  the  South.  The  following 
copy  of  a  letter,  written  at  the  height  of  his  reputation  to  an 
elderly  gentleman  of  Stafford  •county,  illustrates  the  modesty 
which  adorned  the  life  of  Turner  Ashby,  and  the  sense  of  duty 
which  insured  its  most  brilliant  successes  : 

"Mr  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  just  received  your  exceedingly  kind 
and  most  flattering  letter.  Let  me  assure  you  that  it  gives  me 
no  little  pleasure  to  know  that  my  course,  while  doing  my  duty 
to  my  country,  meets  your  approval,  whose  age  and  experience 
make  it  more  to  be  estimated.  That  I  have  not  sought  self- 
aggrandizement,  or  regarded  any  thing  save  what  I  believed 
to  be  my  duty  to  my  country  in  this  war,  I  hope  it  is  needless 
to  assure  you.  When  my  course  meets  with  the  approval  of 
the  old  patriots,  I  feel  doubly  satisfied  that  I  have  not  mistaken 
what  I  believe  to  be  my  duty.  What  you  are  pleased  to  say 
of  my  brother  (who  fell  as  I,  too,  expect  to  fall,  if  my  country 
needs  it)  is  but  too  true.  Had  he  been  spared  longer,  he  would 
doubtless  have  been  of  great  value  to  our  country.  His  fall, 
however,  has  not  been  without  its  lesson  to  the  enemy,  teach 
ing  them  that  Virginians  know  how  to  die  as  well  as  fight  for 
their  liberty.  He  died  without  a  regret,  feeling  that  his  life 
was  due  to  his  country's  cause.  Please  present  me  most  kindly 
to  all  my  friends  in  Stafford,  and  accept  my  highest  respecta 

for  yourself. 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"TURNER  ASHBY." 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  405 

We  have  already  referred  in 'the  pages  of  this  Listory  to, 
Ashby's  share  in  the  several  glorious  campaigns  of  Jacksoi* 
in  the  Valley  ;  to  his  participation  in  the  battle  of  Kernstown 
to  his  famous  adventure  with  the  Yankee  pickets  at  the  bridge 
and  to  some  other  of  his  daring  exploits  on  the  front  and  flank 
of  the  enemy.     It  was  on  the  occasion  of  the  battle  of  Kerns- 
town  that  his  energy  was  exercised  to  an  extraordinary  degree 
in  protecting  the  retreat  and  annoying  the  skirts  of  the  enemy. 
In  thirty-eight,  out  of  forty-two  days  after  this  battle  he  was 
fighting  the  enemy,  keeping  him  in  check,  or  cutting  off  his  com 
munications.     The  terrible  fatigues  he  incurred  never  seemed 
to  depress  him,  or  to  tax  his  endurance.     An  acquaintance  tes 
tifies  that  it  was  not  an  infrequent  feat  for  him  to  ride  daily 
over  a  line  of  pickets  sixty  or  seventy  miles  in  extent. 

At  a  later  period  of  the  Yalley  campaign,  when  Banks  re 
turned  from  Strasburg  and  our  troops  were  chasing  him,  Ash- 
by  would  follow  and  charge  the  Yankees  as  the  Rockbridge 
Artillery  poured  in  their  fire.  At  one  time  he  was  riding 
abreast  of  three  hundred  infantry,  who  were  passing  along  the 
turnpike.  All  at  once  he  wheeled  his  horse,  and  leaping  the 
fence  with  drawn  sword, 'cut  his  way  right  through  them ;  then 
wheeling,  he  did  the  same  thing  a  second  time.  Hiding  up  to 
the  standard-bearer,  he  seized  it  from  him  and  dashed  him  to 
the  earth.  The  terrified  wretches  never  raised  a  weapon  against 
him.  Seventy-five  of  them,  whom  he  cut  off,  laid  down  their 
arms,  and  sat  down  at  his  order  in  the  corner  of  the  fence, 
where  they  remained  until  his  men  came  up  to  take  care  of 
them.  The  flag  was  that  of  a  Vermont  regiment.  A  few  days 
after,  Mr.  Boteler  asked  Ashby  of  the  exploit.  He  drew  the 
flag  from  his  bosom  and  gave  it  to  him.  It  was  presented  by 
Mr.  Boteler  to  the  Library  of  the  State,  at  Richmond,  where  it 
may  now  be  seen — a  testimony  to  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
deeds  of  Virginia's  youthful  hero. 

A  week  after  this  adventure,  Ashby  was  dead.  But  a  few 
days  before  the  termination  of  his  brilliant  career,  he  received 
the  promotion  which  had  been  long  due  him  from  the  govern 
ment.  Just  before  leaving  Richmond,  after  the  adjournmen 
of  the  first  session  of  the  permanent  Congress,  Mr.  Boteler,  who 
was  a  member  of  that  body,  and  Ashby's  constant  friend,  went 
to  the  president,  told  him  that  he  was  going  home,  and  asked 


4:06  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

that,  one  act  of  justice  should  be  done  to  the  people  of  the 
Valley,  which  they  had  long  expected.  He  wished  to  be  able 
to  carry  back  to  his  people  the  assurance  that  Ashby  should  be 
commissioned  a  brigadier-general.  The  order  for  the  commis 
sion  was  at  once  made  out.  When  the  announcement  was  made 
to  Ashby,  he  exhibited  no  emotion,  except  that  his  face  waa 
lighted  up  by  one  of  those  sad  smiles  which  had  occasionally 
brightened  it  since  the  death  of  his  brother. 

The  manner  of  Ashby's  death  has  already  been  mentioned  in 
the  preceding  pages  of  the  brief  historical  narrative  of  the 
Valley  campaign.  The  writer  is  indebted  for  the  particulars 
of  that  sad  event  to  Colonel  Bradley  T.  Johnson,  the  brave 
Maryland  officer  whose  command  was  conspicuous  in  the  aifair 
that  cost  Ashby  his  life,  and  earned  an  immortal  honor  in  re 
venging  his  death.  He  takes  the  liberty  of  extracting  from  a 
letter  of  this  officer  an  account  of  the  engagement : 

"  On  the  morning  of  Friday,  the  6th  of  June,"  writes  Colonel 
Johnson,  "  we  left  Harrisonburg,  not  having  seen  the  enemy  for 
two  days.  To  our  surprise,  in  the  afternoon  his  cavalry  made 
a  dash  into  our  rear-guard,  and  was  whipped  most  eifectually 
their  colonel,  Sir  Percy  Wyndham, 'being  taken  prisoner.  My 
regiment  was  supporting  a  battery  a  short  distance  behind  this 
cavalry  fight.  In  half  an  hour  we  were  ordered  forward — that 
is,  towards  the  enemy  retracing  the  march  just  made.  Our  in 
fantry  consisted  only  of  Brigadier-general  George  H.  Stewart's 
brigade,  the  58th  Virginia,  44th  Virginia,  two  other  Virginia 
regiments,  and  the  Maryland  Line — of  the  latter,  only  the  1st 
Maryland  was  taken  back ;  the  artillery  and  all  the  cavalry 
were  left  behind  us.  The  58th  Virginia  was  first,  my  regiment 
(the  1st  Maryland)  next,  then  came  the  44th  and  the  rest. 

"  A  couple  of  miles  east  of  Harrisonburg  we  left  the  road 
and  filed  to  the  right,  through  the  fields,  soon  changing  direc 
tion  again  so  as  to  move  parallel  to  the  road.  General  Ewell 
soon  sent  for  two  of  my  companies  as  skirmishers.  Moving 
cautiously  through  the  darkening  shades  of  the  tangled  wood 
nist  as  the  evening  twilight  was  brightening  the  trees  in  front 
of  us  in  an  opening,  spot,  spot,  spot,  began  a  dropping  fire  from 
the  skirmishers,  and  instantly  the  58th  Virginia  poured  in  a 
volley.  Another  volley  was  fired.  The  leaves  began  to  fall, 
and  the  Sullets  hit  the  trees  around.  General  Ewell  came  up 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  407 

in  a  gallop.  'Charge,  colonel,  charge  to  the  left!'  And  1 
charged,  got  to  the  edge  of  the  wood,  and  found  a  heavy  body 
of  infantry  and  cavalry  supporting  a  battery  on  a  hill  six  linn 
dred  yards  in  front  of  me.  But  the  Yankee  balls  came  fast 
and  thick  on  my  flank.  '  The  58th  are  firing  into  us,'  the  lead 
ing  captain  said.  General  Ewell  and  myself,  the  only  mounted 
officers,  plunged  after  them,  and  found  it  was  not  their  fire.  I 
got  back.  l  Up,  men,  and  take  that  hill,'  pointing  to  my  right. 
They  went  in  with  a  cheer.  In  less  than  five  seconds  the  first 
rank  of  the  second  company  went  down.  The  color-sergeant, 
Doyle,  fell.  The  corporal  who  caught  them  from  him  fell. 
The  next  who  took  them  fell,  when  Corporal  Shanks,  a  six- 
footer,  seized  them,  raising  them  over  his  head  at  arm's  length. 
Captain  Robertson  lay  dead ;  Lieutenant  Snowden  shot  to 
death  ;  myself  on  the  ground,  my  horse -shot  in  three  places. 
But  still  we  went  forward,  and  drove  the  Bucktails  from  the 
fence  where  they  had  been  concealed " 

It  was  as  the  brave  Marylanders  were  pressing  on  in  this 
charge  that  Ashby,  who  was  on  the  right  of  the  58th  Yirginia 
exhorting  them,  fell  by  an  intelligent  bullet  of  the  enemy. 
His  death  was  quickly  avenged.  As  our  troops  reached  the 
fence  from  which  the  shot  had  been  fired,  the  line  of  Yankees 
melted  away  like  mist  before  a  hurricane. 

"  The  account  I  have  given  you,"  writes  Colonel  Johnson, 
"  of  the  manner  of  Ashby 's  death,  is  collated  from  the  state 
ments  of  many  eye-witnesses  of  my  skirmishing  companies,  who 
were  all  around  him  when  he  fell.  I  did  not  see  it,  though  not 
thirty  yards  from  him,  but  was  busy  with  my  own  men  ;  and 
I  am  specific  in  stating  the  source  of  his  death,  as  there  is  a 
loose  impression  that  he  was  killed  by  a  shot  from  the  58th 
Virginia.  I  am  persuaded  this  is  not  so,  from  the  state 
ments  of  two  very  cool  officers,  Captain  Nicholas  and  Lieuten 
ant  Booth,  who  were  talking  to  him  the  minute  before  he 
fell. " 

"  Ashby  was  my  first  revolutionary  acquaintance  in  Yirginia. 
I  was  with  him  when  the  first  blow  was  struck  for  the  cause 
we  both  had  so  much  at  heart,  and  was  with  him  in  his  last 
fight,  always  knowing  him  to  be  beyond  all  modern  men  in 
chivalry,  as  he  was  equal  to  any  one  in  courage.  He  coi  ibined 
the  virtues  of  Sir  Philip  Sydney  with  the  dash  of  Murat.  I 


4:08  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

contribute  my  mite  to  his  fame,  which  will  live  in  the  Yalle^ 
of  Yirginia,  outside  of  books,  as  long  as  its  hills  and  mountains 
shall  endure." 

No  word  escaped  from  Ashby's  lips  as  he  fell.     It  was  not 
necessary.     No  dying  legend,  spoken  in  death's  embrace,  could 
have  added  to  that  noble  life.     Itself  was  a  beautiful  poem ;  a 
sounding  oration ;  a  sufficient  legacy  to  the  virtue  of  his  coun 
trymen. 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  409 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

i 

The  Situation  of  Richmond.— Its  Strategic  Importance.— What  the  Yankees  had 
done  to  secure  Richmond. — THE  BATTSE  OF  SEVEN  PINES. — Miscarriage  of  Gen. 
Johnston's  Plans. — THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  CHICKAHOMINY. — Storming  of  the  Enemy's 
Intrenchments. — McClellan  driven  from  his  Northern  Line  of  Defences. — The 
Situation  on  the  other  Side  of  the  Chickahominy. — Magruder's  Comment. — The 
Affair  of  Savage  Station.— The  Battle  of  Frazier's  Farm.— A  Terrible  Crisis.— Battle 
of  Malvern  Hill. — The  Enemy  in  Communication  with  his  Gunboats. — The  Failure 
to  cut  him  off. — Glory  and  Fruits  of  our  Victory. — Misrepresentations  of  the  Yan 
kees. — Safety  of  Richmond. — The  War  in  other  Parts  of  the  Confederacy. — The 
Engagement  of  Secessionville. — The  Campaign  of  the  West. — The  Evacuation  of 
Corinth.— More  Yankee  Falsehoods. — Capture  of  Memphis. — The  Prize  of  the  Mis 
sissippi. — Statistics  of  its  Navigation. — Siege  of  Vicksburg. — Heroism  of  "  the  Queen 
City."— Morgan's  Raid  into  Kentucky.— The  Tennessee  and  Virginia  Frontier.— 
Prospects  in  the  West. — Plan  of  Campaign  there. 

RICHMOND  is  the  heart  of  the  State  of  Virginia.     It  is  him 
dreds  of  miles  from  the  sea,  yet  with  water  communication  t< 
Old  Point,  to  Washington,  and  to  New  York.     It  is  the  stra 
tegic  point  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  whole  Confed 
eracj.     If  Richmond  had  fallen  before  McClellan's  forces,  the 
North  expected  that  there  would  follow  all  of  North  Carolina 
except  the  mountains,  part  of  South  Carolina,  and  all  of  Ten 
nessee  that  was  left  to  us. 

On  the  Richmond  lines,  two  of  the  greatest  and  most  splendid 
armies  that  had  ever  been  arrayed  on  a  single  field  confronted 
each  other ;  every  accession  that  could  be  procured  from  the 
most  distant  quarters  to  their  numbers,  and  every  thing  that 
could  be  drawn  from  the  resources  of  the  respective  countries 
of  each,  had  been  made  to  contribute  to  the  strength  and 
splendor  of  the  opposing  hosts. 

Since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  the  North  had  taxed 
its  resources  for  the  capture  of  Richmond ;  nothing  was  omit 
ted  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  event ;  the  way  had  to  bo 
opened  to  the  capital  by  tedious  and  elaborate  operations  on 
the  frontier  of  Virginia ;  this  accomplished,  the  city  of  Rich 
mond  was  surrounded  by  an  army  whose  numbers  was  all  that 
could  be  desired ;  composed  of  picked  forces ;  having  every 
advantage  that  science  and  art  could  bestow  in  fortifications 


4-10  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  every  appliance  of  war ;  assisted  by  gunboat  flotillas  in 
two  rivers,  and  endowed  with  every  thing  that  could  assure 
success. 

The  Northern  journals  were  unreserved  in  the  statement 
that  the  commands  of  Fremont,  Banks,  and  McDowell  had 
been  consolidated  into  one  army,  under  Major-gen.  Pope,  with 
a  view  of  bringing  all  the  Federal  forces  in  Yirginia  to  co 
operate  with  McClellan  on  the  Richmond  lines.  A  portion  of 
this  army  must  have  reached  McClellan,  probably  at  an  early 
stage  of  the  engagements  in  the  vicinity  of  Richmond.  In 
deed,  it  was  stated  at  a  subsequent  period  by  Mr.  Chandler,  a 
member  of  the  Federal  Congress,  that  the  records  of  the  Wai- 
Department  at  Washington  showed  that  more  than  one  hun 
dred  arid  fifty  thousand  men  had  been  sent  to  the  lines  about 
Richmond.  There  is  little  doubt  but  that,  in  the  memorable 
contest  for  the  safety  of  the  Confederate  capital,  we  engaged 
an  army  whose  superiority  in  numbers  to  us  was  largely  in 
creased  by  timely  reinforcements,  and  with  regard  to  the 
operations  of  which  the  Northern  government  had  omitted  no 
conditions  of  success. 

THE   BATTLE    OF   SEVEN   PINT2S. 

Having  reached  the  Chickahominy,  McClellan  threw  a 
portion  of  his  army  across  the  river,  and,  having  thus  estab 
lished  his  left,  proceeded  to  pivot  upon  it,  and  to  extend  his 
right  by  the  right  bank  of  the  Pamunkey,  so  as  to  get  to  the 
north  of  Richmond. 

Before  the  30th  of  May,  Gen.  Johnston  had  ascertained  that 
Keyes'  corps  was  encamped  on  this  side  of  the  Chickahominy, 
near  the  Williamsburg  road,  and  the  same  day  a  strong  body 
of  the  enemy  was  reported  in  front  of  D.  H.  Hill.  The  fol 
lowing  disposition  of  forces  was  made  for  the  attack  the  next 
day,  the  troops  being  ordered  to  move  at  daybreak  :  Gen. 
Hill,  supported  by  the  division  of  Gen.  Longstreet  (who  had 
the  direction  of  operations  on  the  right),  was  to  advance  by 
the  Williamsburg  road  to  attack  the  enemy  in  front ;  Gen. 
Huger,  with  his  division,  was  to  move  down  the  Charles  City 
road,  in  order  to  attack  in  flank  the  troops  *ho  might  be  en 
gaged  with  Hill  and  Longstreet,  unless  he  found  in  his  front 
force  enough  to  occupy  his  division  ;  Gen.  Smith  was  to  march 


GEN.  J.E.JOHNSTON 


''.son  ..PuVh-sher 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  411 

to  the  junction  of  the  New  Bridge  road  and  the  Nine  Mile 
road,  to  be  in  readiness  either  to  fall  on  Keyes'  right  flank,  or 
to  cover  Longstreet's  left. 

The  next  day  hour  after  hour  passed,  while  Gen.  Longstreet 
in  yarn  waited  for  Huger's  division.  At  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  he  resolved  to  make  the  attack  without  these  troops, 
and  moved  upon  the  enemy  with  his  own  and  D.  II.  Hill's 
division,  the  latter  in  advance. 

Hill's  brave  troops,  admirably  commanded  and  most  gal 
lantly  led,  forced  their  way  through  the  abattis  which  formed 
the  enemy's  external  defences,  and  stormed  their  intrench- 
ments  by  a  determined  and  irresistible  rush.  Such  was  the 
manner  in  which  the  enemy's  first  line  was  carried.  The 
operation  was  repeated  with  the  same  gallantry  and  success  as 
our  troops  pursued  their  victorious  career  through  the  enemy's 
successive  camps  and  intrenchments.  At  each  new  position 
they  encountered  fresh  troops  belonging  to  it,  and  reinforce 
ments  brought  on  from  the  rear.  Thus  they  had  to  repel 
repeated  efforts  to  retake  works  which  they  had  carried.  But 
their  advance  was  never  successfully  resisted.  Their  onward 
movement  was  only  stayed  by  the  coming  of  night.  By  night 
fall  they  had  forced  their  way  to  the  "  Seven  Pines,"  having 
driven  the  enemy  back  more  than  two  miles,  through  their 
own  camps,  and  from  a  series  of  intrenchments,  arid  repelled 
every  attempt  to  recapture  them  with  great  slaughter. 

The  attack  on  the  enemy's  right  was  not  so  fortunate.  The 
strength  of  his  position  enabled  him  to  hold  it  until  dark,  and 
the  intervention  of  night  alone  saved  him  from  rout.  On  this 
part  of  the  field  Gen.  Johnston  was  severely  wounded  by  the 
fragment  of  a  shell. 

In  his  official  report  of  the  operations  of  the  day,  General 
Johnston  says :  "  Had  Major-gen.  Huger's  division  been  in 
position  and  ready  for  action  when  those  of  Smith,  Long- 
street,  and  Hill  moved,  I  am  satisfied  that  Keyes'  corps  would 
have  been  destroyed  instead  of  being  merely  defeated."  The 
slow  and  impotent  movements  of  Gen.  Huger  were  excused  by 
himself  on  account  of  the  necessity  of  building  a  bridge  to 
cross  the  swollen  stream  in  his  front,  and  other  accidental 
causes  of  delay. 

But  uot withstanding  the  serious  diminution  of  the  fortunes 


4:12  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  the  day  by  Huger's  mishaps,  they  were  yet  conspicuous. 
WQ  had  taken  ten  pieces  of  artillery  and  six  thousand  muskets, 
besides  other  spoils.  Our  total  loss  was  more  than  four  thou 
sand.  That  of  the  enemy  is  stated  in  their  own  newspapers 
to  have  exceeded  ten  thousand — an  estimate  which  is  no  doubt 
short  of  the  truth. 

On  the  morning  of  the  first  of  June,  the  enemy  made  a  weak 
demonstration  of  attack  on  our  lines.  The  9th  and  14th  Yir 
ginia  regiments  were  ordered  to  feel  for  the  enemy,  arid  while 
thus  engaged  suddenly  came  upon  a  body  of  fifteen  thousand 
Yankees  intrenched  in  the  woods.  Under  the  murderous  fire 
poured  into  their  ranks,  our  troops  were  forced  to  fall  back, 
but  were  rallied  by  the  self-devoted  gallantry  of  their  officers. 
Col.  Godwin,  the  dashing  and  intrepid  commander  of  the  9th, 
received  a  Minnie  ball  in  the  leg,  and  a  moment  later  had  his 
hip  crushed  by  the  fall  of  his  horse,  which  was  shot  under  him. 
He  was  thirty  paces  in  advance  of  his  regiment  when  the  attack 
was  made,  encouraging  his  men.  At  last,  reinforcements 
•oming  up,  the  attack  of  the  enemy  was  vigorously  repulsed. 
This  was  the  last  demonstration  of  the  enemy,  who  proceeded 
o  strengthen  those  lines  of  intrenchments  from  which  he  had 
not  yet  been  driven. 

THE   BATTLES    OF  THE    CHICKAHOMINY. 

Upon  taking  command  of  the  Confederate  army  in  the  field, 
after  Gen.  Johnston  had  been  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Seven 
Pines,  Gen.  Lee  did  not  hesitate  to  adopt  the  spirit  of  that  com 
mander,  wiiich  had  already  been  displayed  in  attacking  the 
enemy,  and  which  indicated  the  determination  on  his  part  that 
the  operations  before  Richmond  should  not  degenerate  into  a 
siege. 

The  course  of  the  Chickahoniiny  around  Richmond  affords 
an  idea  of  the  enemy's  position  at  the  commencement  of  the 
action.  This  stream  meanders  through  the  Tide-water  district 
of  Virginia — it*  course  approaching  that  of  the  arc  of  a  circle 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Richmond — until  it  reaches  the  lower 
end  of  Charles  City  county,  where  it  abruptly  turns  to  th 
south  and  empties  into  the  James.  A  portion  of  the  enemy's 
forces  had  crossed  to  the  south  side  of  the  Chick ahominy,  and 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  413 

were  fortified  on  the  Williarnsburg  road.  On  the  north  bank 
of  the  stream  the  enemy  was  strongly  posted  for  many  miles ; 
the  heights  on  that  side  of  the  stream  having  been  fortified 
with  great  energy  and  skill  from  Meadow  Bridge,  on  a  line 
nearly  due  north  from  the  city  to  a  point  below  Bottom's 
Bridge,  which  is  due  east.  This  line  of  the  enemy  extended 
for  about  twenty  miles. 

Eeviewing  the  situation  of  the  two  armies  at  the  commence 
ment  of  the  action,  the  advantage  was  entirely  our  own. 
McClellan  had  divided  his  army  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Chick 
ahominy,  and  operating  apparently  with  the  design  of  half  cir- 
cumvallating  Richmond,  had  spread  out  his  forces  to  an  extent 
that  impaired  the  faculty  of  concentration,  and  had  made  a 
weak  and  dangerous  extension  of  his  lines. 

On  Thursday,  the  26th  of  June,  at  three  o'clock,  Major-gen. 
Jackson — fresh  from  the  exploits  of  his  magnificent  campaign 
in  the  Yalley — took  up  his  line  of  march  from  Ashland,  and 
proceeded  down  the  country  between  the  Cliickahominy  and  Pa- 
munkey  rivers.  The  enemy  collected  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Chickahominy,  at  the  point  where  it  is  crossed  by  the  Brooke 
turnpike,  were  driven  off,  and  Brigadier-gen.  Branch,  crossing 
the  stream,  directed  his  movements  for  a  junction  with  the 
column  of  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill,  which  had  crossed  at  Meadow 
Bridge.  Gen.  Jackson  having  borne  away  from  the  Chicka 
hominy,  so  as  to  gain  ground  towards  the  Pamunkey,  marched 
to  the  left  of  Mechanicsville,  while  Gen.  Hill,  keeping  well  to 
the  Chickahominy,  approached  that  village  and  engaged  the 
enemy  there. 

With  about  fourteen  thousand  men  (Gen.  Branch  did  not 
arrive  until  nightfall)  Gen.  Hill  engaged  the  forces  of  the 
enemy,  until  night  put  an  end  to  the  contest.  While  he  did 
not  succeed,  in  that  limited  time,  in  routing  the  enemy,  his 
forces  stubbornly  maintained  the  possession  of  Mechanicsville 
and  the  ground  taken  by  them  on  the  other  side  of  the  Chick 
ahominy.  Driven  from  the  immediate  locality  of  Mechanics 
ville,  the  enemy  retreated  during  the  night  down  the  river  to 
Powhite  swarnp,  and  night  closed  the  operations  of  Thursday 


414  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


STORMING    OF   THE    KN KMT'S    INTRKNUHMENT8. 

The  road  having  been  cleared  at  Mechanicsville,  Gen.  Lorg- 
street's  corps  (Tarmee,  consisting  of  his  veteran  division  of  the 
Old  Guard  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill's 
division,  debouched  from  the  woods  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Chickahominy,  and  crossed  that  river.  Friday  morning  the 
general  advance  upon  the  enemy  began;  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill  in 
the  centre,  and  bearing  towards  Cold  Harbor,  while  Gen.  Long- 
street  and  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill  came  down  the  Chickahominy  to 
New  Bridge.  Gen.  Jackson  still  maintained  his  position  in 
advance,  far  to  the  left,  and  gradually  converging  to  the  Chick 
ahominy  again. 

The  position  of  the  enemy  was  now  a  singular  one.  One 
portion  of  his  army  was  on  the  south  side  of  the  Chickahom 
iny,  fronting  Richmond,  and  confronted  by  Gen.  Magruder. 
The  other  portion,  on  the  north  side,  had  fallen  back  to  a  new 
line  of  defences,  where  McClellan  proposed  to  make  a  decisive 
battle. 

As  soon  as  Jackson's  arrival  at  Cold  Harbor  was  announced, 
Gen.  Lee  and  Gen.  Longstreet,  accompanied  by  their  respect- 
ve  staffs,  rode  by  Games'  Mill,  and  halted  at  New  Cold  Har 
bor,  where  they  joined  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill.  Soon  the  welcome 
sound  of  Jackson's  guns  announced  that  he  was  at  work. 

The  action  was  now  to  become  general  for  the  first  time  on 
the  Richmond  lines;  and  a  collision  of  numbers  was  about  to 
take  place  eqr  al  to  any  that  had  yet  occurred  in  the  history  of 
the  war. 

From  four  o'clock  until  eight  the  battle  raged  with  a  display 
of  the  utmost  daring  and  intrepidity  on  the  part  of  the  Con 
federate  army.  The  enemy's  lines  were  finally  broken,  and  his 
strong  positions  all  carried,  and  night  covered  the  retreat  of 
McClellan's  broken  and  routed  columns  to  the  south  side  of  the 
Chickahominy. 

The  assault  of  the  enemy's  works  near  Games'  Mill  is  a 
memorable  part  of  the  engagement  of  Friday,  and  the  display 
of  fortitude,  as  well  as  quick  and  dashing  gallantry  of  our 
troops  on  that  occasion,  takes  its  place  by  the  side  of  the  most 
glorious  exploits  of  the  war.  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill  had  made  the 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  415 

first  assault  upon  the  lines  of  the  enemy's  intrenchments  near 
Games'  Mill.  A  fierce  struggle  had  ensued  between  his  di 
vision  and  the  garrison  of  the  line  of  defence.  Repeated 
charges  were  made  by  Hill's  troops,  but  the  foimidable  char 
acter  of  the  works,  and  murderous  volleys  from  the  artillery 
covering  them,  kept  our  troops  in  check.  Twenty-six  pieces 
of  artillery  were  thundering  at  them,  and  a  perfect  hailstorm 
of  lead  fell  thick  and  fast  around  them.  In  front  stood  Fed 
eral  camps,  stretching  to  the  northeast  for  miles.  Drawn  up  in 
line  of  battle  were  more  than  three  full  divisions,  commanded 
by  McCall,  Porter,  and  Sedgwick.  Banners  darkened  the  air ; 
artillery  vomited  forth  incessant  volleys  of  grape,  canister,  and 
shell ;  and  the  wing  of  death  waved  everywhere  in  the  sul 
phurous  atmosphere  of  the  battle. 

It  was-  past  four  o'clock  when  Pickett's  brigade  from  Long- 
street's  division  came  to  Hill's  support.  Pickett's  regiments 
fought  with  the  most  determined  valor.  At  last,  Whiting's 
division,  composed  of  the  "Old  Third"  and  Texan  brigades, 
advanced  at  a  double-quick,  charged  the  batteries,  and  drove 
the  enemy  from  his  strong  line  of  defence.  The  4th  Texas 
regiment  was  led  by  a  gallant  Virginian,  Col.  Bradfute  War 
wick.  As  the  regiment  was  marching  on  with  an  irresistible 
impetuosity  to  the  charge,  he  seized  a  battle-flag  which  had 
been  abandoned  by  one  of  our  regiments,  and,  bearing  it  aloft, 
he  passed  both  of  the  enemy's  breastworks  in  a  most  gallant 
style,  and  as  he  was  about  to  plant  the  colors  on  a  battery  that 
the  regiment  captured,  his  right  breast  was  pierced  by  a  Minie 
ball,  and  he  fell  mortally  wounded. 

The  works  carried  by  our  noble  troops  would  have  been  in 
vincible  to  the  bayonet,  had  they  been  garrisoned  by  men  less 
dastardly  than  the  Yankees.  All  had  been  done  on  oui  side 
with  the  bullet  and  the  bayonet.  For  four  hours  had  our  in 
ferior  force,  unaided  by  a  single  piece  of  artillery,  withstood 
over  thirty  thousand,  assisted  by  twenty-six  pieces  of  artillery. 

To  keep  the  track  of  the  battle,  which  had  swept  around 
Richmond,  we  must  have  reference  to  some  of  the  principal 
points  of  locality  in  the  enemy's  lines.  It  will  be  recollected 
that  it  was  on  Thursday  evening  when  the  attack  was  com 
menced  upon  the  enemy  near  Meadow  Bridge.  This  locality 
is  about  six  mile^  distant  from  the  city,  on  a  line  almost  due 


4-16  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

north.  This  position  was  the  enemy's  extreme  right.  His 
lines  extended  from  here  across  the  Chickahominy,  near  the 
Powhite  Creek,  two  or  three  miles  above  the  crossing  of  the 
York  Eiver  railroad.  From  Meadow  Bridge  to  this  railroad 
the  distance  along  the  Chickahominy  on  the  north  side  is  about 
ten  miles.  The  different  stages  between  the  points  indicated, 
along  which  the  enemy  were  driven,  are  Mechanicsville,  about 
a  mile  north  of  the  Chickahominy ;  further  on,  Beaver  Dam 
Creek,  emptying  into  the  Chickahominy  ;  then  the  New  Bridge 
road,  on  which  Cold  Harbor  is  located ;  and  then  Powhite 
Creek,  where  the  enemy  had  made  his  last  stand,  and  been  re 
pulsed  from  the  field. 

The  York  River  railroad  runs  in  an  easterly  direction,  inter 
secting  the  Chickahominy  about  ten  miles  from  the  city.  South 
of  the  railroad  is  the  Williamsburg  road,  connecting  with  the 
Nine  Mile  road  at  Seven  Pines.  The  former  road  connects 
with  the  New  Bridge  road,  which  turns  off  and  crosses  the 
Chickahominy.  From  Seven  Pines,  where  the  Nine  Mile  road 
joins  the  upper  one,  the  road  is  known  as  the  old  Williamsburg 
road,  and  crosses  the  Chickahominy  at  Bottom's  Bridge. 

With  the  bearing  of  these  localities  in  his  mind,  the  reader 
will  readily  understand  how  it  was  that  the  enemy  was  driven 
from  his  original  strongholds  on  the  north  side  of  the  Chicka 
hominy,  and  how,  at  the  time  of  Friday's  battle,  he  had  been 
compelled  to  surrender  the  possession  of  the  Fredericksburg 
and  Central  railroads,  and  had  been  pressed  to  a  position 
where  he  was  cut  off  from  the  principal  avenues  of  supply 
and  escape.  The  disposition  of  our  forces  was  such  as  to  cut 
off  all  communication  between  McClellan's  army  and  the 
White  House,  on  the  Pamunkey  river ;  he  had  been  driven 
completely  from  his  northern  line  of  defences;  and  it  was  sup 
posed  that  he  would  be  unable  to  extricate  himself  from  his 
position  without  a  victory  or  capitulation. 

On  Sunday  morning,  it  appears  that  our  pickets,  on  the  Nine 
Mile  road,  having  engaged  some  small  detachments  of  the  en 
emy  and  driven  them  beyond  their  fortifications,  found  them 
deserted.  In  a  short  while  it  became  known  to  our  generals 
that  McClellan,  having  massed  his  entire  force  on  this  side  of 
the  Chickahominy,  was  retreating  towards  James  river. 

The  intrenchments,  which  the   enemy  had   deserted,  were 


THE    SECOND    YEAR. 

found  to  be  formidable  and  elaborate.  That  immediately 
across  the  railroad,  at  the  six-mile  post,  which  had  been  sup 
posed  to  be  light  earthwork,  designed  to  sweep  the  railroad, 
turned  out  to  be  an  immense  embrasured  fortification,  extend' 
ing  for  hundreds  of  yards  on  either  side  of  the  track.  "Within 
this  work  were  found  great  quantities  of  fixed  ammunition, 
which  had  apparently  been  prepared  for  removal  and  then  de 
serted.  All  the  cannon,  as  at  other  intrenchments,  had  been 
carried  off.  A  dense  cloud  of  smoke  was  seen  issuing:  from  the 

C* 

woods  two  miles  in  advance  of  the  battery  and  half  a  mile  to 
the  right  of  the  railroad.  The  smoke  was  found  to  proceed 
from  a  perfect  mountain  of  the  enemy's  commissary  stores, 
consisting  of  sugar,  coffee,  and  bacon,  prepared  meats,  vege 
tables,  &c.,  which  he  had  fired.  The  fields  and  woods  around 
this  spot  were  covered  with  every  description  of  clothing  and 
camp  equipage.  ~No  indication  was  wanting  that  the  enemy 
had  left  this  encampment  in  haste  and  disorder. 

The  enemy  had  been  imperfectly  watched  at  a  conjuncture 
the  most  critical  in  the  contest,  and  through  an  omission  of  our 

'  O 

guard — the  facts  of  which  are  yet  the  subject  of  some  contro 
versy — McClellan  had  succeeded  in  massing  his  entire  force, 
and  taking  up  a  line  of  retreat,  by  which  he  hoped  to  reach 
the  cover  of  his  gunboats  on  the  James.  But  the  most  unfor 
tunate  circumstance  to  us  was,  that  since  the  enemy  had  escaped 
from  us  in  his  fortified  camp,  his  retreat  was  favored  by  a  coun 
try,  the  characteristics  of  which  are  unbroken  forests  and  wide 
swamps,  where  it  was  impossible  to  pursue  him  with  rapidity, 
and  extremely  difficult  to  reconnoitre  his  position  so  as  to  bring 
him  to  decisive  battle. 

In  an  official  report  of  the  situation  of  forces  on  the  Rich 
mond  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  Gen.  Magruder  describes  it 
as  one  of  the  gravest  peril.  He  states  that  the  larger  portion 
of  the  enemy  was  on  that  side  of  the  Chickahominy ;  that  the 
bridges  had  all  been  destroyed,  and  but  one  rebuilt — the  New 
Bridge — which  was  commanded  fully  by  the  enemy's  guns; 
and  that  there  were  but  twenty-five  thousand  men  between 
McClellan's  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  and  Richmond. 
Referring  to  a  situation  so  extremely  critical,  he  says :  "  Had 
McClellan  massed  his  whole  force  in  column,  and  advanced  it 
against  any  point  of  our  line  of  battle,  as  was  done  at  Auster- 

27 


418  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

litz  under  similar  circumstances,  by  the  greatest  captain  of  any 
age,  though  the  head  of  his  column  would  have  suffered  greatly 
its  momentum  would  have  insured  him  success,  and  the  occu 
pation  of  our  works  about  Richmond,  and,  consequently,  of  the 
city,  might  have  been  his  reward."  Taking  this  view  of  the  sit 
uation,  Gen.  Magruder  states  that  his  relief  was  great  when  it 
was  discovered  the  next  day  that  the  enemy  had  left  our  front 
and  was  continuing  to  retreat. 

The  facts,  however,  are  contrary  to  the  theory  of  Gen.  Ma 
gruder  and  to  the  self-congratulations  which  he  derives  from 
it.  Our  troops  on  the  two  sides  of  the  river  were  only  separ 
ated  until  we  succeeded  in  occupying  the  position  near  what  is 
known  as  New  Bridge,  which  occurred  before  12  o'clock  M., 
on  Friday,  June  27,  and  before  the  attack  on  the  enemy  at 
Games'  Mill.  From  the  time  we  reached  the  position  referred 
to,  our  communications  between  the  two  wings  of  our  army 
may  be  regarded  as  re-establised.  The  bridge  referred  to  and 
another  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  above  were  ordered  to 
be  repaired  before  noon  on  Friday,  and  the  new  bridge  was 
sufficiently  rebuilt  to  be  passed  by  artillery  on  Friday  night, 
and  the  one  above  it  was  used  for  the  passage  of  wagons,  am 
bulances,  and  troops  early  on  Saturday  morning.  Besides  this 
all  other  bridges  above  New  Bridge,  and  all  the  fords  above 
that  point,  were  open  to  us. 


THE    AFFAIR    AT    SAVAGE'S   STATION. 


During  Sunday,  a  portion  of  the  enemy  was  encountered 
upon  the  York  River  railroad,  near  a  place  called  Savage's  Sta 
tion,  the  troops  engaged  on  our  side  being  the  division  of  Gen. 
McLaws,  consisting  of  Generals  Kershaw  and  Semmes'  brigades, 
supported  by  Gen.  Griffith's  brigade  from  Magruder's  division. 
The  Federals  were  found  to  be  strongly  intrenched,  and  as 
soon  as  our  skirmishers  came  in  view,  they  were  opened  upon 
with  a  furious  cannonade  from  a  park  of  field-pieces.  Kem- 
per's  battery  now  went  to  the  front,  and  for  three  hours  the 
battle  raged  hotly,  when  the  discomfited  Yankees  again  re 
sumed  their  retreat.  Early  in  the  day,  on  reaching  the  re 
doubts,  Gen.  Griffiths,  of  Mississippi,  one  of  the  heroes  of  Lees- 
burg,  was  killed  by  the  fragment  of  a  shell.  He  was  the  only 


THE    SECOND    YEAE.  419 

general  officer  killed  on  our  side  during  the  whole  of  the  bloody 
week. 

In  this  encounter  with  the  enemy,  the  gallant  10th  Georgia 
regiment  suffered  severely,  engaging  the  enemy  hand  to  hand, 
and  leaving  upon  the  field  memorable  evidences  of  their  cour 
age.  The  enemy,  to  use  an  expression  of  his  prisoners,  waa 
"  mowed  down"  by  the  close  fire  of  our  adventurous  troops ; 
and  the  failure  of  the  attempt  of  McClellan  to  break  through 
our  lines  at  this  point,  left  him  to  continue  a  hopeless  retreat. 


By  daybreak  on  Monday  morning,  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy 
was  actively  resumed.  D.  H.  Hill,  Whiting,  and  Ewell,  under 
command  of  Jackson,  crossed  the  Chickahominy  by  the  Grape 
vine  bridge,  and  followed  the  enemy  on  their  track  by  the 
Williamsburg  road  and  Savage's  Station.  Longstreet,  A.  P. 
Hill,  Huger,  and  Magruder  pursued  the  enemy  by  the  Charles 
City  road,  with  the  intention  of  cutting  him  off. 

The  divisions  of  Generals  Hill  and  Longstreet  were,  during 
the  whole  of  the  day,  moving  in  the  hunt  for  the  enemy.  The 
disposition  which  was  made  of  our  forces,  brought  Gen.  Long- 
street  on  the  enemy's  front,  immediately  supported  by  Gen. 
Hill's  division,  consisting  of  six  brigades.  The  forces  com 
manded  by  Gen.  Longstreet  were  his  old  division,  consisting 
of  six  brigades. 

The  position  of  the  enemy  was  about  five  miles  northeast  of 
Darbytown,  on  the  New  Market  road.  The  immediate  scene 
of  the  battle  was  a  plain  of  sedge  pines,  in  the  cover  of  which 
the  enemy's  forces  were  skilfully  disposed — the  locality  being 
known  as  Frayser's  farm.  In  advancing  upon  the  enemy,  bat 
teries  of  sixteen  heavy  guns  were  opened  upon  the  advance 
columns  of  Gen.  Hill.  Our  troops,  pressing  heroically  for 
ward,  had  no  sooner  got  within  musket  range,  than  the  enemy, 
forming  several  lines  of  battle,  poured  upon  them  from  his 
heavy  masses  a  devouring  fire  of  musketry.  The  conflict  be 
came  terrible,  the  air  being  filled  with  missiles  of  death,  every 
moment  having  its  peculiar  sound  of  terror,  and  every  spot 
its  sight  of  ghastly  destruction  and  horror.  It  is  impossible 
that  in  any  of  the  series  of  engagements  which  had  taken  place 


420  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

within  the  past  few  days,  and  had  tracked  the  lines  of  Kieh 
inond  with  fire  and  destruction,  there  could  have  been  more 
desperate  fighting  on  the  part  of  our  troops.  Never  was  a 
more  glorious  victory  plucked  from  more  desperate  and  threat 
ening  circumstances.  While  exposed  to  the  double  fire  of  th 
enemy's  batteries  and  his  musketry,  we  were  unable  to  contend 
with  him  with  artillery.  But  although  thus  unmatched,  our 
brave  troops  pressed  on  with  unquailing  vigor  and  a  resistless 
courage,  driving  the  enemy  before  them.  This  was  accom 
plished  without  artillery,  there  being  but  one  battery  in  Gen. 
Hill's  command  on  the  spot,  and  that  belonged  to  Longstreet'a 
division,  and  could  not  be  got  into  position.  Thus  the  fight 
continued  with  an  ardor  and  devotion  .that  -few  battle-fields 
have  ever  illustrated.  Step  by  step  the  enemy  were  driven 
back,  his  guns  taken,  and  the  ground  he  abandoned  strewn 
with  his  dead.  By  half-past  eight  o'clock  we  had  taken  all 
his  cannon,  and,  continuing  to  advance,  had  driven  him  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  his  ground  of  battle. 

Our  forces  were  still  advancing  upon  the  retreating  lines  of 
the  enemy.  It  was  now  about  half-past  nine  o'clock,  and  very 
dark.  Suddenly,  as  if  it  had  burst  from  the  heavens,  a  sheet 
of  fire  enveloped  the  front  of  our  advance.  The  enemy  had 
made  another  stand  to  receive  us,  and  from  the  black  masses 
of  his  forces,  it  was  evident  that  he  had  been  heavily  rein 
forced,  and  that  another  whole  corps  cFarmee  had  been  brought 
'up  to  contest  the  fortunes  of  the  night.  Line  after  line  oi 
battle  was  formed.  It  was  evident  that  his  heaviest  columns 
were  now  being  thrown  against  our  small  command,  and  it 
might  have  been  supposed  that  he  would  only  be  satisfied  with 
its  annihilation.  The  loss  here  on  our  side  was  terrible. 

The  situation  being  evidently  hopeless  for  any  further  pur 
suit  of  the  fugitive  enemy,  who  had  now  brought  up  such  over 
whelming  forces,  our  troops  retired  slowly. 

At  this  moment,  seeing  their  adversary  retire,  the  most 
vociferous  cheers  arose  along  the  whole  Yankee  line.  They 
were  taken  up  in  the  distance  by  the  masses  which  for  miles 
and  miles  beyond  were  supporting  McClellan's  front.  It  was 
a  moment  when  the  heart  of  the  stoutest  commander  might 
have  been  appalled.  The  situation  of  our  forces  was  now  as 
desperate  as  it  well  could  be,  and  required  a  courage  and 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  4:21 

presence  of  mind  to  retrieve  it,  which  the  circumstances  which 
surrounded  them  were  not  well  calculated  to  inspire.  They 
had  fought  for  five  or  six  hours  without  reinforcements.  All 
our  reserves  had  been  brought  up  in  the  action.  Wilcox's 
brigade,  which  had  been  almost  annihilated,  was  re-forming  in 
the  rear. 

Riding  rapidly  to  the  position  of  this  brigade,  Gen.  Hill 
brought  them  by  great  exertions  up  to  the  front,  to  check  the 
advance  of  the  now  confident,  cheering  enemy.  Catching  the 
spirit  of  their  commander,  the  brave  but  jaded  men  moved  up 
to  the  front,  replying  to  the  enemy's  cheers  with  shouts  and 
yells.  At  this  demonstration,  which  the  enemy,  no  doubt,  sup 
posed  signified  heavy  reinforcements,  he  stopped  his  advance. 
It  was  now  about  half-past  ten  o'clock  in  the  night.  The 
enemy  had  been  arrested ;  and  the  fight — one  of  the  most  re 
markable,  long-contested,  and  gallant  ones  that  had  yet  occurred 
on  our  lines — was  concluded  with  the  achievement  of  a  field 
under  the  most  trying  circumstances,  which  the  enemy,  with  the 
most  overpowering  numbers  brought  up  to  reinforce  him,  had 
not  succeeded  in  reclaiming. 

Gen.  Magruder's  division  did  not  come  up  until  eleven 
o'clock  at  night,  after  the  fight  had  been  concluded.  By  orders 
from  Gen.  Lee,  Magruder  moved  upon  and  occupied  the  battle 
ground  ;  Gen.  Hill's  command  being  in  such  a  condition  of 
prostration  from  their  long  and  toilsome  fight,  and  suffering 
in  killed  and  wounded,  that  it  was  proper  they  should  be  re 
lieved  by  the  occupation  of  the  battle-ground  by  a  fresh  corps 
d'armee* 

THE  BATTLE  OF  MALVERN  HILL. 

Early  on  Tuesday  morning,  the  enemy,  from  the  position  to 
which  he  had  been  driven  the  night  before,  continued  his 
retreat  in  a  southeasterly  direction  towards  his  gunboats  in 
James  river. 

General  Magruder  was  directed  to  proceed  by  the  Quaker 
road,  and  to  form  on  the  right  of  Jackson.  On  account  of  a 
misunderstanding  as  to  which  was  the  Quaker  road,  the  wrong 
route  was  taken  by  General  Magruder ;  and  the  direction  01 
bis  movement  was  subsequently  changed,  so  as  to  place  hii 


122  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

troops  on  the  right  of  linger,  who  in  the  mean  time  had  formed 
on  the  right  of  Jackson. 

The  enemy  had  now  placed  himself  in  communication  wit! 
his  gunboats  in  the  river.  He  was  strongly  posted  on  the 
crest  of  a  bill,  commanding  an  undulating  field,  which  fell  to 
our  right  into  a  plain  or  meadow.  His  batteries  of  artillery 
were  numerous,  and  were  collected  into  two  large  bodies, 
strongly  supported  by  infantry,  and  commanded  perfectly  the 
meadow  on  our  right,  and  the  field  in  our  front,  except  the 
open  ravines  formed  by  the  undulations  of  the  ground. 

An  order  was  dispatched  by  General  Magruder  to  bring  up 
from  all  the  batteries  thirty  rifle  pieces,  if  possible,  with  which 
he  hoped  to  shatter  the  enemy's  infantry.  While  delay  was 
thus  occasioned,  he  was  ordered  to  make  the  attack.  Return 
ing  rapidly  to  the  position  occupied  by  the  main  body  of  his 
troops,  he  gave  Brigadier-general  Jones  the  necessary  orders 
for  the  advance  of  his  division.  While  this  was  being  done,  a 
heavy  and  crushing  fire  was  opened  from  the  enemy's  guns,  01 
great  range  and  metal. 

General  Armistead  having  repulsed,  driven  back,  and  fol 
lowed  up  a  heavy  body  of  the  enemy's  skirmishers,  an  order 
was  received  from  General  Lee  by  Magruder,  directing  him 
"  to  advance  rapidly,  press  forward  his  whole  line  and  follow- 
up  Armistead's  successes,  as  the  enemy  were  reported  to  be 
getting  off."  In  the  mean  time  Mahone's  and  Ransom's  bri 
gades  of  Huger's  division  having  been  ordered  up,  General 
Magruder  gave  the  order  that  Wright's  brigade,  supported  by 
Mahone's,  should  advance  and  attack  the  enemy's  batteries  on 
the  right,  and  that  Jones'  division,  expected  momentarily, 
should  advance  on  the  front,  and  Ransom's  brigade  should 
attack  on  the  left.  The  plan  of  attack  was  to  hurl  about  fifteen 
thousand  men  against  the  enemy's  batteries  and  supporting 
infantry — to  follow  up  any  successes  they  might  obtain  ;  and  if 
unable  to  drive  the  enemy  from  his  strong  position,  to  continue 
the  fight  in  front  by  pouring  in  fresh  troops ;  and  in  case  they 
were  repulsed,  to  hold  strongly  the  line  of  battle  where  we 
stood. 

At  about  5  o'clock  p.  M.,  the  order  was  given  to  our  men  to 
charge  across  the  field  and  drive  the  enemy  from  their  posi 
tion.  Gallantly  they  sprang  to  the  encounter,  rushing  into 


THE    SECOND    TEAR.  4:23 

{•lie  field  at  a  full  run.  Instantly,  from  the.  line  of  the  enemy's 
breastworks,  a  murderous  storm  of  grape  and  canister  waa 
hurled  into  their  ranks,  with  the  most  terrible  effect.  Officers 
and  men  went  down  by  hundreds ;  but  yet,  undaunted  and 
unwavering,  our  line  dashed  on,  until  two-thirds  of  the  distance 
across  the  field  was  accomplished.  Here  the  carnage  from  the 
withering  fire  of  the  enemy's  combined  artillery  and  musketry 
was  dreadful.  Our  line  wavered  a  moment,  and  fell  back  to 
the  cover  of  the  woods.  Twice  again  the  effort  to  carry  the 
position  was  renewed,  but  each  time  with  the  same  result. 

The  hill  was  bathed  with  flames.  Towards  sunset  the  earth 
quivered  with  the  terrific  concussion  of  artillery  and  huge  ex 
plosions.  Shells  raced  athwart  the  horizon,  exploding  into 
deadly  iron  hail.  The  forms  of  smoke-masked  men  ;  the  gleam 
of  muskets  on  the  plains,  where  soldiers  were  disengaged ;  the 
artistic  order  of  battle;  the  wild  career  of  wilder  horsemen 
plunging  to  and  fro  across  the  field,  formed  a  scene  of  exciting 
grandeur.  In  the  forest,  where  eyes  did  not  penetrate,  there 
was  nothing  but  the  exhilarating  and  exhausting  spasm  of 
battle. 

As  the  night  fell  the  battle  slackened.  "We  had  not  carried 
the  enemy's  pbsition,  but  we  occupied  the  field,  and  during  the 
night  posted  our  pickets  within  one  hundred  yards  of  his  guns. 
The  brigades  of  Mahone  and  Wright  slept  on  the  battle-field 
in  the  advanced  positions  they  had  won,  and  Armistead's  bri 
gade  and  a  portion  of  Ransom's  also  occupied  the  battle-field. 

The  battle  of  Tuesday,  properly  known  as  that  of  Malvern 
Hill,  was  perhaps  the  most  sanguinary  of  the  series  of  bloody 
conflicts  which  had  taken  place  on  the  lines  about  Richmond. 
Although  not  a  defeat,  it  broke  the  chain  of  our  victories.  It 
was  made  memorable  by  its  melancholy  monument  of  carnage, 
which  was  probably  greater  than  Gen.  Magruder's  estimate, 
which  states  that  our  loss  fell  short  of  three  thousand.  But  it 
had  given  the  enemy  no  advantage,  except  in  the  unfruitful 
sacrifice  of  the  lives  of  our  troops ;  and  the  line  of  his  retreat 
w^as  again  taken  up,  his  forces  toiling  towards  the  river  through 
mud,  swamp,  and  forest. 

The  skill  and  spirit  with  which  McClellan  had  managed  to 
retreat  was,  indeed,  remarkable,  and  afforded  no  mean  proofs 
of  his  generalship.  At  every  stage  of  his  retreat  he  had  con* 


424  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

fronted  onr  forces  with  a  strong  rear-guard,  and  had  encoui 
tered  us  with  well-organized  lines  of  battle,  and  regular  dispo 
sitions  of  infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery.     His  heavy  rifle 
cannon  had  been  used  against  ns  constantly  on  his  retreat.     A 
portion  of  his  forces  had  now  effected  communication  with  the 
river  at  points  below  City  Point.     The  plan  of  cutting  off  his 
communication  with  the  river,  which  was  to  have  been  executed 
by  a  movement  of  Holmes'  division  between  him  and  the  river, 
was  frustrated  by  the  severe  tire  of  the  gunboats,  and  since 
then  the  situation  of  the  enemy  appeared  to  be  that  of  a  divi 
sion  or  dispersion  of  his  forces,  one  portion  resting  on  the  river, 
and  the  other,  to  some  extent,  involved  by  our  lines. 

It  had  been  stated  to  the  public  of  Richmond,  with  greal 
precision  of  detail,  that  on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  the  28th 
of  June,  we  had  brought  the  enemy  to  bay  on  the  South  side 
of  the  Chickahominy,  and  that  it  only  remained  to  finish  him 
in  a  single  battle.  Such,  in  fact,  appeared  to  have  been  the 
situation  then.  The  next  morning,  however,  it  was  perceived 
that  our  supposed  resources  of  generalship  had  given  us  too 
much  confidence ;  that  the  enemy  had  managed  to  extricate 
himself  from  the  critical  position,  and,  having  massed  his  forces, 
had  succeeded,  under  cover  of  the  night,  in  opening  a  way  to 
the  James  river.* 

Upon  this  untoward  event,  the  operations  of  our  army  on  the 
Richmond  side  of  the  Chickahominy  were  to  follow  the  fugi 
tive  enemy  through  a  country  where  he  had  admirable  oppor 
tunities  of  concealment,  and  through  the  swamps  and  forests 


*  With  reference  to  McClellan's  escape  from  White  Oak  Swamp  to  the  river, 
letters  of  Yankee  officers,  published  in  the  Northern  journals,  stated  that  when 
McClellan,  on  Saturday  evening,  sent  his  scouts  down  the  road  to  Turkey  Island 
hridge,  he  was  astonished  and  delighted  to  find  that  our  forces  had  not  occupied 
that  road,  and  immediately  started  his  wagon  and  artillery  trains,  which  were 
quietly  passing  down  that  road  all  night  to  the  James  river,  whilst  our  forces 
were  quietly  sleeping  within  four  miles  of  the  very  road  they  should  have  occu 
pied,  and  should  have  captured  every  one  of  the  enemy's  one  thousand  wagons 
and  four  hundred  cannon.  It  is  further  stated  in  these  letters,  that  if  we  had 
blocked  up  that  only  passage  of  escape,  their  entire  army  must  have  surrendered 
or  been  starved  out  in  twenty-four  hours.  These  are  the  Yankees'  own  accounts 
of  how  much  they  were  indebted  to  blunders  on  our  part  for  the  success  ot 
McClellan's  retreat — a  kind  of  admission  not  popular  with  a  vain  and  self 
ftduljvtovy  enemy. 


THE    SECOND    YEAP  425 

of  which  he  had  retreated  with  the  most  remarkable  ju  Iginent, 
dexterity,  and  spirit  of  fortitude. 

The  glory  and  fruits  of  our  victory  may  have  been  seriously 
diminished  by  the  grave  mishap  or  fault  by  which  the  enemy 
was  permitted  to  leave  his  camp  on  the  south  side  of  the  Chick- 
ahominy,  in  an  open  country,  and  to  plunge  into  the  dense 
cover  of  wood  and  swamp,  where  the  best  portion  of  a  whole 
week  was  consumed  in  hunting  him,  and  finding  out  his  new 
position  only  in  time  to  attack  him  under  the  uncertainty  and 
disadvantage  of  the  darkness  of  night. 

But  the  successes  achieved  in  the  series  of  engagements 
which  had  already  occurred  were  not  to  be  lightly  esteemed, 
or  to  be  depreciated,  because  of  errors  which,  if  they  had  not 
occurred,  would  have  made  our  victory  more  glorious  and  more 
complete.  The  siege  of  Richmond  had  been  raised  ;  an  army 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  had  been  pushed  from 
their  strongholds  and  fortifications,  and  put  to  flight ;  we  had 
enjoyed  the  eclat  of  an  almost  daily  succession  of  victories;  we 
had  gathered  an  immense  spoil  in  stores,  provisions,  arid  ar 
tillery  ;  and  we  had  demoralized  and  dispersed,  if  we  had  not 
succeeded  in  annihilating,  an  army  which  had  every  resource 
that  could  be  summoned  to  its  assistance,  every  possible  ad 
dition  to  numbers  within  the  reach  of  the  Yankee  government, 
and  every  material  condition  of  success  to  insure  for  it  the 
great  prize  of  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  which  was  now, 
as  far  as  human  judgment  could  determine,  irretrievably  lost 
to  them,  and  secure  in  the  protection  of  a  victorious  army. 

The  Northern  papers  claimed  that  the  movements  of  Mo- 
Clellan  from  the  Chickahominy  river  were  purely  strategic, 
and  that  he  had  obtained  a  position  where  he  would  establish 
a  new  base  of  operations  against  Richmond.  Up  to  the  first 
decisive  stage  in  the  series  of  engagements — Cold  Harbor — 
there  were  certainly  plain  strategic  designs  in  his  backward 
movement.  His  retirement  from  Mechanicsville  was  probably 
voluntary,  and  intended  to  concentrate  his  troops  lowrer  down, 
where  he  might  fight  with  the  advantages  of  numbers  and  his 
own  selection  of  position.  Continuing  his  retreat,  he  fixed  the 
decisive  field  at  Cold  Harbor.  Again  having  been  pushed 
from  his  strongholds  north  of  the  Chickahominy,  the  enemj 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

made  a  strong  attempt  to  retrieve  his  disasters  by  renewing  a 
concentration  of  his  troops  at  Frayser's  farm. 

From  the  time  of  these  two  principal  battles,  all  pretensions 
of  the  enemy's  retreat  to  strategy  must  cease.  His  retreat  was 
now  unmistakable ;  it  was  no  longer  a  falling  back  to  concen 
trate  troops  for  action ;  it  is,  in  fact,  impossible  to  disguise  that 
it  was  the  retreat  of  an  enemy  who  was  discomfited  and 
whipped,  although  not  routed.  He  had  abandoned  the  rail 
roads  ;  he  had  given  up  the  strongholds  which  he  had  provided 
to  secure  him  in  case  of  a  check ;  he  had  destroyed  from  eight 
to  ten  millions  dollars'  worth  of  stores ;  he  had  deserted  his 
hospitals,  his  sick  and  wounded,  and  he  had  left  in  our  hands 
thousands  of  prisoners  and  innumerable  stragglers.  » 

Regarding  all  that  had  been  accomplished  in  these  battles ; 
the  displays  of  the  valor  and  devotion  of  our  troops ;  the  ex 
penditure  of  blood  ;  and  the  helpless  and  fugitive  condition  to 
which  the  enemy  had  at  last  been  reduced,  there  was  cause  for 
the  keenest  regrets  that  an  enemy  in  this  condition  was  per 
mitted  to  secure  his  retreat.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  in 
failing  to  cut  off  McClellan's  retreat  to  the  river,  we  failed  to 
accomplish  the  most  important  condition  for  the  completion  of 
our  victory.  But  although  the  result  of  the  conflict  had  fallen 
below  public  expectation,  it  was  sufficiently  fortunate  to  excite 
popular  joy,  and  grave  enough  to  engage  the  most  serious 
speculation  as  to  the  future. 

The  mouth  of  the  Yankee  government  was  shut  from  any 
more  promises  of  a  speedy  termination  of  the  war ;  the  powers 
of  Europe  saw  that  the  Southern  Confederacy  was  not  yet 
crushed,  or  likely  to  be  crushed,  by  its  insolent  foe ;  and  the 
people  of  the  South  had  again  challenged  the  confidence  of  the 
world  in  the  elasticity  of  their  fortunes  and  the  invincible 
destiny  of  their  independence. 

The  fortune  of  events  in  other  parts  of  the  Confederacy, 
taking  place  about  the  time  of  the  relief  of  Richmond,  or 
closely  following  it,  although  less  striking  and  dramatic,  was 
not  unpropitious.  These  events,  a  rapid  survey  of  which  takes 
us  from  the  seacoast  to,  the  Mississippi  frontier,  added  to  tho 
exultations  which  the  victories  of  the  Chiekahominy  had  occa 
sioned,  and,  although  qualified  by  some  disasters,  enlarged  and 
enlightened  the  prospects  of  the  future. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  427 

A  few  days  before  the  great  battles  had  been  joined  around 
Richmond,  a  brilliant  success  over  the  Yankees  had  been  ob 
tained  in  an  engagement  on  James  Island  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Charleston.  The  battle  of  Secessionville,  as  it  was  called, 
occurred  on  the  16th  of  June.  About  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  that  day,  the  enemy,  taking  advantage  of  the  neg 
ligence  of  our  pickets,  drove  them  in,  or  captured  them,  some 
eight  hundred  yards  in  front  of  the  battery  at  Secessionville, 
and,  advancing  rapidly  upon  this  work  in  line  of  battle,  arrived 
within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  it  before  we  could  open  upon 
him.  The  men,  however,  were  at  their  guns,  which  were  at 
once  well  and  rapidly  served,  while  the  infantry  was  moved 
promptly  into  position  under  the  orders  of  Col.  J.  G.  Lamar, 
the  heroic  commander  of  the  post.  It  was  not  long  after  get 
ting  the  infantry  into  position,  that  the  enemy  were  driven 
back  in  confusion.  They  were  soon,  however,  reinforced,  and 
made  another  desperate  charge,  when  they  were  again  driven 
back ;  a  third  time  they  came,  but  only  to  meet  with  the  most 
determined  repulse.  They  then  made  a  flank  movement  on 
our  right,  on  the  west  of  Secessionville,  where  they  were  gal 
lantly  met  by  the  Charleston  battalion,  which  was  soon  rein 
forced  by  the  Louisiana  battalion.  Three  times  had  the  heroic 
band  of  Confederates  repulsed  (often  at  the  point  of  the  bay 
onet)  a  force  thrice  their  strength,  under  the  fire  of  three  gun 
boats  and  four  land  batteries.  About  ten  o'clock  the  enemy 
retreated  in  great  confusion,  leaving  their  dead  and  wounded 
on  the  field,  a  number  lying  in  our  trenches.  The  loss  of  the 
enemy  was  at  least  four  hundred  in  killed,  wounded,  and  pris 
oner^  Their  dead  in  front  of  the  Secessionville  works  num 
bered  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight.  Our  loss  was  forty  killed, 
and  about  twice  that  number  wounded. 

In  the  situation  in  the  West  some  important  changes  had 
transpired  in  the  early  months  of  the  summer. 

The  evacuation  of  Corinth  was  determined  upon  by  Gen. 
Beauregard,  after  having  twice  offered  the  enemy  battle  outside 
of  his  intrenched  lines,  and  was  accomplished  on  the  30th  of 
May.  The  transparent  object  of  the  Yankee  commander  was 
to  cut  off  our  resources,  by  destroying  the  Mobile  and  Ohio 
and  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroads.  This  was  substantially 
foiled  by  the  evacuation  and  withdrawal  of  our  forces  along 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB, 

the  line  of  the  former  road.  Remaining  in  rear  of  the  Tus 
cumbia  and  its  affluents,  some  six  miles  from  Corinth,  iong 
enough  to  collect  stragglers,  Gen.  Beauregard  resumed  his 
march,  concentrating  his  main  forces  at  Baldwin.  On  June 
7th  he  left  Baldwin,  it  offering  no  advantages  of  a  defensive 
character,  and  assembled  the  main  body  of  his  forces  at  Tupelo. 

On  the  morning  of  the  evacuation  of  Corinth,  our  effective 
force  did  not  exceed  forty-seven  thousand  men  of  all  arms ; 
that  of  the  enemy,  obtained  from  the  best  sources  of  informa 
tion,  could  not  have  been  less  than  ninety  thousand  men  of  all 
arms.  The  story  of  the  evacuation  was  flourished  by  the 
Yankees  as  a  great  success  on  their  bide,  and  coupled  with  an 
audacious  falsehood  reported  by  Gen.  Pope  to  Gen.  Halleck, 
then  in  command  of  the  enemy's  forces  in  the  West,  to  the 
effect  that  he  had  taken  ten  thousand  prisoners  and  fifteen 
thousand  stand  of  arms.  The  facts  are,  that  the  retreat  was 
conducted  with  great  order  and  precision ;  and  that,  despite 
the  boasts  of  the  North  to  the  contrary,  we  lost  no  more  pris 
oners  than  the  enemy  did  himself,  and  abandoned  to  him  in 
stores  not  more  than  would  amount  to  one  day's  expense  of 
our  army. 

The  capture  of  Memphis  was  another  step  towards  the  reali 
zation  of  the  enemy's  great  object  of  opening  the  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi,  which  was  persistently  demanded  by  the 
Northwestern  States,  as  the  price  of  their  contributions  to  the 
war,  and  their  support  of  the  administration  at  Washington.* 
This  city  had  been  formally  surrendered  to  the  Yankees  after 
a  naval  engagement  in  front  of  it  on  the  6th  of  June,  in  which 
our  loss  was  eighty  killed  and  wounded  and  seventy-five  taken 
prisoners,  and  four  gunboats  sunk. 


*  The  Board  of  Trade  of  St.  Louis  published  a  paper  on  this  subject,  which 
assumed  the  ground  that  the  object  of  the  Confederacy  was  to  hold  the  entire 
and  exclusive  control  of  the  Mississippi.  It  went  into  detail  to  show  how  great 
a  loss  the  present  obstruction  of  that  highway  was  to  the  "loyal"  Western 
States.  It  was  the  natural  outlet  to  the  produce  of  the  Upper  Valley.  During 
the  year  1860,  the  shipments  from  Cairo  and  points  above  the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries,  by  way  of  the  lower  Mississippi,  amounted  to  a  million  of  tons,  <» 
which  400,000  went  from  St.  Louis.  It  averred  that  the  difference  in  cost  o 
IVeighD  by  the  river  and  the  railroad  was  ten  dollars  a  ton  ;  also,  that  this,  with 
the  return  freight,  would  amount  to  a  total  of  $15,000,000  tax  on  the  Western 
people  by  reason  of  the  closing  of  the  river. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  429 

The  occupation  of  Memphis  by  the  enemy  was  a  serious  dis 
aster  to  the  South,  although  it  did  not  open  the  Mississippi 
tor  it  gave  him  extraordinary  facilities  for  almost  daily  rein 
forcements  of  men  and  supplies,  and  for  the  preparation  01 
expeditions  to  penetrate  to  the  heart  of  the  Confederacy. 

But  the  enemy  received  a  check  on  the  Mississippi  where 
lie  had  least  expected  it.  On  the  24th  of  June,  his  combined 
fleet  retired,  and  abandoned  the  siege  of  Yicksburg,  without 
accomplishing  any  thing,  after  a  siege  of  six  weeks.  No  injury 
was  sustained  by  any  of  the  batteries  at  Yicksburg.  The 
number  of  shells  thrown  into  the  city  and  at  the  batteries 
amounted  to  25,000.  The  casualties  in  the  city  were  one 
woman  and  one  negro  man  killed,  and  among  the  soldiers  on 
guard  and  at  the  batteries  there  were  twenty-two  killed  and 
wounded.  The  lower  bombarding  fleet,  under  command  of 
Corns.  Farragut  and  Porter,  consisted  of  18  gun  and  mortar 
boats,  5  sloops-of-war  and  TO  transports ;  the  upper  fleet  con 
sisted  of  11  gunboats  and  rams,  and  13  transports,  under 
command  of  Com.  Davis. 

The  people  of  the  South  found  in  the  defence  of  Yicksburg 
a  splendid  lesson  of  magnanimity  and  disinterested  patriotism. 
For  several  weeks  the  city  had  resisted  successfully  the  attack 
of  the  enemy's  gunboats,  mortar  fleets,  and  heavy  siege  guns. 
She  was  threatened  by  powerful  fleets  above  and  below,  and 
yet,  with  unexampled  spirit,  the  Queen  City  of  the  Bluffs  sus 
tained  the  iron  storm  that  was  rained  upon  her  for  weeks  with 
continued  fury. 

New  Orleans,  Baton  Rouge,  Natchez,  and  Memphis  were  in 
the  hands  of  the  Yankees,  and  their  possession  by  the  enemy 
might  have  furnished  to  Yicksburg,  jin  its  exposed  and  des 
perate  situation,  the  usual  excuses  of  timidity  and  selfishness 
for  its  surrender.  But  the  brave  city  resisted  these  vile  and 
unmanly  excuses,  and  gave  to  the  world  one  of  the  proudest 
and  most  brilliant  illustrations  of  the  earnestness  and  devotion 
of  the  people  of  the  South  that  had  yet  adorned  the  war. 

The  fact  that  but  little  hopes  could  be  entertained  of  the 
eventual  success  of  the  defence  of  Yicksburg  against  the 
powerful  concentration  of  the  enemy's  navy  heightened  the 
nobility  of  the  resistance  she  made.  The  resistance  of  the  enemy 
iii  circumstances  which  afford  but  a  feeble  and  uncertain  pros- 


430  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

pect  of  victory  requires  a  great  spirit ;  but  it  is  more  in  volu 
ble  to  us  than  a  hundred  easy  victories ;  it  teaches  the  enemy 
that  we  are  invincible  and  overcomes  him  with  despair ;  it 
exhibits  to  the  world  the  inspirations  and  moral  grandeur 
of  our  cause ;  and  it  educates  our  people  in  chivalry  and 
warlike  virtues  by  the  force  of  illustrious  examples  of  self- 
devotion. 

But  the  people  of  the  South  had  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing 
an  unexpected  issue  of  victory  in  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  and 
had  occasion  to  learn  another  lesson  that  the  history  of  all 
wars  indicates,  that  the  practical  test  of  resistance  affords 
the  only  sure  determination  whether  a  place  is  defensible 
or  not.  With  a  feeling  of  inexpressible  pride  did  Yicksburg 
behold  two  immense  fleets,  each  of  which  had  been  heretofore 
invincible,  brought  to  bay,  and  unable  to  cope  with  her,  kept 
at  a  respectful  distance,  and  compelled  to  essay  the  extraordi 
nary  task  of  digging  a  new  channel  for  the  Mississippi. 

In  the  month  of  July  occurred  the  remarkable  expedition  of 
the  celebrated  John  Morgan  into  Kentucky.  The  expedition 
of  this  cavalier  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant,  rapid,  and  suc 
cessful  raids  recorded  in  history.  Composed  of  a  force  less 
than  one  thousand,  consisting  of  Morgan's  own  regiment,  with 
some  partizan  rangers  from  Georgia,  and  a  Texas  squadron,  to 
which  was  attached  two  companies  of  Tennessee  cavalry,  it 
penetrated  as  far  as  Cynthianna.  It  was  Morgan's  intention 
to  make  a  stand  at  Richmond,  Kentucky,  to  await  reinforce 
ments,  as  he  was  persuaded  that  nearly  the  whole  people  of 
that  State  was  ready  to  rise  and  join  him;  but  finding  that 
the  enemy  were  endeavoring  to  envelope  him  with  large  bodies 
of  cavalry,  he  was  compelled  to  fall  back.  On  reaching  Som 
erset,  he  took  possession  of  the  telegraph,  and  very  coolly 
countermanded  all  the  previous  orders  that  had  been  given  by 
Gen.  Boyle  at  Louisville  to  pursue  him. 

He  had  left  Knoxville  on  the  fourth  day  of  July  with  nine 
hundred  men,  and  returned  to  Lexington  on  the  28th  with 
nearly  twelve  hundred.  In  twenty-four  days  he  had  pene 
trated  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  into  a  country  in  full  pos 
session  of  the  Yankees ;  captured  seventeen  towns ;  met,  fought 
and  captured  a  Yankee  force  superior  to  his  own  in  numbers 
captured  three  thousand  stand  of  arms  at  Lebanon ;  and,  from 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  431 

Jrst  to  last,  destroyed  during  his  raid  military  stores,  railroad 
bridges,  and  other  property  to  the  value  of  eight  or  ten  millions 
of  dollars.  He  accomplished  all  this,  besides  putting  the 
people  of  Cincinnati  into  a  condition,  described  by  one  of  their 
newspapers,  as  "  bordering  on  frenzy,"  and  returned  to  Ten 
nessee  with  a  loss  in  all  his  engagements  of  not  more  than 
ninety  men  in  killed,  wounded  and  missing. 

While  some  activity  was  shown  in  extreme  portions  of  the 
West,  we  shall  see  that  our  military  operations  from  Green- 
brier  county,  Virginia,  all  the  way  down  to  Chattanooga, 
Tennessee,  were  conducted  with  but  little  vigor.  On  the 
boundaries  of  East  Tennessee,  Southwestern  Virginia  and 
Kentucky,  we  had  a  force  in  the  aggregate  of  thirty  thousand 
men,  confronted  by  probably  not  half  their  number  of  Yankee 
troops ;  yet  the  Southwestern  counties  of  Virginia  and  the 
valley  of  the  Clinch,  in  Tennessee,  were  entered  and  merci 
lessly  plundered  by  the  enemy  in  the  face  of  our  troops. 

But  we  shall  have  occasion  to  notice  the  campaign  in  tho 
West  on  a  broader  arena.  We  shall  see  how  movements  in 
this  direction  pressed  back  the  discouraged  and  retreating  foe. 
We  shall  see  how  these  movements  of  the  Confederates  were 
intended  to  repossess  the  country  previously  occupied  by  them 
and  to  go  forward  to  the  redemption  of  the  State  of  Kentucky, 
and  the  attack  of  one  or  more  of  the  leading  cities  of  the  West ; 
how,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  plan,  North  Alabama  and  Mis 
sissippi  were  speedily  cleared  of  the  footsteps  of  the  foe  ;  how 
all  of  Tennessee,  save  the  strongholds  of  Memphis  and  Nash 
ville,  and  the  narrow  districts  commanded  by  them,  were 
retrieved,  and,  by  converging  armies,  nearly  the  whole  of  Ken 
tucky  was  occupied  and  held — and  how,  at  last,  all  these 
achievements  were  reversed  in  a  night's  time,  and  the  most 
valuable  and  critical  points  abandoned  by  our  troops,  or  rather 
by  the  will  of  the  unfortunate  general  who  led  them. 

But  our  narrative  does  not  yet  open  on  the  chequered  page 
of  the  West.  That  important  part  of  our  history  is  prefaced 
by  the  brilliant  story  of  the  summer  campaign  of  the  upper 
Potomac,  and  is  relieved  by  dazzling  lights  of  glory  on  the  old 
I  at  tie-grounds  of  Virginia. 


132  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  XYI. 

Effort  of  McClellan's  Defeat  in  the  North.—  Call  for  more  Troops.—  Wliy  the  Ncrth 
was  not  easily  dispirited.  —  The  War  as  a  Money  Job.  —  Note:  Gen.  Washirgton's 
Opinion  of  New  England.—  The  Yankee  Finances.—  Exasperation  of  Hostilities.—  The 
fankee  Idea  of  a  "  Vigorous  Prosecution  of  the  War."  —  Ascendancy  of  the  Radicals. 
—War  Measures  at  Washington.  —  Anti-Slavery  Aspects  of  the  War.  —  Brutality  of  the 
Yankees.  —  The  Insensibility  of  Europe.  —  Yankee  Chaplains  in  Virginia.  —  Seizures  of 
Private  Property.—  Pope's  Orders  in  Virginia.—  Steiuwehrs  Order  respecting  Host 
ages.—  The  Character  and  Services  of  Gen.  John  Pope.—  The  "  Army  of  Virginia."— 
irruptjon  of  the  Northern  Spoilsmen.—  The  Yankee  Trade  in  Counterfeit  Confederate 
Notes.  —  Pope's  "  Chasing  the  Rebel  Hordes."  —  Movement  against  Pope  by  "Stone 
wall"  Jackson.  —  BATTLE  OF  CEDAR  MOUNTAIN.  —  McClellan  recalled  from  the  Penin 
nula.—  The  Third  Grand  Army  of  the  North.—  Jackson's  Surprise  of  the  Enemy  al 
Manassas.  —  A  Rapid  and  Masterly  Movement.  —  Change  of  the  Situation.  —  Attack  by 
•she  Enemy  upon  Bristow  Station  and  at  Manassas  Junction.  —  Marshalling  of  the 
Hosts.—  Longstreet's  Passage  of  Thoroughfare  Gap.—  The  Plans  of  Gen.  Lee.—  Spirit 
Df  our  Troops.  —  Their  Painful  Marches.  —  THE  SKCOXD  BATTLE  OF  MANASSAS.—  A  ter 
rible  Bayonet  Charge.  —  Rout  of  the  Enemy.  —  A  hideous  Battle-field.  —  Gen.  Lee  and 
he  Summer  Campaign  of  Virginia.  —  Jackson's  Share  in  it.  —  Extent  of  the  Groat 
.'ictory  of  Manassas.  —  Excitement  in  Washington.  —  The  Yankee  Army  falls  back 
upon  Alexandria  and  Washington.  —  Review  of  the  Situation.  —  Rapid  Change  in  our 
Military  Fortunes.  —  What  the  South  had  accomplished.  —  Comparison  of  Material 
Strength  between  North  and  South.  —  Humiliating  Result  to  the  Warlike  Reputation 
of  the  North. 


E  effect  of  the  defeat  of  McClellan  before  Eichmond  was 
received  at  the  North  with  ill-concealed  mortification  and  anx 
iety.  Beneath  the  bluster  of  the  newspapers,  and  the  affecta 
tions  of  public  confidence,  disappointment,  embarrassment  and 
alarm  were  perceptible.  The  people  of  the  North  had  been  so 
assured  of  the  capture  (^f  Richmond,  that  it  was  difficult  to  re 
animate  them  on  the  heels  of  McClellan's  retreat.  The  pros 
pects  held  out  to  them  so  long,  of  ending  the  war  in  "  sixty- 
days,"  "crushing  out  the  rebellion,"  and  eating  victorious  din 
ners  in  Richmond,  had  been  bitterly  disappointed  and  were 
not  to  be  easily  renewed.  The  government  at  Washington 
allowed  its  appreciation  of  the  disaster  its  arms  had  sustained  by 
"making  a  call  for  three  hundred  thousand  additional  troops  ;* 

°  The  Army  Register,  published  at  Washington,  in  its  statement  of  the  organ 
ization  of  the  regular  army,  enumerates  as  its  force  six  regiments  of  cavalry,  five 
of  artillery,  ten  of  infantry  (old  army),  and  nine  of  infantry  (new  army). 


THE    SECOND    YEAR. 

and  the  people  of  the  North  were  urged  by  every  variety  of 
appeal,  including  large  bounties  of  money,  to  respond  to  the 
stirring  call  of  President  Lincoln. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  North  was  seriously  discour 
aged  by  the  events  that  had  taken  place  before  Richmond. 
But  it  was  a  remarkable  circumstance,  uniformly  illustrated  in 
the  war,  that  the  North,  though  easily  intoxicated  by  triumph, 
was  not  in  the  same  proportion  depressed  by  defeat.  There  is 
an  obvious  explanation  for  this  peculiarity  of  temper.  Aa 
long  as  the  North  was  conducting  the  war  upon  the  soil  of  the 
South,  a  defeat  there  involved  more  money  expenditure  and 
more  calls  for  troops ;  it  involved  scarcely  any  thing  else ;  it 
had  no  other  horrors,  it  did  not  imperil  their  homes  ;  it  might 
easily  be  repaired  by  time.  Indeed,  there  was  some  sense  in 
the  exhortation  of  some  of  the  Northern  orators,  to  the  effect 
that  defeat  made  their  people  stronger  than  ever,  because, 
while  it  required  them  to  put  forth  their  energies  anew,  it  en 
abled  them  to  take  advantage  of  experience,  to  multiply  their 
means  of  success,  and  to  essay  new  plans  of  campaign.  No 
one  can  doubt  but  that  the  celebrated  Manassas  defeat  really 
strengthened  the  North ;  and  doubtless  the  South  would  have 
realized  the  same  consequence  of  the  second  repulse  of  the  ene 
my's  movements  on  Richmond,  if  it  had  been  attended  by  the 
same  conditions  on  our  part  of  inaction  and  repose. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  how  completely  the  ordinary  aspects 
of  war  were  changed  and  its  horrors  diminished,  with  refer 
ence  to  the  North,  by  the  false  policy  of  the  South,  in  keeping 

The  strength  of  this  branch  of  the  service  in  men,  may  be  thus  stated : 

Total  commissioned  officers, 2,388 

Total  enlisted, 40,626 

Aggregate,        43,014 

The  figures  which  are  collected  below,  to  show  the  organization  of  the  volunteer 
army  of  the  North,  refer  to  the  date  of  the  Register,  August  1,  1862. 

It  appears  that  at  this  date  there  were  in  the  volunteer  army  of  the  North 
geventy  regiments  of  cavalry,  seventy  of  artillery,  and  eight  hundred  and  sixty 
regiments  of  infantry. 
These  startling  official  figures  give  the  following  result  • 

Total  commissioned  officers, 39,922 

Total  rank  and  file, 1,052,480 

Aggregate,     1,092,402 


434  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  theatre  of  active  hostilities  within  her  own  borders.  Defea 
did  not  dispirit  the  North,  because  it  was  not  brought  to  hei 
doors.  Where  it  did  not  immediately  imperil  the  safety  01 
the  country  and  homes  of  the  Yankees,  where  it  gave  time  for 
the  recovery  and  reorganization  of  the  attacking  party,  and 
where  it  required  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  nothing  but 
more  money  jobs  in  Congress  and  a  new  raking  up  of  the  scum 
of  the  cities,  the  effects  of  defeat  upon  the  North  might  well 
be  calculated  to  be  the  exasperation  of  its  passions,  the  inflam 
mation  of  its  cupidity,  and  the  multiplication  of  its  exertions 
to  break  and  overcome  the  misapplied  power  of  our  armies. 

Indeed,  the  realization  of  the  war  in  the  North  was,  in  many 
respects,  nothing  more  than  that  of  an  immense  money  job. 
The  large  money  expenditure  at  Washington  supplied  a  vast 
fund  of  corruption ;  it  enriched  the  commercial  centres  of  the 
North,  and  by  artificial  stimulation  preserved  such  cities  as 
New  York  from  decay ;  it  interested  vast  numbers  of  politi 
cians,  contractors,  and  dissolute  public  men  in  continuing  the 
war  and  enlarging  the  scale  of  its^  operations ;  and,  indeed,  the 
disposition  to  make  money  out  of  the  war  accounts  for  much 
of  that  zeal  in  the  North,  which  was  mistaken  for  political 
ardor  or  the  temper  of  patriotic  devotion.* 

*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  an  unpublished  letter  from  Gen.  Washing 
ton  to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  and,  as  an  exposition  of  the  character  of  the  Northern 
people  from  a  pen  sacred  to  posterity,  is  deeply  interesting.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  authenticity  of  the  letter.  It  has  been  preserved  in  the  Lee  family, 
who,  though  applied  to  by  Bancroft,  Irving,  and  others  for  a  copy  for  publica 
tion,  have  hitherto  refused  it,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  improper  to  give 
to  the  world  a  private  letter  from  the  Father  of  his  Country  reflecting  upon  any 
portion  of  it  while  the  Union  endured.  But  now,  that  "these  people"  have 
trampled  the  Constitution  under  foot,  destroyed  the  government  of  our  fathers, 
and  invaded  and  desolated  Washington's  own  county  in  Virginia,  there  can  be 
no  impropriety  in  showing  his  private  opinion  of  the  Massachusetts  Yankees  : 

[Copy.] 

CAMP  AT  CAMBRIDGE,  Aug.  29,  1775. 
Dear  Sir:    *     *    * 

As  we  have  now  nearly  completed  our  lines  of  defence,  we  have  nothing 
more,  in  my  opinion,  to  fear  from  the  enemy,  provided  we  can  keep  our  men 
to  their  duty,  and  make  them  watchful  and  vigilant ;  but  it  is  among  the  most 
difficult  tasks  I  ever  undertook  in  my  life,  to  induce  these  people  to  believe  tha 
there  is  or  can  be  danger,  till  the  bayonet  is  pushed  at  their  breasts  ;  not  that  it 
proceeds  from  any  uncommon  prowess,  but  rather  from  an  unaccountable  kind 
«f  stupidity  in  the  lower  class  of  these  people,  which,  believe  me,  prevails  but 


THE    SECOND    TEAK.  435 

But  while  politicians  plundered  the  government  at  Washing 
ton,  and  contractors  grew  rich  in  a  single  day,  and  a  fictitious 
prosperity  dazzled  the  eyes  of  the  observer  in  the  cities  of  the 
North,  the  public  finances  of  the  Yankee  government  had  long 
ago  become  desperate.  It  is  interesting  at  this  point  to  make 
a  brief  summary  of  the  financial  condition  of  the  North  by 

too  generally  among  the  officers  of  the  Massachusetts  part  of  the  army,  who  are 
nearly  of  the  same  kidney  with  the  private,  and  adds  not  a  little  to  my  difficul 
ties,  as  there  is  no  such  thing  as  getting  officers  of  this  stamp  to  exert  them 
selves  in  carrying  orders  into  execution.  To  curry  favor  with  the  men  (by  whom 
they  were  chosen,  and  on  whose  smiles  possibly  they  may  think  they  may  again 
rely)  seems  to  be  one  of  the  principal  objects  of  their  attention.  I  submit  itf 
therefore,  to  your  consideration,  whether  there  is,  or  is  not,  a  propriety  in  that 
resolution  of  the  Congress  which  leaves  the  ultimate  appointment  of  all  officers 
below  the  rank  of  general  to  the  governments  where  the  regiments  originated, 
now  the  army  is  become  Continental  ?  To  me  it  appears  improper  in  two  points 
of  view — first,  it  is  giving  that  power  and  weight  to  an  individual  colony  which 
ought  of  right  to  belong  to  the  whole^  Then  it  damps  the  spirit  and  ardor  of 
volunteers  from  all  but  the  four  New  England  governments,  as  none  but  their 
people  have  the  least  chance  of  getting  into  office.  Would  it  not  be  better, 
therefore,  to  have  the  warrants,  which  the  Commander-in-chief  is  authorized  to 
give  pro  tempore,  approved  or  disapproved  by  the  Continental  Congress,  or  a  com 
mittee  of  their  body,  which  I  should  suppose  in  any  long  recess  must  always  sit  ? 
In  this  case,  every  gentleman  will  stand  an  equal  chance  of  being  promoted, 
according  to  his  merit ;  in  the  other,  all  offices  will  be  confined  to  the  inhabit 
ants  of  the  four  New  England  governments,  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  impolitic 
to  a  degree.  I  have  made  a  pretty  good  slam  among  such  kind  of  officers  as  the 
Massachusetts  government  abounds  in  since  I  came  to  this  camp,  having  broken 
one  colonel  arid  two  captains  for  cowardly  behavior  in  the  action  on  Bunker's 
Hill,  two  captains  for  drawing  more  provisions  and  pay  than  they  had  men  in 
their  company,  and  one  for  being  absent  from  his  post  when  the  enemy  appeared 
there  and  burnt  a  house  just  by  it.  Besides  these,  I  have  at  this  time  one  colo 
nel,  one  major,  one  captain,  and  two  subalterns  under  arrest  for  trial.  In  short, 
I  spare  none,  and  yet  fear  it  will  not  all  do,  as  these  people  seem  to  be  too  inat 
tentive  to  every  thing  but  their  interest. 

********.* 

There  have  been  so  many  great  and  capital  errors  and  abuses  to  rectify — sc 
many  examples  to  make,  and  so  little  inclination  in  the  officers  of  inferior  rank 
to  contribute  their  aid  to  accomplish  this  work,  that  my  life  has  been  nothing 
else  (since  I  came  here)  but  one  continual  round  of  vexation  and  fatigue.  In 
short,  no  pecuniary  recompense  could  induce  me  to  undergo  what  I  have  ;  espe 
cially,  as  1  expect,  by  showing  so  little  countenance  to  irregularities  and  public 
abuses  as  to  render  myself  very  obnoxious  to  a  great  part  of  these  people.  But 
as  I  have  already  greatly  exceeded  the  bounds  of  a  letter,  I  will  not  trouble  you 
with  matters  relative  to  my  own  feelings. 

Your  affectionate  friend  and  obedient  servant, 

(Signed)  GEO.  WASHINGTON 

Richard  Henry  Lee,  Es%. 


436  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

a  comparison  of  its  public  debt  with  the  assets  of  the  govern 
merit. 

The  debt  of  the  present  United  States,  audited  and  float 
ing,  calculated  from  data  up  to  June  30,  1862,  was  at  leas' 
$1,300,000,000.  The  daily  expenses,  as  admitted  by  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  "Ways  and  Means,  was  between 
three  and  four  millions  of  dollars ;  the  debt,  in  one  year  from 
this  time,  could  not  be  less  than  two  thousand  five  hundred 
millions  of  dollars. 

Under  the  census  of  1860,  all  the  property  of  every  kind 
in  all  the  States  was  estimated  at  less  than  $12,500,000,000. 
Since  the  war  commenced,  the  depreciation  has  been  at  leasl 
one-fourth  —  $3,175,000,000.  From  $9,375,000,000  deducl 
the  property  in  the  seceded  States,  at  least  one-third  — 
$3,125,000,000 ;  — leaving,  in  the  present  United  States, 
$6,250,000,000. 

It  will  thus  be  seen,  that  the  present  debt  of  the  North  was 
one-fifth  of  all  the  property  of  every  kind  it  possesses  ;  and  in 
one  year  more  it  would  probably  be  more  than  one-third.  No 
people  on  earth  had  ever  been  plunged  in  so  large  a  debt  in 
so  short  a  time.  No  government  in  existence  had  so  large  a 
debt  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  property  held  by  its 
people. 

In  continuing  the  narrative  of  the  campaign  in  Virginia,  we 
shall  have  to  observe  the  remarkable  exasperation  with  which 
the  North  re-entered  upon  this  campaign,  and  to  notice  many 
deeds  of  blackness  which  illustrated  the  temper  in  which  she 
determined  to  prosecute  the  desperate  fortunes  of  the  war. 
The  military  authorities  of  the  North  seemed  to  suppose  that 
better  success  would  attend  a  savage  war,  in  which  no  quarter 
was  to  be  given  and  no  age  or  sex  spared,  than  had  hitherto 
been  secured  to  such  hostilities  as  are  alone  recognized  to  be 
lawful  by  civilized  men  in  modern  times.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  comment  at  length  upon  this  fallacy.  Brutality  in  war  was 
mistaken  for  vigor.  War  is  not  emasculated  by  the  observ 
ances  of  civilization  ;  its  vigor  and  success  consist  in  the 
resources  of  generalship,  the  courage  of  troops,  the  moral 
ardors  of  its  cause.  To  attempt  to  make  up  for  deficiency 
in  these  great  and  noble  elements  of  strength  by  mere  brutal 
eeverities — such  as  pillage,  assassination,  &c. — is  absurd  ;  it 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  431 

reduces  the  idea  of  war  to  the  standard  of  the  brigand ;  it 
^ffends  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  world,  and  it  excites  its 
^nemy  to  the  last  stretch  of  determined  and  desperate  exertion 

There  had  4ong  been  a  party  in  the  North  who  mistook  bru 
tality  in  war  for  vigor,  and  clamored  for  a  policy  which  was 
to  increase  the  horrors  of  hostilities  by  arming  the  slaves,  and 
making  the  invaded  country  of  the  South  the  prey  of  white 
brigands  and  "  loyal"  negroes.  This  party  was  now  in  the 
ascendency.  It  had  already  obtained  important  concessions 
from  the  Washington  government.  Nine-tenths  of  the  legis 
lation  of  the  Yankee  Congress  had  been  occupied  in  some  form 
or  other  with  the  question  of  slavery.  Universal  emancipation 
in  the  South,  and  the  utter  overthrow  of  all  property,  was  now 
the  declared  policy  of  the  desperate  and  demented  leaders  of 
the  war.  The  Confiscation  Bill,  enacted  at  the  close  of  the 
session  of  Congress,  confiscated  all  the  slaves  belonging  to 
those  who  were  loyal  to  the  South,  constituting  nine- tenths  at 
least  of  the  slaves  in  the  Confederate  States.  In  the  Border 
States  occupied  by  the  North,  slavery  was  plainly  doomed 
under  a  plan  of  emancipation  proposed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  with 
the  flimsy  and  ridiculous  pretence  of  compensation  to  slave 
holders.* 

These  concessions  to  the  radical  party  in  the  North  excited 
new  demands.  The  rule  which  was  urged  upon  the  govern 
ment,  and  which  the  government  hastened  to  accept,  was  to 

*  According  to  the  census  of  1860 — 

Kentucky  had 225,490  slaves. 

Maryland 87,188  " 

Virginia 490,887  " 

Delaware 1,798  " 

Missouri 114,965  " 

Tennessee 275,784  " 

Making  in  the  whole 1,196,112      " 

At  the  proposed  rate  of  valuation,  these  would  amount  to $358,833.660 

Add  for  deportation  and  colonization  $100  each 119,244,533 

And  we  have  the  enormous  sum  of * $478,078,133 

It  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  a  proposition  could  be  made  in  good  faith,  of 
that  in  any  event  the  proposition  could  be  otherwise  than  worthless,  to  add  th» 
ra3t  amount  to  the  public  debt  of  the  North  at  a  moment  when  the  treasury  war 
reeling  under  the  enormous  expenditures  of  the  war. 


4-38  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

spare  DO  means,  however  brutal,  to  contest  the  fortunes  of  the 
war,  and  to  adopt  every  invention  of  torture  for  its  enemy. 
The  slaves  were  to  be  armed  and  carried  in  battalions  against 
their  masters.  The  invaded  country  of  the  South  was  to  be 
pillaged,  wasted,  and  burnt ;  the  Northern  troops,  like  hungry 
locusts,  were  to  destroy  every  thing  green  ;  the  people  in  the 
invaded  districts  were  to  be  laid  under  contributions,  compelled 
to  do  the  work  of  slaves,  kept  in  constant  terror  of  their  lives, 
and  fire,  famine,  and  slaughter  were  to  be  the  portion  of  the 
conquered. 

Before  the  eyes  of  Europe  the  mask  of  civilization  had  been 
taken  from  the  Yankee  war ;  it  degenerated  into  unbridled 
butchery  and  robbery.  But  the  nations  of  Europe,  which 
boasted  themselves  as  humane  and  civilized,  had  yet  no  inter 
ference  to  offer  in  a  war  which  shocked  the  senses  and  appealed 
to  the  common  offices  of  humanity.  It  is  to  be  observed,  that 
during  the  entire  continuance  of  the  war  up  to  this  time,  th« 
British  government  had  acted  with  reference  to  it  in  a  spirit 
of  selfish  and  inhuman  calculation ;  and  there  is,  indeed,  but 
little  doubt  that  an  early  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by 
France  was  thwarted  by  the  interference  of  that  cold  and 
sinister  government,  that  ever  pursues  its  ends  by  indirection, 
and  perfects  its  hypocrisy  under  the  specious  cloak  of  extreme 
conscientiousness.  ISTo  greater  delusion  could  have  possessed 
the  people  of  the  South  than  that  the  government  of  England 
was  friendly  to  them.  That  government,  which  prided  itself 
on  its  cold  and  ingenious  selfishness,  seemed  to  have  discovered 
a  much  larger  source  of  profit  in  the  continuation  of  the  Amer 
ican  war  than  it  could  possibly  derive  from  a  pacification  of 
the  contest.  It  was  willing  to  see  its  operatives  starving  and 
to  endure  the  distress  of  a  "  cotton  famine,"  that  it  might  have 
the  ultimate  satisfaction,  which  it  anticipated,  of  seeing  both 
parties  in  the  American  war  brought  to  the  point  of  exhaus 
tion,  and  its  own  greatness  enlarged  on  the  ruins  of  a  hated 
commercial  rival.  The  calculation  was  far-reaching ;  it  was 
characteristic  of  a  government  that  secretly  laughed  at  all  sen 
timent,  made  an  exact  science  of  selfishness,  and  scorned  the 
weakness  that  would  sacrifice  for  any  present  good  the  larger 
fruits  of  the  future. 

This  malevolent  and  venomous  spirit  of  anti-slavery  in  the 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  439 

war  pervaded  the  whole  of  Northern  society.  It  was  not  only 
the  utterance  of  such  mobs  as,  in  New  York  city,  adopted  as 
their  war-cry  against  the  South,  "  kill  all  the  inhabitants  /' 
it  found  expression  in  the  political  measures,  military  orders 
and  laws  of  the  government ;  it  invaded  polite  society,  and 
was  taught  not  only  as  an  element  of  patriotism,  but  as  a  vir 
tue  of  religion.  The  characteristic  religion  of  New  England, 
composed  of  about  equal  quantities  of  blasphemy  and  balder 
dash,  went  hand  in  hand  with  the  war.  Some  of  these  pious 
demonstrations  were  curious,  and  bring  to  remembrance  the 
fanaticism  and  rhapsodies  of  the  old  Puritans.* 

The  Yankee  army  chaplains  in  Virginia  alternately  disgusted 
and  amused  the  country  with  the  ferocious  rant  with  which  they 
sought  to  inspire  the  crusade  against  the  South.  One  of  these 
pious  missionaries  in  Winchester,  after  the  regular  Sunday  ser 
vice,  announced  to  the  assembled  Yankee  troops  an  imaginary 
victory  in  front  of  Richmond,  and  then  called  for  "three  cheeis 
and  a  tiger,  and  Yankee  Doodle."  In  a  sermon  preached  near 
the  enemy's  camp  of  occupation,  the  chaplain  proclaimed  the 
mission  of  freeing  the  negroes.  He  told  them  they  were  free, 
and  that,  as  the  property  amassed  by  their  masters  was  the 
fruit  of  the  labors  of  the  blacks,  these  had  the  best  title  to  it 


"  *  No  one  affected  the  peculiarity  of  the  Puritans  more  than  GOT.  Andrews,  of 
Massachusetts.  The  following  pious  rant  is  quoted  from  one  of  his  speeches  at 
Worcester  ;  in  blasphemy  and  bombast  it  equals  any  of  the  fulminations  of  the 
4 '  Pilgrim  Fathers"— 

'•  I  know  that  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  one  foot  on  the  earth  and  one  on  the 
sea,  will  proclaim  in  unanswerable  language,  that  four  millions  of  bondme*) 
shall  ere  long  be  slaves  no  longer.  We  live  in  a  war,  not  a  riot ;  as  we  thought 
last  year,  with  a  half  million  in  the  field  against  an  atrocious  and  rebellious  foe. 
Our  government  now  recognizes  it  as  a  war,  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  fulminating  his  war-orders,  has  blown  a  blast  before  which  the  enemy 
must  fly.  Rebellion  must  fall,  and  they  who  hare  stood  upon  the  necks  of  sc 
many  bondsmen  shall  be  swept  away,  and  four  million  souls  rise  to  immortality.. 

"  Ah,  foul  tyrants  !  do  you  hear  him  where  he  comes  ? 
Ah,  black  traitors !  do  you  know  him  as  he  comes  ? 
In  the  thunder  of  the  cannon  and  the  roll  of  the  drums, 
As  we  go  marching  on. 

11  Men  may  die  and  moulder  in  the  dust— 
Men  may  die  and  arise  again  from  the  dust, 
Shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  ranks  of  the  just, 
When  God  is  marching  on." 


44l  SOUTHEBN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

and  should  help  themselves.  At  another  place,  near  the  scene 
of  the  execution  of  John  Brown  for  violation  of  law,  sedition, 
and  murder,  a  sermon  was  preached  by  an  army  chaplain  on 
ome  text  enjoining  "  the  mission  of  proclaiming  liberty ;"  and 
the  hymn  given  out  and  sung  was — 

"John  Brown's  body  hangs  dangling  in  the  air, 
Sing  glory,  glory,  hallelujah!" 

These,  however,  were  but  indications  displayed  of  a  spirit  in 
the  North,  which,  with  reference  to  the  practical  conduct  of  the 
war,  were  serious  enough. 

By  a  general  order  of  the  Washington  government,  the 
military  commanders  of  that  government,  within  the  States  of 
Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Missis 
sippi,  Louisiana,  Texas,  and  Arkansas,  were  directed  to  seize 
and  use  any  property,  real  or  personal,  belonging  to  the  in 
habitants  of  this  Confederacy  which  might  be  necessary  or  con 
venient  for  their  several  commands,  and  no  provision  was  made 
for  any  compensation  to  the  owners  of  private  property  thus 
seized  and  appropriated  by  the  military  commanders  of  the 
enemy. 

But  it^was  reserved  for  the  enemy's  army  in  Northern  Vir 
ginia  to  exceed  all  that  had  hitherto  been  known  of  the  savage 
-cruelty  of  the  Yankees,  and  to  convert  the  hostilities  hitherto 
waged  against  armed  forces  into  a  campaign  of  robbery  and 
murder  against  unarmed  citizens  and  peaceful  tillers  of  the 
soil. 

On  the  23d  of  July,  1862,  Gen.  Pope,  commanding  the 
;  forces  of  the  enemy  in  Northern  Virginia,  published  an  order 
requiring  that  "all  commanders  of  any  army  corps,  divisions, 
brigades,  and  detached  commands,  will  proceed  immediately 
to  arrest  all  disloyal  male  citizens  within  their  lines,  or  within 
their  reach,  in  rear  of  their  respective  commands.  Such  as 
are  willing  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States, 
and  will  furnish  sufficient  security  for  its  observance,  shall  be 
permitted  to  remain  at  their  homes  and  pursue  in  good  faith 
their  accustomed  avocations.  Those  who  refuse  shall  be  con 
ducted  South,  beyond  the  extreme  pickets  of  this  army,  and  be 
notified  that,  if  found  again  anywhere  within  our  lines,  or  at 
•any  point  in  rear,  they  shall  be  considered  spies  and  subjected 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  441 

to  the  extreme  rigor  of  military  law.  If  any  person,  having 
taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  as  above  specified,  be  found  to 
have  violated  it,  he  shall  be  shot,  and  his  property  seized  and 
applied  to  the  public  use." 

By  another  order  of  Brigadier-general  Steinwehr  in  Pope' 
command,  it  was  proposed  to  hold  under  arrest  the  most  prom 
inent  citizens  in  the  districts  occupied  by  the  enemy  as  hos 
tages,  to  suffer  death  in  case  of  any  of  the  Yankee  soldiers 
being  shot  by  "bushwhackers,"  by  which  term  was  meant  the 
citizens  of  the  South  who  had  taken  up  arms  to  defend  their 
homes  and  families. 

The  Washington  government  had  found  a  convenient  instru 
ment  for  the  work  of  villany  and  brutality  with  which  it  pro 
posed  to  resume  the  active  campaign  in  Virginia. 

With  a  view  to  renewed  operations  against  Richmond,  large 
forces  of  Yankee  troops  were  massed  at  Warrenton,  Little 
Washington  and  Fredericksburg.  Of  these  forces,  entitled  the 
"  Army  of  Virginia,"  the  command  was  given  to  Maj.-gen 
John  Pope,  who  boasted  that  he  had  come  from  the  West, 
where  "  he  had  only  seen  the  backs  of  the  enemy." 

This  notorious  Yankee  commander  was  a  man  nearly  forty 
years  of  age,  a  native  of  Kentucky,  but  a  citizen  of  Illinois. 
He  was  born  of  respectable  parents.  He  was  graduated  at 
West  Point  in  1842,  and  served  in  the  Mexican  War,  where 
he  was  breveted  captain. 

In  1849  he  conducted  the  Minnesota  exploring  expedition, 
and  afterwards  acted  as  topographical  engineer  in  New  Mexico, 
until  1853,  when  he  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  one  of 
the  expeditions  to  survey  the  route  of  the  Pacific  railroad.  He 
distinguished  himself  on  the  overland  route  to  the  Pacific  by 
"  sinking"  artesian  wells,  and  government  money  to  the  amount 
of  a  million  of  dollars.  One  well  was  finally  abandoned  incom 
plete,  and  afterwards  a  perennial  spring  was  found  by  other 
parties  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  In  a  letter  to  Jefferson 
Davis,  then  Secretary  of  War,  urging  this  route  to  the  Pacific 
and  the  boring  these  wells,  Pope  made  himself  the  especial 
champion  of  the  South. 

In  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  Pope  was  made  a  brigadier 
geneial  of  volunteers.  He  held  a  command  in  Missouri  foi 
some  time  before  he  became  particularly  noted.  When  Gen 


442  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Halleck  took  charge  of  the  disorganized  department,  Pope  waa 
placed  in  command  of  the  District  of  Central  Missouri.  He 
was  afterwards  sent  to  Southeastern  Missouri.  The  cruel  dis 
position  of  the  man,  of  which  his  rude  manners  and  a  vulgar 
bearded  face,  with  coarse  skin,  gave  indications,  found  an 
abundant  field  for  gratification  in  this  unhappy  State.  His 
proceedings  in  Missouri  will  challenge  a  comparison  with  the 
most  infernal  record  ever  bequeathed  by  the  licensed  murderer 
to  the  abhorrence  of  mankind.  And  yet,  it  was  his  first  step 
in  blood — the  first  opportunity  he  had  ever  had  to  feast  his 
eyes  upon  slaughter  and  regale  his  ears  with  the  cries  of  human 
agony. 

Having  been  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major-general,  Pope 
was  next  appointed  to  act  at  the  head  of  a  corps  to  co-operate 
with  Halleck  in  the  reduction  of  Corinth.  After  the  evacua 
tion  of  Corinth  by  Gen.  Beauregard,  Pope  was  sent  by  Halleck 
to  annoy  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  army,  but  Beauregard 
turned  upon  and  repulsed  his  pursuit.  The  report  of  Pope  to 
Halleck,  that  he  had  captured  10,000  of  Beauregard's  army, 
and  15,000  stand  of  arms,  when  he  had  not  taken  a  man  or  a 
musket,  stands  alone  in  the  history  of  lying.  It  left  him  with 
out  a  rival  in  that  respectable  art. 

Such  was  the  man  who  took  command  of  the  enemy's  forces 
in  Northern  Virginia.  His  bluster  was  as  excessive  as  his 
accomplishments  in  falsehood.  He  was  described  in  a  Southern 
newspaper  as  "  a  Yankee  compound  of  Bobadil  and  Munchau- 
sen."  His  proclamation  that  he  had  seen  nothing  of  his  ene 
mies  "  but  their  backs,"  revived  an  ugly  story  in  his  private 
life,  and  gave  occasion  to  the  witty  interrogatory,  if  the  gen 
tleman  who  cowhided  him  for  offering  an  indignity  to  a  lady 
was  standing  with  his  back  to  him  when  he  inflicted  the  chas 
tisement.  The  fact  was,  that  Pope  had  won  his  baton  of  marshal 
by  bragging  to  the  Yankee  fill.  He  was  another  instance, 
besides  that  of  Butler,  how  easily  a  military  reputation  might 
be  made  in  the  North  by  bluster,  lying,  and  acts  of  coarse 
cruelty  to  the  defenceless.  On  what  monstrous  principles  he 
commenced  his  career  in  Virginia,  and  what  orders  he  issued, 
are  still  fresh  in  the  public  memory. 

"  I  desire  you  to  dismiss  from  your  minds  certain  phrases 
'^said  Pope  to  his  army),  which  I  am  sorry  to  find  much  in  vogue 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  443 

among  yon.  I  hear  constantly  of  taking  strong  p  )sitions  and 
holding  them ;  of  lines  of  retreat  and  bases  of  supplies.  Le< 
us  discard  such  ideas.  The  strongest  position  a  soldier  should 
desire  to  occupy  is  the  one  from  which  he  can  most  easily  ad 
vance  upon  the  enemy.  Let  us  study  the  probable  line  of  re 
treat  of  our  opponents,  and  leave  our  own  to  take  care  of  itself. 
Let  us  look  before,  and  not  behind.  Disaster  and  shame  lurk 
in  the  rear." 

On  establishing  his  headquarters  at  Little  "Washington,  the 
county  seat  of  Rappahannock,  Pope  became  a  source  of  mingled 
curiosity  and  dread  to  the  feeble  villagers.  They  were  in  a 
condition  of  alarm  and  anguish  from  the  publication  of  his 
jrder,  to  banish  from  their  homes  all  males  who  should  refuse 
to  take  the  Yankee  oath  of  allegiance.  Dr.  Bisphaw  of  the 
village  was  deputed  to  wait  upon  the  Yankee  tyrant,  and  ask 
that  the  barbarous  order  be  relaxed. 

He  painted,  at  the  same  time,  the  agony  of  the  women  and 
children,  and  stated  that  the  effect  would  be  to  place  six  new 
regiments  in  the  rebel  service.  "  We  can't  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance,"  said  the  Doctor,  "and  we  won't — man,  woman,  or 
child — but  we  will  give  a  parol  to  attend  to  our  own  business, 
afford  no  communication  with  the  South,  and  quietly  stay  upon 
our  premises." 

"  I  shall  enforce  the  order  to  the  letter,"  said  Gen.  Pope.  "I 
did  not  make  it  without  deliberation,  and  if  you  don't  take  the 
oath  you  shall  go  out  of  my  lines." 

In  the  short  period  in  which  Pope's  army  was  uninterrupted 
in  its  career  of  robbery  and  villany  in  Northern  Virginia, 
every  district  of  country  invaded  by  him,  or  entered  by  his 
marauders,  was  ravaged  as  by  a  horde  of  barbarians.  This 
portion  of  Virginia  will  long  bear  the  record  and  tradition  of 
the  irruption  of  the  Northern  spoilsmen.  The  new  usage 
which  had  been  instituted  in  regard  to  protection  of  Confed 
erate  property,  and  the  purpose  of  the  Washington  government 
to  subsist  its  troops  upon  the  invaded  country,  converted  the 
"Army  of  Virginia"  into  licensed  brigands,  and  let  loose  upon 
the  country  a  torrent  of  unbridled  and  unscrupulous  robbers. 
The  Yankee  troops  appropriated  remorselessly  whatever  came 
within  their  reach.  They  rushed  in  crowds  upon  the  smoke 
houses  of  the  farmers.  On  the  march  through  a  section  ol 


44  i  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

country,  every  spring-house  was  broken  open;  butter,  milk 
eggs,  and  cream  were  ingulfed ;  calves  and  sheep,  and,  in 
fact,  any  thing  arid  every  thing  serviceab  e  for  meat,  or  drink, 
or  apparel,  were  not  safe  a  moment  after  the  approach  of  the 
Yankee  plunderers.  Wherever  they  camped  at  night,  it  would 
be  found  the  next  morning  that  scarcely  an  article,  far  which 
the  fertility  of  a  soldier  could  suggest  the  slightest  use,  remained 
to  the  owner.  Pans,  kettles,  dishcloths,  pork,  poultry,  provisions, 
and  every  thing  desirable  had  disappeared.  The  place  was  strip 
ped,  and  without  any  process  of  commissary  or  quartermaster. 

Whenever  the  Yankee  soldiers  advanced  into  a  new  section, 
the  floodgates  were  immediately  opened,  and  fac-simile  Con 
federate  notes  (this  spurious  currency  being  manufactured  in 
Philadelphia,  and  sold  by  public  advertisement  for  a  few  cents 
to  Yankee  soldiers)  were  poured  out  upon  the  land.*  They 
were  passed  indiscriminately  upon  the  unsuspecting  inhabitants, 
poor  as  well  as  rich,  old  and  young,  male  and  female.  In  fre 
quent  instances,  this  outrage  was  perpetrated  in  return  for  kind 
nursing  by  poor,  aged  women. 

These  spurious  notes  passed  readily,  and  seemed  to  be  taken 
gladly  for  whatever  was  held  for  sale.  Bank-notes  and  shin- 
plasters  were  given  for  change.  Horses  and  other  valuable 
property  were  often  purchased  with  this  bogus  currency.  A 
party  of  Yankee  soldiers  entered  a  country  store,  fortified  with 
exhaustless  quantities  of  Philadelphia  Confederate  notes,  and 

*  The  Northern  trade  in  this  counterfeit  money  was  open  and  undisguised  ; 
enticing  advertisements  of  its  profit  were  freely  made  in  the  Northern  journals, 
and  circulars  were  distributed  through  the  Federal  army  proposing  to  supply  the 
troops  with  "rebel"  currency  almost  at  the  price  of  the  paper  on  which  the 
counterfeit  was  executed.  We  copy  below  one  of  these  circulars  found  on  the 
person  of  a  Yankee  prisoner  ;  the  curiosity  being  a  court  paper  in  the  possession 
of  Mr.  Commissioner  Watson,  of  Richmond  : 

"  $20  Confederate  Band  !  !  I  have  this  day  issued  a  fac-simik  $20  Confederate 
Bond— making,  in  all,  fifteen  different  fac-simile  Rebel  Bonds,  Notes,  Shinplasters, 
and  Postage  Stamps,  issued  by  me  the  past  three  months. 

"  Trade  supplied  at  50  cents  per  100,  or  $4  per  1,000.  All  orders  by  mail  or 
express  promptly  executed. 

gff  "  All  orders  to  be  sent  by  mail  must  be  accompanied  with  18  cents  in  post 
age  stamps,  in  addition  to  the  above  price,  to  prepay  the  postage  on  each  100 
wiered.  Address,  S.  C.  UPHAM, 

403  Chesnut  Street,  Philadelphia. 

"  N.  B  —  I  shall  have  a  $100  Rebel  Note  out  this  week.'1 


THE    SECOND     TEAR.  445 

commenced  trade.  Forty  pounds  3f  sugar  was  first  ordered, 
and  the  storekeeper,  pleased  with  the  sudden  increase  of  busi 
ness,  called  in  his  wife  to  assist  in  putting  up  the  order  in  small 
parcels.  Seventy-five  cents  a  pound  was  the  cost.  That  was  a 
small  matter.  Matches  were  purchased.  Twenty-five  cents 
per  box  was  the  charge.  Tobacco  also  found  a  ready  market. 
Each  man  provided  himself  with  a  straw  hat ;  but  the  crown 
ing  act  of  all  was  the  abstraction  from  the  till  of  money 
already  paid  to  the  dealer  for  his  goods,  and  the  purchase  of 
more  goods  with  the  same  spurious  medium. 

Such  acts  of  villany  and  the  daily  robberies  committed  by 
Pope's  soldiers  were  very  amusing  to  the  Northern  people,  and 
gave  them  a  stock  of  capital  jokes.  "  I  not  long  ago  saw/' 
wrote  a  correspondent  of  a  Yankee  newspaper,  "  a  dozen  sol 
diers  rushing  headlong  through  a  field,  each  anxious  to  get  the 
first  choice  of  three  horses  shading  themselves  quietly  under  a 
tree.  The  animals  made  their  best  time  into  the  farthest  cor 
ner  of  the  field  with  the  men  close  upon  them,  and  the  fore 
most  men  caught  their  prizes  and  bridled  them  as  if  they  had 
a  perfect  immunity  in  such  sort  of  things.  A  scene  followed. 
A  young  lady  came  out  and  besought  the  soldiers  not  to  take 
her  favorite  pony.  The  soldiers  were  remorseless  and  unyield 
ing,  and  the  pony  is  now  in  the  army." 

It  is  not  within  the  design  of  these  pages  to  pursue  the  sto 
ries  of  outrage,  villany,  and  barbarism  of  the  enemy's  army 
in  Virginia;  but  with  what  we  have  said,  intended  only  to 
show  the  spirit  of  that  army  and  the  character  of  its  leader, 
we  shall  hasten  to  describe  the  series  of  events  which,  at  last, 
confronted  it  with  an  army  of  avengers  on  the  historic  Plains 
of  ManaSsas,  and  culminated  there  in  a  victory,  which  liber 
ated  Virginia  from  its  invaders,  broke  the  "  line  of  the  Poto 
mac"  from  Leesburg  to  Harper's  Ferry,  and  opened  an  avenue 
for  the  first  time  into  the  territory  of  the  North. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   CEDAR   MOUNTAIN. 

The  Northern  newspapers  declared  that  Pope  was  right 
when  he  said  that  he  was  accustomed  to  see  the  backs  of  hia 
enemy,  and  were  busy  in  assuring  their  readers  that  his  only 
occupation  was  to  chase  u  the  re'iel  hordes."  It  was  said  that 


44:6  SOUIHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

he  had  penetrated  as  far  as  Madison  Court-house  without  see* 
ing  any  enemy.  The  Southern  troops,  it  was  prophesied,  would 
keep  on  their  retreat  beyond  the  Virginia  Central  railroad 
Pope's  army  was  now  as  far  in  the  interior,  by  overland 
marches,  as  any  of  the  Yankee  troops  had  ever  been.  The 
position  of  his  advance  was  described  as  about  ten  miles  east 
of  Port  Republic,  with  an  eye  on  the  Shenandoah  Valley ;  and 
it  was  boasted  that  the  second  Napoleon  of  the  Yankees  had 
already  complete  possession  of  the  country  north  of  the  Rapi- 
dan  river,  and  only  awaited  his  leisure  to  march  upon  Rich 
mond. 

These  exultations  were  destined  to  a  sharp  and  early  disap 
pointment.  The  Confederate  authorities  in  Richmond  knew 
that  it  was  necessary  to  strike  somewhere  before  the  three  hinv 
dred  thousand  recruits  called  for  by  the  Washington  govern 
ment  should  be  brought  to  the  field  to  overwhelm  them.  It 
was  necessary  to  retain  in  the  strong  works  around  Richmond 
a  sufficient  force  to  repulse  any  attack  of  McClellan's  army ; 
but  at  the  same  time  the  necessity  was  clear  to  hold  Pope's 
forces  in  check  and  to  make  an  active  movement  against  him. 
The  execution  of  this  latter  purpose  was  intrusted  to  Jackson, 
the  brave,  eccentric,  and  beloved  commander,*  who  had 
achieved  so  many  victories  against  so  many  extraordinary 
odds  and  obstacles ;  all  the  movements  of  the  campaign  being 
directed  by  the  self-possessed,  controlling,  and  earnest  mind  of 
Gen.  Lee. 

The  insolent  enemy  received  his  first  lesson  at  the  hands  of 

*  There  have  been  a  great  many  pen  and  ink  portraits  of  the  famous  "Stonewall" 
Jackson  ;  the  singular  features  and  eccentric  manners  of  this  popular  hero  afford 
ing  a  fruitful  subject  of  description  and  anecdote.  A  gentleman,  who  was  known 
to  be  a  rare  and  quick  judge  of  character,  was  asked  by  the  writer  for  a  descrip 
tion  of  Jackson,  whom  he  had  met  but  for  a  few  moments  on  the  battle-field. 
" He  is  a  fighting  man,"  was  the  reply;  "rough  mouth,  iron  jaw,  and  nostrils 
big  as  a  horse's."  This  description  has  doubtless  much  force  in  it,  although 
blunt  and  homely  in  its  expression.  The  impression  given  by  Jackson  is  that 
of  a  man  perhaps  forty  years  old,  six  feet  high,  medium  size,  and  somewhat 
angular  in  person.  He  has  yellowish-gray  eyes,  a  Roman  nose,  sharp ;  a  thin, 
forward  chin,  angular  brow,  a  close  mouth,  and  light  brown  hair.  The  expres 
sion  of  his  face  is  to  some  extent  unhappy,  but  not  sullen  or  unsocial.  He  is 
impulsive,  silent,  and  emphatic.  His  dress  is  official,  but  very  plain,  his  cap-front 
resting  nearly  on  his  nose.  His  tall  horse  diminished  the  effect  of  his  size,  so 
that  when  mounted  he  appears  less  in  person  than  he  really  is 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  447 

the  heroic  Jackson,  on  the  wooded  sides  and  cleared  slopes  of 
the  mountainous  country  in  Culpepper.  In  consequence  of  the 
advance  of  the  Confederates  beyond  the  Rapidan,  Major-gen. 
Pope  had  sent  forward  two  army  corps,  commanded  by  Gen. 
Banks,  to  hold  them  in  check. 

On  the  evening  of  the  8th  of  August,  a  portion  of  Gen 
Jackson's  division,  consisting  of  the  1st,  2d,  and  3d  brigades, 
under  the  command  of  Gen.  Charles  S.  Winder,  crossed  the 
Rapidan  river,  a  few  miles  above  the  railroad,  and,  having 
advanced  a  mile  into  Culpepper  county,  encamped  for  the  night. 
The  next  morning,  the  enemy  being  reported  as  advancing,  our 
forces,  Swell's  division  being  in  advance,  moved  forward  on 
the  main  road  from  Orange  Court-house  to  Culpepper  Court 
house,  about  three  miles,  and  took  position — our  left  flank  rest 
ing  on  the  Southwest  Mountain,  and  our  artillery  occupying 
several  commanding  positions.  At  12  M.,  our  forces  commenced 
cannonading,  which  was  freely  responded  to  by  the  enemy, 
who  did  not  seem  ready  for  the  engagement,  which  they  had 
affected  to  challenge.  Indeed,  some  strategy  seemed  necessary 
to  bring  them  to  fight.  About  3  p.  M.,  Gen.  Early's  brigade 
(Swell's  division)  made  a  circuit  through  the  woods,  attacking 
the  enemy  on  their  right  flank,  the  13th  Virginia  regiment  be 
ing  in  the  advance  as  skirmishers.  At  4  o'clock  the  firing  be 
gan,  and  soon  the  fight  became  general.  As  Gen.  Jackson's 
division,  then  commanded  by  Gen.  Winder,  was  rapidly  pro 
ceeding  to  the  scene  of  action,  the  enemy,  guided  by  the  dust 
made  by  the  artillery,  shelled  the  road  with  great  precision. 
It  was  by  this  shell  that  the  brave  Winder  was  killed.  His 
left  arm  shattered,  and  his  side  also  wounded,  he  survived  but 
an  hour.  At  a  still  later  period,  a  portion  of  (ren.  A.  P.  Hill's 
division  was  engaged.  The  battle  was  mainly  fought  in  a 
large  field  near  Mrs.  Crittenden's  house,  a  portion  being  open, 
and  the  side  occupied  by  the  Yankees  being  covered  with  lux 
uriant  corn.  Through  this  corn,  when  our  forces  were  consid 
erably  scattered,  two  Yankee  cavalry  regiments  made  a  desper 
ate  charge,  evidently  expecting  utterly  to  disorganize  our  lines. 
The  result  was  precisely  the  reverse.  Our  men  rallied,  ceased 
to  fire  on  the  infantry,  and,  concentrating  their  attention  on 
the  cavalry,  poured  into  their  ranks  a  fire  which  emptied  many 
a  saddle,  and  caused  the  foe  to  wheel  and  retire,  which,  how- 


4:48  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ever,  they  effected  without  breaking  their  columns.     For  some 
time  the  tide  of  victory  ebbed  and  flowed,  but  about  dark  the 
foe  finally  broke  and  retreated  in  confusion  to  the  woods,  leav 
'ing  their  dead  and  many  of  their  wounded,  with  a  large  quan 
tity  of  arms  and  ammunition,  upon  the  field.     Daylight  faded, 
and  the  moon  in  her  full  glory  appeared,  just  as  the  terrors  of 
the  raging  battle  gave  way  to  the  sickening  scenes  of  a  field 
where  a  victory  had  been  won. 

The  bat.tle  of  Cedar  Mountain,  as  it  was  entitled,  may  be 
characterized  as  one  of  the  most  rapid  and  severe  engagements 
of  the  war.  In  every  particular  it  was  a  sanguinary  and  des 
perate  struggle,  and  resulted  in  a  complete  and  decisive  victory 
for  our  arms.  Our  forces  engaged  amounted  to  about  eight 
thousand,  while  those  of  the  enemy  could  not  have  been  less 
than  fifteen  thousand.  Our  loss  was  near  six  hundred  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing ;  that  of  the  enemy  little,  if  any.,  less  than 
two  thousand.  We  captured  nearly  five  hundred  prisoners,  over 
fifteen  hundred  stand  of  arms,  two  splendid  Napoleon  guns, 
twelve  wagon-loads  of  ammunition,  several  wagon-loads  of  new 
and  excellent  clothing,  and  drove  the  enemy  two  miles  beyond 
the  field  of  battle,  which  we  held  for  two  days  and  nights. 

The  battle  was  remarkable  for  an  extraordinary  and  terrific 
"  artillery  duel."  In  fact,  the  fire  was  conducted  with  artil 
lery  alone  for  more  than  three  hours.  The  opposing  batteries 
unlimbered  so  close  to  each  other  that,  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  firing,  they  used  grape  and  canister.  Those  working 
our  battery  could  distinctly  hear  the  hum  of  voices  of  the  in 
fantry  support  of  the  Federal  battery.  The  Louisiana  Guard 
artillery  and  the  Purcell  battery  were  ordered  to  take  position 
and  open  on  the  enemy  from  the  crest  of  a  hill.  Here  they 
found  themselves  opposed  by  five  batteries  of  the  enemy  within 
short  range.  The  battle  raged  fiercely,  the  enemy  firing  with 
great  precision.  The  accuracy  of  our  fire  was  proved  by  the 
fact  that  the  enemy,  though  their  guns  were  more  than  twice 
as  numerous,  were  compelled  to  shift  the  position  of  their  bat 
teries  five  different  times.  Once  during  the  fight,  the  enemy's 
sharpshooters,  under  cover  of  a  piece  of  woods,  crept  up  within 
a  short  distance  of  our  batteries  and  opened  on  them,  but  were 
instantly  scattered  by  a  discharge  of  canister  from  one  of  the 
howitzers. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  44:9 

The  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain  was  the  natural  preface  to 
that  larger  and  severer  contest  of  arms  which  was  to  baptize, 
for  a  second  time,  the  field  of  Manassas  with  the  blood  of 
Southern  patriots,  and  illuminate  it  with  the  splendid  scenes 
of  a  decisive  victory.  It  convinced  the  North  of  the  necessity 
of  a  larger  scale  of  exertion  and  a  concentration  of  its  forces 
in  Virginia  to  effect  its  twice-foiled  advance  upon  the  capital 
of  the  Confederacy.  It  was  decided  by  the  Washington  gov 
ernment  to  recall  McClellan's  army  from  the  Peninsula,  to 
unite  his  columns  with  those  of  Pope,  to  include  also  the  forces 
at  Fredericksburg,  and,  banding  these  in  a  third  Grand  Army 
more  splendid  than  its  predecessors,  to  make  one  concentrated 
endeavor  to  retrieve  its  unfortunate  summer  campaign  in  Vir 
ginia,  and  plant  its  banners  in  the  city  of  Richmond. 

Not  many  days  elapsed  before  the  evacuation  of  Berkeley 
and  Westover,  on  the  James  river,  w^as  signalled  to  the  an 
thorities  of  Richmond  by  the  large  fleet  of  transports  collected 
on  the  James  and  the  Rappahannock.  It  became  necessary  to 
meet  the  rapid  movements  of  the  enemy  by  new  dispositions  of 
our  forces;  not  a  day  was  to  be  lost;  and  by  the  17th  of  Au 
gust,  General  Lee  had  assembled  in  front  of  Pope  a  force  suffi 
cient  to  contest  his  further  advance,  and  to  balk  his  threatened 
passage  of  the  Rapidan. 

After  the  battle  of  Cedar  Mountain,  the  forces  under  Stone 
wall  Jackson  withdrew  from  the  vicinity  of  the  Rapidan,  and 
•were  for  some  days  unheard  of,  except  that  a  strong  force  was 
in  the  vicinity  of  Madison  Court-house,  some  twelve  miles  to 
the  westward,  in  the  direction  of  Luray  and  the  Shenandoali 
valley  ;  but  it  was  supposed  by  the  enemy  that  this  was  only  a 
wing  of  the  army  under  Ewell,  intended  to  act  as  reserves  to 
Jackson's  army,  and  to  cover  his  retreat  back  to  Gordonsville. 
Not  so,  however.  Those  forces  of  Ewell,  as  afterwards  dis 
covered  by  the  Yankees  to  their  great  surprise,  were  the  main 
body  of  Jackson's  army,  en  route  for  the  Shenandoali  valley. 

It  was  probably  the  design  of  Gen.  Lee,  with  the  bulk  of 
the  Confederate  army,  to  take  the  front,  left,  and  right,  and 
engage  Gen.  Pope  at  or  near  the  Rapidan,  while  Jackson  and 
Ewell  were  to  cross  the  Shenandoali  river  and  mountains,  cut 
off  his  supplies  by  way  of  the  railroad,  and  menace  his  rear. 
The  adventure,  on  the  part  of  Jackson,  was  difficult  and  des 

29 


4: 50  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

pcrate ;  it  took  the  risk  of  any  new  movements  of  Pope,  bj 
which  he  (Jackson)  himself  might  be  cut  off.  It  was  obvious 
indeed,  that  if  Pope  could  reach  Gordonsville,  he  would  cut  oil 
Jackson's  supplies,  but  in  this  direction  he  was  to  be  confronted 
by  Gen.  Lee  with  the  forces  withdrawn  from  Eichmond.  With 
the  movement  of  Jackson  the  object  was  to  keep  Pope  between 
the  Eapidan  and  the  Eappahannock  rivers  until  Jackson  had 
attained  his  position  at  Manassas,  or  perhaps  at  Eappahannock 
bridge ;  but  Pope's  retreat  to  the  Eappahannock's  north  bank 
frustrated  that  design,  and  rendered  it  necessary  for  General 
Lee  to  follow  up  his  advantage,  and,  by  a  system  of  feints,  to 
take  Pope's  attention  from  his  rear  and  divert  it  to  his  front. 

On  Monday,  the  28th  of  August,  at  daybreak,  Gen.  Jack 
son's  corps,  consisting  of  Gen.  Swell's  division,  Gen.  Hill's 
division,  and  Gen.  Jackson's  old  division,  under  command  of 
Gen.  Taliaferro,  and  a  force  of  cavalry  under  Gen.  Stuart, 
marched  from  Jeffersonton,  in  Cnlpepper  county,  and  crossed 
the  Eappahannock  eight  miles  above  that  place,  and  marched 
by  Orleans  to  Salem,  in  Fauqnier.  The  next  day  they  passed 
through  Thoroughfare  Gap,  of  Bull  Eun  Mountains,  to  Bristow 
and  Manassas  stations,  on  the  Orange  and  Alexandria  railroad, 
effecting  a  complete  surprise  of  the  enemy,  capturing  a  large 
number  of  prisoners,  several  trains  of  cars,  and  immense  com 
missary  and  quartermaster  stores,  and  several  pieces  of  artil 
lery.  The  distance  marched  in  these  two  days  was  over  fifty 
miles.  On  Wednesday,  Manassas  station  was  occupied  by 
Jackson's  old  division,  while  Ewell  occupied  Bristow,  and  Hill 
and  Stuart  dispersed  the  force  sent  from  Alexandria  to  attack 
what  the  enemy  supposed  to  be  only  a  cavalry  force. 

The  amount  of  property  which  fell  into  our  hands  at  Manas 
sas  was  immense — several  trains  heavily  laden  with  stores,  ten 
first-class  locomotives,  fifty  thousand  pounds  of  bacon,  one 
thousand  barrels  of  beef,  two  thousand  barrels  of  pork,  several 
thousand  barrels  of  flour,  and  a  large  quantity  of  oats  and  corn. 
A  bakery,  which  was  daily  turning  out  fifteen  thousand  loaves 
of  bread,  was  also  destroyed.  Next  to  Alexandria,  Manassaa 
was  probably  the  largest  depot  established  for  the  Northern 
army  in  Virginia. 

The  movement  of  Jackson,  which  we  have  briefly  sketched, 
is  the  chief  element  of  the  situation  in  which  the  decisive  en 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  451 

gagements  of  Manassas  were  fought.  In  this  connection  it 
must  be  studied  ^  it  was  the  brilliant  strategic  preface  to  the 
most  decisive  victory  yet  achieved  on  the  theatre  of  the  war. 
The  corps  of  Jackson,  having  headed  off  the  Federal  army 
under  Pope,  had  now  possession  of  Manassas  Plains,  It  had 
accomplished  its  design,  which  was  to  force  Pope  back — de 
prive  him  completely  of  direct  communication  with  Washing 
ton  or  Alexandria,  and  eventually  induce  his  surrender  or  an 
nihilation. 

The  principal  and  anxious  topic  in  the  North  was,  by  what 
eccentric  courses  the  famous  Confederate  commander  had  man 
aged  to  get  around  the  right  wing  of  Pope's  army,  when  it  was 
supposed — and  in  fact  the  hasty  exultation  had  already  been 
caught  up  in  the  Yankee  newspapers — that  it  was  the  "  rebel75 
general  who  was  cut  off,  and  that  he  would  probably  make  a 
desperate  retreat  into  the  mountains  to  escape  the  terrors  of 
Pope.  Indeed,  it  was  some  time  before  the  full  and  critical 
meaning  of  the  situation  dawned  upon  the  prejudiced  mind  of 
the  "Northern  public.  The  idea  was  indulged  that  the  capture 
of  Manassas  was  only  a  successful  raid  by  a  body  of  rebel 
guerillas ;  and  so  it  was  dismissed  by  the  newspapers,  with  a 
levity  characteristic  of  their  insolence  and  ignorance. 

Weak  and  credulous  as  Gen.  Pope  was,  it  is  probable  that 
the  moment  he  heard  that  Jackson  was  in  his  rear,  he  was 
eatisfied  that  it  was  no  raid.  The  situation  had  been  changed 
almost  in  a  moment.  Pope  had  evacuated  Warrenton  Junc 
tion,  and  was  moving  along  the  railroad  upon  Manassas,  anx 
ious  to  secure  his  "  line  of  retreat,"  and  expecting,  doubtless, 
with  no  little  confidence,  by  rapid  marches  of  a  portion  of  his 
forces  by  the  turnpike  upon  Gainesville,  to  intercept  any  rein 
forcements  by  the  way  of  Thoroughfare  Gap  to  Jackson,  and 
to  fall  upon  and  crush  him  by  the  weight  of  numbers.  A  por 
tion  of  the  Confederate  army  now  fronted  to  the  South,  and  the 
Federal  army  towards  Washington.  The  latter  had  been  swol 
len  by  reinforcements,  and  the  advance  corps  from  Burnside 
was  inarching  on  rapidly  from  Fredericksburg  to  complete  the 
amassment  on  the  Federal  side. 

Although  the  situation  of  Gen.  Pope  was  one  unexpected  by 
himself,  and  surrounded  by  many  embarrassments,  he  yet  had 
many  circumstances  of  advantage  in  which  to  risk  a  gieat  and 


452  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

decisive  battle.  The  New  York  journals  persisted  in  declaring 
tl  at  it  was  not  the  infallible  Pope,  but  the  "  rebel"  army  that 
was  "  in  a  tight  place."  At  any  rate,  Pope  was  not  in  the 
situation  in  which  McClellan  found  himself  when  his  right  wing 
was  turned  by  the  Confederates  in  front  of  Richmond — that 
is,  without  supports  or  reinforcements.  On  the  contrary,  on 
his  right,  and  on  the  way  up  from.  Fredericksburg,  was  the 
new  army  of  the  Potomac  under  Burnside  :  while  advancing 
forward  from  Alexandria  was  the  newly  organized  army  ot 
Virginia  under  McClellan.  Such  was  the  array  of  force  that 
threatened  the  army  we  had  withdrawn  from  Richmond,  and 
in  which  the  Northern  populace  indulged  the  prospect  of  a 
certain  and  splendid  victory. 

An  encounter  of  arms  of  vital  consequence  was  now  to  en 
sue  on  the  already  historic  and  famous  Plains  of  Manassas — 
the  beautiful  stretch  of  hill  and  dale  reaching  as  far  as  Cen- 
treville,  varied  by  amphitheatres — an  admirable  battle-ground  ; 
with  the  scenery  of  which  the  Southern  troops  associated  the 
exciting  thoughts  of  a  former  victory  and  a  former  shedding 
of  the  blood  of  their  beloved  and  best  on  the  memorable  and 
consecrated  spots  that  marked  the  field  of  battle. 

THE  ENGAGEMENT  OF  WEDNESDAY,  THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH  OF  AUGUST. 

On  Wednesday,  the  27th,  an  attack  was  made  by  the  enemy 
upon  Bristow  station,  and  also  at  Manassas  Junction. 

On  the  morning  of  that  day,  at  about  eleven  o'clock,  Gen. 
Taylor's  brigade,  of  Major-gen.  Slocum's  division  of  the 
army  of  the  Potomac,  consisting  of  the  first,  second,  third, 
and  fourth  New  Jersey  regiments,  were  ordered  to  proceed  to 
Manassas  by  rail  from  their  camp  near  Fort  Ellsworth,  Alex 
andria. 

The  brigade  arrived  at  Bull  Run  bridge  about  seven  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  The  troops  landed  and  crossed  the  bridge 
with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  and  marched  towards  Manassas. 
After  ascending  the  hill  emerging  from  the  valley  of  Bull  Run, 
they  encountered  a  line  of  skirmishers  of  the  Confederates, 
which  fell  back  before  them.  The  brigade  marched  on  in  the 
direction  of  Manassas,  not  seeing  any  of  the  enemy  until  within 
range  of  the  circular  series  of  fortifications  around  the  Junction, 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  4:53 

when  heavy  artillery  was  opened  upon  them  frcm  all  direc 
tions.  Gen.  Taylor  retired  beyond  the  range  of  our  guns  to 
the  rear  of  a  sheltering  crest  of  ground,  from  which  he  waa 
driven  by  our  infantry.  Crossing  at  Blackburn's  ford,  he  waa 
pursued  by  our  horse  artillery,  which  fired  into  him,  creating 
the  utmost  havoc.  The  brigade  retreated  in  a  disorganized 
mass  of  flying  men  towards  Fairfax  ;  it  was  pursued  by  oui 
eager  troops  beyond  Centreville,  and  the  track  of  the  flying 
and  cowardly  enemy  was  marked  with  his  dead. 

The  flight  of  the  enemy  was  attended  by  the  most  wild  and 
terrible  scenes,  as  he  was  pursued  by  our  horse  artillery,  pour 
ing  canister  into  his  ranks.  The  brigade  was  almost  annihi 
lated.  Gen.  Taylor  himself,  his  son  011  his  staff,  and  his  nephew 
were  wounded ;  also  one-half  of  his  officers. 

At  3  o'clock,  p.  M.,  of  the  same  day,  the  enemy  attacked 
Gen.  Ewell,  at  Bristow,  and  that  general,  after  a  handsome 
little  fight,  in  which  he  punished  the  enemy  severely,  retired 
across  Muddy  Run,  as  had  previously  been  agreed  upon,  to 
Manassas  Junction.  This  attack  was  made  by  the  division  of 
the  enemy  commanded  by  Gen.  Hooker,  which  was  dispatched 
to  that  point  and  detached  from  the  advancing  forces  of  Pope, 
who,  of  course,  claimed  the  result  of  the  affair  as  a  signal 
Federal  success. 


MOVEMENTS   OF   THURSDAY,   THE   TWElTTY-EIGHTH   OF   AUGUST. 

After  sunset,  on  Thursday,  Gen.  Jackson  accomplished  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  and  masterly  strategic  movements  of  the 
war.  He  found  himself  many  miles  in  advance  of  the  rest  of 
our  army.  The  enemy  might  throw  his  immense  columns  be 
tween  him  and  Longstreet — Alexandria  and  Washington  was 
to  his  rear  when  he  turned  to  attack  the  enemy.  He  deter 
mined  to  throw  himself  upon  the  enemy's  flank,  to  preserve 
the  same  nearness  to  Alexandria,  to  place  himself  within  sup 
port  of  the  remainder  of  our  army,  and  to  occupy  a  position 
from  which  he  could  not  be  driven,  even  if  support  did  not  ar 
rive  in  time.  All  this  he  accomplished  that  night,  after  de 
stroying  the  stores,  buildings,  cars,  &c.,  and  burning  the  rail 
road  bridges  over  Muddy  Run  and  Bull  Run.  He  marched  at 
night  with  his  entire  force  from  Manassas  station  to  Manassas 


454  SOUTHEBN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

battle-field,  crossing  the  Warrenton  turnpike,  and  placing  Ma 
troops  in  such  position  that  he  could  confront  the  enemy  should 
they  attempt  to  advance  by  the  Warrenton  pike  or  by  the  Sud 
ley  road  and  ford,  arid  have  the  advantage  of  communicating 
by  the  Aldie  road  with  Longstreet,  should  he  not  have  passed 
the  Thoroughfare  Gap,  and  at  all  events  gain  for  himself  a 
safe  position  for  attack  or  defence.  At  seven  o'clock,  A.  M., 
on  Friday,  Gen.  Stuart  encountered  the  enemy's  cavalry  near 
Gainesville,  on  the  Warrenton  pike,  and  drove  them  back ; 
and  during  the  morning  the  2d  brigade  of  Gen.  Taliaferro's 
division,  under  Colonel  Bradley  Johnson,  again  repulsed  them. 
It  was  now  ascertained  that  the  enemy's  column  was  advancing 
(or  retreating)  from  Warrenton,  along  the  line  of  the  railroad 
and  by  way  of  the  Warrenton  turnpike,  and  that  they  intended 
to  pass  a  part  of  their  force  over  the  Stone  bridge  and  Sudley 
ford.  Gen.  Jackson  immediately  ordered  Gen.  Taliaferro  to 
advance  with  his  division  to  attack  their  left  flank,  which  was 
advancing  towards  Sudley  Mill.  Gen.  EwelPs  division  marched 
considerably  in  the  rear  of  the  1st  division.  After  marching 
some  three  miles,  it  was  discovered  that  the  enemy  had  abau 
doned  the  idea  of  crossing  at  Sudley,  and  had  left  the  War 
renton  pike  to  the  left,  beyond  Groveton,  and  were  apparently 
cutting  across  to  the  railroad  through  the  fields  and  woods. 
In  a  few  minutes,  however,  he  advanced  across  the  turnpike  to 
attack  us,,  and  Jackson's  army  was  thrown  forward  to  meet 
him. 

From  this  sketch  of  the  movements  of  the  corps  commanded 
by  Gen.  Jackson,  it  will  be  seen  that  though  a  portion  of  our 
forces,  under  Gens.  Ewell  and  Jackson,  were  on  Tuesday  and 
a  part  of  Wednesday,  the  26th  and  27th  of  August,  on  the 
Orange  and  Alexandria  railroad,  between  Pope  and  Alexandria, 
on  the  approach  of  Pope  from  Warrenton  they  withdrew  to  the 
west,  and  halted  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Warrenton  turnpike,  ex 
pecting  to  be  rejoined  by  Longstreet,  where  they  awaited  the 
approach  of  the  enemy  and  delivered  him  battle. 

THE   BATTLE    OF    FRIDAY,    THE   TWKKTY-NINTH    OF   AUGUST. 

The  conflict  of  Friday  occurred  near  the  village  of  Groveton, 
our  right  resting  just  above  and  near  the  village,  and  the  left 


LT    GEN.    LONCSTREET. 

From   a    Plioinqraph   taken    from.  life. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  455 

npon  the  old  battle-field  of  Manassas.  The  division  of  Gen. 
Anderson  had  not  yet  arrived,  and  the  corps  of  Longstreet  had 
not  been  fully  placed  in  position.  The  enemy,  probably  aware 
of  our  movements,  selected  this  opportunity  to  make  an  attack 
upon  Jackson,  hoping  thereby  to  turn  our  left,  destroy  our 
combinations,  and  disconcert  the  plans  which  had  already  be 
come  apparent  to  the  Federal  commanders. 

Gen.  Longstreet' s  passage  of  the  Thoroughfare  Gap,  in  the 
face  of  a  force  of  two  thousand  of  the  enemy,  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  incidents  of  the  late  operations  in  Northern 
Virginia.  The  Gap  is  a  wild,  rude  opening  through  the  Bull 
Run  Mountains,  varying  in  width  from  one  hundred  to  two 
hundred  yards.  A  rapid  stream  of  water  murmurs  over  the 
rocks  of  the  rugged  defile,  along  which  runs  a  stony  winding 
road.  On  either  side  arise  the  mountains,  those  on  the  left 
presenting  their  flat,  precipitous  faces  to  the  beholder,  witli 
here  and  there  a  shrub  jutting  out  and  relieving  the  monoto 
nous  gray  of  the  rocky  mass ;  and  those  on  the  right  covered 
thickly  with  timber,  impassable  to  any  but  the  most  active  men. 
The  strong  position  afforded  by  this  pass,  which  might  have 
been  held  against  almost  any  force  by  a  thousand  determined 
troops  and  a  battery  of  artillery,  had  been  possessed  by  the 
enemy,  who  had  planted  his  batteries  at  various  points  and 
lined  the  sides  of  the  mountains  with  his1  skirmishers.  As  it 
was,  the  passage  was  effected  by  Longstreet's  division  with  the 
loss  of  only  three  men  wounded.  This  result  was  accomplished 
by  a  decisive  piece  of  strategy,  by  which  a  small  column  ot 
three  brigades — Pryor's,  "Wilcox's  and  Featherstone's,  and  two 
batteries  of  rifle  pieces — were  thrown  through  Hopewell  Gap, 
some  three  miles  to  the  left  of  Thoroughfare  Gap,  as  we  ap 
proached  Manassas. 

Under  Jackson  and  Longstreet,  the  details  of  the  plan  of 
Gen.  Lee  had  been  so  far  carried  out  in  every  respect.  For 
ten  days  or  more  the  troops  of  both  of  these  generals  in  the 
advance  were  constantly  under  fire.  The  former  had  been  en 
gaged  in  no  less  than  four  serious  fights.  Many  of  the  men 
were  barefooted,  in  rags ;  provided  with  only  a  single  blanket 
as  a  protection  against  the  heavy  dews  and  severe  cold  at  night , 
frequently  they  would  get  nothing  from  daylight  to  daylight; 
rations  at  best  consisted  of  bread  and  water,  with  a  rare  ant? 


4:56  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

economical   intermingling  of  bacon ;  and  the  troops  were  in 
what  at  any  other  time  they  would  have  characterized  as  a  sut 
fering  condition.    Notwithstanding  these  adverse  circumstances 
not  a  murmur  of  complaint  had  been  heard  ;  marches  of  twenty 
and  in  one  instance  of  thirty,  miles  a  day  had  been  patiently 
endured,  and  the  spirit  of  the  army,  so  far  from  being  broken, 
was  elevated  to  a  degree  of  enthusiasm  which  foreboded  nothing 
but  the  victory  it  won. 

On  the  morning  of  the  29th,  the  Washington  Artillery  of 
N"ew  Orleans  and  several  other  batteries  were  planted  upon  a 
high  hill  that  commanded  the  extensive  ground  over  which  the 
enemy  were  advancing,  and  just  in  front  of  this,  perhaps  a 
little  to  the  left,  the  fight  began.  The  Federals  threw  forward 
a  heavy  column,  supported  by  field  batteries,  and  under  cover 
of  their  fire  made  a  bold  stroke  to  divide  our  line.  The  blow 
fell  upon  a  portion  of  Swell's  troops,  who  were  concealed  be 
hind  the  embankment  of  a  railroad ;  but  no  sooner  had  the 
enemy  appeared  within  close  range,  than  they  received  a  ter 
ribly  galling  fire,  which  drove  them  panic-stricken  from  that 
portion  of  the  field.  As  they  ran,  our  artillery  opened  upon 
the  flying  mass  with  shell  and  round  shot.  Every  ball  could 
be  seen  taking  effect.  The  enemy  fell  by  scores,  until  finally 
the  once  beautiful  line  melted  confusedly  into  the  woods.  Again 
they  renewed  the  attack,  and  gradually  the  fight  became  gen 
eral  along  nearly  the  entire  column  of  Jackson. 

As  the  afternoon  progressed,  however,  Gen.  Lee  discovered 
that  strong  Yankee  reinforcements  were  coming  up,  and  he 
accordingly  ordered  the  division  of  Gen.  Hood,  belonging  to 
Longstreet's  corps,  to  make  a  demonstration  on  the  enemy's 
left.  This  was  done,  perhaps  an  hour  before  dark,  and  the 
moment  they  became  engaged  the  difference  became  percep 
tible  at  a  glance.  Jackson,  thus  strengthened,  fought  with  re 
newed  vigor,  and  the  enemy,  not  knowing  the  nature  of  the 
reinforcements,  and  diverted  by  our  onset,  which  compelled 
him  to  change  his  lines,  was  proportionately  weakerfed.  The 
result  was,  that  at  dark  Hood's  division  had  driven  the  forces 
in  front  of  them  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  our  starting- 
point,  and,  had  it  not  been  for  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  might 
have  turned  the  defeat  into  an  utter  rout. 

The  conflict  had  been  terrific.     Our  troops  were  advanced 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  457 

several  times  during  the  fight,  but  the  enemy  fought  with  Jos 
peration,  and  did  not  retire  until  nine  o'clock  at  night,  when 
they  sullenly  left  the  field  to  the  Confederates.  During  the 
night  orders  came  from  head-quarters  for  our  troops  to  fall  back 
to  their  original  positions,  preparatory  to  our  renewal  of  the 
action  in  the  morning.  It  might  have  been  this  simple  retro 
grade  movement  which  led  to  the  mendacious  dispatch  sent  by 
Pope  to  Washington,  stating  that  he  had  whipped  our  army, 
and  driven  us  from  the  field,*  but  confessing  that  the  Federal 
loss  was  eight  thousand  in  killed  and  wounded. 

THE   BATTLE    OF    SATURDAY,    THE   THIRTIETH    OF   AUGUST. 

The  grand  day  of  the  prolonged  contest  was  yet  to  dawn. 
For  two  days  each  wing  of  our  army  under  Generals  Long- 
street  and  Jackson  had  repulsed  with  vigor  attacks  made  on 
them  separately.  Gen.  Pope  had  concentrated  the  greatei 
portion  of  the  army  under  his  command  for  a  desperate  re 
newal  of  the  attack  on  our  lines.  Friday  night  found  those  oi 
our  men  who  were  not  engaged  in  burying  the  dead  and  bring 
ing  away  the  wounded,  sleeping  upon  their  arms.  All  the 
troops  of  Longstreet's  corps,  with  the  exception  of  Gen.  II.  H. 
Anderson's,  which  was  only  three  or  four  miles-  in  the  rear,  had 
taken  their  places  in  the  line  of  battle,  and  every  one  looked 
forward  to  the  events  of  the  coming  day,  the  anticipations  of 
which  had  sustained  our  soldiers  under  the  terrible  fatigue, 
discomforts,  and  deprivations  of  the  ten  days'  tedious  inarch, 
by  which  reinforcements  had  at  last  reached  the  heroic  and 
unyielding  Jackson. 

"With  the  first  streak  of  daylight  visible  through  the  light 
mist  that  ascended  from  the  woods,  our  men  were  under  arms. 
The  pickets  of  the  two  armies  were  within  a  few  hundred  yards 
of  each  other.  Every  circumstance  indicated  that  the  battle 
would  commence  at  an  early  hour  iu  the  morning.  The  waking 


*  It  appears  that  Gen.  R.  H.  Anderson's  division,  which  came  down  the  turn 
pike  on  their  way  to  Sudley  Church,  where  they  had  been  ordered  the  day  be 
fore,  were  stopped  by  our  pickets,  and  told  that  the  enemy  were  in  strong  force 
Immediately  in  front.  The  general  countermarched  his  division,  wagons,  and 
artillery,  and  fell  back  in  rear  of  Longstreet  for  the  night.  It  is  probable  that 
the  enemy,  seeing  this,  supposed  it  to  be  the  falling  back  of  our  whole  army. 


4:58  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

of  a  portion  of  our  batteries  into  life  soon  after  daylight,  and 
the  frequent  cannonading  thereafter,  the  almost  incessant  skir 
mishing  in  front,  with  its  exciting  volleys  of  musketry,  al) 
conspired  to  produce  this  impression. 

Our  line  of  battle  was  an  obtuse  crescept  in  shape,  and  at 
least  five  miles  long.  Jackson's  line,  which  formed  our  left, 
stretched  from  Sudley,  on  Bull  Run,  along  the  partly  exca 
vated  track  of  the  Manassas  Independent  line  of  railroad,  for  a 
portion  of  the  way,  and  thence  towards  a  point  on  the  Warren- 
ton  turnpike,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  in  rear  or  west  of  Grove- 
ton.  His  extreme  right  came  within  about  six  hundred  yards 
of  the  turnpike. 

Longstreet's  command,  which  formed  our  right  wing,  ex 
tended  from  the  point  near  the  turnpike  on  which  Jackson's 
right  flank  rested,  and  prolonged  the  line  of  battle  far  to  the 
right,  stretching  beyond  the  line  of  thd  Manassas  Gap  railroad. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  a  point  on  the  Warrenton  turnpike,  a 
mile  and  a  half  west  of  Groveton,  was  the  centre  of  our  posi 
tion,  and  the  apex  of  our  crescent,  whose  convexity  was  to 
wards  the  west.  It  was  here,  in  an  interval  between  Jackson's 
right  and  Longstreet's  left  that  our  artillery  was  placed.  Eight 
batteries  were  planted  on  a  commanding  elevation. 

The  enemy's  line  of  battle  conformed  itself  to  ours,  and  took, 
therefore,  a  crescent  form,  of  which  the  centre  or  more  ad 
vanced  portion  was  at  Groveton,  whence  the  wings  declined 
obliquely  to  the  right  and  left.  Their  batteries  were  in  rear 
of  their  infantry,  and  occupied  the  hills  which  they  had  held 
in  the  fight  of  July,  1861,  but  pointed  differently. 

The  disposition  of  the  enemy's  forces  was,  Gen.  Heintzel- 
man  on  the  extreme  right  and  Gen.  McDowell  on  the  extreme 
left,  while  the  army  corps  of  Generals  Fitz  John  Porter  and 
Seigel,  and  Reno's  division  of  Gen.  Burnside's  army,  were 
placed  in  the  centre. 

The  elevation  occupied  by  our  artillery,  under  command  of 
Col.  Stephen  D.  Lee,  of  South  Carolina,  was  the  most  com 
manding  ground  that  could  have  been  selected  for  the  purpose. 
It  was  about  the  centre  of  the  entire  army.  To  the  front,  the 
land  breaks  beautifully  into  hill  and  dale,  forming  a  sort  of 
amphitheatre.  Around  the  field,  and  occasionally  shooting 
into  it  in  narrow  bands,  are  heavy  woods. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  459 

Early  in  tlie  morning  the  immense  masses  of  the  enemy's 
infantry  were  seen  in  line  of  battle,  and  far  in  the  distance 
immense  clouds  of  dust  filled  the  heavens.  During  this  timo 
our  batteries  were  pitching  their  shot  and  shell  into  the  Fed 
eral  ranks,  and  returning  the  fire  of  their  artillery  on  the  brow 
of  an  opposite  hill.  Sometimes  it  was  fierce,  but  generally  it 
was  a  deliberate  interchange  of  fire. 

About  1  A.  M.  a  regiment  advanced  rapidly  on  the  enemy's 
left,  determined  to  drive  out  our  pickets  from  an  orchard, 
where  all  the  morning  they  had  been  keeping  up  a  brisk  fire. 
This  effort  succeeded,  and  our  brave  sharpshooters  retired 
through  the  orchard  in  good  order.  As  soon  as  they  got  well 
out  of  the  way,  our  batteries  opened  upon  the  enemy,  and  in 
ten  minutes  they  were  retreating,  sheltering  themselves  in  the 
ravines  and  behind  a  barn.  At  2  o'clock  the  forces  that  had 
been  moving  almost  the  whole  day  towards  our  left,  began  to 
move  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  it  appeared  that  they  were 
retiring  towards  Manassas,  two  or  three  miles  distant.  Several 
attempts  were  now  made  to  advance  upon  our  left  like  those 
to  drive  in  our  pickets  on  our  right,  but  a  few  shells  served  to 
scatter  the  skirmishers  and  drive  them  into  the  woods  that 
skirted  this  beautiful  valley  on  either  hand.  When  it  appeared 
more  than  probable  that  the  enemy,  foiled  in  his  attempt  to 
make  us  bring  on  the  fight  by  these  little  advances  on  our 
right  and  left,  was  about  to  retire,  and  merely  kept  up  the  can 
nonading  in  order  to  conceal  his  retreat,  suddenly,  at  4  p.  M., 
there  belched  forth  from  every  brazen  throat  in  our  batteries  a 
volley  that  seemed  to  shake  the  very  earth. 

It  was  at  this  instant  that  the  battle  was  joined.  As  the 
sporting  whirls  of  smoke  drifted  away  the  cause  of  the  tumult 
was  at  once  discerned.  A  dense  column  of  infantry,  several 
thousand  strong,  which  had  been  massed  behind  and  near  a 
3trip  of  woods,  had  moved  out  to  attack  Jackson,  whose  men 
were  concealed  behind  an  excavation  on  the  railroad.  As  soon 
as  they  were  discovered  our  batteries  opened  with  tremendous 
power,  but  the  Federals  moved  boldly  forward,  until  they  came 
"within  the  range  of  our  small-arms,  where  for  fully  fifteen 
minutes  they  remained  desperately  engaged  with  our  infantry 
As  the  fight  progressed,  a  second  line  emerged  from  the  cover 
and  went  to  the  support  of  those  in  front,  and  finally  a  third 


±60  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

line  marched  out  into  the  open  field  below  us  and  there  halted 
hesitated,  and  soon  commenced  firing  over  the  heads  of  their 
comrades  beyond. 

Jackson's  infantry  raked  these  three  columns  terribly.  Re 
peatedly  did  they  break  and  run,  and  rally  again  under  the 
energetic  appeals  of  their  officers,  for  it  was  a  crack  corps  of 
the  Federal  army — that  of  Generals  Sykes  and  Morrell ;  but 
it  was  not  in  human  nature  to  stand  unflinchingly  before  that 
hurricane  of  fire.  As  the  fight  progressed,  Lee  moved  his  bat 
teries  to  the  left,  until  reaching  a  position  only  four  hundred 
yards  distant  from  the  enemy's  lines,  he  opened  again.  The 
spectacle  was  now  magnificent.  As  shell  after  shell  burst  in 
the  wavering  ranks,  and  round  shot  ploughed  broad  gaps  among 
them,  one  could  distinctly  see  through  the  rifts  of  smoke  the 
Federal  soldiers  falling  and  flying  on  every  side.  With  the 
explosion  of  every  bomb,  it  seemed  as  if  scores  dropped  dead, 
or  writhed  in  agony  upon  the  field.  Some  were  crawling  on 
their  hands  and  knees  ;  some  were  piled  up  together ;  and  some 
were  lying  scattered  around  in  every  attitude  that  imagination 
can  conceive. 

Presently  the  Yankee  columns  began  to  break  and  men  to 
fall  out  to  the  rear.  The  retreating  numbers  gradually  in 
crease,  and  the  great  mass,  without  line  or  form,  now  move 
back  like  a  great  multitude  without  guide  or  leader.  From  a 
slow,  steady  walk,  the  great  mass,  or  many  parts  of  it,  move 
at  a  run.  Jackson's  men,  yelling  like  devils,  now  charge  upon 
the  scattered  crowd  ;  but  it  is  easily  seen  that  they  themselves 
had  severely  suffered,  and  were  but  a  handful  compared  with 
the  overwhelming  forces  of  the  enemy.  The  flags  of  two  or 
three  regiments  do  not  appear  to  be  more  than  fifty  yards 
apart.  The  brilliant  affair  has  not  occupied  more  than  half 
an  hour,  but  in  that  brief  time  more  than  a  thousand  Yankees 
have  been  launched  into  eternity,  or  left  mangled  on  the  ground. 

The  whole  scene  of  battle  now  changes.  It  will  be  seen  in 
referring  to  the  disposition  of  our  forces,  that  Jackson's  line, 
which  formed  our  left,  stretched  from  Bull  Run  towards  a  point 
on  the  Warrenton  turnpike.  In  his  severe  action  with  the  en 
emy,  his  left,  advancing  more  rapidly  than  his  right,  had  swept 
around  by  the  Pittsylvania  House,  and  was  pressing  the  Fed 
erals  back  towards  the  turnpike.  It  was  now  the  golden  op 


THE    SECOND    YEAK.  461 

portunity  for  Longs  tree  t  to  attack  the  exposed  left  flank  o:  the 
enemy  in  front  of  it. 

Hood's  brigade  charged  next  the  turnpike.  In  its  track  it 
met  Sickles'  Excelsior  brigade,  and  almost  annihilated  it. 
The  ground  was  piled  with  the  slain.  Pickett's  brigade  was 
on  the  right  of  Hood's,  next  came  Jenkins'  brigade,  and  next4 
was  Kemper's,  which  charged  near  the  Conrad  House.  Evans' 
and  Anderson's  were  the  reserve,  and  subsequently  came  into 
action. 

JSTot  many  minutes  elapsed  after  the  order  to  attack  passed 
along  our  entire  line  before  the  volleys  of  platoons,  and  finally 
the  rolling  reports  of  long  lines  of  musketry,  indicated  that 
the  battle  was  in  full  progress.  The  whole  army  was  now  in 
motion.  The  woods  were  full  of  troops,  and  the  order  for  the 
supports  to  forward  at  a  quick  step  was  received  with  enthusi 
astic  cheers  by  the  elated  men.  The  din  was  almost  deafen 
ing,  the  heavy  notes  of  the  artillery,  at  first  deliberate,  but 
gradually  increasing  in  their  rapidity,  mingled  with  the  sharp 
treble  of  the  small-arms,  gave  one  an  idea  of  some  diabolical 
concert  in  which  all  the  furies  of  hell  were  at  work.  Through 
the  woods,  over  gently  rolling  hills,  now  and  then  through  an 
open  field  we  travel  on  towards  the  front.  From  an  elevation 
we  obtain  a  view  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  field.  Hood 
and  Kemper  are  now  hard  at  it,  and  as  they  press  forward, 
never  yielding  an  inch,  sometimes  at  a  double  quick,  you  hear 
those  unmistakable  yells,  which  tell  of  a  Southern  charge  or  a 
Southern  success. 

Reaching  the  vicinity  of  the  Chinn  House,  the  eye  at  once 
embraces  the  entire  vista  of  battle — at  least  that  portion  of  it 
which  is  going  on  in  front  of  Longstreet.  Some  of  our  men 
are  in  the  woods  in  the  rear,  and  some  in  the  open  field  where 
stretches  the  undulating  surface  far  away  towards  Bull  Run. 
The  old  battle-ground  is  plainly  discernible  less  than  two  miles 
distant,  and  to  the  right  and  left,  as  well  as  in  front,  the  coun 
try  is  comparatively  unobstructed  by  heavy  woods.  Just  be 
fore  you,  only  three  or  four  hundred  yards  away,  are  the  in 
fantry  of  the  enemy,  and  at  various  points  in  the  rear  are  their 
reserves  and  batteries.  Between  the  armies,  the  ground  is 
already  covered  with  the  dead  and  wounded,  for  a 
lengthwise  of  nearly  a  mile. 


4:62  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Our  own  artillery  are  likewise  upon  commanding  position^ 
and  you  hear  the  heayy  rush  of  shot,  the  terrible  dumps  into 
the  ground,  and  the  crash  of  trees  through  which  they  tear  with 
resistless  force  on  every  side. 

Nothing  can  withstand  the  impetuosity  of  our  troops.  Every 
line  of  the  enemy  has  been  broken  and  dispersed,  but  rallies 
again  upon  some  other  position  behind.  Hood  has  already 
advanced  his  division  nearly  half  a  mile  at  a  double-quick,  the 
Texans,  Georgians,  and  Hampton  Legion  loading  and  firing  as 
they  run,  yelling  all  the  while  like  madmen.  They  have  cap 
tured  one  or  two  batteries  and  various  stands  of  colors,  and  are 
still  pushing  the  enemy  before  them.  Evans,  at  the  head  of 
his  brigade,  is  following  on  the  right,  as  their  support,  and 
pouring  in  his  effective  volleys.  Jenkins  has  come  in  on  the 
right  of  the  Chinn  House,  and,  like  an  avalanche,  sweeps 
down  upon  the  legions  before  him  with  resistless  force.  Still 
further  to  the  right  is  Longstreet's  old  brigade,  composed  of 
Virginians — veterans  of  every  battle-field — all  of  whom  are 
fighting  like  furies.  The  First  Virginia,  which  opened  the 
fight  at  Bull  Eun  on  the  17th  of  July,  1861,  with  over  six 
hundred  men,  now  reduced  to  less  than  eighty  members,  is 
winning  new  laurels ;  but  out  of  the  little  handful,  more  than 
a  third  have  already  bit  the  dust.  Toombs  and  Anderson, 
with  the  Georgians,  together  with  Kemper  and  Jenkins,  are 
swooping  around  on  the  right,  flanking  the  Federals,  and  driv 
ing  them  towards  their  centre  and  rear.  Eschelman,  with  his 
company  of  the  "Washington  artillery  ;  Major  Garnett,  with 
his  battalion  of  Virginia  batteries,  and  others  of  our  big  guns, 
are  likewise  working  around  upon  the  enemy's  left,  and  pour 
ing  an  enfilading  fire  into  both  their  infantry  and  artillery. 

While  the  grand  chorus  of  battle  is  thundering  along  our 
front,  Jackson  has  closed  in  upon  the  enemy  on  their  right,  and 
Longstreet  has  similarly  circumscribed  them  on  their  left.  In 
other  words,  the  V  shaped  lines  with  which  we  commenced  the 
engagement  have  opened  at  the  angle,  while  the  two  opposite 
ends  of  the  figure  are  coming  together.  Lee  has  advanced  his 
battalion  of  artillery  from  the  centre,  and  from  hill-top  to  hill 
top,  wherever  he  can  effect  a  lodgm&nt,  lets  loose  the  racing 
masses  of  iron  that  chase  each  other  through  the  Federal 
ranks.  Pry  or,  Featherstone,  and  Wilcox  being  on  the  ex- 


THE    SECOND    TEAK.  463 

treme  left  of  L;)ngstreet's  line,  are  co-operating  with  the  army 
of  Jackson. 

It  was  at  this  point  of  the  battle,  when  our  infantry,  pouring 
down  from  the  right  and  left,  made  one  of  the  most  terrible 
and  sublime  bayonet  charges  in  the  records  of  war.  There  was 
seen  emerging  from  the  dust  a  long,  solid  mass  of  men,  coming 
down  upon  the  w^orn  and  disheartened  Federals,  at  a  bayonet 
charge,  on  the  double-quick.  This  line  of  bayonets,  in  the  dis 
tance,  presented  a  spectacle  at  once  awful,  sublime,  terrible,  and 
overwhelming.  "They  came  on,"  said  a  Northern  account,  re 
ferring  to  the  Confederates,  "  like  demons  emerging  from  the 
earth."  With  grim  and  terrible  energy,  our  men  came  up 
within  good  range  of  the  enemy's  columns ;  they  take  his  fire 
without  a  halt ;  a  momentary  confusion  ensues  as  the  leaden 
showers  are  poured  into  our  ranks;  but  the  next  moment  the 
bugles  sound  the  order  to  our  phalanxes,  and  instantly  the  huge 
mass  of  Confederates  is  hurled  against  the  enemy's  left  wing. 
The  divisions  of  Keno  and  JSchenck — the  choicest  veterans  of 
the  Federal  army  are  swept  away.  Setting  up  a  yell  of  tri 
umph,  our  men  push  over  the  piles  of  their  own  dead  and  the 
corpses  of  many  a  Federal,  using  the  bayonet  at  close  quarters 
with  the  enemy. 

The  rout  of  the  enemy  was  complete.  It  had  been  a  task 
of  almost  superhuman  labor  to  drive  the  enemy  from  his 
strong  points,  defended  as  they  were  by  the  best  artillery  and 
infantry  in  the  Federal  army,  but  in  less  than  four  hours  from 
the  commencement  of  the  battle  our  indomitable  energy  had 
accomplished  every  thing.  The  arrival  of  K.  H.  Anderson 
with  his  reserves  soon  after  the  engagement  was  fairly  opened, 
proved  a  timely  acquisition,  and  the  handsome  manner  in  which 
he  brought  his  troops  into  position  showed  the  cool  and  skilful 
general.  Our  generals,  Lee,  Longstreet,  Jackson,  Hood,  Kem- 
per,  Evans,  Jones,  Jenkins,  and  others,  all  shared  the  dangers 
to  which  they  exposed  their  men.  How  well  their  colonels 
and  the  subordinate  officers  performed  their  duty  is  best  testi 
fied  by  the  list  of  killed  and  wounded. 

In  determining  the  fortunes  of  the  battle  our  cavalry  had. in 
more  than  one  instance  played  a  conspicuous  part. 

As  the  columns  of  the  enemy  began  to  give  way,  Gen.  Bev 
erly  Robinson  was  ordered  by  Gen.  Longstreet  to  charge  the 


464:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 

flying  masses  with  his  brigade  of  cavalry.  The  brigade  mim 
bering  a  thousand  men,  composed  of  Munford's,  Myers',  Har- 
man's,  and  Flourney's  regiments,  was  immediately  put  in  mo 
tion,  but  before  reaching  the  infantry,  Gen.  Robinson  discovered 
a  brigade  of  the  enemy,  fifteen  hundred  strong,  drawn  up  on 
the  crest  of  a  hill  directly  in  his  front.  Leaving  one  of  his 
regiments  in  reserve,  he  charged  with  the  other  three  full  at 
the  enemy's  ranks.  As  our  men  drew  near,  the  whole  of  the 
Yankee  line  fired  at  them  a  volley  from  their  carbines,  most  of 
the  bullets,  however,  whistling  harmlessly  over  their  heads. 
In  another  instant  the  enemy  received  the  terrific  shock  of  our 
squadrons.  There  was  a  pause,  a  hand-to-hand  fight  for  a 
moment,  and  the  enemy  broke  and  fled  in  total  rout.  All 
organization  was  destroyed,  and  every  man  trusted  for  his 
safety  only  in  the  heels  of  his  horse. 

Night  closed  upon  the  battle.  When  it  was  impossible  to 
use  fire-arms  the  heavens  were  lit  up  by  the  still  continued 
flashes  of  the  artillery,  and  the  meteor  flight  of  shells  scatter 
ing  their  iron  spray.  By  this  time  the  enemy  had  been  forced 
across  Bull  E-tm,  and  their  dead  covered  every  acre  from  the 
starting-point  of  the  fight  to  the  Stone  bridge.  In  its  first 
stages,  the  retreat  of  the  enemy  was  a  wild,  frenzied  rout;  the 
great  mass  of  the  enemy  moving  at  a  full  run,  scattering  over 
the  fields  and  trampling  upon  the  dead  and  living  in  the  mad 
agony  of  their  flight.  The  whole  army  was  converted  into  a 
mob ;  regiments  and  companies  were  no  longer  distinguisha 
ble  ;  and  the  panic-stricken  fugitives  were  slaughtered  at  every 
step  of  their  retreat — our  cavalry  cutting  them  down,  or  0111 
infantry  driving  their  bayonets  into  their  backs. 

In  crossing  Bull  Run  many  of  the  enemy  were  drowned, 
being  literally  dragged  and  crushed  under  the  water,  which  was 
not  more  than  waist  deep,  by  the  crowds  of  frenzied  men  press 
ing  and  trampling  upon  each  other  in  the  stream.  On  reach 
ing  Centreville  the  flight  of  the  enemy  was  arrested  by  the 
appearance  of  about  thirty  thousand  fresh  Yankee  troops — 
Gen.  Franklin's  corps.  The  mass  of  fugitives  was  here  rallied 
into  the  extent  of  forming  it  again  into  columns,  and  with  this 
appearance  of  organization,  it  was  resolved  by  Gen.  Pope  to 
continue  his  retreat  to  the  intrenchments  of  Washington. 

Thus  ended  the  second  great  battle  of  Manassas.     We  had 


THE    SECOND    TEAK.  465 

driven  the  enemy  up  hill  and  down,  a  distance  of  two  and  a 
half  miles,  strewing  this  great  space  with  his  dead,  captured 
thirty  pieces  of  artillery,  and  some  six  or  eight  thousand  stand 
of  arms.  Seven  thousand  prisoners  were  paroled  on  the  field 
of  battle.  For  want  of  transportation  valuable  stores  had  to 
be  destroyed  as  captured,  while  the  enemy  at  their  various 
depots  are  reported  to  have  burned  many  millions  of  property 
in  their  retreat. 

The  appearance  of  the  field  of  battle  attested  in  the  most 
terrible  and  hideous  manner  the  carnage  in  the  ranks  of  the 
enemy.  Over  the  gullies,  ravines,  and  valleys,  which  divided 
the  opposite  hills,  the  dead  and  wounded  lay  by  thousands,  as 
far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  The  woods  were  full  of  them.  In 
front  of  the  Chinn  House,  which  had  been  converted  into  a 
hospital,  tho  havoc  was  terrible.  The  ground  was  strewn  not 
only  with  men,  but  arms,  ammunition,  provisions,  haversacks, 
canteens,  and  whatever  else  the  affrighted  Federals  could 
throw  away  to  facilitate  their  flight.  In  front  of  the  positions 
occupied  by  Jackson's  men,  the  killed  were  more  plentiful.  In 
many  instances  as  many  as  eighty  or  ninety  dead  marked  the 
place  where  had  fought  a  single  Yankee  regiment.  Around 
the  Henry  and  Robinson  Houses  the  dead  were  more  scattered, 
as  if  they  were  picked  off,  or  killed  while  running.  The  body 
of  a  dead  Yankee  was  found  lying  at  full  length  upon  the 
grave  of  the  aged  Mrs.  Henry,  who  was  killed  by  the  enemy's 
balls  in  the  old  battle  that  had  raged  upon  this  spot.  Three 
others  were  upon  the  very  spot  where  Bartow  fell,  and  within 
a  few  feet  of  the  death-place  of  Gen.  Bee  was  still  another 
group.  A  little  further  on  a  wounded  Federal  had  lain  for  the 
last  two  days  and  nights,  where  by  extending  his  hand  on  either 
side  he  could  touch  the  dead  bodies  of  his  companions.  His 
head  was  pillowed  on  one  of  these.  Confederate  soldiers  were 
also  to  be  found  in  the  midst  of  these  putrefying  masses  of 
death ;  but  these  were  comparatively  rare.  The  scenes  of  the 
battle-field  were  rendered  ghastly  by  an  extraordinary  circum 
stance.  There  was  not  a  dead  Yankee  in  all  that  broad  field 
who  had  not  been  stripped  of  his  shoes  or  stockings — and  in 
numerous  cases  been  left  as  naked  as  the  hour  he  was  born 
Our  barefooted  and  ragged  men  had  not  hesitated  to  supply  their 
necessities  even  from  the  garments  and  equipments  of  the  dead, 

30 


4-66  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  enemy  admitted  a  loss  down  to  Friday  night  of  17,000 
men,  Pope  officially  stating  his  loss  on  that  day  to  have  been 
8,000.  In  one  of  the  Baltimore  papers  it  was  said  that  the 
entire  Yankee  loss,  including  that  of  Saturday,  was  32,000 
men — killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners.  This  statement  allow? 
15,000  for  the  loss  on  Saturday.  That  'the  loss  of  that  par 
ticular  day  was  vastly  greater  than  the  enemy  admit,  we  take 
to  be  certain.  They  are  not  the  persons  to  over-estimate  their 
own  losses,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  Gen.  Lee  tells  us  that  ovei 
7,000  of  them  were  taken  and  paroled  on  the  field.  If  they 
fought  the  battle  with  any  thing  like  the  desperation  they  pre 
tend,  considering  that  it  lasted  five  hours,  they  certainly  had 
more  than  8,000  killed  and  wounded.  Four  days  after  the 
battle  there  were  still  three  thousand  wounded  Yankees  un- 
cared  for  within  the  lines  of  Gen.  Lee.  It  is  very  certain,  if 
they  were  not  cared  for,  it  was  because  the  number  of  wounded 
was  so  great  that  their  turn  had  not  come.  Our  own  wounded, 
not  exceeding,  it  is  said,  3,000,  could  very  well  be  attended  to 
:m  a  day,  and  then  the  turn  of  the  Yankees  would  come.  Yet 
i«o  numerous  were  they,  that  at  the  end  of  four  days  three 
'thousand  of  them  had  not  received  surgical  assistance.  This 
indicates  an  enormous  list  of  wounded,  and  confirms  the  report 
of  one  officer,  who  puts  down  their  killed  at  5,000,  and  their 
wounded  at  three  times  that  figure,  making  20,000  killed  and 
wounded,  and  of  others  who  say  that  their  killed  and  wounded 
tfere  to  us  in  the  proportion  of  five,  six,  and  even  seven  to  one. 
As  many  prisoners  were  taken,  who  were  not  included  in  the 
7,000  paroled  men  mentioned  by  Gen.  Lee,  we  do  not  think  we 
make  an  over-estimate  when  we  set  down  the  whole  Yankee  loss 
at  30,000  in  round  numbers.  Their  loss  on  Friday,  estimated 
oy  Pope  himself  at  8,000,  added  to  their  loss  on  Saturday, 
makes  33,000.  Previous  operations,  including  the  battle  of 
Cedar  Run,  the  several  expeditions  of  Stuart,  and  the  various 
skirmishes  in  which  we  were  almost  uniformly  victorious,  we 
should  think  would  fairly  bring  the  total  loss  of  the  enemy  to 
50,000  men,  since  our  forces  first  crossed  the  Rapidan.  This 
is  a  result  almost  unequalled  in  the  history  of  modern  cam 
paigns. 

The  results  of  Gen.  Lee's  strategy  were  indicative  of  the 
resources  of  military  genius.  Day  after  day  the  enemy  were 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  4.67 

beaten,  until  his  disasters  culminated  on  the  plains  of  Ma- 
nassas.  Day  after  day  our  officers  and  men  manifested  their 
superiority  to  the  enemy.  The  summer  campaign  in  Virginia 
had  been  conducted  by  a  single  army.  The  same  toil-worn 
troops  who  had  relieved  from  siege  the  city  of  Richmond,  had 
advanced  to  meet  another  invading  army,  reinforced  not  only 
by  the  defeated  army  of  McClellan,  but  by  the  fresh  corps  of 
Generals  Burnside  and  Hunter.  The  trials  and  marches  ot 
these  troops  are  extraordinary  in  history.  Transportation  was 
inadequate ;  the  streams  which  they  had  to  cross  were  swollen 
to  unusual  height ;  it  was  only  by  forced  marches  and  repeated 
combats  they  could  turn  the  position  of  the  enemy,  and,  at 
last  succeeding  in  this,  and  forming  a  junction  of  their  columns, 
in  the  face  of  greatly  superior  forces,  they  fought  the  decisive 
battle  of  the  30th  of  August,  the  crowning  triumph  of  their 
toil  and  valor. 

The  route  of  the  extraordinary  marches  of  our  troops  pre 
sented,  for  long  and  weary  miles,  the  touching  pictures  of  the 
trials  of  war.  Broken-down  soldiers  (not  all  "stragglers") 
lined  the  road.  At  night-time  they  might  be  found  asleep  in 
every  conceivable  attitude  of  discomfort — on  fence  rails  and  in 
fence  corners — some  half  bent,  others  almost  erect,  in  ditches 
and  on  steep  hill-sides,  some  without  blanket  or  overcoat.  Day 
break  found  them  drenched  with  dew,  but  strong  in  purpose ; 
with  half  rations  of  bread  and  meat,  ragged  and  barefooted, 
they  go  cheerfully  forward.  No  nobler  spectacle  was  ever  pre 
sented  in  history.  These  beardless  youths  and  gray-haired 
men,  who  thus  spent  their  nights  like  the  beasts  of  the  field, 
were  the  best  men  of  the  land — of  all  classes,  trades,  and  pro 
fessions.  The  spectacle  was  such  as  to  inspire  the  prayer  that 
ascended  from  the  sanctuaries  of  the  South — that  God  might 
reward  the  devotion  of  these  men  to  principle  and  justice  by 
crowning  their  labors  and  sacrifices  with  that  blessing  which 
always  bringeth  peace. 

The  victory  which  had  crowned  the  campaign  of  our  armies 
in  Virginia,  illuminates  the  names  of  all  associated  with  it. 
But  in  the  achievement  of  that  victory,  and  in  the  history  of 
that  campaign,  there  is  one  name  which,  in  a  few  months,  had 
mounted  to  the  zenith  of  fame  ;  which  in  dramatic  associations, 
m  rapid  incidents,  and  in  swift  and  sudden  renown,  challenged 


468  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

comparison  with  the  most  extraordinary  phenomena  in   the 
annals  of  military  genius.     This  remark  is  not  invidious  in   its 
spirit,  nor  is  it  forced  into  the  context  of  this  sketch.     A  per 
sonal  allusion  may  be  sparer  in  the  narrative,  when  that  allu 
sion  is  to  the  most  remarkable  man  in  the  history  of  the  war. 

We  refer  to  Gen.  Stonewall  Jackson  and  that  wonderful 
chapter  of  military  achievements  which  commenced  in  the  Val 
ley  of  Virginia  and  concluded  at  Manassas.  It  was  difficult  to 
say  what  this  man  had  not  accomplished  that  had  ever  before 
been  accomplished  in  history  with  equal  means  and  in  an  equal 
period  of  time. 

In  the  spring,  Gen.  Jackson  had  been  placed  in  command  of 
the  small  army  of  observation  which  held  the  upper  valley  of 
the  Shenandoah  and  the  country  about  Staunton.  It  was  in 
tended  that  he  should  remain  quasi  inactive,  to  watch  the 
enemy  and  to  wait  for  him ;  but  he  soon  commenced  manoeuv 
ring  on  his  own  responsibility,  and  ventured  upon  a  scale  of 
operations  that  threw  the  higher  military  authorities  at  Rich 
mond  into  a  fever  of  anxiety  and  alarm. 

In  less  than  thirty  days  he  dashed  at  the  Yankee  advance 
and  driving  it  back,  wheeled  his  army,  swept  down  the  Valley 
and  drove  Banks  across  the  Potomac.  Returning  to  the  uppe* 
Valley,  he  manoeuvred  around  for  three  weeks — in  the  mean 
time  dealing  Fremont  a  heavy  blow  at  Cross  Keys  and  defeat 
ing  Shields  in  the  Luray  valley — and  then  suddenly  swept 
down  the  Virginia  Central  railroad,  via  Gordonsville,  on 
McClellan's  right,  before  Richmond.  The  part  he  played  in 
winding  up  the  campaign  on  the  Peninsula  is  well  known. 
Almost  before  the  smoke  had  lifted  from  the  bloody  field  of 
the  Chickahominy,  we  hear  of  him  again  on  his  old  stamping 
ground  above  Gordonsville.  Cedar  Mountain  was  fought  and 
won  from  Pope  before  he  knew  his  campaign  was  opened. 
Jackson  fell  back,  but  only  to  flank  him  on  the  right.  Pope 
retired  from  the  Rapidan  to  the  Rappahannock,  but  Jackson 
swung  still  further  round  to  the  North,  and  outflanked  him 
again.  Yet  again  he  gave  up  the  Rappahannock  and  fell  back 
eouth  of  Warrenton,  and,  for  the  third  time,  Jackson  outflanked 
him  through  Thoroughfare  Gap,  and  at  last  got  in  his  rear. 
Pope  now  had  to  fight ;  and  the  victory  which  perched  upon 
our  banners  was  the  most  brilliant  of  the  war. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  with  what  insolent  confidence  the 
North  had  anticipated  a  crowning  triumph  of  its  arms  on  the 
field  of  Manassas,  even  when  the  air  around  Washington  was 
burdened  with  the  signals  of  its  defeat.  The  North  did  not 
tolerate  the  idea  of  defeat.  On  the  very  day  of  the  battle, 
Washington  was  gay  with  exultation  and  triumph  over  an  im 
agined  victory.  At  thirty  minutes  past  twelve  o'clock,  the 
Washington  Star  published  a  dispatch,  declaring  that  it  had 
learned  from  parties  just  from  Fairfax  county,  that  the  firing 
had  stopped  ;  and  added,  "  we  trust  the  fact  means  a  surrender 
of  the  rebels,  and  do  not  see  how  it  can  mean  aught  else."  At 
a  later  hour  of  the  afternoon,  a  dispatch  was  received  at  the 
War  Department,  from  Major-gen.  Pope,  announcing  a  bril 
liant  victory  in  a  decisive  battle  with  the  Confederate  forces 
on  the  old  Bull  Run  battle-field.  It  was  stated  that  he  had 
defeated  the  Confederate  army,  and  was  driving  it  in  discom 
fiture  before  him.  This  dispatch  had  a  magical  effect.  The 
War  Department,  contrary  to  its  usual  custom,  not  only  per 
mitted,  but  officially  authorized  the  publication  of  the  dispatch. 
Citizens  of  every  grade,  of  both  sexes  and  of  all  ages,  were 
seen  in  groups  around  the  corners,  and  in  the  places  of  public 
resort,  speculating  upon  the  particulars  and  the  consequences 
of  the  decisive  victory  reported.  The  triumph  of  the  Federal 
arms  was  apparently  shown  to  be  more  complete  by  reason  of 
the  announcement  that  Gen.  Stonewall  Jackson,  with  sixteen 
thousand  of  his  troops,  had  been  cut  off  and  captured. 

It  was  at  this  point  of  exultation  that  another  dispatch  was 
received  from  Gen.  Pope,  stating  that  the  uncertain  tide  of 
battle  had  unfortunately  turned  against  the  Federal  army,  and 
that  he  had  been  compelled  to  abandon  the  battle-field  during 
the  evening.  The  revulsion  was  great ;  the  untimely  hallelu- 
;ahs  were  interrupted,  and  the  population  of  Washington,  from 
its  hasty  and  indecent  exultations  of  the  morning,  was  soon  to 
be  converted  into  a  panic-stricken  community,  trembling  for 
its  own  safety. 

Indeed,  the  victory  achieved  by  the  Confederates  was  far 
more  serious  than  the  most  lively  alarm  in  Washington  could 
at  first  imagine.  The  next  morning  after  the  battle,  the  last 
feeble  resistance  of  the  Federals  at  Centreville  was  broken. 
The  finishing  stroke  was  given  by  the  Confederates  under  Gen. 


4-70  SOUTHERN-    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

A..  P.  Hill,  who,  on  the  first  of  September  (Monday),  encoun 
tered  a  large  body  of  the  enemy  at  Germantown,  a  small  vil 
lage  in  Fairfax  county,  near  the  main  road  leading  from  Cen- 
treville  to  Fairfax  Court-house.  The  enemy,  it  appears,  had 
succeeded  in  rallying  a  sufficient  number  of  their  routed  troops 
at  the  point  named,  to  make  another  show  of  opposition  to 
the  advance  of  the  victorious  Confederates  on  their  territory 
On  Sunday,  the  pursuit  of  Pope's  army  was  commenced  and 
pressed  with  vigor  on  the  Fairfax  Court-house  road,  and  on 
Monday  morning  at  daylight  the  enemy  was  discovered  drawn 
up  in  line  of  battle  across  the  road,  their  right  extending  to 
the  village  of  Germantown.  Gen.  Hill  immediately  ordered 
the  attack,  and  after  a  brief  but  hotly  contested  fight,  the 
enemy  withdrew.  During  the  night,  the  enemy  fell  back  to 
Fairfax  Court-house  and  abandoned  his  position  at  Centreville. 
The  next  day,  about  noon,  he  evacuated  Fairfax  Court-house, 
taking  the  road  to  Alexandria  and  Washington. 

Thus  were  realized  the  full  and  glorious  results  of  the  second 
victory  of  Manassas ;  thus  were  completed  the  great  objects  of 
the  brilliant  summer  campaign  of  1862  in  Virginia ;  and  thus, 
for  a  second  time,  on  the  famous  borders  of  the  Potomac,  the 
gates  were  thrown  wide  open  to  the  invasion  of  the  North,  and  to 
new  fields  of  enterprise  for  the  victorious  armies  of  the  South. 

The  rapid  change  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
the  sharp  contrast  between  its  late  forlorn  situation  and  what 
were  now  the  brilliant  promises  of  the  future,  were  animating 
and  suggestive  topics. 

Little  more  than  three  months  had  elapsed  since  the  columns 
of  a  hostile  army  were  debouching  on  the  plains  near  Rich 
mond,  when  the  evacuation  of  the  city  and  a  further  retreat  of 
the  Confederate  army  were  believed  by  nearly  all  official  per 
sons  the  most  prudent  and  politic  steps  that  the  government 
could  take  under  the  circumstances.  Little  more  than  three 
months  had  elapsed  since  our  armies  were  retreating  weak  and 
disorganized  before  the  overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy, 
yielding  to  them  the  sea-coast,  the  mines,  the  manufacturing 
power,  the  grain  fields,  and  even  entire  States  of  the  Confed 
eracy.  Now  we  were  advancing  with  increased  numbers,  im 
proved  organization,  renewed  courage,  and  the  prestige  of 
victory,  upon  an  enemy  defeated  and  disheartened. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  47i 

As  the  opposing  armies  of  the  war  now  stood,  the  South 
had  causes  for  congratulation  and  pride  such,  perhaps,  as  no 
other  people  ever  had  in  similar  circumstances.  The  North 
had  a  population  of  twenty -three  millions  against  eight  mil 
lions  serving  the  South,  and  of  these  eight  millions  nearly 
three  millions  were  African  slaves.  The  white  population  of 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania  was  greater  than  that  of  the 
Confederate  States.  Manufacturing  establishments  of  all  de 
scriptions  rendered  the  North  a  self-sustaining  people  for  all 
the  requirements  of  peace  or  war,  and,  with  these  advantages, 
they  retained  those  of  an  unrestricted  commerce  with  foreign 
nations.  The  North  had  all  the  ports  of  the  world  open  to  its 
ships ;  it  had  furnaces,  foundries,  and  workshops ;  its  manufac 
turing  resources,  compared  with  those  of  the  South,  were  as 
five  hundred  to  one ;  the  great  marts  of  Europe  were  open  to 
it  for  supplies  of  arms  and  stores  ;  there  was  nothing  of  mate 
rial  resource,  nothing  of  the  apparatus  of  conquest  that  was 
not  within  its  reach. 

The  South,  on  the  other  hand,  with  only  a  few  insignificant 
manufactories  of  arms  and  materials  of  war,  textile  fabrics, 
leather,  &c.,  had  been  cut  off  by  an  encircling  blockade  for 
fifteen  months  from  all  those  supplies  upon  which  she  had  de 
pended  from  the  North  and  from  Europe,  in  the  way  of  arms, 
munitions  of  war,  clothing,  medicines,  and  many  of  the  essen 
tials  of  subsistence.  The  South  was  without  the  vestige  of  a 
navy,  except  a  straggling  ship  or  two,  while  that  of  the  North 
in  this  war  was  equal  to  a  land  force  of  three  or  four  hundred 
thousand  men.  The  South  was  nearly  exhausted  of  the  com 
monest  articles  of  food,  while  the  Northern  States  had  a  super 
abundance  of  all  the  essentials  and  luxuries  of  life.  The 
Northern  troops,  en  masse,  were  better  armed,  equipped,  and 
subsisted  than  those  of  any  other  nation,  while  those  of  the 
South  were  armed  with  all  sorts  of  weapons — good,  bad,  and 
indifferent — clothed  in  rags  and  fed  upon  half  rations. 

The  result  of  all  this  immense  and  boasted  superiority  on 
the  part  of  the  North,  coupled  with  the  most  immense  exor- 
tions,  was  that  the  South  remained  unconquered.  The  result 
was  humiliating  enough  to  the  warlike  reputation  of  the  North. 
It  had  not  been  separated  from  its  feeble  adversary  by  seas  or 
mountains,  but  only  by  a  geographical  line ;  nature  had  not 


472  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

interfered  to  protect  the  weak  from  the  strong.  Three  "  grand 
armies"  had  advanced  against  Richmond ;  and  yet  not  only 
was  the  South  more  invincible  in  spirit  than  ever,  but  her  ar 
mies  of  brave  and  ragged  men  were  already  advancing  upon 
the  Northern  borders,  and  threatening,  at  least  so  far  as  to 
alarm  their  enemy,  the  invasion  of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  occupation  of  the  Northern  capital. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR. 


473 


CHAPTER  XYII. 

Rescue  of  Virginia  ironi  the  Invader.— Gen.  Loring's  Campaign  in  the  Kanawha 
Valley.— A  Novel  Theatre  of  the  War.— Gen.  Lee's  Passage  of  the  Potomac.— His 
Plans.— Disposition  of  our  Forces.— McClellan  again  at  the  Head  of  the  Yankee 
Army.— THE  BATTLE  OF  BOONSBORO'.— THE  CAPTURE  OF  HARPER'S  FERRY.— Its  Fruits 
—THE  BATTLE  OF  SHARPSBURG.— Great  Superiority  of  the  Enemy's  Numbers.— Fury 
of  the  Battle.— The  Bridge  of  Antietam.— A  Drawn  Battle.— Spectacles  of  Carnage.— 
The  Unburied  Dead.— Gen.  Lee  retires  into  Virginia.— McClellan's  Pretence  of 
Victory.— The  Aif'air  of  Shepherdstown.— Charges  against  McClellan.— His  Disgrace. 
— Review  of  the  Maryland  Campaign. — Misrepresentations  of  Gen.  Lee's  Objects. — 
His  Retreat.— Comment  of  the  New  York  "  Tribune."— The  Cold  Reception  of  the 
Confederates  in  Maryland.— Excuses  for  the  Timidity  of  the  Marylanders.— What 
was  accomplished  by  the  Summer  Campaign  of  1862. — The  Outburst  of  Applause  in 
Europe.— Tribute  from  the  London  "  Times."— Public  Opinion  in  England.— Dis 
tinction  between  the  People  and  the  Government.— The  Mask  of  England.— OUR  FOR 
EIGN  RELATIONS  IN  THE  WAR. — An  Historical  Parallel  of  Secession. — Two  Remarks  on 
the  "  Neutrality"  of  Europe.— The  Yankee  Blockade  and  the  Treaty  of  Paris.— The 
Confederate  Privateers. — Temper  of  the  South. — Fruits  of  the  Blockade. 

THE  close  of  the  summer  found  the  long-harassed  soil  ot 
Virginia  cleared  of  the  footsteps  of  the  invader.  The  glorious 
victory  of  Manassas  was  followed  by  other  propitious  events  in 
this  State  of  lesser  importance,  but  which  went  to  complete 
the  general  result  of  her  freedom  from  the  thraldom  of  the 
Yankee. 

In  the  early  part  of  September  the  campaign  of  Gen.  Loring 
in  the  valley  of  the  Kanawha  was  consummated  by  a  vigorous 
attack  on  the  enemy  at  Fayette  Court-house,  and  the  occupa 
tion  of  Charlestown  by  our  troops.  On  the  10th  of  that  month 
we  advanced  upon  the  enemy's  front  at  Fayette  Court-house, 
while  a  portion  of  our  forces  made  a  detour  over  the  mountain 
so  as  to  attack  him  in  the  rear.  The  fighting  continued  from 
noon  until  night,  our  artillery  attacking  desperately  in  front ; 
and  the  enemy  took  advantage  of  the  darkness  to  effect  his  es 
cape,  not,  however,  without  leaving  his  trains  in  our  hands. 

The  Yankees  made  a  stand  at  Cotton  Hill,  seven  miles  fur 
ther  on.  A  few  hours'  fighting  dislodged  them,  and  we  pur 
sued  on  to  Kanawha  Falls,  where  they  again  made  a  stand; 
but  a  few  hours'  contest  made  us  again  masters  of  the  field, 
with  more  than  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  stores  and  some 
prisoners. 


4:74  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  advance  of  our  troops  to  Chariest-own  was  the  signal  to 
the  enemy  for  an  inhuman  attempt  to  burn  the  town,  the 
women  being  driven  from  their  homes  on  fifteen  minutes'  no 
tice.  As  our  troops  approached  the  town,  dense  clouds  of  black 
smoke  were  seen  to  hang  over  it,  mingled  with  the  lurid  glare 
of  burning  buildings,  while  the  shrieks  of  frightened  women 
and  children  filled  the  air.  The  sight  stung  to  madness  our 
troops.  Two  regiments  of  Kanawha  valley  men,  beholding 
in  plain  view  the  homes  of  their  childhood  blazing,  and  catch 
ing  the  cries  of  distress  of  their  mothers,  wives,  and  sisters, 
rushed,  furious  and  headlong,  to  the  rescue.  Happily  they 
were  not  too  late  to  arrest  the  conflagration,  and  a  few  public 
buildings  and  some  private  residences  were  all  that  fell  under 
the  enemy's  torch. 

The  campaign  of  the  Kanawha  was  accomplished  by  us  with 
a  loss  of  not  more  than  a  hundred  men.  The  results  were  ap 
parently  of  great  importance,  as  we  had  secured  the  great 
salines  of  Virginia,*  driven  the  enemy  from  the  valley  of  the 
Kanawha,  and  put  our  forces  in  position  to  threaten  his  towns 
on  the  bank  of  the  Ohio.  But  unhappily  we  shall  have  occa 
sion  hereafter  to  see  that  these  results  were  ephemeral,  and 
that  this  unfortunate  part  of  Virginia  was  destined  to  other 
experiences  of  the  rigor  of  the  enemy. 

For  the  present  the  progress  of  events  takes  us  from  the  old 
battle-fields  of  the  South  and  introduces  us  to  a  novel  theatre 
of  the  war — that  theatre  being  located  for  the  first  time  on  the 
soil  and  within  the  recognized  dominions  of  the  enemy. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  September,  Gen.  Lee,  leaving  to  his 
right  Arlington  Heights,  to  which  had  retreated  the  shattered 
army  of  Pope,  crossed  the  Potomac  into  Maryland. 

The  immediate  designs  of  this  movement  of  the  Confederate 


*  But  few  persons,  even  in  the  South,  have  adequate  ideas  of  the  resources 
and  facilities  for  the  production  of  salt  in  the  Kanawha  valley,  and  of  the  value 
of  that  small  strip  of  Confederate  territory.  In  Kanawha  county  alone  forty  fur 
naces  were  in  operation  ;  some  operated  by  gas  and  some  by  coal.  Salt  by  the 
million  of  bushels  had  been  sold  here  from  year  to  year  at  twelve  cents  and 
twenty  cents  per  bushel,  filling  the  markets  of  the  West  and  South.  Ships  for 
Liverpool  had  formerly  taken  out  salt  as  ballast ;  and  yet,  at  one  time  in  the 
war.  owing  to  the  practical  cutting  off  of  the  saline  supplies  in  Virginia,  this 
article,  formerly  of  such  cheap  bulk,  had  been  sold  in  Richmond  at  a  dollar  and 
a  half  a  pound. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  475 

commander  were  to  seize  Harper's  Ferry  and  to  test  the  spirit 
of  the  Marylanders ;  but  in  order  to  be  unmolested  in  his  plans, 
he  threatened  Pennsylvania  from  Hagerstown,  throwing  Gov. 
Curtin  almost  into  hysterics,  and  animating  Baltimore  with 
the  hope  that  he  would  emancipate  her  from  the  iron  tyranny 
of  Gen.  Wool. 

After  the  advance  of  our  army  to  Frederick,  the  Northern 
journals  were  tilled  with  anxious  reports  of  a  movement  of  our 
troops  in  the  direction  of  Pennsylvania.  While  the  people  of 
the  North  were  agitated  by  these  reports,  the  important  move 
ment  undertaken  for  the  present  by  Gen.  Lee  was  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Virginia.  It  appears  that  for  this  purpose  our  forces 
in  Maryland  were  divided  into  three  corps,  commanded  by 
Generals  Jackson,  Longstreet,  and  Hill.  The  forces  under 
Jackson  having  recrossed  the  Potomac  at  Williamsport  and 
taken  possession  of  Martinsburg,  had  then  passed  rapidly  be 
hind  Harper's  Ferry,  that  a  capture  might  be  effected  of  the 
garrison  and  stores  known  to  be  there.  In  the  mean  time,  the 
corps  of  Longstreet  and  Hill  were  put  in  position  to  cover  the 
operations  of  Jackson,  and  to  hold  back  McClellan's  forces, 
which  were  advancing  to  the  relief  of  Harper's  Ferry. 

Gen.  McClellan  had  resumed  the  chief  command  of  the 
Federal  armies  on  the  second  day  of  September.  On  the 
fourteenth  of  that  month,  he  fought  his  first  battle  in  Mary 
land,  called  the  battle  of  Boonesboro',  or  of  South  Mountain. 


When  Jackson  had  diverged  to  the  left  from  the  line  of 
march  pursued  by  the  main  body  of  the  Confederates,  recross- 
ing  the  Potomac  and  moving  rapidly  upon  Harper's  Ferry, 
Gen.  Longstreet  had  meanwhile  continued  his  march  to  Ha 
gerstown,  and  there  awaited  the  result.  To  frustrate  this  de 
sign,  and  relieve  Gen.  Miles  and  the  ten  or  twelve  thousand 
men  who  occupied  Harper's  Ferry,  the  enemy  moved  their 
entire  force  upon  the  Gap  in  the  mountains,  to  which  we  have 
iilluded,  and  there  sought  to  break  through  the  barriei  we  were 
bo  jealously  guarding,  divide  our  lines,  and  defeat  our  armies 
in  detail.  Foreseeing  this  intention  on  the  part  of  the  Fed 
erals,  Gen.  Lee  had  posted  the  division  of  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill  in 


476  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  around  the  Gap,  on  the  opposite  side  and  summit,  with  in 
structions  to  hold  the  position  at  every  hazard,  until  he  was 
notified  of  the  success  of  the  movement  of  Jackson  and  his 
co-operates.  It  was  certainly  no  part  of  the  original  plan  to 
fight  a  pitched  battle  here,  except  to  secure  this  one  desirable 
result. 

The  pass  is  known  as  Boonesboro'  Gap,  being  a  continuation 
over  the  broad  back  of  the  mountain  of  the  national  turnpike. 
The  road  is  winding,  narrow,  rocky,  and  rugged,  with  either  a 
deep  ravine  on  one  side  and  the  steep  sides  of  the  mountain  on 
the  other,  or  like  a  huge  channel  cut  through  a  solid  rock. 
Near  the  crest  are  two  or  three  houses,  which,  to  some  extent, 
overlook  the  adjacent  valleys,  but  elsewhere  the  face  of  the 
mountain  is  unbroken  by  a  solitary  vestige  of  the  handiwork 
of  man. 

The  battle  commenced  soon  after  daylight,  by  a  vigorous 
cannonade,  under  cover  of  which,  two  or  three  hours  later,  first 
the  skirmishers  and  then  the  main  bodies  became  engaged.  A 
regular  line  of  battle  on  our  part,  either  as  regards  numbers 
>r  regularity,  was  impossible,  and  the  theatre  of  the  fight  was 
therefore  limited.  The  fortunes  of  the  day,  which  were  des 
perate  enough  in  the  face  of  the  most  overwhelming  numbers, 
were  stubbornly  contested  by  the  Confederates.  The  brigade 
of  Gen.  Garland  of  Virginia,  the  first  engaged,  lost  its  brave 
commander.  While  endeavoring  to  rally  his  men,  he  fell, 
pierced  in  the  breast  by  a  musket  ball,  and  died  upon  the  field. 

While  our  lines  were  giving  way  under  the  pressure  of  the 
enemy's  numbers,  the  welcome  sounds  of  reinforcements  were 
borne  on  the  air.  The  corps  of  Gen.  Longstreet  was  at  Ha- 
gerstown,  fourteen  miles  distant,  and  at  daylight  commenced 
its  march  towards  the  scene  of  action.  Hurrying  forward 
with  all  speed,  stopping  neither  to  rest  nor  eat,  the  advance 
arrived  at  the  pass  about  four  o'clock,  and  were  at  once  sent 
into  the  mountain.  Brigade  after  brigade,  as  rapidly  as  it 
came  up,  followed,  until  by  five  o'clock  nearly  the  entire  com 
mand,  with  the  exception  of  the  brigade  of  Gen.  Toombo, 
which  had  been  left  at  Hagerstown,  was  in  position,  and  a  por 
tion  of  it  already  engaged.  Evans  was  assigned  to  the  extreme 
left,  Drayton  to  the  right,  and  Hood,  with  his  "  ragged  Tex- 
ans,"  occupied  the  centre. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  477 

0 

The  accession  of  fresh  numbers  at  once  changed  the  tone 
and  temper  of  the  combat.  The  ominous  volleys  of  musketry 
rolled  down  the  mountain  in  almost  deafening  succession. 
But  advance  we  could  not.  The  enemy  in  numbers  were  like 
a  solid  wall.  Their  bayonets  gleamed  from  behind  every  rock 
and  bush.  Ketreat  we  would  not,  and  thus  we  fought,  dog 
gedly  giving  and  taking  the  fearful  blows  of  battle,  until  long 
after  nightfall. 

The  cessation  of  firing  left  the  respective  forces,  with  some 
exceptions,  in  nearly  the  same  relative  situation  as  at  the  com 
mencement  of  tne  battle.  The  enemy  gained  nothing  and  we 
lost  nothing.  On  the  contrary,  our  object  had  been  obtained. 
We  had  encountered  a  force  of  the  enemy  near  fivefold  our 
own,  and  after  a  bloody  day,  in  which  our  killed  and  wounded 
were  quite  twenty-five  hundred  and  those  of  the  enemy  prob 
ably  more,  we  had  held  him  in  check  until  Gen.  Jackson  was 
heard  from  and  the  success  of  his  enterprise  rendered  certain. 

THE   CAPTURE   OF    HAKPKlt's    FEKRT. 

While  the  action  of  Boonesboro'  was  in  progress,  and  the 
enemy  attempting  to  force  his  way  through  the  main  pass  on 
the  Frederick  and  Hagerstown  road,  the  capture  of  Harper's 
Ferry  was  accomplished  by  the  army  corps  of  Gen.  Jackson. 

During  the  night  of  the  14th  of  September,  Gen.  Jackson 
planted  his  guns,  and  in  the  morning  opened  in  all  directions 
on  the  Federal  forces  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle  on  Bolivar 
Heights.  The  white  flag  was  raised  at  twenty  minutes  past 
seven.  At  the  moment  of  surrender,  Col.  Miles,  the  Federal 
commander,  was  struck  by  a  piece  of  shell,  which  carried  away 
his  left  thigh.  "My  God,  I  am  hit,"  he  exclaimed,  and  fell 
into  the  arms  of  his  aid-de-camp. 

The  extent  of  the  conquest  is  determined  by  the  fact  that  we 
took  eleven  thousand  troops,  an  equal  number  of  small-arms, 
seventy-three  pieces  of  artillery,  and  about  two  hundred  wagons. 
The  force  of  the  enemy  which  surrendered  consisted  of  twelve 
regiments  of  infantry,  three  companies  of  cavalry,  and  six  com 
panies  of  artillery.  The  scene  of  the  surrender  was  one  of 
deep  humiliation  to  the  North.  It  was  indeed  a  repetition  of 
the  revolutionary  glories  of  Yorktown,  to  see  here  the  proud, 


478  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

gayly-dreseed  soldiers  of  the  oppressor  drawn  up  in  line,  stack 
ing  their  arms,  and  surrendering  to  the  ragged,  barefoot,  half- 
starved  soldiers  of  liberty.* 

*  OFFICIAL  REPORT  OF  OPERATIONS  OF  GEN.  JACKSON'S  COMMAND,  from 
September  5th  to  September  27th,  1862. 

Headquarters  2d  Corps  A.  W.  V., ) 
April  23d,  1863.  f 

General, — I  have  the  honor  to  submit  a  report  of  the  operations  of  my  com- 
mand  from  the  5th  to  the  27th  of  September,  1862,  embracing  the  capture  of 
Harper's  Ferry,  the  engagement  at  Shepherdstown,  and  so  much  ol  the  battle 
of  Shurpsburg  as  was  fought  by  my  command. 

My  command  comprised  A.  P.  Hill's  division,  consisting  of  the  brigades  of 
Branch,  Gregg,  Field  (Col.  Brockenbrough  commanding),  Fender,  Archer,  and 
Col.  Thomas,  with  the  batteries  of  the  division,  under  Lieut.-col.  R.  L.  Walker ; 
Swell's  division,  under  Brigadier-gen.  Lawton,  consisting  of  the  brigades  of 
Early,  Hays  (Col.  Strong),  Trimble  (Col.  Walker),  and  Lawton  (Col.  Douglas), 
with  the  artillery  under  Major  Courtney ;  and  Jackson's  division,  under  Briga 
dier-gen.  Starke,  consisting  of  the  brigades  of  Winder  (Col.  Grigsby),  Jones  (Col. 
B.  T.  Johnson),  Taliaferro  (Col.  Warren),  and  Starke  (Col.  Stafford),  with  the 
artillery  under  Major  Shumaker,  Chief  of  Artillery. 

On  the  5th  of  September  my  command  crossed  the  Potomac  at  White's  ford, 
and  bivouacked  that  night  near  the  Three  Springs,  in  the  State  of  Maryland. 
Not  having  any  cavalry  with  me  except  the  Black  Horse,  under  Capt.  Randolph, 
I  directed  him,  after  crossing  the  Potomac,  to  take  a  part  of  his  company  and 
scout  to  the  right,  in  order  to  prevent  a  surprise  of  the  column  from  that  direc 
tion.  For  the  thorough  and  efficient  manner  in  which  this  duty  was  performed, 
and  for  the  valuable  service  rendered  generally  whilst  attached  to  my  head- 
quarters,  I  desire  to  make  special  mention  of  this  company  and  of  its  officers, 
Capt.  Randolph,  and  Lieuts  Paine.,  Tyle,  and  Smith,  who  frequently  transmit 
ted  orders,  in  the  absence  of  staff-officers. 

The  next  day  we  arrived  in  the  vicinity  of  Frederick  City.  Jackson's  division 
encamped  near  its  suburbs,  except  the  brigade  of  Gen.  Jones  (Col.  Bradley  T. 
Johnson  commanding),  which  was  posted  in  the  city  as  a  provost  guard.  Ewell's 
and  Hill's  divisions  occupied  positions  near  the  railroad  bridge,  on  the  Mono- 
cacy,  guarding  the  approaches  from  Washington  city.  In  obedience  to  instruc 
tions  from  the  commanding  general,  and  for  the  purpose  of  capturing  the  Fed 
eral  forces  and  stores  then  at  Martinsburg  and  Harper's  Ferry,  my  command 
left  the  vicinity  of  Frederick  City  on  the  10th,  and  passing  rapidly  through 
Middletown,  Booneshorough,  and  Williamsport,  recrossed  the  Potomac  into  Vir 
ginia,  at  Light's  ford,  on  the  llth.  Gen.  Hill  moved  with  his  division  on  the 
turnpike  direct  from  Williamsport  to  Martinsburg.  The  divisions  of  Jackson 
and  Ewell  proceeded  towards  the  North  Mountain  depot,  on  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  railroad,  about  seven  miles  northwest  of  Martinsburg.  They  bivouacked 
that  night  in  the  vicinity  of  the  depot.  In  order  to  prevent  the  Federal  forces 
then  at  Martinsburg  from  escaping  westward  unobserved,  Major  Myers,  com 
manding  the  cavalry,  sent  part  of  his  troops  as  far  south  as  the  Berkeley  and 
Hampshire  turnpikes.  Brigadier-gen.  White,  who  was  in  command  of  the 
Federal  forces  at  Martinsburg,  becoming  advised  of  our  approach,  evacuated 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  479 


THK   BATTLE    OF   SHARPSBTJRG. 
^ 

On  the  17th  of  September  Gen.  Lee  had  retired  to  unite  hi8 
forces,  as  far  as  possible,  to  confront  the  still  advancing  forces 

the  place  on  the  night  of  the  llth,  and  retreated  to  Harper's  Ferry.  On  the 
morning  of  the  12th,  our  cavalry  entered  the  town,  as  in  the  course  of  the  day 
did  the  main  body  of  my  command.  At  this  point,  abandoned  quartermaster, 
commissary,  and  ordnance  stores  fell  into  our  hands.  Proceeding  thence  to 
wards  Harper's  Ferry,  about  11  o'clock,  A.  M.,  on  the  following  morning  (13th), 
the  head  of  the  column  came  in  view  of  the  enemy  drawn  up  in  force  at  Boli 
var  Heights.  Gen.  Hill,  who  was  in  the  advance,  went  into  camp  near  Halls- 
town,  about  two  miles  from  the  enemy's  position.  The  two  other  divisions 
encamped  near  by. 

The  commanding  general,  having  directed  Major-gen.  McLaws  to  move  with 
his  own  and  Gen.  R.  H.  Anderson's  division,  to  take  possession  of  the  Mary 
land  Heights,  overlooking  Harper's  Ferry,  and  Brigadier-gen.  J.  G.  Walker, 
pursuing  a  different  route,  to  cross  the  Potomac,  and  move  up  that  river  on  the 
Virginia  side,  and  occupy  the  Loudon  Heights,  both  for  the  purpose  of  co-oper 
ating  with  me,  it  became  necessary,  before  making  the  attack,  to  ascertain 
whether  they  were  in  position.  Failing  to  learn  the  fact  by  signals,  a  courier 
was  dispatched  to  each  of  these  points  for  the  required  information.  During 
the  night  the  courier  from  the  Loudon  Heights  returned,  with  a  message  from 
Gen.  Walker,  that  he  was  in  position.  In  the  mean  time,  Gen.  McLaws  had 
attacked  the  Federal  force  posted  to  defend  the  Maryland  Heights,  had  routed 
it,  and  taken  possession  of  that  commanding  position.  The  Potomac  river 
flowed  between  the  positions  respectively  occupied  by  Gen.  McLaws  and  my 
self,  and  the  Shenandoah  separated  me  from.  Gen.  Walker ;  and  it  became  ad 
visable,  as  the  speediest  mode  of  communication,  to  resort  to  signals.  Before 
the  necessary  orders  were  thus  transmitted,  the  day  was  far  advanced.  The 
enemy  had,  by  fortifications,  strengthened  the  naturally  strong  position  which 
he  occupied  along  Bolivar  Heights,  extending  from  near  the  Shenandoah  to  the 
Potomac.  McLaws  and  Walker,  being  thus  separated  from  the  enemy  by  in 
tervening  rivers,  could  afford  no  assistance,  beyond  the  fire  of  their  artillery, 
and  guarding  certain  avenues  of  escape  to  the  enemy.  And  from  the  reports 
received  from  them  by  signals,  in  consequence  of  the  distance  and  range  of 
their  guns,  not  much  could  be  expected  from  their  artillery,  so  long  as  the 
enemy  retained  his  advanced  position  on  Bolivar  Heights. 

In  the  afternoon  (14th),  Gen.  Hill  was  ordered  to  move  along  the  left  bank 
of  the  Shenandoah,  turn  the  enemy's  left,  and  enter  Harper's  Ferry.  Gen. 
Lawton,  commanding  Ewell's  division,  was  directed  to  move  along  the  turnpike 
for  the  purpose  of  supporting  Gen.  Hill,  and  of  otherwise  operating  against  the 
enemy  to  his  left. 

Gen.  J.  R.  Jones,  commanding  Jackson's  division,  was  directed,  with  one  oi 
his  brigades,  and  a  battery  of  artillery,  to  make  a  demonstration  against  the 
enemy's  right,  whilst  the  remaining  part  of  his  command,  as  a  reserve,  moved 
along  the  turnpike.  Major  Massie,  commanding  the  cavalry,  was  directed  to 
keep  upon  our  left  flank,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  enemy  from  escaping 
Brig.-gen.  Walker  guarded  against  an  escape  across  the  Shenandoah  river. 


480  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  McClellan,  which,  having  obtained  possession  of  Crampton's 
Gap,  on  the  direct  road  from  Frederick  JDity  to  Sharpsburg, 
were  pressing  our  forces,  and  seemed  determined  on  a  decisive 


Fearing  lest  the  enemy  should  attempt  to  escape  across  the  Potomac,  by  meani 
of  signals  I  called  the  attention  of  Major-gen.  McLaws,  commanding  on  the  Ma 
ryland  Heights,  to  the  propriety  of  guarding  against  such  an  attempt.  The 
demonstration  on  the  left  against  the  enemy's  right  was  made  by  Winder's  bri 
gade  (Col.  Grigsby  commanding).  It  was  ordered  to  secure  a  commanding  hill 
to  the  left  of  the  heights,  near  the  Potomac.  Promptly  dispersing  some  cav 
alry,  this  eminence,  from  which  the  batteries  of  Poague  and  Carpenter  subse 
quently  did  such  admirable  execution,  was  secured  without  difficulty.  In  exe 
cution  of  the  orders  given  Maj.-gen.  Hill,  he  moved  obliquely  to  the  right  until 
he  struck  the  Shenandoah  river.  Observing  an  eminence,  crowning  the  ex 
treme  left  of  the  enemy's  line,  occupied  by  infantry,  but  without  artillery,  and 
protected  only  by  an  abatis  of  fallen  timber,  Pender,  Archer,  and  Brocken- 
brough  were  directed  to  gain  the  crest  of  that  hill,  while  Branch  and  Gregg 
were  directed  to  march  along  the  river,  and  during  the  night  to  take  advantage 
of  the  ravines,  cutting  the  precipitous  banks  of  the  river,  and  establish  them 
selves  on  the  plain  to  the  left  and  rear  of  the  enemy's  works.  Thomas  followed 
as  a  reserve.  The  execution  of  the  first  movement  was  intrusted  to  Brig.-gen. 
Pender,  who  accomplished  it  with  slight  resistance ;  and  during  the  night, 
Lieut.-col.  Walker,  chief  of  artillery  of  if  ill's  division,  brought  up  the  batteries 
of  Captains  Pegram,  Mclntosh,  Davidson,  Braxton,  and  Crenshaw,  and  estab 
lished  them  upon  the  position  thus  gained.  Branch  and  Gregg  also  gained  the 
positions  gained  for  them,  and  daybreak  found  them  in  rear  of  the  enemy's  line 
of  defence. 

As  directed,  Brig.-gen.  Lawton,  commanding  Ewell's  division,  moved  on  tho 
turnpike  in  three  columns — one  on  the  road,  and  another  on  each  side  of  it — 
until  he  reached  Hallstown,  where  he  formed  line  of  battle,  and  advanced  to 
the  woods  on  School-house  Hill.  The  division  laid  on  their  arms  during  the 
night,  Lawton  and  Trimble  being  in  line  on  the  right  of  the  road,  and  Hays  on 
his  left,  with  Early  immediately  in  his  rear.  During  the  night,  Col.  Crutch- 
field,  my  chief  of  artillery,  crossed  ten  guns  of  Ewell's  division  over  the  Shen 
andoah,  and  established  them  on  its  right  bank,  so  as  to  enfilade  the  enemy's 
position  on  Bolivar  Heights,  and  take  his  nearest  and  most  formidable  fortifica 
tions  in  reverse.  The  other  batteries  of  Ewell's  division  were  placed  in  position 
on  School-house  Hill  and  Bolivar  Heights,  on  each  side  of  the  road. 

At  dawn,  Sept.  15th,  6en.  Lawton  advanced  his  division  to  the  front  of  the 
woods,  Lawton 's  brigade  (Col.  Douglas  commanding)  moved  by  flank  to  the 
bottom  between  School-house  Hill  and  Bolivar  Heights,  to  support  the  advance 
of  Maj.-gen.  Hill. 

Lieut.-col.  Walker  opened  a  rapid  enfilade  fire  from  all  his  batteries  at  about 
one  thousand  yards'  range.  The  batteries  on  School-house  Hill  attacked  the 
enemy's  line  in  front.  In  a  short  time  the  guns  of  Capts.  Brown,  Garber,  Lati- 
mer,  and  Dement,  under  the  direction  of  Col.  Crutchfield,  opened  from  the  rear. 
The  batteries  of  Poague  and  Carpenter  opened  -fire  upon  the  enemy's  right. 
The  artillery  upon  the  London  Heights  of  Brig.-gen.  Walker's  command,  under 
Capt.  French,  which  had  silenced  the  enemy's  artillery  near  the  superin- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  481 

battle.  Sharpsburg  is  about  ten  miles  north  of  Harpe/s  Ferry, 
and  about  eight  miles  west  of  Boonesboro'. 

This  town  lies  in  a  deep  valley.  The  country  around  it  is 
broken.  Ascending  a  bill  just  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  town, 

tendent's  house,  on  the  preceding  afternoon,  again  opened  upon  Harper's  Ferry, 
and  also  some  guns  of  Maj.-gen.  McLaws,  from  the  Maryland  Heights.  In  an 
hour  the  enemy's  fire  seemed  to  be  silenced,  and  the  batteries  of  Gen.  Hill  were 
ordered  to  cease  their  fire,  which  was  the  signal  for  storming  the  works.  Gen. 
Fender  had  commenced  his  advance,  when,  the  enemy  again  opening,  Pegram 
and  Crenshaw  moved  forward  their  batteries  and  poured  a  rapid  fire  into  the 
enemy.  The  white  flag  was  now  displayed,  and  shortly  afterwards,  Brig.-gen. 
White  (the  commanding  officer,  Col.  D.  S.  Miles  having  been  mortally  wounded), 
with  a  garrison  of  about  11,000  men,  surrendered  as  prisoners  of  war. 

Under  this  capitulation  we  took  possession  of  73  pieces  of  artillery,  some 
13,000  small-arms,  and  other  stores.  Liberal  terms  were  granted  Gen.  White 
and  the  officers  under  his  command  in  the  surrender,  which  I  regret  to  say, 
do  not  seem,  from  subsequent  events,  to  have  been  properly  appreciated  by 
their  government. 

Leaving  Gen.  Hill  to  receive  the  surrender  of  the  Federal  troops,  and  taking 
the  requisite  steps  for  securing  the  captured  stores,  I  moved,  in  obedience  to 
orders  from  the  commanding  general,  to  rejoin  him  in  Maryland  with  the  re 
maining  divisions  of  my  command.  By  a  severe  night's  march,  we  reached  the 
vicinity  of  Sharpsburg  on  the  morning  of  the  16th. 

By  direction  of  the  commanding  general  I  advanced  on  the  enemy,  leaving 
Sharpsburg  to  the  right,  and  took  position  to  the  left  of  Gen.  Longstreet,  near 
a  Dunkard  church,  E well's  division  (Gen.  Lawton  commanding),  forming  the 
right,  and  Jackson's  division  (Gen.  J.  R.  Jones,  commanding),  forming  the  left 
of  my  command.  Major-gen.  Stuart,  with  the  cavalry,  was  on  my  left. 

Jackson's  division  (Gen.  Jones  commanding),  was  formed  partly  in  an  open 
field  and  partly  in  the  woods,  with  its  right  resting  upon  Sharpsburg  and 
Hagerstown  turnpike,  Winder's  and  Jones'  brigades  being  in  front,  and  Talia- 
ferro's  and  Starke's  brigades  a  short  distance  in  their  rear,  and  Poague's  battery 
on  a  knoll  in  front. 

Swell's  division  followed  that  of  Jackson  to  the  wood  on  the  left  of  the  road 
near  the  church.  Early's  brigade  was  thus  formed  on  the  left  of  the  line  of 
Jackson's  division  to  guard  its  flank,  and  Hays'  brigade  was  formed  in  its  rear  • 
Lawton's  and  Trimble's  brigades  remaining  during  the  evening  with  arms 
stacked  near  the  church. 

A  battery  of  the  enemy,  some  five  hundred  yards  to  the  front  of  Jackson's 
division,  opening  fire  upon  a  battery  to  the  right,  was  silenced  in  twenty 
minutes  by  a  rapid  and  well-directed  fire  from  Poague's  battery ;  other  batteries 
of  the  enemy  opened  soon  after  upon  our  lines  and  the  firing  continued  until 
after  dark. 

About  10  P.  M.,  Lawton's  and  Trimble's  brigades  advanced  to  the  front  to 
relieve  the  command  of  Brigadier-general  Hood  (on  the  left  of  Major-general 
D.  H.  Hill),  Avhich  had  been  more  or  less  engaged  during  the  evening.  Trim 
ble's  brigade  was  posted  on  the  right,  next  to  Ripley's,  of  D.  H.  Hill's  division, 
and  Lawton's  on  the  left. 

81 


4:82  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  looking  towards  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  eye  ranges  over  the 
greater  portion  of  the  eventful  field.  To  the  right  and  left  is 
a  succession  of  hills,  which  were  occupied  by  the  Confederates. 
In  front  is  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Antietam,  divided  longitu- 

The  troops  slept  that  night  upon  their  arms,  disturbed  by  the  occasional  fire 
of  the  pickets  of  the  two  armies,  who  were  in  close  proximity  to  each  other.  At 
the  first  dawn  of  day,  skirmishing  commenced  in  front,  and  in  a  short  time  the 
Federal  batteries,  so  posted  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Antietam  as  to  enfilade 
my  line,  opened  a  severe  and  damaging  fire.  This  was  vigorously  replied  to 
by  the  batteries  of  Poague,  Carpenter,  Brockenbrough,  Raine,  Caskie,  and 
Wooding.  About  sunrise  the  Federal  infantry  advanced  in  heavy  force  to  the 
edge  of  the  wood  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  turnpike,  driving  in  our  skirmishers. 
Batteries  were  opened  in  front  from  the  wood  with  shell  and  canister,  and  our 
troops  became  exposed,  for  near  an  hour,  to  a  terrific  storm  of  shell,  canister, 
and  musketry.  Gen.  Jones  having  been  compelled  to  leave  the  field,  the  com 
mand  of  Jackson's  division  devolved  upon  Gen.  Starke.  With  heroic  spirit  oui 
lines  advanced  to  the  conflict  and  maintained  their  position  in  the  face  of  supe 
rior  numbers.  With  stubborn  resolution,  sometimes  driving  the  eaemy  before 
them  and  sometimes  compelled  to  fall  back,  before  their  well-sustained  and 
destructive  fire.  Fresh  troops  from  time  to  time  relieved  the  enemy's  ranks, 
and  the  carnage  on  both  sides  was  terrific.  At  this  early  hour  Gen.  Starke 
was  killed,  Col.  Douglas  (commanding  Lawton's  brigade)  was  also  killed  ;  Gen. 
Lawton,  commanding  division,  and  Col.  Walker,  commanding  brigade,  were 
severely  wounded.  More  than  half  of  the  brigades  of  Lawton  and  Hays  were 
either  killed  or  wounded,  and  more  than  a  third  of  Trimble's,  and  all  the  regi 
mental  commanders  in  those  brigades  except  two  were  killed  or  wounded. 
Thinned  in  their  ranks  and  exhausted  of  their  ammunition,  Jackson's  division 
and  the  brigades  of  Lawton,  Hays,  and  Trimble  retired  to  the  rear,  and  Hood, 
of  Longstreet's  command,  again  took  the  position  from  which  he  had  been  be 
fore  relieved. 

In  the  mean  time,  Gen.  Stuart  moved  his  artillery  to  a  position  nearer  to  the 
main  command  and  more  in  our  rear.  Early  being  now  directed,  in  conse 
quence  of  the  disability  of  Gen.  Lawton,  to  take  command  of  Ewell's  division, 
returned  with  his  brigade  (with  the  exception  of  the  13th  Virginia  regiment, 
which  remained  with  Gen.  Stuart),  to  the  piece  of  wood  where  he  had  left  the 
other  brigades  of  his  division  when  he  was  separated  from  them.  Here  he 
found  that  the  enemy  had  advanced  his  infantry  near  the  wood  in  which  waa 
the  Duukard  church,  and  planted  a  battery  across  the  turnpike  near  the  edge 
of  the  wood  and  an  open  field,  and  that  the  brigades  of  Lawton,  Hays,  and 
Trimble  had  fallen  back  some  distance  to  the  rear.  Finding  here  Cols.  Grigsby 
and  Stafford  with  a  portion  of  Jackson's  division,  which  formed  on  his  left,  he 
determined  to  maintain  his  position  there  if  reinforcements  could  be  sent  to  his 
support,  of  which  he  was  promptly  assured.  Col.  Grigsby,  with  his  small  com 
mand,  kept  in  check  the  advance  of  the  enemy  on  the  left  flank  while  Gen. 
Early  attacked  with  great  vigor  and  gallantry  the  column  on  his  right  and 
front.  The  force  in  front  was  giving  way  under  this  attack,  when  another 
heavy  column  of  Federal  troops  were  seen  moving  across  the  plateau  on  hie 
left  flonk.  By  this  time  the  expected  reinforcements,  consisting  of  Semmes' 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  483 

dinally  by  the  river,  which  empties  into  the  Potomac  on  your 
right,  and  behind,  forming  a  background  to  the  picture ;  only 
two  miles  distant  are  the  steep,  umbrageous  sides  of  the  Blue 
Ridge. 

and  Anderson's  brigades,  and  a  part  of  Barksdale's  of  McLaw's  division,  arrived, 
and  the  whole,  including  Grisby's  command,  now  united,  charged  upon  the 
enemy,  checking  his  advance,  then  driving  him  back  with  great  slaughter  en 
tirely  from  and  beyond  the  wood,  and  gaining  possession  of  our  original  position. 
No  further  advance,  beyond  demonstrations,  was  made  by  the  enemy  on  the 
left.  In  the  afternoon,  in  obedience  to  instructions  from  the  commanding  gen 
eral,  I  moved  to  the  left  with  a  view  of  turning  the  Federal  right,  but  I  found 
his  numerous  artillery  so  judiciously  established  in  their  front  and  extending 
so  near  to  the  Potomac,  which  here  makes  a  remarkable  bend,  which  will  be  seen 
by  reference  to  the  map  herewith  annexed,  as  to  render  it  inexpedient  to  hazard 
the  attempt.  In  this  movement  Major-gen.  Stuart  had  the  advance  and  acted 
his  part  well.  This  officer  rendered  valuable  service  throughout  the  day.  His 
bold  use  of  artillery  secured  for  us  an  important  position,  which,  had  the  enemy 
possessed,  might  have  commanded  our  left.  At  the  close  of  the  day  my  troops 
held  the  ground  which  they  had  occupied  in  the  morning.  The  next  day  we 
remained  in  position  awaiting  another  attack.  The  enemy  continued  in  heavy 
force  west  of  the  Antietam  on  our  left,  but  made  no  further  movement  to  the 
attack. 

I  refer  you  to  the  report  of  Major-gen.  A.  P.  Hill  for  the  operations  of  his  com- 
mand  in  the  battle  of  Sharpsburg.  Arriving  upon  the  battle-field  from  Har 
per's  Ferry  at  half-past  two  o'clock  of  the  17th,  he  reported  to  the  commanding 
general,  and  was  by  him  directed  to  take  position  on  the  right.  I  have  not 
embraced  the  movements  of  his  division,  nor  his  killed  and  wounded  of  that 
action  in  my  report. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  19th  we  recrossed  the  Pctomac  river  into  Vir- 
gmia,  near  Shepherdstown.  The  promptitude  and  succ  >ss  with  which  this 
movement  was  effected  reflected  the  highest  credit  upon  the  skill  and  energy 
of  Major  Harman,  chief  quartermaster.  In  the  evening  the  command  moved  on 
the  road  leading  to  Martinsburg,  except  Lawton's  brigade  (Col.  Lamar,  of  the 
61st  Georgia,  commanding),  which  was  left  on  the  Potomac  Heights. 

On  the  same  day  the  enemy  approached  in  considerable  force  on  the  northern 
side  of  the  Potomac,  and  commenced  planting  heavy  batteries  on  its  heights. 
In  the  evening  the  Federals  commenced  crossing  under  the  protection  of  their 
guns,  driving  off  Lawton's  brigade,  and  Gen.  Pendleton's  artillery.  By  morn 
ing  a  considerable  force  had  crossed  over.  Orders  were  dispatched  to  Gens. 
Early  and  Hill,  who  had  advanced  some  four  miles  on  the  Martinsburg  road,  to 
'eturn  and  drive  back  the  enemy. 

Gen.  Hill,  who  was  in  the  advance,  as  he  approached  the  town,  formed  his 
line  of  battle  in  two  lines,  the  first  composed  of  the  brigades  of  Pender,  Gregg, 
and  Thomas,  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Gregg ;  and  the  second  of  Lane's, 
Archer's,  and  Brockenbrough's  brigades,  under  command  of  Gen.  Archer. 
Gen.  Early,  with  the  brigades  of  Early,  Trimble,  and  Hays,  took  position  in  the 
wood  on  the  right  and  left  of  the  road  leading  to  the  ford.  The  Federal  infan- 
try  line^  the  high  banks  of  the  Virginia  shore,  while  their  artillery,  formidable 


484  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

The  morning  of  the  17th  found  Gen.  Lee  strongly  posted, 
but  with  no  more  than  forty-five  thousand  men  when  the  bat 
tle  commenced.  The  force  of  the  enemy  could  not  have  been 
much  short  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  of  whom 
one  hundred  thousand  were  trained  soldiers,  disciplined  in  camp 
and  field  since  the  commencement  of  the  war. 

The  forces  of  the  enemy  were  commanded  by  McClellan  in 
person,  and  numbered  the  whole  command  of  Gen.  Burnside7 
recently  augmented  by  the  addition  of  several  new  regiments ; 
the  army  corps  lately  under  Gen.  McDowell,  now  under  com 
mand  of  Gen.  Hooker;  Gen.  Sumner's  corps;  Gen.  Franklin's 
corps ;  Gen.  Banks'  corps,  commanded  by  Gen.  "Williams ;  and 
Sykes'  division  of  Fitz  John  Porter's  corps.  Their  line  of 
battle  was  between  four  and  five  miles  long,  with  their  left 
stretching  across  the  Sharpsburg  road.  Burnside  was  on  the 
extreme  left;  Porter  held  a  commanding  eminence  to  the  right 

in  numbers  and  weight  of  metal,  crowned  the  opposite  heights  of  the  Potomac. 
Gen.  Hill's  division  advanced  with  great  gallantry  against  the  infantry,  in  the 
face  of  a  continued  discharge  of  shot  and  shell  from  their  batteries.  The  Fed 
erals  massing  in  front  of  Fender,  poured  a  heavy  fire  into  his  ranks,  and  then 
extending  with  a  view  to  turn  his  left.  Archer  promptly  formed  on  Fender's 
left,  when  a  simultaneous  charge  was  made,  which  drove  the  enemy  into  the 
river,  followed  by  an  appalling  scene  of  the  destruction  of  human  life.  Two 
hundred  prisoners  were  taken.  This  position  on  the  banks  of  the  river  we  con 
tinued  to  hold  that  day,  although  exposed  to  the  enemy's  guns  and  within 
range  of  his  sharpshooters  posted  near  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal.  Our 
infantry  remained  at  the  river  until  relieved  by  cavalry  under  Gen.  Fitzhugh  Lee. 

On  the  evening  of  the  20th  the  command  moved  from  Shepherdstown  and 
encamped  near  the  Opequon,  in  the  vicinity  of  Martinsburg.  We  remained  near 
Martinsburg  until  the  27th,  when  we  moved  to  Bunker  Hill,  in  the  county  of 
Berkeley.  The  official  lists  of  the  casualties  of  my  command  during  the  period 
embraced  in  this  report,  will  show  that  we  sustained  a  loss  of  38  officers  killed, 
171  wounded ;  of  313  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates  killed,  Ir859  wound 
ed  ;  and  missing  57— making  a  total  loss  of  2,438,  killed,  wounded,  and  missing. 

For  these  great  and  signal  victories  our  sincere  and  humble  thanks  are  duo 
unto  Almighty  God.  Upon  all  appropriate  occasions  we  should  acknowledge 
the  hand  of  Him  who  reigns  in  heaven  and  rules  among  the  powers  of  the  earth, 
In  view  of  the  arduous  labors  and  great  privations  which  the  troops  were  called 
on  to  endure,  and  the  isolated  and  perilous  position  which  the  command  occu 
pied  while  engaged  with  the  greatly  superior  force  of  the  enemy,  we  feel  the 
encouraging  consolation  that  God  was  with  us  and  gave  to  us  the  victory,  and 
unto  His  holy  name  be  all>  gratitude  and  praise. 

I  am,  general,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

T.  J.  JACKSON,  Lieutenant-geneiaL 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  485 

di  Bnrnside,  though  "Warren's  brigade  of  Porter's  corps  was 
subsequently  posted  in  the  woods  on  the  left  in  support  01 
Burnside's  men ;  Sumner's  corps  was  on  an  eminence  next  to 
the  right,  or  north  from  Porter,  and  Gen.  Hooker  had  the 
extreme  right. 

On  the  afternoon  of  Tuesday,  the  16th,  the  enemy  opened 
a  light  artillery  fire  on  our  lines.  At  three  next  morning 
every  man  was  at  his  post,  and  awaited  in  solemn  silence  the 
day  dawn.  ]STo  sooner  did  the  light  break  in  the  east  than  the 
picket  firing  began,  and  increased  in  fury  until  about  sunrise, 
when  artillery  and  infantry  together  grappled  in  the  terrible 
fight. 

Large  masses  of  the  Federal^,  who  had  crossed  the  Antietam 
above  our  position,  assembled  on  our  left.  They  advanced  in 
three  compact  lines.  The  divisions  of  Generals  McLaws,  R.  H. 
Anderson,  A.  P.  Hill  and  Walker,  who  were  expected  to  have 
joined  Gen.  Lee  on  the  previous  night,  had  not  come  up.  Gen 
erals  Jackson's  and  Ewell's  divisions  were  thrown  to  the  left  of 
Generals  Hill  and  Longstreet.  The  enemy  advanced  between 
the  Autietam  and  the  Sharpsburg  and  Hagerstown  turnpike, 
and  was  met  by  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill's  and  the  left  of  Gen.  Long- 
street's  divisions,  where  the  conflict  raged,  extending  to  our 
entire  left. 

When  the  troops  of  D.  H.  Hill  were  engaged,  the  battle 
raged  with  uncommon  fury. '  Backwards,  forwards,  surging 
and  swaying  like  a  ship  in  storm,  the  various  columns  are  seen 
in  motion.  It  is  a  hot  place  for  the  enemy.  They  are  directly 
under  our  guns,  and  we  mow  them  down  like  grass.  The  raw 
levies,  sustained  by  the  veterans  behind,  come  up  to  the  work 
well,  and  fight  for  a  short  time  with  an  excitement  incident  to 
their  novel  experiences  of  a  battle  ;  but  soon  a  portion  of  their 
line  gives  way  in  confusion.  Their  reserves  come  up,  and 
endeavor  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  Our  centre,  how 
ever,  stands  firm  as  adamant,  and  they  fall  back. 

Prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  divisions  of  McLaws,  Anderson 
and  Walker,  who  had  been  advanced  to  support  the  left  wing 
and  centre,  as  soon  as  they  had  crossed  the  Potomac  on  the 
morning  of  the  17th,  that  portion  of  our  line  was  forced  back 
by  superior  numbers.  As  soon,  however,  as  these  forces  could 
be  brought  into  action,  the  enemy  was  driven  back,  our  line 


486  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

was  restored,  and  our  position  maintained  during  the  rest  of 
the  day. 

Time  and  again  did  the  Federals  perseveringly  press  close 
ap  to  our  ranks — so  near,  indeed,  that  their  supporting  bat 
teries  were  obliged  to  cease  firing,  lest  they  should  kill  their  own 
men,  but  just  as  often  were  they  driven  back,  by  the  combined 
elements  of  destruction  which  we  brought  to  bear  upon  them. 
It  was  an  hour  when  every  man  was  wanted.  And  nobly  did 
our  brave  soldiers  do  their  duty.  "It  is  beyond  all  wonder," 
writes  a  Federal  officer,  "  how  men  such  as  the  rebel  troops 
are  can  fight  as  they  do.  That  those  ragged  wretches,  sick, 
hungry,  and  in  all  ways  miserable,  should  prove'  such  heroes 
in  fight,  is  past  explanation.  Men  never  fought  better.  There 
was  one  regiment  that  stood  up  before  the  fire  of  two  or  three 
of  our  long-range  batteries  and  of  two  regiments  of  infantry  ; 
and  though  the  air  around  them  was  vocal  with  the  whistle  of 
bullets  and  the  scream  of  shells,  there  they  stood  and  delivered 
their  fire  in  perfect  order."* 

In  the  afternoon  the  enemy  advanced  on  our  right,  where 
Gen.  Jones'  division  was  posted,  and  he  handsomely  main 
tained  his  position.  The  bridge  over  the  Antietam  creek  was 
guarded  by  Gen.  Toombs'  brigade,  which  gallantly  resisted  the 
approach  of  the  enemy  ;  but  their  superior  numbers  enabling 
them  to  extend  their  left,  they  crossed  below  the  bridge,  and 
forced  our  line  back  in  some  confusion. 

Our  troops  fought  until  they  were  nearly  cut  to  pieces,  and 
then  retreated  only  because  they  had  tired  their  last  round. 
It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  immense  Yankee  force  crossed 
the  river,  and  made  the  dash  against  our  line,  which  well-nigh 


*  There  are  some  characteristic  anecdotes  of  the  close  quarters  in  which  the 
battle  of  Sharpsburg  was  fought,  and  the  desperate  valor  shown  in  such  straits. 
A.t  one  passage  of  the  battle,  Col.  Geary,  of  the  famous  Hampton  Legion,  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  corps  of  the  army,  found  himself  confronted  by  an  over 
whelming  force  of  the  enemy.  An  officer  came  forward  and  demanded  his  sur 
render.  "  Surrender  !  Hell !"  exclaimed  the  intrepid  South  Carolinian,  as  with 
the  spring  of  a  tiger  he  seized  the  officer  and  clapped  a  pistol  to  his  head,  '•  if 
you  don't  surrender  your  own  command  to  me  this  instant,  you  infernal  scoun 
drel,  I'll  blow  your  brains  out."  The  astonished  and  affrighted  Yankee  called 
out  that  he  surrendered.  But  his  men  were  not  as  cowardly  as  himself,  and 
the  flag  of  the  regiment  he  commanded  was  only  taken  after  the  color-bear  el 
had  been  cut  down  by  our  swords. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  487 

proved  a  success.  But  it  was  at  this  moment  also  that  wel 
come  and  long-expected  reinforcements  reached  us.  At  fouj 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill's  division  came  up  and 
joined  the  Confederate  right.  It  was  well  that  Gen.  Burnside's 
advance  on  the  Federal  left  was  so  long  delayed,  and  was 
eventually  made  with  overwhelming  numbers.  The  day  closed 
with  Gen.  Burnside  clinging  closely  to  the  bridge,  beyond 
which  he  could  not  advance,  with  Gen.  Jackson  on  the  same 
ground  as  the  Confederates  held  in  the  morning,  upon  as  level 
and  drawn  a  battle  as  history  exhibits.  But  it  was  fought  for 
half  the  day  with  45,000  men  on  the  Confederate  side,  and  for 
the  remaining  half  with  no  more  than  an  aggregate  of  70,000 
men,  against  a  host  which  is  admitted  to  have  consisted  of 
130,000,  and  may  have  been  more. 

It  is  certain  that  if  we  had  had  fresh  troops  to  hurl  against 
Burnside  at  the  bridge  of  Antietarn,  the  day  would  have  been 
ours.  The  anxious  messages  of  this  officer  to  McClellan  for 
reinforcements  were  again  and  again  repeated  as  the  evening 
wore  on,  and  the  replies  of  that  commander  showed  that  he 
understood  where  was  the  critical  point  of  the  battle.  As  the 
sun  was  sinking  in  the  west,  he  dispatched  orders  to  Gen. 
Burnside,  urging  him  to  hold  his  position,  and  as  the  messen 
ger  was  riding  away  he  called  him  back — "  Tell  him  if  he 
cannot  hold  his  ground,  then  the  bridge,  to  the  last  man ! — 
always  the  bridge !  If  the  bridge  is  lost,  all  is  lost." 

The  enemy  held  the  bridge,  but  of  other  portions  of  the 
field  we  retained  possession.  Varying  as  may  have  been  the 
successes  of  the  day,  they  left  us  equal  masters  of  the  field 
with  our  antagonist.  But  our  loss  had  been  considerable  ;  it 
was  variously  estimated  from  five  to  nine  thousand  ;  and  we 
had  to  deplore  the  fall  of  Gens.  Branch  and  Starke,  with 
other  brave  and  valuable  officers.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was 
not  less  than  our  own.*  They  had  fought  well  and  been  ably 


*  The  New  York  Tribune  said :  "  The  dead  lie  in  heaps,  and  the  wounded 
are  coming  in  by  thousands.  Around  and  in  a  large  barn  about  half  a  mile 
from  the  spot  where  Gen.  Hooker  engaged  the  enemy's  left,  there  were  counted 
1,250  wounded.  In  Simmer's  corps  alone,  our  loss  in  killed,  wounded  and 
missing  amounts  to  five  thousand  two  hundred  and  eight.  The  15th  Massa 
chusetts  regiment  went  into  the  battle  with  five  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and 
same  out,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty-six.  The  19th  Massachusetts,  of  four 


SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

commanded.     But  they  had  the  advantage  not  only  of  nuin 
bers,  but  of  a  position  from  which  they  could  assume  an  offen 
sive  or  defensive  attitude  at  will,  besides  which  their  signal 
stations  on  the  Blue  Ridge  commanded  a  view  of  our  every 
movement. 

The  battle-field  of  Sharpsburg  will  long  be  remembered  from 
the  terrible  and  hideous  circumstances  that  so  many  of  the 
dead  were  left  unburied  upon  it.  Some  of  them  laid  with  their 
faces  to  the  ground,  whither  they  had  turned  in  the  agony  ot 
death,  and  in  which  position  they  had  died  ;  others  were  heap 
ed  in  piles  of  three  and  four  together,  with  their  arms  inter 
locked,  and  their  faces  turned  upwards  towards  the  sky.  Scores 
of  them  were  laid  out  in  rows,  as  though  the  death-shot  had 
penetrated  their  breasts  as  they  were  advancing  to  the  attack. 
Covered  with  mud  and  dust,  with  their  faces  and  clothes  smear 
ed  with  blood  and  gore,  there  they  rotted  in  the  sun  ! 

The  close  of  this  great  battle  left  neither  army  in  a  condition 
to  renew  the  conflict,  although  our  own  brave  troops  were  des 
perately  ready  to  do  so.  But  the  next  morning  McClellan  had 
disappeared  from  our  front,  and,  knowing  the  superiority  01 
the  enemy's  numbers,  and  not  willing  to  risk  the  combinations 
he  was  attempting,  Gen.  Lee  crossed  the  Potomac  without  mo 
lestation,  and  took  position  at  or  near  Shepherdstown. 

The  enemy  claimed  a  victory,  but  the  best  evidence,  if  any 
were  wanting,  to  prove  that  he  was  really  defeated  and  his 
army  crippled,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  he  did  not  renew  the 
fight  on  the  succeeding  day,  and  on  the  next  permitted  Gen. 
Lee  to  recross  the  Potomac  without  an  attempt  to  obstruct 
him.  The  pretence  of  victory  on  this  occasion  cost  McClelian 
his  command.  On  the  20th  of  September  he  made  a  feint  or 
a  weak  and  hesitating  attempt  to  cross  the  Potomac  at  Shep 
herdstown,  when  the  column  which  had  crossed  was  fallen 
upon  by  A.  P.  Hill  and  pushed  into  the  river,  which  was  filled 
with  the  dead  and  wounded  attempting  to  escape. 

The  charges  against  McClellan   consequent  upon  his  pre- 

hundred  and  six,  lost  all  but  one  hundred  and  forty-seven.  The  5th  Ne\? 
Hampshire,  about  three  hundred  strong,  lost  one  hundred  and  ten  enlisted 
men  and  fourteen  officers.  Massachusetts,  out  of  eight  regiments  engaged, 
loses  upwards  of  fifteen  hundred,  and  Pennsylvania  has  suffered  more  than 
anv  other  State." 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  4:89 

tended  victory,  were  sustained  by  the  official  testimony  of  the 
Yankee  commander-in-chief.  The  report  of  Geri.  Halleck  ac 
cased  McClellan  of  disobedience  of  orders,  in  refusing  to  ad 
vance  against  the  enemy  after  the  battle  of  Sharpsburg,  upon 
the  plea  that  the  army  lacked  shoes,  tents,  stores,  and  other 
necessaries,  which  Gen.  Halleck  held  to  be  entirely  unfounded, 
asserting  that  all  the  wants  of  the  army  were  duly  cared  for, 
and  that  any  causes  of  delay  that  might  have  occurred  were 
trivial  and  speedily  remedied.  He  furthermore  charged 
McClellan  with  willful  neglect  of  a  peremptory  order  of  the 
6th  of  October  to  cross  the  Potomac  immediately,  to  give  battle 
to  the  Confederates  or  to  drive  them  south. 

A  fatal  consequence  to  the  Yankees  of  the  campaign  ir 
Maryland  was  the  sacrifice  to  popular  clamor  and  official  env} 
of  him  whom  they  had  formerly  made  their  military  pet  and 
"  Napoleon,"  and  who,  although  the  extent  of  his  pretensions 
was  ridiculous,  was  really  esteemed  in  the  South  as  the  ablest 
general  in  the  North.  The  man  who  succeeded  him  in  the  com 
mand  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac  was  Gen.  Ambrose  Burn 
Bide,  of  Rhode  Island.  He  had  served  during  the  Mexican 
war  as  a  second  lieutenant ;  and  at  the  time  he  was  raised  to 
his  important  command,  the  captain  of  the  company  with 
which  he  had  served  in  Mexico,  Edmund  Barry,  was  a  recruit 
ing  agent  in  Richmond  for  the  "  Maryland  Line." 

We  have  perhaps  imperfectly  sketched  the  movements  of 
the  Maryland  campaign.*     But  we  have  sought  to  determine 


*  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  just  summary  of  the  campaign  in  North 
ern  Virgiafca  and  on  the  Upper  Potomac,  or  one  the  statements  of  which  may 
be  more  safely  appropriated  by  history  than  the  following  address  of  Gen.  Lee 
to  his  army : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA,) 
October  2d,  1862.  J 

General  Orders,  No.  116. 

In  reviewing  the  achievements  of  the  army  during  the  present  campaign,  the 
commanding  general  cannot  withhold  the  expression  of  his  admiration  of  the 
indomitable  courage  it  has  displayed  in  battle,  and  its  cheerful  endurance  of 
privation  and  hardship  on  the  march. 

Since  your  groat  victories  around  Richmond  you  have  defeated  the  enemy  at 
Cedar  Mountain,  expelled  him  from  the  Rappahannock,  and,  after  a  conflict  of 
three  days,  utterly  repulsed  him  on  the  Plains  of  Manassas,  and  forced  him  to 
take  shelter  within  the  fortifications  around  his  capital. 

Without  halting  for  repose  you  crossed  the  Potomac,  stormed  the  heights  of 


490         .  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

its  historical  features  without  any  large  enumeration  of  details 
It  was  mixed  with  much  of  triumph  to  us ;  it  added  lustre  to 
our  arms ;  it  inflicted  no  loss  upon  us  for  which  we  did  not  ex 
act  full  retribution  ;  it  left  the  enemy  nothing  but  barren  re 
sults  ;  and  it  gave  us  a  valuable  lesson  of  the  state  of  public 
opinion  in  Maryland. 

There  is  one  point  to  which  the  mind  naturally  refers  for  a 
just  historical  interpretation  of  the  Maryland  campaign.  The 
busy  attempts  of  newspapers  to  pervert  the  truth  of  history 
were  renewed  in  an  effort  to  misrepresent  the  designs  of  Gen. 
Lee  in  crossing  the  Potomac,  as  limited  to  a  mere  incursion, 
the  object 'of  which  was  to  take  Harper's  Ferry,  and  that  ac 
complished,  to  return  into  Virginia  and  await  the  movements 
of  McClellan.  It  is  not  possible  that  our  commanding  gene 
ral  can  be  a  party  to  this  pitiful  deceit,  to  cover  up  any  failure 
of  his,  or  that  he  has  viewed  with  any  thing  but  disgust  the 
offer  of  falsehood  and  misrepresentation  made  to  him  by  flat 
terers. 


Harper's  Ferry,  made  prisoners  of  more  than  eleven  thousand  men,  and  captured 
upwards  of  seventy  pieces  of  artillery,  all  their  small  arms  and  other  munitions 
of  war. 

While  one  corps  of  the  army  was  thus  engaged,  the  other  insured  its  success 
by  arresting  at  Boonesboro'  the  combined  armies  of  the  enemy,  advancing  under 
their  favorite  general  to  the  relief  of  their  beleaguered  comrades. 

On  the  field  of  Sharpsburg,  with  less  than  one-third  his  numbers,  you  resisted, 
from  daylight  until  dark,  the  whole  army  of  the  enemy,  and  repulsed  every  at 
tack  along  his  entire  front,  of  more  than  four  miles  in  extent. 

The  whole  of  the  following  clay  you  stood  prepared  to  resume  the  conflict  on 
the  same  ground,  and  retired  next  morning,  without  molestation,  across  the 
Potomac. 

Two  attempts,  subsequently  made  by  the  enemy  to  follow  you  'cross  the 
river,  have  resulted  in  his  complete  discomfiture,  and  being  driven  back  with 
loss. 

Achievements  such  as  these  demanded  much  valor  and  patriotism.  His 
tory  records  few  examples  of  greater  fortitude  and  endurance  than  this  army 
has  exhibited  ;  and  I  am  commissioned  by  the  President  to  thank  you,  in  the 
name  of  the  Confederate  States,  for  the  undying  fame  you  have  won  for  their 
arms. 

Much  as  you  have  done,  much  more  remains  to  be  accomplished.  The 
enemy  again  threatens  us  with  invasion,  and  to  your  tried  valor  and  patriot 
ism  the  country  looks  with  confidence  for  deliverance  and  safety.  Your  past 
exploits  give  assurance  that  this  confidence  is  not  misplaced. 

R.  E.  LEE, 
General  Commanding. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  491 

Let  it  be  freely  confessed,  that  the  object  of  Gen.  Lee  in 
crossing  the  Potomac  was  to  hold  and  occupy  Maryland  ;  that 
his  proclamation  issued  at  Frederick,  offering  protection  to  the 
Marylanders,  is  incontrovertible  evidence  of  this  fact ;  that  ho 
was  forced  to  return  to  Virginia,  not  by  stress  of  any  single 
battle,  but  by  the  force  of  many  circumstances,  some  of  whicli 
history  should  blush  to  record  ;  that,  in  these  respects,  the 
Maryland  campaign  was  a  failure.  But  it  was  a  failure  re 
lieved  by  brilliant  episodes,  mixed  with  at  least  one  extra 
ordinary  triumph  of  our  arms,  and  to  a  great  extent  compen 
sated  by  many  solid  results. 

In  the  brief  campaign  in  Maryland,  our  army  had  given  the 
most  brilliant  illustrations  of  valor  ;  it  had  given  the  enerny  at 
Harper's  Ferry  a  reverse  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  the 
war;  it  had  inflicted  upon  him  a  loss  in  men  and  material 
greater  than  our  own  ;  and  in  retreating  into  Virginia,  it  left 
him  neither  spoils  nor  prisoners,  as  evidence  of  the  successes 
he  claimed.  The  indignant  comment  of  the  New  York  Tribune 
on  Lee's  retirement  into  Virginia  is  the  enemy's  own  record  of 
the  barren  results  that  were  left  them.  "  He  leaves  us,"  said 
this  paper,  "  the  debris  of  his  late  camps,  two  disabled  pieces 
of  artillery,  a  few  hundred  of  his  stragglers,  perhaps  two  thou 
sand  of  his  wounded,  and  as  many  more  of  his  unburied  dead. 
ISTot  a  sound  field-piece,  caisson,  ambulance,  or  wagon,  not  a 
tent,  a  box  of  stores,  or  a  pound  of  ammunition.  He  takes 
with  him  the  supplies  gathered  in  Maryland,  and  the  rich  spoils 
of  Harper's  Ferry."  The  same  paper  declared,  that  the  failure 
of  Maryland  to  rise,  or  to  contribute  recruits  (all  the  acces 
sions  to  our  force,  obtained  in  this  State,  did  not  exceed  eight 
'  hundred  men),  was  the  defeat  of  Lee,  and  about  the  only  defeat 
he  did  sustain ;  that  the  Confederate  losses  proceeded  mainly 
from  the  failure  of  their  own  exaggerated  expectations ;  that 
Lee's  retreat  over  the  Potomac  was  a  masterpiece ;  and  that 
the  manner  in  which  he  combined  Hill  and  Jackson  for  the  en 
velopment  of  Harper's  Ferry,  while  he  checked  the  Federal 
columns  at  Hagerstown  Heights  and  Crampton  Gap,  was  prob 
ably  the  best  achievement  of  the  war. 

The  failure  of  the  people  of  Maryland  to  respond  to  the 
proclamation  of  Gen,  Lee  issued  at  Frederick,  inviting  them 
tolas  standard,  and  generously  assuring  protection  to  all  classes 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OP    THE    WAK. 

of  political  opinion,  admits  of  some  excuse;  but  tLe  expla 
nations  commonly  made  on  this  subject  do  not  amount  to  thei. 
vindication.  It  is  true  tliat  when  Gen.  Lee  was  in  Frederick, 
he  was  forty-five  miles  from  the  city  of  Baltimore — a  city 
surrounded  by  Federal  bayonets,  zealously  guarded  by  an  armed 
Federal  police,  and  lying  in  the  shadow  of  Fort  Mcllenry 
and  of  two  powerful  fortifications  located  within  the  limits  of 
the  corporation.  It  is  true  that  our  army  passed  only  through 
two  of  the  remote  counties  of  the  State,  namely  Frederick 
and  Washington,  which,  with  Carroll  and  Alleghany,  are  well 
known  to  contain  the  most  violent  "  Union "  population  in 
Maryland.  It  is  true  that  the  South  could  not  have  expected 
a  welcome  in  these  counties  or  a  desperate  mutiny  for  the 
Confederacy  in  Baltimore.  But  it  was  expected  that  Southern 
sympathizers  in  other  parts  of  the  State,  who  so  glibly  ran  the 
blockade  on  adventures  of  trade,  might  as  readily  work  their 
way  to  the  Confederate  army  as  to  the  Confederate  markets ; 
and  it  was  not  expected  that  the  few  recruits  who  timidly  ad 
vanced  to  our  lines  would  have  been  so  easily  dismayed  by  the 
rags  of  our  soldiers  and  by  the  prospects  of  a  service  that  prom 
ised  equal  measures  of  hardship  and  glory. 

The  army  which  rested  again  in  Virginia  had  made  a  history 
that  will  flash  down  the  tide  of  time  a  lustre  of  glory.  It  had 
done  an  amount  of  marching  and  fighting  that  appears  almost 
incredible,  even  to  those  minds  familiar  with  the  records  of 
great  military  exertions.  Leaving  the  banks  of  James  river, 
it  proceeded  directly  to  the  line  of  the  Rappahannoek,  and 
moving  out  from  that  river,  it  fought  its  way  to  the  Potomac, 
crossed  that  stream,  and  moved  on  to  Fredericktown  and  Ha- 
gerstown,  had  a  heavy  engagement  at  the  mountain  gaps  be 
low,  fought  the  greatest  pitched  battle  of  the  war  at  Sharps- 
burg,  and  then  recrossed  the  Potomac  back  into  Virginia. 
During  all  this  time,  covering  the  full  space  of  a  month,  the 
troops  rested  but  four  days.  Of  the  men  who  performed  these 
wonders,  one-fifth  of  them  were  barefoot,  one-half  of  them  in 
rags,  and  the  whole  of  them  half  famished. 

The  remarkable  campaign  which  we  have  briefly  sketched 
extending  from  the  banks  of  the  James  river  to  those  of  the 
Potomac,  impressed  the  world  with  wonder  and  admiration, 
excited  an  outburst  of  applause  among  living  nations,  which 


THE    SECOND     FEAK. 

pr.ticipated  the  verdict  of  posterity,  and  set  the  whole  of 
Europe  ringing  with  praises  of  the  heroism  and  fighting  quali 
ties  of  the  Southern  armies.  The  South  was  already  obtain 
ing  some  portion  of  the  moral  rewards  of  this  war,  in  the  esti 
mation  in  which  she  was  held  by  the  great  martial  nations  of 
the  world.  She  had  purchased  the  rank  with  a  bloody  price. 
She  had  extorted  homage  from  the  most  intelligent  and  influ 
ential  organs  of  public  opinion  in  the  Old  World,  from  men 
well  versed  in  the  history  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  and 
from  those  great  critics  of  contemporary  history,  which  are 
least  accustomed  to  the  language  of  extravagant  compliment. 

The  following  tribute  from  the  London  Times — the  great 
organ  of  historic  precedent  and  educated  opinion  in  the  Old 
World — was  echoed  by  the  other  journals  of  Europe: 

"The  people  of  the  Confederate  States  have  made  themselves 
famous.  If  the  renown  of  brilliant  courage,  stern  devotion  to 
a  cause,  and  military  achievements  almost  without  a  parallel, 
can  compensate  men  for  the  toil  and  privations  of  the  hour, 
then  the  countrymen  of  Lee  and  Jackson  may  be  consoled 
amid  their  sufferings.  From  all  parts  of  Europe,  from  their 
enemies  as  well  as  their  friends,  from  those  who  condemn  their 
acts  as  well  as  those  who  sympathize  with  them,  comes  the 
tribute  of  admiration.  When  the  history  of  this  war  is  written, 
the  admiration  will  doubtless  become  deeper  and  stronger,  for 
the  veil  which  has  covered  the  South  will  be  drawn  away  and 
disclose  a  picture  of  patriotism,  of  unanimous  self-sacrifice,  of 
wise  and  firm  administration,  which  we  can  now  only  see  in 
distinctly.  The  details  of  extraordinary  national  effort  which 
has  led  to  the  repulse  and  almost  to  the  destruction  of  an  in 
vading  force  of  more  than  half  a  million  men,  will  then  become 
known  to  the  world,  and  whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  the  new 
nationality,  or  its  subsequent  claims  to  the  respect  of  mankind, 
it  will  assuredly  begin  its  career  with  a  reputation  for  genius 
and  valor  which  the  most  famous  nations  may  envy." 

It  is  at  first  appearance  strange,  that  while  such  was  the 
public  opinion  in  England  of  our  virtues  and  abilities,  that  that 
government  should  have  continued  so  unjust  and  obstinate  with 
respect  to  our  claims  for  recognition.  But  the  explanation  is 
easy.  The  demonstrations  of  the  conflict  which  awakened  such 
genero'is  admiration  of  us  in  the  breasts  of  a  majority  of  the 


494  SOUTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

English  people  were  to  the  government  the  subjects  only  of 
jealous  and  interested  views.  We  had  trusted  too  much  to 
manifestations  of  public  opinion  in  England  ;  we  had  lost  sight 
of  the  distinction  between  the  people  and  government  of  that 
country,  and  had  forgotten  that  the  latter  had,  since  the  be 
ginning  of  this  war,  been  cold  and  reserved,  had  never  given 
us  any  thing  to  hope  from  its  sympathies  or  its  principles,  and 
had  limited  its  action  on  the  American  question  to  the  unfeel 
ing  and  exacting  measures  of  selfishness. 

The  bloody  and  unhappy  revelation  which  the  war  has  made 
of  enormous  military  resources  has  naturally  given  to  Europe, 
and  especially  to  England,  an  extraordinary  interest  in  its  con 
tinuation.  It  is  probable  that  she  would  not  have  hesitated  to 
recognize  the  South,  unless  firmly  persuaded  of  our  abilit}^  and 
resolution  to  carry  on  the  war,  and  unless  she  had  another  ob 
ject  to  gain  besides  that  of  a  permanent  division  in  the  nation 
ality  and  power  of  her  old  rival.  That  object  was  the  exhaus 
tion  of  both  North  and  South.  England  proposed  to  effect  the 
continuation  of  the  war,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  mutual  ruin 
of  the  two  nations  engaged  in  it,  by  standing  aside  and  trusting 
that  after  vast  expenditures  of  blood  and  wacte  of  resources  the 
separation  of  the  Union  would  be  quite  as  surely  accomplished 
by  the  self-devotion  of  the  South,  as  by  the  less  profitable  mode 
of  foreign  intervention. 

In  this  unchristian  and  inhuman  calculation,  England  had 
rightly  estimated  the  resolution  and  spirit  of  the  South.  We 
were  prepared  to  win  our  independence  with  the  great  prices 
of  blood  and  suffering  that  she  had  named.  But  we  under 
stood  what  lurked  behind  the  mask  of  British  conscience,  and 
we  treasured  the  lesson  for  the  future. 


OUR   FOREIGN    RELATIONS    IN    THE    WAR. 

It  is  not  amiss  in  this  connection  to  make  a  summary  in  ref 
erence  to  the  relations  between  the  Confederacy  and  the  neu 
tral  powers  of  Europe  during  the  progress  of  the  war  to  the 
present  period  of  our  narrative. 

The  confederation  of  the  Southern  States  in  1861  was  the 
t  lird  political  union  that  had  been  formed  between  the  States 
of  North  America.  The  first  act  of  secession  dates  as  far  back 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  495 

as  1789,  when  eleven  of  the  States,  becoming  dissatisfied  with 
the  old  articles  of  confederation  made  in  1778,  seceded  and 
formed  a  second  union.  When  in  1861  eleven  of  the  States 
again  seceded  and  united  themselves  under  the  style  of  the 
Confederate  States  of  North  America,  they  exercised  a  right 
which  required  no  justification,  and  which  in  a  former  instance 
had  not  been  contested  by  any  party  at  home,  or  made  the  sub 
ject  of  discussion  with  any  third  power. 

On  every  attempt  for  the  opening  of  formal  diplomatic  in 
tercourse  with  the  European  powers,  the  commissioners  of  the 
Confederate  States  had  met  with  the  objection  that  these  pow 
ers  could  not  assume  to  judge  between  the  conflicting  represen 
tations  of  the  two  parties  as  to  the  true  nature  of  their  previous 
mutual  relations  ;  and  that  they  were  constrained  by  interna 
tional  usage  and  the  considerations  of  propriety  to  recognize 
the  self-evident  fact  of  the  existence  of  a  war,  and  to  maintain 
a  strict  neutrality  during  its  progress. 

On  this  neutrality,  two  remarks  are  to  be  -made  : 

First.  It  was  founded  upon  the  grave  error  that  the  separate 
sovereignty  and  independence  of  the  States  had  been  merged 
into  one  common  sovereignty  ;  an  error  easily  induced  by  the 
delegation  of  power  granted  by  these  States  to  the  Federal  gov 
ernment  to  represent  them  in  foreign  intercourse,  but  one  that 
should  have  been  as  easily  dispelled  by  appeals  to  reason  and 
historical  fact. 

Secondly.  The  practical  operation  of  this  falsely  assumed  and 
falsely  named  "  neutrality  "  was  an  actual  decision  against  the 
rights  of  the  South,  and  had  been  but  little  short  of  active  hos 
tilities  against  her. 

By  the  governments  of  England  and  France,  the  doctrines 
announced  in  the  treaty  of  Paris  were  ignored,  and  the  mon 
strous  Yankee  blockade,  t>y  some  forty  or  fifty  vessels,  of  a 
coast  line  nearly  three  thousand  miles  in  extent,  came  to  be 
acknowledged  and  respected.  When  this  recognition  of  the 
blockade  was  made,  it  is  very  certain  that  the  whole  Yankee 
navy,  if  employed  on  that  service  and  nothing  else,  could  not 
furnish  vessels  enough  to  pass  signals  from  point  to  point  along 
the  coast.  At  the  time  this  paper  blockade  was  declared  and 
acknowledged,  the  Navy  Eegister  shows  that  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  had  in  commission  but  forty  vessels,  all  told  These 


496  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

were  scattered  over  the  world  :  some  of  them  were  in  the  Cnina 
seas,  some  in  the  Pacific,  some  in  the  Mediterranean,  some  in 
our  own  part  of  the  world,  and  some  in  another.  The  actua. 
force  employed  in  the  blockading  service  did  not  give  one  ves 
sel  for  eveiy  fifty  miles  of  coast.  In  addition  to  these  con 
siderations,  it  had  been  shown  by  unquestionable  evidence,  fur 
nished  in  part  by  the  officials  of  tlje  European  powers  them 
selves,  that  the  few  Southern  ports  really  guarded  by  naval 
forces  of  the  Yankees  had  been  invested  so  inefficiently  that 
hundreds  of  entries  had  been  effected  into  them  since  -the  dec 
laration  of  the  blockade. 

During  nearly  two  years  of  struggle  had  this  boasted  "  neu 
trality"  of  the  European  powers  operated  as  active  hostility 
against  us,  for  they  had  helped  the  enemy  to  prevent  us,  with 
a  force  which  was  altogether  inadequate,  from  obtaining  sup 
plies  of  prime  necessity. 

JS"or  was  this  all.  WQ  had  no  commerce ;  but  in  that  the 
enemy  was  rich.  "We  had  no  navy  ;  in  that  he  was  strong. 
Therefore,  when  England  and  Her  allies  declared  that  neither 
the  armed  cruisers  nor  the  prizes  of  either  of  the  belligerents 
should  have  hospitality  and  protection  in  neutral  ports,  the 
prohibition,  directed  against  both  belligerents,  was  in  reality 
effective  against  the  Confederate  States  alone,  for  they  alone 
could  find  a  hostile  commerce  on  the  ocean. 

Thus  it  was  that,  in  the  progress  of  the  war,  the  neutral 
nations  of  Europe  had  pursued  a  policy  which,  nominally  im 
partial, 'had  been  practically  most  favorable  to  our  enemies 
and  most  detrimental  to  us. 

The  temper  which  this  injustice  produced  in  the  South  was 
fortunate.  The  South  was  conscious  of  powers  of  resistance  of 
which  the  world  was  incredulous ;  and  the  first  feverish  ex 
pectations  of  recognition  by  the  European  powers  were  re 
placed  by  a  proud  self-reliance  and  a  calm  confidence,  which 
were  forming  our  national  character,  while  contributing  at  the 
same  time  to  the  immediate  successes  of  our  arms. 

The  recognition  by  France  and  England  of  Lincoln's  paper 
blockade,  had  by  no  means  proved  an  unmitigated  evil  to  us. 
It  had  forced  us  into  many  branches  of  industry,  into  which, 
but  for  that  blockade,  we  should  have  never  entered.  "We  had 
excellent  powder-mills  of  our  own,  and  fine  armories  whicb 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  497 

turned  out  muskets,  rifles,  sabres,  &c.  The  war  found  no 
more  than  half  a  dozen  furnaces  in  blast  in  the  whole  Confed 
eracy,  and  most  of  those  had  been  destroyed  by  the  enemy. 
But  the  government  had  given  such  encouragement  to  the  iron 
men  that  new  mines  had  been  opened  in  other  parts  of  the 
Confederacy,  and  furnaces  enough  were  already  up  or  in  the 
course  of  erection,  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  government.  In 
the  last  spring  we  had  planted  not  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
usual  breadth  of  land  in  cotton,  and  our  surplus  labor  was  di 
rected  to  breadstuff's  and  provisions.  All  these  were  the  fruits 
to  us  of  a  blockade  which  threatened  England  especially  with. 
a  terrible  reaction  of  her  own  injustice,  and  was  laying  up  a 
store  of  retribution  for  Europe. 


498  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


CHAPTER  XVIEL 

Movements  in  the  West. — The  splendid  Programme  of  the  Yankees.— Kentucky 
the  critical  Point.— Gen.  Kirby  Smith's  Advance  into  Kentucky.— THK  BATTLE  o* 
RICHMOND. — Reception  of  the  Confederates  in  Lexington. — Expectation  of  an  Attack 
on  Cincinnati. — Gen.  Bragg's  Plans. — Smith's  Movement  to  Bragg's  Lines. — Escape 
of  the  Yankee  Forces  from  Cumberland  Gap. — Affair  of  Munfordsville. — Gen.  Bragg 
between  the  Enemy  and  the  Ohio.— An  Opportunity  for  a  decisive  Blow. — Buell's 
Escape  to  Louisville. — The  Inauguration  of  Governor  at  Frankfort. — An  idle  Cere 
mony. — Probable  Surprise  of  Gen.  Bragg. — THE  BATTUE  OF  PERRYVILLE. — Its  Im 
mediate  Results  in  our  Favor. — Bragg's  failure  to  concentrate  his  Forces. — His  Reso 
lution  of  Retreat. — Scenes  of  the  Retreat  from  Kentucky. — Errors  of  the  Campaign. — 
A  lame  Excuse. —  Public  Sentiment  in  Kentucky. —  The  Demoralization  of  that 
State. — The  Lessons  of  Submission. 

ON  the  same  day  that  victory  perched  on  our  banners  on 
the  plains  of  Manassas,  an  important  success  was  achieved  by 
our  brave  troops  in  another  part  of  the  Confederacy.  A  vic 
tory  gained  at  Richmond  in  Kentucky  gave  a  companion  to 
Manassas,  and  opened  in  the  West  a  prospect  of  the  advance 
of  our  troops  simultaneous  with  the  dawn  of  new  hopes  and 
aspirations  in  the  East. 

A  few  paragraphs  are  sufficient  for  the  rapid  summary  of 
events  necessary  to  the  contemplation  of  the  situation  in  the 
West,  in  which  the  battle  of  Richmond  was  won. 

The  North  had  prepared  a  splendid  programme  of  opera 
tions  in  the  country  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  But  few  persons 
on  the  Southern  seaboard  had  adequate  ideas  of  the  grandeur 
of  the  enemy's  preparations,  or  of  the  strength  of  the  forces 
concentrating  on  the  march  in  the  Western  country.  These 
preparations  exceeded  in  magnitude  all  military  movements 
designed  or  attempted  since  the  commencement  of  the  war ; 
for  they  contemplated  not  only  the  expulsion  of  our  forces 
from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  and  the  States  west  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  but  the  penetration  through  the  Gulf  States  of  the 
heart  of  the  South.  The  army,  now  well  on  its  way  into  Mid 
dle  Tennessee,  had  Northern  Alabama  and  Georgia  for  its 
ultimate  destination  ;  that  of  Grant  was  already  advanced  into 
Mississippi ;  that  of  McClernand,  organizing  at  Columbus  and 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  '199 

Memphis,  was  intended  to  operate  on  the  Mississippi ;  another 
army  was  already  operating  in  Missouri  and  Arkansas  ;  and  a 
gunboat  fleet  had  been  placed  on  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi 
which  was  said  to  be  terrible  in  destructiveness,  and  impreg 
nable  in  strength.     Such  was  the  extent  of  the  enemy's  plans 
of  campaign  in  the  West. 

The  situation  left  the  South  but  little  choice  than  that  of 
making  an  aggressive  movement  by  which  North  Alabama 
and  Middle  and  East  Tennessee  might  be  cleared  of  the  forces 
of  the  enemy,  and  they  compelled  to  fall  back  to  assist  Gen. 
Buell  in  Kentucky — this  State  being  fixed  as  the  critical  point 
in  the  West,  and  the  field  of  the  active  campaign.  The  brief 
retirement  of  Gen.  Beauregard  from  ^active  command  on  ac 
count  of  ill  health,  which  was  made  shortly  after  his  evacua 
tion  of  Corinth,  left  the  way  open  to  the  promotion  of  Gen. 
Bragg,  a  favorite  of  the  administration,  who  had  a  certain 
military  reputation,  but,  as  an  active  commander  in  the  field, 
had  the  confidence  neither  of  the  army  nor  of  the  public. 
The  first  steps  of  the  campaign  were  easily  decided  by  this 
commander :  it  was  to  use  the  forces  of  Gen.  Kirby  Smith  to 
threaten  Cincinnati,  and  thus  distract  the  attention  and  divide 
the  forces  of  the  enemy  ;  while  Gen.  Bragg  himself,  co-opera 
ting  with  Smith,  was  to  fulfil  the  great  purpose  of  the  cam 
paign,  which  was  the  expulsion  of  the  enemy  from  Kentucky 
and  the  capture  of  Louisville — thus  subjecting  the  whole  ot 
that  great  grain-growing  and  meat-producing  commonwealth, 
with  all  its  rich  stores,  to  our  control. 

Early  in  the  month  of  August,  Gen.  McCown,  under  the 
orders  of  Gen.  Smith,  moved  his  division  from  London  to 
Knoxville  in  East  Tennessee.  Thence  our  troops  moved  to 
the  gaps  in  the  Cumberland  mountains,  being  joined  by  Clai- 
borne's  division  at  the  lower  gap,  when  the  whole  force  was 
ordered  through,  with  the  trains  and  artillery.  From  this  time 
our  troops  made  forced  marches  until  they  reached  Barbours- 
ville,  which  is  on  the  main  thoroughfare  by  which  the  Yankees 
received  their  supplies  at  the  gap  by  way  of  Lexington.  Halt 
ing  there  long  enough  only  to  get  water,  our  wearied  army 
was  pushed  on  to  the  Cumberland  ford.  Here  a  few  days' 
rest  was  allowed  to  the  troops,  who  had  performed  their  hard 
inarch  over  stony  roads,  with  their  almost  bare  feet,  and  with 


500  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

green  corn  garnished  with  a  small  supply  of  poor  beef  for 
their  food. 


THE  BATTLE    OF   EIOHMOND. 


On  the  29th  of  August  our  troops  were  in  striking  distance 
of  the  enemy  at  Richmond.  Until  our  advance  descended  the 
Big  Hill,  it  met  with  no  opposition  from  the  enemy.  Here, 
on  the  morning  of  the  29th,  the  enemy  was  discovered  to  be 
in  force  in  our  front,  and  a  bold  recormoissance  of  the  cavalry 
tinder  Colonel  Scott,  in  the  afternoon,  indicated  a  determina 
tion  to  give  us  battle.  Although  Churchill's  division  did  not 
get  up  until  quite  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  then  in  an  appar 
ently  exhausted  state,  Gen.  Smith  determined  to  march  to 
Richmond  the  next  day,  even  at  the  cost  of  a  battle  with  the 
whole  force  of  the  enemy.  The  leading  division,  under  Gen. 
Claiborne,  was  moved  early  the  next  morning,  and,  after  ad 
vancing  two  or  three  miles,  they  found  the  enemy  drawn  up  in 
line  of  battle  in  a  fine  position,  near  Mount  Zion  church,  six 
miles  from  Richmond.  "Without  waiting  for  Churchill's  divi- 
fcion,  Claiborne  at  once  commenced  the  action,  and  by  half- 
past  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  fire  of  artillery  was 
orisk  on  both  sides.  As  our  force  wag  almost  too  small  to 
storm  the  position  in  front,  without  a  disastrous  loss,  Gen. 
Churchill  was  sent  with  one  of  his  brigades  to  turn  the  enemy's 
right.  While  this  movement  was  being  executed,  a  bold  and 
well-conducted  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  enemy,  to  turn 
Claiborne's  right,  was  admirably  foiled  by  the  firmness  of  Col. 
Preston  Smith's  brigade,  who  repulsed  the  enemy  with  great 
daughter.  In  the  mean  time  Gen.  Churchill  had  been  com 
pletely  successful  in  his  movement  upon  the  enemy's  right 
flank,  where,  by  a  bold  charge,  his  men  completed  a  victory 
already  partially  gained  by  the  gallantry  of  our  troops  on  the 
left. 

The  Yankees  having  been  repulsed  and  driven  in  confusion 
from  this  part  of  the  field,  might  have  retreated  without  risk 
ing  another  passage  at  arms,  had  they  not  misapprehended  our 
movements. 

Gen.  Smith  having  ordered  the  cavalry  to  go  around  to  the 
north  of  Richmond  and  attempt  to  cut  off  the  retreat  of  the 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  501 

enemy,  our  artillery  ceased  firing,  and  the  enemy,  thinking 
our  army  was  preparing  for  a  retreat,  had  the  foolhardiness  to 
rally  on  their  own  retreat  and  attempt  a  charge  upon  the 
Texas  and  Arkansas  troops  under  McCray,  who,  to  the  grea 
astonishment  of  the  enemy,  instead  of  running  away,  met 
them  on  the  half-way  ground.  This  gallant  brigade  of  Texans 
and  Arkansians  had  to  fight  the  battle  alone.  Although  the 
odds  opposed  to  them  were  fearful,  yet  by  reserving  their  own 
fire,  under  the  deafening  roar  of  the  enemy's  guns,  and  by  a 
well-timed  and  dashing  charge  upon  the  advancing  lines,  they 
completely  routed  and  put  to  flight  the  hosts  of  the  enemy. 
They  fled  in  the  wildest  confusion  and  disorder.  Their  knap 
sacks,  swords,  pistols,  hats,  and  canteens,  scattered'  along  the 
road,  would  have  marked  the  route  they  travelled,  even  if  their 
dead  and  dying  had  not  too  plainly  showed  the  way. 

In  passing  a  deserted  camp  of  the  enemy,  Gen.  Smith  found 
from  some  of  the  wounded  that  Gen.  Nelson,  the  Yankee  com 
mander,  with  reinforcements,  had  arrived  after  the  second 
battle.  A  march  of  two  miles  brought  us  within  sight  of  the 
town,  in  front  of  which,  and  on  a  commanding  ridge,  with  both 
flanks  resting  upon  woods,  Nelson  had  determined  to  make  a 
final  stand.  Churchill,  with  a  brigade,  was  sent  off  to  the  left, 
when  a  deafening  roar  of  musketry  soon  announced  the  raging 
of  a  furious  combat.  In  the  mean  while,  Preston  Smith,  bring 
ing  up  his  division  at  a  double-quick,  formed  in  front  of  the 
enemy's  centre  and  left.  Almost  without  waiting  the  com 
mand  of  the  officers,  this  division  coolly  advanced  under  the 
murderous  fire  of  a  force  twice  their  number,  and  drove  them 
from  the  field  in  the  greatest  confusion,  and  with  immense 
slaughter.  The  exhausted  condition  of  our  men,  together  with 
the  closing  in  of  night,  prevented  the  pursuit  of  the  enemy 
more  than  a  mile  beyond  Richmond. 

The  results  of  the  day  were  gratifying  enough.  With  less 
than  half  his  force,  Gen.  Smith  had  attacked  and  carried  a  very 
strong  position  at  Mount  Zion  church,  after  a  hard  fight  of 
two  hours.  Again,  a  still  better  position  at  White's  farm,  in 
half  an  hour  ,  and  finally,  in  the  town  of  Richmond,  just  be 
fore  sunset,  our  indomitable  troops  deliberately  walked  (they 
were  too  tired  to  run)  up  to  a  magnificent  position,  manned  by 
ten  thousand  of  the  enemy,  many  of  them  perfectly  fresh,  and 


502  SOUTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

carried  it  in  fifteen  minutes.  In  the  last  engagement,  we  tool: 
prisoners  from  thirteen  regiments.  Our  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  was  about  four  hundred ;  that  of  the  enemy  was 
about  one  thousand,  and  his  prisoners  five  thousand.  The  im 
mediate  fruits  of  the  victory  were  nine  pieces  of  artillery  and 
ten  thousand  small-arms,  and  a  large  quantity  of  supplies. 
These  latter  were  greatly  increased  by  the  capture  of  Rich 
mond  and  Frankfort,  the  whole  number  of  cannon  taken  being 
about  twenty. 

On  the  1st  day  of  September  Gen.  Smith  took  up  the  line  ot 
march  for  Lexington  ;  and  on  the  morning  of  the  fourth  day 
of  that  month,  our  forces,  consisting  of  a  Texas  brigade  and  an 
Arkansas  brigade,  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Churchill,  and 
Gen.  Claiborne's  division  and  Gen.  Heath's  division,  all  under 
the  command  of  Gen.  Kirby  Smith,  marched  through  the  cit> 
amidst  the  hearty  and  generous  welcome  of  thousands  of  mevi, 
women,  and  children. 

The  entrance  of  our  troops  into  Lexington  was  the  occasion 
of  the  most  inspiriting  and  touching  scenes.  Streets,  window?*, 
and  gardens  were  filled  with  ladies  and  little  girls  with  stream  - 
ers  of  red  and  blue  ribbons  and  flags  with  stars.  Beautiful 
women  seized  the  hard  brown  hands  of  our  rough  and  ragged 
soldiers,  and  with  tears  and  smiles  thanked  them  again  and 
again  for  coming  into  Kentucky  and  freeing  them  from  the 
presence  and  insults  of  the  hated  and  insolent  Yankees.  For 
hours  the  enthusiasm  of  the  people  was  unbounded.  At  every 
corner  of  the  streets,  baskets  of  provisions  and  buckets  of  water 
were  placed  for  the  refreshment  of  our  weary  soldiers,  and  hun 
dreds  of  our  men  were  presented  with  shoes  and  hats  and  coats 
and  tobacco  from  the  grateful  people.  Private  residences 
were  turned  for  the  time  into  public  houses  of  entertainment, 
free  to  all  who  could  be  persuaded  to  go  and  eat.  But  if  the 
reception  of  the  infantry  was  enthusiastic,  the  tears,  the  smiles, 
and  shouts  and  cheers  of  wild  delight  which  greeted  Gen. 
John  Morgan's  cavalry  as  they  came  dashing  through  the 
streets  amidst  clouds  of  dust,  was  without  a  parallel.  The 
wildest  joy  ruled  the  hours.  The  bells  of  the  city  pealed  forth 
(heir  joyous  welcome,  whilst  the  waving  of  thousands  of  white 
handkerchiefs  and  tiny  Confederate  flags  attested  the  gladness 
and  delight  of  every  heart. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  503 

It  would  have  been  well  if  the  enthusiasm  which  welcomec1 
Gen.  Smith  in  this  town  could  have  been  confirmed  as  a  true 
token  of  the  public  sentiment  of  Kentucky.  But  while  thig 
sentiment  was  developing  itself,  the  exultation  which  greeted 
our  troops  at  Lexington  was  reflected  in  other  parts  of  the  Con 
federacy  ;  and  from  the  results  already  achieved  in  the  West 
ern  campaign,  the  Southern  public  was  raised  to  the  pinnacle 
of  hopeful  expectation.  When  it  was  known  at  the  seat  of 
government  in  Virginia  that  Gen.  Smith,  after  crushing  the 
force  opposed  to  him  at  Eichmond.  had  gone  on  and  captured 
Lexington,  Paris,  and  Cynthiana,  and  established  his  lines  al 
most  in  sight  of  Cincinnati,  the  public  indulged  the  prospect 
of  the  speedy  capture  of  this  great  city  of  the  West,  with  its 
valuable  stores  and  yards  for  building  gunboats.  What  might 
have  been  the  result  of  a  sudden  attack  on  this  city  (for  one 
of  our  brigades  was  in  striking  distance  of  it)  is  left  to  conjee 
ture.  The  order  was  to  menace,  not  to  attack  ;  and  the  pur 
poses  of  the  campaign  projected  by  Gen.  Bragg  required  thai 
Smith's  command,  after  making  its  demonstration  on  the  Ohio 
should  fall  back  into  the  interior  to  co-operate  with  the  splen 
did  army  he  had  already  brought  into  Kentucky. 

Gen.  Bragg  had  entered  the  State  by  the  eastern  route  from 
Knoxville  and  Chattanooga.  The  direct  route  by  the  way  ol 
Nashville  would  have  brought  him  on  Buell's  front ;  but  he 
chose  to  make  the  crossing  of  the  Cumberland  river  several 
miles  above  Nashville,  apparently  with  the  design  of  making 
a  flank  movement  on  Buell.  The  immediate  effect  of  this 
movement  was  to  cause  the  Yankees  to  evacuate  East  Tennes 
see^  and  to  relieve  North  Alabama  from  Federal  occupation ; 
but  the  enemy,  learning  that  Cincinnati  was  not  in  immediate 
danger,  had  abundant  time  to  remove  -the  forces  collected  for 
the  defence  of  that  city,  to  be  united  with  BuelFs  army  in 
Kentucky.  * 

The  sudden  disappearance  of  Smith  from  in  front  of  Cincin 
nati,  and  the  rapidity  of  his  movement,  intimated  clearly 
enough  that  he  was  making  a  forced  march  to  reach  Bragg 
and  strengthen  him  before  a  decisive  trial  of  his  strength  with 
Buell.  But  the  movement  deprived  us  of  a  victory  that  might 
have  been  cheaply  won ;  for  it  gave  opportunity  of  escape  to 
the  Yankee  Gen.  Morgan,  who  had  been  completely  hemmed 


504  SOUTHEEN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

in  at  Cumberland  Gap,  with  an  army  of  ten  or  twelve  thou 
sand  men  and  abundance  of  arms  and  equipments. 

The  distance  to  the  Ohio  river  is  about  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles,  and  includes  the  most  mountainous  portions  of  Ken 
tucky.  There  are  scarcely  fifty  miles  of  the  entire  route  in 
which  there  are  not  defiles  and  passes  where  a  small  force 
could  have  kept  the  enemy  at  bay.  The  famous  cavalry  com 
mander,  John  H.  Morgan,  had  been  sent  with  a  portion  of  his 
command  to  harass  the  retreating  enemy  ;  and  this  intrepid 
officer,  with  seven  hundred  and  fifty  men,  arrested  the  Yankee 
army  for  five  days,  and  might  have  captured  them  with  the 
half  of  Marshall's  infantry,  who  were  within  little  more  than 
a  day's  march.  But  reinforcements  were  not  sent  forward,  and 
no  alternative  was  left  to  Morgan  but — aftei  inflicting  such 
damage  as  he  could  upon  the  enemy — to  rejoin  Smith's  march, 
which  had  now  taken  the  direction  of  Frankfort. 

On  the  17th  of  September,  Gen.  Bragg  captured  about  five 
thousand  of  the  enemy  at  Munfordsville,  with  the  inconsider 
able  loss  on  our  side  of  about  fifty  men  in  killed  and  wounded. 
He  had  thrown  his  lines  between  Buell's  force  at  Bowling 
Green  and  Louisville,  and  it  was  confidently  expected  that  he 
would  engage  him,  drive  him  across  the  Ohio  or  the  Missis 
sippi,  or  at  least  disconcert  his  hopes  of  preparations  and 
increase  of  forces  at  Louisville.  Buell's  entire  force  at  this 
time  was  not  computed  at  over  thirty-five  thousand,  for  which 

•  our  army,  in.  the  best  possible  spirits  and  confidence,  was  an 

•  overmatch. 

It  is  probable  that  at  this  juncture  the  struggle  in  Kentucky 
night  have  been  decided  by  a  fight  on  a  fair  field  with  an 
army  our  inferior  in  all  respects.  Yiewed  in  the  light  of  sub 
sequent  events,  it  is -difficult  to  determine  what  good  object 
Gen.  Bragg  could  have  had  in  declining  a  contest  with  the 
enemy  but  a  few  miles  distant.  It  is  still  more  inexplicable 
that  after  the  success  of  Munfordsville  he  should  have  stood 
idly  by  and  suffered  Buell  and  his  wagon  trains  to  pass  be 
tween  him  and  the  Ohio  river,  almost  in  sight  of  his  lines. 
He  had  passed  Buell  to  enter  Kentucky,  and  having  accom 
plished  it,  his  reasons  for  allowing  his  enemy  to  repass  him  and 
enter  Louisville  are  inadmissible  to  any  justification  that  can 
be  offered  by  practical  good  sense.  Whatever  explanations 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  505 

have  been  made  of  them,  it  is  certain  that  at  this  time  the 
public  has  not  abandoned  its  opinion,  that  General  Bragg''s 
failure  to  deliver  battle  at  the  important  conjuncture  which 
placed  him  between  the  enemy  and  the  Ohio,  was  the  fatal 
error  of  the  Kentucky  campaign. 

On  the  4th  of  October,  Gen.  Bragg  joined  Smith's  army  at 
Frankfort,  where  was  conducted  the  inauguration  of  the  Pro 
visional  Governor  of  Kentucky,  Mr.  Hawes.  This  ceremony, 
however,  was  scarcely  any  thing  more  than  a  pretentious  farce. 
Scarcely  was  it  completed,  when  the  Yankees  threatened  the 
State  capital,  and  the  newly  installed  Governor  had  to  fleo 
from  their  approach.  The  delusion,  that  Buell's  army  was 
quietly  resting  in  Louisville,  was  dispelled  by  the  news  received 
at  Frankfort  on  the  inauguration  day,  to  the  effect  that  the 
Yankees  were  in  large  force  within  twelve  miles  of  the  place 
But  the  apparent  movement  on  Frankfort  was  a  mere  feint, 
while  the  enemy  was  concentrating  to  force  our  left  wing  near 
Perryville. 

THE    BATTLE    OF    PERRYVILLE. 

Having  arrived  at  Harrodsburg  from  Frankfort,  Gen.  Bragg, 
finding  the  enemy  pressing  heavily  in  his  rear  near  Perryville^ 
determined  to  give  him  battle  there,  and  ordered  Gen.  Polk  to- 
make  the  attack  next  day.  But  he  had  made  an  unfortunate 
disposition  of  his  forces,  for  on  the  day  before  the  division  of 
Wiihers  had  been  sent  to  Salvisa  to  reinforce  Gen.  Kirby 
Smith  and  cut  off  Sill's  division.  Hardee's  and  Buckner's 
divisions  were  marched  to  Perryville,  leaving  Gen.  Cheatham's 
at  Harrodsburg,  which,  however,  came  up  to  Perryville  on  the 
night  of  the  7th  of  October,  before  the  engagement.  Withers 
failed  to  intercept  Gen.  Sill's  division,  but  captured  the  rear 
guard,  consisting  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  men,  with  an 
ammunition  train  ;  and  on  the  morning  of  the  9th,  Gen.  With 
ers'  and  Gen.  Kirby  Smith's  forces  reached  Harrodsburg,  hav 
ing  been  too  late  to  participate  in  the  decisive  events  of  the 
preceding  day. 

The  morning  of  the  8th  of  October  found  not  more  than 
fifteen  thousand  Confederate  troops  confronting  an  enemy  three 
times  their  numbers.  The  forces  opposed  to  us  at  Perryville 


506  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    W.iR. 

consisted  of  the  right  wing  of  the  "  Army  of  the  Ohio,"  com 
posed  of  Bu ell's  veteran  army,  with  Major-gen.  Geo.  W.  Tlomag 
as  commander-in-chief  of  the  field,  and  Gen.  Alex.  McCook 
commanding  the  first  corps.  We  fought  nine  divisions  of  the 
Abolition  army,  composed  at  least  of  five  thousand  each,  mak 
ing  forty-five  thousand  men. 

Gen.  Buckner's  division,  which  was  posted  on  our  extreme 
right,  with  Anderson's  division,  formed  the  left  wing  of  the 
army  of  the  Mississippi,  under  Major-gen.  Hardee.  Cheat- 
ham's  and  Withers'  divisions  formed  the  right  wing,  under 
Major-gen.  Polk.  Thus  we  had  but  three  divisions  in  the 
field. 

The  action  opened  a  little  past  noon.  It  was  only  skirmish 
ing  for  a  considerable  time,  Col.  Powell's  brigade  holding  the 
extreme  left  of  our  lines,  and  gallantly  driving  the  enemy 
back  for  about  a  mile  against  superior  forces.  It  was  about 
this  time,  towards  4  P.  M.,  when  Gen.  Smith's  brigade,  belong 
ing  to  Cheatham's  division,  was  ordered  back  to  our  assistance, 
that  Gen.  Adams,  with  his  brave  Louisianians,  was  holding  the 
enemy  in  check  against  fearful  odds,  when  he  was  forced  to  fall 
back  from  his  position.  Gen.  Hardee,  seeing  the  importance 
of  holding  the  point,  ordered  Gen.  Adams  to  retake  it,  telling 
him  he  would  be  supported  by  reinforcements.  It  was  while 
advancing  again,  and  anxiously  looking  for  the  reinforcements, 
that  Gen.  Adams,  seeing  some  -soldiers  firing  at  what  he  sup 
posed  to  be  our  own  men,  ordered  them  to  cease  firing.  "  I 
tell  you,  sir,  they  are  Yankees,"  cried  one  of  the  officers.  "  I 
think  not,  and  you  had  better  go  forward  first  and  ascertain," 
replied  Adams.  "  111  go,  sir,  but  I  don't  think  it  necessary, 
for  I  know  they  are  Yankees,"  insisted  the  officer.  "  Well," 
said  Adams,  "  I'll  go  myself,"  and  dashing  forward  on  his 
charger,  he  had  not  proceeded  one  hundred  yards  when  a  fu 
rious  storm  of  Minie  balls  whizzed  by  his  ears  from  the  enemy. 
The  general  turned  immediately,  and  riding  up,  shouted  to 
our  troops  to  pour  in  their  fire.  Towards  six  o'ck  ck  the  firing 
became  incessant  on  both  sides.  There  stood  Adams,  with  his 
little,  brigade,  holding  back  a  division  of  the  enemy,  left,  as  it 
were,  alone  to  his  fate,  until,  seeing  no  chance  of  being  re 
inforced,  he  gradually  fell  back,  in  most  excellent  order,  but  not 
without  considerable  loss. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  507 

Towards  night  the  engagement  subsided.  Fearfully  out 
numbered,  our  troops  had  not  hesitated  to  engage  at  any  odds, 
and  despite  the  checks  they  had  encountered  at  times,  the 
enemy  was  driven  two  miles  from  his  first  line  of  battle.  As 
darkness  fell,  the  conflict  was  over.  A  few  shots  from  long 
range  guns  were  exchanged.  The  full  round  moon  rose  in  the 
east  and  lighted  the  dismal  scene.  In  half  an  hour  the  picket 
fires  of  the  opposing  armies  were  visible  five  hundred  yards 
distant,  and  our  wearied  men  laid  down  on  their  arms. 

The  immediate  results  of  the  battle  ef  Perryville  were  in 
our  favor.  We  had  captured  fifteen  pieces  of  artillery  by  the 
most  daring  charges,  had  inflicted  the  loss  of  four  thousand 
men  on  the  enemy,  and  held  several  hundred  of  his  prisoners. 
Our  own  loss  was  estimated  at  twenty-five  hundred  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing.  The  enemy  had  lost  one  of  their  best 
generals  on  the  field — Jackson.  Seeing  his  men  wavering,  he 
had  advanced  to  the  front  line,  and,  waving  his  sword,  cheered 
and  urged  them  on.  While  thus  displaying  an  extraordinary 
courage  he  was  struck  in  the  right  breast  by  a  piece  of  an  ex 
ploded  shell,  and  fell  from  his  horse.  It  is  said  by  thof^ 
near  him  that  he  said  only,  "  O  God !"  and  died  without  ?, 
struggle. 

But  the  success  of  Perryville  was  of  no  importance  to  us ; 
it  was  merely  a  favorable  incident  and  decided  nothing.  It  in 
probable  Gen.  Bragg  had  it  in«his  power  here,  by  concentrat 
ing  his  troops,  to  crush  the  enemy's  force  in  Kentucky ;  but 
he  allowed  himself  to  be  deceived  as  to  the  disposition  of-  the 
enemy's  forces,  scattered  his  own,  and  engaged  and  defeated 
the  head  of  the  Yankee  column  with  less  than  fifteen  thousand 
men.*  Had  he  fallen  with  his  whole  available  force,  forty 
thousand  men,  on  the  enemy  at  Perryville,  it  is  not  improba 
ble  that  he  might  have  dispersed  the  Yankee  army  and  given 
it  such  a  blow  that  it  would  not  have  made  a  stand  this  side 
the  Ohio  river. 

*  It  is  proper  to  state,  that  an  apology  for  Gen.  Bragg,  in  this  matter,  was 
offered  in  the  public  prints,  to  the  effect  that  before  the  battle  of  Perryville 
Gen.  Kirby  Smith  had  communicated  to  Gen.  Bragg  his  positive  belief  that  the 
real  attack  was  threatened  upon  him,  whilst  the  feint  was  upon  Perryville, 
and  urge!  reinforcements ;  and  that  this  was  the  reason  why  Gen.  Withers'  di 
vision  was  sent  to  Gen.  Kirby  Smith  and  was  not  sent  to  Generals  Polk  and 
Hardee. 


508  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

Unfortunately  the  battle  of  Perryville  was  another  experi 
ence  of  Shiloh,  without  any  decisive  results.  Had  we  have 
had  five  thousand  more  men,  or  had.  Withers  been  there,  we 
might  have  completely  routed  the  enemy,  leaving  us  the  waj> 
clear  to  Louisville.  No  troops  in  the  world  ever  fought 
with  more  desperate  courage  than  ours.  Whole  regiments  of 
our  men  went  into  that  fight  barefooted,  fought  barefooted 
and  had  marched  barefooted  from  Chattanooga.  The  brunt  of 
the  battle  was  borne  by  Gen.  Cheatham's  gallant  Tennesseeans. 
No  soldiers  of  the  ^  Confederacy  ever  fought  with  greater 
bravery. 

Ascertaining  that  the  enemy  was  heavily  reinforced  during 
the  night,  Gen.  Bragg  withdrew  his  force  early  the  next  morn 
ing  to  flarrodsburg,  where  he  was  joined  by  Smith  and  With 
ers.  On  the  10th,  all  our  forces  fell  back  to  Camp  Breckin- 
ridge  (Dick  Robinson),  the  cavalry  holding  the  enemy  in  check 
at  Danville.  It  was  supposed  that  Gen.  Bragg  would  have 
made  a  stand  here,  as  the  place  was  very  defensible  and  gave 
him  the  opportunity  of  sweeping  the  country  and  driving  off 
by  private  enterprise  or  cavalry  force  vast  herds  of  cattle,  so 
much  needed  by  our  army.  The  camp  is  in  an  acute  angle 
formed  by  the  junction  of  Kentucky  and  Dick's  rivers,  with 
high  and  impassable  and  perpendicular  cliffs  for  long  distances 
up  these  rivers,  except  at  a  few  crossings  ;  and  the  upper  line 
of  the  angle  has  high  and  commanding  hills,  suited  for  ar 
tillery  defences.  It  was  said  that  it  was  impregnable  to  any 
other  attack  than  that  of  famine. 

But  moved  by  various  considerations,  and  excited  by  the  su 
periority  of  Buell's  numbers,  it  was  determined  by  Gen.  Bragg 
that  the  whole  army  should  make  its  exodus  from  Kentucky  ; 
and  in  order  to  secure  the  immense  quantity  of  captured  stores, 
goodsj  clothing,  &c.,  much  of  which,  had  also  been  purchased, 
with  some  five  thousand  head  of  cattle,  horses,  mules,  &c.,  that 
the  retreat  should  commence  on  the  night  of  the  12th.  On 
uiat  day,  Sunday,  orders  were  received  to  cook  four  days'  ra- 
;  ions  for  the  march.  Major-gen.  McCowan,  with  Gen.  Hilliard's 
Legion,  and  a  cavalry  force  and  artillery,  was  ordered  to  de- 
iend  Fishing  Ford,  across  Dick's  river,  and  commanding  the 

ad  to  Camp  Breckinridge,  in  our  rear,  to  the  last  extremity. 

The  distress  of  those  people  of  Kentucky  who  were  friendly 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  509 

to  the  South,  on  learning  that  they  were  to  be  abandoned  by 
our  troops,  was  the  most  affecting  circumstance  of  the  sad  re 
treat.  When  our  troeps  abandoned  Lexington,  the  terror, 
dismay,  and  anguish  of  the  inhabitants  were  extreme.  The 
women  ran  through  the  streets  crying  and  wringing  their 
hands,  while  families  hastily  gathered  their  clothing,  packed 
their  trunks,  and  obtained  wagons  to  depart,  the  greatest  dis 
tress  prevailing. 

The  retreat  commenced  on  Sunday  night,  the  12th  October, 
Major  Adrain's  cavalry  conducting  the  advance  train  of  Gen. 
Kirby  Smith.  That  night  piles  of  goods,  clothes,  &c.,  were 
burned  that  could  not  be  carried  off  from  the  warehouse. 
Long  before  day  on  the  morning  of  the  13th,  the  whole  camp 
was  astir.  If  any  one  doubted  that  we  were  actually  retreat 
ing,  the  burning  piles  of  abandoned  stores,  gun-carriages,.  &c., 
was  sufficient  to  convince  him  of  the  deplorable  fact. 

At  gray  dawn  the  troops  reached  Bryantsville,  about  two 
miles  from  the  camp,  where  the  whole  command  of  conducting 
the  retreat  was  turned  over  to  Gen.  Polk.  Already  train  after 
train  of  wagons  had  passed,  and  others  were  still  forming  and 
joining  in  the  immense  cavalcade.  Ammunition  trains  and 
batteries  of  captured  artillery  had  preceded.  Then  followed 
trains  of  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise,  provision  trains  of 
army  stores,  trains  of  captured  muskets,  escorts  of  cavalry, 
artillery  drawn  by  oxen.  Then  came  private  trains  of  refugee 
families,  flying  with  their  negroes  for  safety — ladies  and  chil 
dren  in  carriages,  stage-coaches,  express  wagons,  omnibuses, 
buggies,  ambulances,  jersey  wagons,  and  every  conceivable 
vehicle  imaginable,  and  following,  came  the  wagons  of  the  dif 
ferent  brigades  of  Gen.  Smith's  army,  with  infantry,  cavalry, 
and  artillery  in  the  rear.  Intermixed  with  the  throng  were 
thousands  of  head  of  cattle,  horses,  and  mules. 

The  effect  of  our  retreat  along  the  road  everywhere  was 
sinking  and  depressing  in  the  extreme.  ~No  miniature -banners 
waved,  no  white  kerchiefs  greeted  our  troops  with  approving 
smiles  from  lovely  women,  and  no  wild  cheer  was  heard  re- 
pjxmsive  to  the  greetings  which  had  attended  their  march  into 
Kentucky.  Trembling  women  stole  to  the  doors  to  look  upon 
the  strange,  mystified  scene  before  them,  and  as  the  truth 
gradually  forced  itself  upon  them,  their  eyes  filled  with  tears, 


510  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  they  shrank  back,  fearing  even  to  make  the  slightest 
demonstration,  of  friendliness — all  was  sullen,  downcast,  and 
gloomy. 

The  enemy  was  in  pursuit,  and  making  a  strong  effort  to 
flank  us,  so  as  to  cut-off  our  trains,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
urge  on  the  teams  night  and  day  for  fear  of  capture.  For 
some  portion  of  the  way  the  road  lay  along  the  bed  of  Dick's 
river,  a  miserable  rocky  branch,  which  our  troops  had  to  cross 
and  recross  for  six  miles  in  a  dark  and  hazy  night.  Scenes  of 
terrible  confusion  and  delay  occurred  along  this  road.  Wag 
ons  broke  down,  were  overturned,  and  frequently  stalled,  and 
in  the  former  case  were  often  abandoned.  The  bawling  of  the 
teamsters  to  their  mules,  the  cracking  of  their  whips,  and  vol 
leys  of  oaths  in  the  most  outlandish  gibberish,  which  none  but 
the  mules  could  understand,  were  kept  up  all  night.  In  the 
daytime  more  cheerful  scenes  relieved  the  retreat.  The  foli 
age  of  the  forest  trees  and  brushwood  enlivened  the  wayside 
with  their  rich  hues  of  dark  maroon  splendor  to  brilliant 
crimson. 

The  retreat  was  admirably  covered  by  Gen.  Wheeler.  From 
the  battle-field  at  Perryville  to  Cumberland  Gap  this  general 
conducted  his  movements  in  the  same  masterly  manner  that 
had  characterized  him  in  the  previous  part  of  the  campaign. 
He  retarded  the  'enemy  by  various  means.  When  he  reached 
the  hilly  country  he  obstructed  the  road  by  felled  trees.  By 
all  such  ingenious  devices,  he,  with  a  small  force,  enabled  the 
baggage  trains  and  straggling  infantry  to  escape  capture. 
From  Altamont  to  Cumberland  Gap  he  encountered  the  enemy 
twenty-nine  times,  seriously  damaged  him,  and  saved  much  of 
our  infantry  from  capture.  At  Rock  Castle  the  enemy  aban 
doned  the  pursuit ;  our  whole  train  of  stores  being  up,  and 
not  even  a  wagon  lost,  except  those  abandoned  on  account  of 
breaking  down. 

We  must  leave  here  an  account  of  the  movements  of  Gen. 
Bragg  until  the  time  shall  come  for  us  to  see  how  his  retreat 
from  Kentucky  through  Cumberland  Gap  transferred  the  most 
important  scenes  of  the  war  in  the  West  to  the  memorable 
Jines  of  Nashville.  Deplorable  as  was  this  retreat,  it  was  not 
without  some  circumstances  that  palliated  it,  or  relieved  the 
grief  of  the  public  mind.  It  is  certain  that  it  was  a  disap- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  51  I 

pointment  to  the  enemy,  who  had  expected  to  crush  our  forces 
in  Kentucky,  arid  were  not  prepared  for  the  news  of  their  liber 
ation  from  the  coils  which  they  nattered  themselves  had  been 
so  industriously  and  elaborately  woven  around  them. 

It  is  probable,  too,  that  under  the  circumstances,  after  oui 
own  army  had  blundered  so  badly  in  the  first  steps  of  the  cam 
paign,  its  retreat  from  Kentucky,  without  the  burden  of  defeat 
and  without  material  losses,  was  preferable  to  alternatives 
which  otherwise  would  have  probably  befallen  it.  It  had  en 
tered  into  Gen.  Beauregard's  plan  of  campaign  in  the  West, 
before  he  had  been  superseded,  to  regain  the  control  of  the 
Tennessee  and  Cumberland  rivers,  and  thus  prepare  for  future 
operations.  The  construction  of  works  on  the  Cumberland 
and  Tennessee  rivers  so  as  to  command  them,  was  plainly  an 
important  concern  ;  and,  according  to  Gen.  Beauregard's  idea, 
should  have  been  preliminary  to  the  active  campaign  in  the 
West.  With  these  works,  it  appears  probable  that  an  advance 
might  have  been  made  with  safety  into  Kentucky ;  and  even 
had  we  failed  in  the  taking  of  Louisville  arid  Cincinnati,  which 
was  a  part  of  Gen.  Beauregard's  plan,  and  been  compelled  to 
fall  back,  it  is  thought  not  improbable  that  we  could  have 
made  a  successful  stand  on  the  Cumberland.  But  Gen.  Bragg 
had  failed  to  adopt  these  suggestions.  Had  he  succeeded,  after 
our  victory  at  Perry  ville,  in  driving  the  enemy  back  to  Louis 
ville,  unless  he  had  been  able  to  take  that  place,  he  would  have 
been  compelled  to  retreat  so  soon  as  the  Tennessee  and  Cum 
berland  rivers  should  have  risen  sufficiently  to  have  admitted 
the  entrance  of  the  enemy's  gunboats  and  transports.  Taking 
this  view,  it  may  be  said  that  as  we  did  not  have  command  of 
these  rivers,  it  was  fortunate  that  our  army  left  Kentucky  when 
it  did,  otherwise  it  might  have  found  great  difficulty,  after  the 
winter  rains  commenced,  in  getting  away  at  all. 

For  the  failure  of  Gen.  Bragg's  campaign  in  Kentucky,  the 
excuse  was  offered  that  the  people  of  that  State  had  been  un 
friendly,  that  they  had  not  joined  his  standard  in  considerable 
numbers,  and  that  they  had  disappointed  his  own  and  the  com 
mon  expectation  of  the  Southern  public  with  respect  to  their 
political  sentiments.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  how 
little  applicable  such  an  excuse  is  to  positive  blunders  in  the 
conduct  of  an  army,  and  to  those  imperfections  of  judgment 


512 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


ind  faults  of  strategy  which,  whatever  may  be  their  remote 
connection,  are  the  immediate  occasions  and  responsible  causes 
of  disaster. 

But  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  the  South  was  bitterly  disap 
pointed  in  the  manifestations  of  public  sentiment  in  Kentucky; 
that  the  exhibitions  of  sympathy  in  this  State  were  meagre  and 
sentimental,  and  amounted  to  but  little  practical  aid  of  our 
cause.  Indeed,  no  subject  was  at  once  more  dispiriting  and 
perplexing  to  the  South  than  the  cautious  and  unmanly  recep 
tion  given  to  our  armies,  both  in  Kentucky  and  Maryland. 
The  references  we  have  made  to  the  sentiment  of  each  of  these 
States,  leaves  but  little  room  to  doubt  the  general  conclusion, 
that  the  dread  of  Yankee  vengeance,  and  love  of  property, 
were  too  powerful  to  make  them  take  risks  against  these  in 
favor  of  a  cause  for  which  their  people  had  a  mere  preference, 
without  any  attachment  to  it  higher  than  those  of  selfish  calcu 
lation. 

There  must,  indeed,  be  some  explanation  for  the  extraordi 
nary  quiet  of  the  people  of  Maryland  and  Kentucky  under  the 
tyranny  that  ruled  them,  and  for  that  submission  the  painful 
signs  of  which  we  had  unwillingly  seen.  This  explanation  was 
not  to  be  found  in  the  conduct  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a 
remarkable  fact  that  the  Lincoln  government  had  not  taken 
any  pains  to  change  the  opinions  and  prejudices  of  the  people 
in  these  two  States.  It  had  made  no  attempt  to  conciliate 
them ;  it  had  performed  no  act  calculated  to  awaken  their 
affection  ;  it  had  done  nothing  to  convert  their  hearts  to  the 
support  of  an  administration  to  which  they  were  originally 
hostile. 

It  would  be  a  foolish  and  brutal  explanation  to  attribute  the 
submission  of  these  States  to  cowardice.  The  people  of  these 
States  were  brave  ;  they  were  descended  from  noble  ancestries, 
and  they  had  the  same  blood  and  types  of  race  that  were  com 
mon  to  the  South.  The  sons  of  Kentucky  and  Maryland  who 
had  fought  under  the  Confederate  flag  were  as  noble  specimens 
of  the  Southern  soldier  as  any  to  be  found  in  our  armies.  But 
the  people  of  these  States,  'who  had  stayed  at  home  and  been 
schooled  in  the  lessons  of  submission,  appeared  to  have  lost  the 
spirit  and  stature  of  their  ancestors,  and  dragged  the  names  oi 
Maryland  and  Kentucky  in  the  dust.  . 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  513 

The  only  just  explanation  that  can  be  furnished  of  the  abject 
attitude  of  these  States  is,  that  having  taken  the  first  steps  of 
submission  to  a  pitiless  despotism,  they  had  been  easily  cor 
rupted  into  its  subjects.  The  lessons  of  history  furnish  many 
exhibitions  of  how  easily  the  spirit  of  a  community  is  crushed 
by  submission  to  tyranny ;  how  the  practice  of  non-resistance 
makes  of  men  crawling  creatures.  The  mistake  is  in  making 
the  first  step  of  submission ;  when  that  is  accomplished,  de 
moralization  becomes  rapid,  and  the  bravest  community  sinks 
into  emasculation.  Under  the  expf/uence  of  non-resistance  to 
the  rule  of  a  despot,  men  become  timid,  artful,  and  miserly  ; 
they  spend  their  lives  in  consulting  the  little  ends  of  personal 
selfishness.  This  corruption  in  Kentucky,  as  well  as  in  Mary 
land,  had  gone  on  with  visible  steps.  Their  history  was  a  les 
son  which  the  South  might  well  remember,  of  the  fatal  conse 
quences  of  any  submission  to  despotic  will ;  for  however  spe 
cious  its  plea,  all  records  of  man's  experience  have  shown  that 
it  undermines  the  virtues  of  a  people,  and  degenerates  at  last 
into  servile  acquiescence  in  its  fate. 

M 


514  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


CHAPTEK  XIX. 

Our  Lines  im  tLe  Southwest. — Gen.  Breckenridge'a  Attack  on  Baton  Rouge.— De 
struction  of  the  Ram  Arkansas.— Gen.  Price's  Reverse  at  luka.— Desperate  Fighting.— 
THE  BATTLE  OF  CORINTH. — Van  Dorn's  hasty  Exultations. — The  Massacre  of  College 
Hill. — Wild  and  terrible  Courage  of  the  Confederates. — Our  Forces  beaten  Back. — 
Our  Lin«e  of  Retreat  secured. — The  Military  Prospects  of  the  South  overshadowed. 
—THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. — Romance  of  the  War  in  Missouri. — 
Schofield's  Order  calling  out  the  Militia. — Atrocities  of  the  Yankee  Rule  in  Missouri. 
—Robbery  witnout  "Red  Tape."— The  Guerilla  Campaign.— The  Aifair  of  Kirks- 
ville. — Execution  of  Col.  McCullough. — The  Aflair  of  Lone  Jack. — Timely  Reinforce 
ment  of  Lexington  by  the  Yankees. — The  Palmyra  Massacre. — The  Question  of  Re 
taliation  with  the  South. — THE  MILITARY  AND  POLITICAL  SITUATION. — Survey  of  the 
Military  Situation. — Capture  of  Galveston  by  the  Yankees. — The  Enemy's  NavaX 
Power. — His  Iron-clads. — Importance  of  Foundries  in  the  South. — Prospect  in  the 
Southwest. — Prospect  in  Tennessee. — Prospect  in  Virginia. — Stuart's  Raid  into  Penn 
sylvania. — Souvenirs  of  Southern  Chivalry. — The  "Soft-mannered  Rebels." — Political 
Complexion  of  the  War  in  the  North. — Lincoln's  "Emancipation  Proclamation." — 
History  of  Yankee  Legislation  in  the  War. — Political  Error  of  the  Emancipation  Proc 
lamation. — Its  Effect  on  the  South. — The  Decay  of  European  Sympathy  with  the 
Abolitionists. — What  the  War  accomplished  for  Negro  Slavery  in  the  South. — Yankee 
Falsehoods  and  Bravadoes  in  Europe. — Delusion  of  Conquering  the  South  by  Starva 
tion. — Caricatures  in  the  New  York  Pictorials. — The  noble  Eloquence  of  Hunger  and 
Rags.— Manners  in  the  South.— Yankee  Warfare.— The  Desolation  of  Virginia.— The 
Lessons  of  harsh  Necessity. — Improvement  of  the  Civil  Administration  of  the  Con 
federacy. — Ordnance,  Manufacturing  Resources,  Quartermasters'  Supplies,  etc. 

THE  crisis  in  Kentucky  was  probably  hastened  by  certain 
disastrous  events  which  had  taken  place  on  our  lines  in  the 
Southwest.  A  large  Confederate  force  had  been  left  in  North 
Mississippi  when  Gen.  Bragg  moved  into  Kentucky,  and  the 
speculation  was  not  remote  that,  with  the  Memphis  and  Charles 
ton  railroad  open  from  Chattanooga  to  a  point  near  the  posi 
tion  of  our  army  in  Mississippi,  that  portion  of  our  forces  in 
the  West  might  render  important  assistance  to,  or,  in  some 
emergency,  effect  a  co-operation  with  the  armies  that  had  been 
marched  into  Kentucky. 

But  the  story  of  the  Southwest  was  one  of  almost  unbroken 
disaster,  owing  less,  perhaps,  to  inadequate  numbers  than  to 
the  blind  and  romantic  generalship  which  carried  them  into 
the  jaws  of  destruction.  There  was  one  golden  link  in  the 
chain  of  events  here,  and  that  was  the  heroic  defence  of  Vicks- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  515 

burg.  But  while  this  famous  town  so  nobly  dispited  the  palm 
of  the  Mississippi,  her  example  of  victorious  resistance  was 
obscured,  though,  not  overshadowed,  by  other  events  in  the 
Southwest. 

On  the  5th  of  August,  an  attack  made  by  Gen.  Breckenridge 
with  less  than  three  thousand  men  on  Baton  Rouge,  was  se 
verely  repulsed  by  an  enemy  nearly  twice  his  numbers,  fight 
ing  behind  fortifications  which  were  almost  impregnable?  and 
assisted  by  a  fleet  of  gunboats  in  the  river.  The  unequal  attack 
was  made  by  our  troops  with  devoted  courage ;  they  succeeded 
in  driving  the  enemy  to  the  arsenal  and  tower,  and  to  the 
cover  of  his  gunboats  ;  but  they  were  compelled  to  withdraw 
with  diminished  and  exhausted  numbers  before  a  fire  which  it 
was  impossible  to  penetrate. 

This  check  (for  it  deserves  no  more  important  or  decisive 
title)  was  in  a  measure  occasioned,  or,  at  least,  was  accompa 
nied,  by  a  disaster  of  real  importance.  This  was  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  great  Confederate  ram  Arkansas,  already  famous 
for  having  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  hostile  fleet  at  Vicksburg, 
and  the  promises  of  whose  future  services  had  given  to  the 
South  many  brilliant  but  illusory  hopes.  The  Arkansas  left 
Vicksburg  to  co-operate  in  the  attack  upon  Baton  Rouge. 
After  passing  Bayou  Sara  her  machinery  became  deranged  or 
disabled.  But  two  alternatives  were  left — to  blow  her  up  OF 
Buffer  her  to  be  captured  by  the  Yankee  gunboats.  The  for 
mer  was  resorted  to,  and  this  proud  achievement  of  naval 
architecture  floated  a  wreck  on  the  Mississippi  river. 

The  failure  of  another  enterprise  of  attack  on  the  enemy,' 
made  by  Gen.  Price  at  luka  on  the  20th  of  September,  was 
much  more  disastrous  than  the  affair  of  Baton  Rouge.  Over 
matched  by  numbers,  Gen.  Price  was,  after  some  partial  and 
temporary  success,  forced  back,  with  a  loss  greater  than  that 
of  the  enemy.  In  this  engagement  our  loss  was  probably  eight 
hundred  in  killed  and  wour  led.  But  never  had  troops  fought 
with  more  terrible  resolution  )r  wilder  energy  than  the  soldiers 
of  Price.  The  fighting  was  almost  hand  to  hand  ;  and  as  an 
instance  of  the  close  and  deadly  combat,  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  an  Ohio  battery  was  taken  by  our  men  four  different 
times,  and  as  often  retaken  by  greatly  superior  numbers  of  the 
enemy.  The  desperation  of  our  soldiers  astonished  those  who, 


516 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


by  the  weight  of  numbers  alone,  were  able  to  resist  them. 
Several  of  our  men  endeavored  to  tear  the  colors  from  the 
hands  of  the  Yankees  by  main  force,  and  either  perished  in  the 
attempt  or  were  made  prisoners.  In  one  spot  next  morning, 
there  were  counted  seventeen  Confederate  soldiers  lying  dead 
around  one  of  their  officers.  Sixteen  feet  square  would  cover 
the  whole  space  where  they  died. 

But  there  was  yet  to  jnsue  the  great  disaster  which  was  to 
react  on  other  theatres  of  the  war  and  cast  the  long  shadow  of 
misfortune  upon  the  country  of  the  West.  It  was  destined  to 
take  place  at  Corinth,  where  Major-gen.  Rosecrans,  command 
ing  the  Yankee  army  of  the  Mississippi  and  Tennessee,  was 
stationed  with  at  least  forty  thousand  men. 

THE   BATTLE   OF  CORINTH. 

The  armies  of  Generals  Yan  Dorn  and  Price — under  Gen. 
Van  Dorn  as  the  ranking  officer — having  formed  a  junction  at 
Ripley,  marched  thence  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  the  enemy 
»n  battle,  though  it  was  well  known  that  the  battle  must  be 
waged  under  the  serious  disadvantages  of  great  disparity  in 
numbers  and  strength  of  position. 

On  the  2d  of  October  our  forces  marched  from  Poeahontas 
to  Chewalla,  points  on  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad, 
thus  moving  from  the  west  on  Corinth,  the  stronghold  of  the 
enemy.  That  night  the  soldiers  rested  on  their  arms,  in  eager 
and  confident  expectation  of  meeting  the  foe  in  battle  array  on 
the  ensuing  morning. 

On  Friday,  October  3d,  the  order  of  battle  was  formed — th« 
right  being  held  by  Gen.  Yan  Dora's  troops,  composing  only 
one  division,  under  Gen.  Lovell ;  while  the  left  was  occupied 
by  Gen.  Price's  troops,  composed  of  two  divisions — the  extreme 
left  under  Gen.  Herbert,  and  the  right  under  Gen.  Maury, 
whose  division,  as  thus  placed,  formed  the  centre  of  the  whole 
force.  Advancing  in  this  order,  at  half  past  7  o'clock  in  the 
morning  Gen.  Lovell's  division  arrived  within  long  range  of  tho 
enemy,  who  had  marched  out  some  miles  in  front  of  the  extreme 
outer  lines  of  his  fortifications.  Immediately  the  artillery  ot 
Gen.  Yillipigue,  whose  brigade  was  in  the  advance,  opened  fire 
npon  the  enemy,  who  in  a  short  time  began  to  give  way  and 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  517 

fall  back,  and  continued  to  do  so  for  two  hours,  undei  a  heavy 
and  effective  fire  from  the  advancing  batteries  of  Gen.  Lovell's 
division. 

At  half-past  9  o'clock,  the  enemy  having  made  a  stand  one 
half  mile  in  front  of  his  fortifications,  Gen.  Lovell  advanced  his 
infantry  and  poured  a  destructive  musketry  fire  into  the  ranka 
of  the  Yankees,  who  replied  with  spirit ;  and  now,  Gen.  Price 
having  ordered  up  his  divisions  under  Generals  Maury  and 
Herbert,  the  battle  raged  all  along  the  line — the  enemy  suffer 
ing  terribly.  At  length  a  charge  was  ordered,  Gen.  Lovell'a 
division  leading.  In  double-quick  time  our  soldiers,  pressing 
forward  with  loud  cheers,  drove  the  enemy  behind  his  intrench- 
ments.  Simultaneously  almost,  the  divisions  of  Gen.  Maury 
and  Herbert,  the  one  after  the  other,  charged  the  enemy  in 
front  of  them  with  equal  success. 

There  was  now  a  strange  lull  in  the  battle.  The  Yankees 
had  withdrawn  entirely  behind  their  fortifications,  their  fire 
had  dropped  off,  and  the  tumult  of  the  fierce  strife  died  away. 
The  unexpected  quiet  lasted  for  a  whole  hour.  By  that  time, 
the  Yankees  having  brought  several  field  batteries  in  front, 
opened  from  these,  and  at  the  same  time  from  his  heavy  artil 
lery,  a  most  tremendous  cannonade.  This  fire  was  directed 
chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  against  the  right  wing  under  Gen.  Lovell, 
and,  though  so  tremendous  in  sound,  produced  but  little  effect. 
Our  soldiers  remained  silent  and  stood  firm.  They  were  wait 
ing  for  orders.  Presently  the  second  charge  was  ordered. 
Gallantly  was  it  made  by  Gen.  Lovell's  division,  and  as  gal 
lantly  was  it  supported  by  charges  all  along  the  centre  and 
right  wing  by  the  divisions  of  Generals  Maury  and  Herbert.  On, 
on  our  glorious  columns  swept  through  the  leaden  rain  and 
iron  hail ;  the  first  line  of  fortifications  is  reached  and  passed ; 
and  the  Yankees  do  not  stop  until  they  have  reached  the  next 
line  of  intrenchments. 

On  Friday  night  the  news  of  a  great  victory  was  dispatched 
by  Gen.  Yan  Dorn  to  Richmond.  This  announcement  was 
made  with  an  exultation  so  hasty  and  extreme,  that  it  is  to  be 
supposed  that  this  commander  was  entirely  unaware  of  the 
strength  of  the  enemy's  works  at  Corinth,  and,  consequently, 
of  the  supreme  trial  which  yet  remained  for  the  courage  and 
devotion  of  his  troops. 


518  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  next  morning  the  general  relation  of  our  troops  to  each 
other  and  to  the  enemy  remained  as  it  was  on  the  previous 
day — Gen.  Yan  Dora,  in  supreme  command,  occupying  the 
centre,  Gen.  Price  the  left  wing,  and  Gen.  Lovell  the  right 
wing.  Gen.  Lovell's  division  held  ground  west  of  Corinth  and 
just  south  of  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad.  Gen. 
Maury's  division  was  posted  north  of  the  Memphis  and 
Charleston  railroad,  and  between  it  and  the  Memphis  and 
Ohio  railroad.  Gen.  Herbert's  division  was  on  the  left,  east 
of  the  Memphis  and  Ohio  railroad — thus  advancing  from  the 
north  upon  Corinth. 

The  battle  was  commenced  by  Gen.  Price  early  in  the  morn 
ing,  one  half-hour  before  daylight.  The  artillery  having  been 
moved  forward,  opened  upon  the  enemy  in  his  intrenchmenta 
at  a  distance  of  four  hndred  yards.  The  enemy  replied,  and 
a  heavy  cannonading,  by  both  sides,  ensued  for  one  hour. 
Our  troops  suffered  but  little  damage  from  this  fire,  and  the 
artillery  was  withdrawn  with  the  view  of  advancing  the  infan 
try.  Now  heavy  skirmishing  followed  all  along  the  line,  which 
was  kept  up  until  about  10  o'clock.  Then  beginning  with 
Gen.  Lovell's  division,  who  were  immediately  seconded  by 
Gen.  Price's  army — Gen.  Herbert's  division  first,  and  then 
Gen.  Maury's, — our  whole  line  advanced  upon  the  intrench- 
ments  of  the  enemy. 

Here  occurred  one  of  the  most  terrible  struggles  of  the  war. 
The  shock  of  the  tremendous  onset  was  terrible.  One  portion 
of  our  lines  rushed  pell-mell  into  Corinth,  losing  in  their  con 
fidence  of  victory  almost  every  semblance  of  order,  infantry 
and  cavalry  being  crowded  together  in  a  dense  mass,  wild 
with  excitement,  and  rending  the  air  with  fierce  and  exulting 
yells.  But  the  batteries  of  the  enemy  were  situated  to  com 
mand  the  village  as  well  as  the  approaches  to  it. 

The  serried  ranks  of  the  enemy,  now  prepared  to  receive 
us,  afforded  convincing  proof  that  victory  was  yet  distant  from 
our  grasp,  and  that  a  hard  and  bloody  fight  was  at  hand.  A 
portion  of  Maury's  division  was  ordered  to  charge  the  formi 
dable  fort  on  College  Hill.  This  was  the  forlorn  hope.  Dis 
appointed  *in  gaining  a  lodgment  in  the  village,  we  must  con 
fess  to  a  defeat,  if  that  battery  be  not  taken.  Once  in  our  pos 
session,  the  town  is  ours.  The  men,  massed  in  single  column, 


THE    SECOND    TEAR.  519 

eight  deep,  moved  forward  in  silenc-%  regardless  of  the  shower 
of  bullets  which  whistled  about  thei~  ears  and  decimated  their 
ranks.  The  decisive  moment — the  turning  point  of  the  en 
gagement — had  arrived.  Every  battery  of  the  enemy  bearing 
on  the  column  was  double  charged  with  grape  and  canister 
which  burst  over  the  heads  of  our  trtops.  Scores  were  killed 
at  every  discharge,  but  they  moved  steadily  on,  maintaining 
the  silence  of  the  grave.  As  fast  as  one  soldier  fell,  his  com 
rade  behind  stepped  forward  and  f'K>k  his  place.  They 
charged  up  to  the  battery,  reserving  their  fire  until  they 
reached  the  parapets.  Twice  repulsed,  the  third  time  they 
reached  the  outer  works,  and  planted  their  flag  upon  the  es 
carpment.  It  was  shot  dpwn  and  agrxn  planted,  but  shot 
down  again. 

These  devoted  troops  now  held  partiyJ  possession  of  the 
works.  But  the  triumph  was  of  short  duration.  According 
to  previous  instructions,  the  enemy's  gunners  fell  back  behind 
the  works,  and  the  next  instant  from  their  batteries  threw  a 
murderous  fire  into  our  ranks  at  the  shortest  possible  range 
Nothing  human  could  withstand  such  a  firef  the  confusion  it 
produced  was  irretrievable  ;  our  men  were  driven  back  and 
the  day  lost. 

But  the  attack  was  not  abandoned  without  instances  of  wild 
and  terrible  courage  that  were  almost  appalling.  In  their 
madness  and  desperation,  our  men  would  rush  up  to  the  very 
mouths  of  the  cannon,  and  many  were  blown  to  pieces  by  the 
rapid  and  constant  discharges.  Such  spectacles  of  courage 
were  curious  and  terrible  to  behold.  An  officer,  standing  a 
little  way  out  from  his  men,  was  shouting,  "  Give  it  to  the 
scoundrels."  The  words  had  but  passed  from  his  lips,  when 
the  first  shell  from  a  Parrott  gun  struck  his  left  shoulder,  tear 
ing  off  his  whole  side.  He  turned  his  head  a  little  to  cue  side, 
his  mouth  opened,  his  eyes  glared,  and  he  fell  dead. 

The  attack  on  the  enemy's  batteries  was  rash  and  magnifi 
cent.  The  intensity  of  the  fight  may  be  judged  from  th«  fact 
that  two  hundred  and  sixty  dead  bodies  were  found  in  and 
about  the  trenches,  within  a  distance  of  fifty  feet  of  the  works. 
It  is  impossible  to  enumerate  the  examples  of  daring  which, 
adorn  the  story*  of  this  attack.  The  Second  Texas  Infantry, 
under  Col.  Rogers,  led  the  charge,  and  the  colonel  himself  fell 


520  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

on  the  enemy's  breastworks,  with  the  colors  of  his  regiment  in 
his  hand.  A  piece  of  paper  was  found  under  his  clothing, 
giving  his  name  and  rank  and  the  address  of  his  friends.  As 
Gen.  Cabell  mounted  the  enemy's  parapet,  the  first  man  he 
encountered  was  a  Yankee  colonel,  who  cried  out,  "  Kill  that 
d d  rebel  officer."  The  next  instant  a  blow  from  the  gen 
eral's  sabre  placed  his  antagonist  at  his  feet.  In  the  brigade 
of  this  brave  officer,  J.  H.  Bullock,  adjutant  of  the  13th  Ar 
kansas  regiment,  a  noble  specimen  of  the  Southern  soldier— 
for,  though  blessed  in  estate  and  family,  a  son-in-law  of  Chiei 
justice  Parsons,  of  North  Carolina,  and  the  master  of  a  beauti 
ful  and  prosperous  home,  he  had  volunteered  as  a  private  and 
been  advanced  for  merit — made  a  display  of  courage  to  ani 
mate  his  men  that  was  a  splendid  picture  of  heroism,  as  he 
stood  out  and  exposed  himself  to  the  enemy's  fire  until  his 
clothing  was  pierced  by  balls,  his  life  being  saved  only  by  that 
unseen' shield  with  which  Providence  protects  its  agents.  The 
gallant  commander  of  this  ever-glorious  regiment,  Col.  Daly, 
had  fallen,  while  himself  engaged  in  the  animation  of  his  men — 
cheering  and  leading  them  on  to  the  attack. 

Under  the  necessities  of  the  case,  our  troops   had  fallen 

back  ;  and  though  in  doing  so  they  were  exposed  to  a  terrible 

•and  destructive  fire,  there  was  no  panic,  no  rout — the  wounded, 

•  except  those  who  fell  right  at  the  intrenchments,  having  been 
nearly  all  brought  away.     Our  army  retired  to  the  woods  at  a 

•  distance  of  only  six  hundred  yards,  and  there,  while  our  artil- 
Qery  resumed  fire  and  kept  it  up  for  a  short  time,  formed  again 

in  order  of  battle.  But  the  enemy  appearing  indisposed  to 
renew  the  conflict,  Gen.  Van  Dorn,  at  three  o'clock,  drew  off 
his  whole  force,  being  most  ably  supported  in  doing  so  by  Gen. 
Price  and  the  other  general  officers. 

The  next  morning,  at  half  past  eight  o'clock,  our  advance, 
consisting  of  Gen.  Phifer's  brigade,  and  Col.  Whitfi eld's  Le- 
.gion,  with  one  battery — not  exceeding  one  thousand  five  hun- 
dred  in  all — crossed  the  Davis  bridge  at  Hatchie  river,  to 
engage  the  enemy,  a  large  body  of  whom,  from  Bolivar,  had 
the  day  before  reached  that  point,  and  had  there  been  held  in 
check  by  Col.  Slemmon's  and  Adams'  cavalry,  with  one  bat 
tery.  Our  advance  having  crossed  the  bridge  and  gone  a  little 
distance,  received  a  heavy  fire  at  short  range  from  a  concealed 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  521 

battery,  which  was  followed  directly  by  a  charge  from  a  largely 
superior  force.  Our  troops  retreated  in  a  good  deal  of  confu 
sion  across  the  bridge — -having  suffered  a  loss,  perhaps,  of  three 
hundred  killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  The  reinforcements 
arriving,  our  troops  formed  in  line,  and  a  fight  with  musketry 
ensued  and  was  kept  up  for  some  time  across  the  river,  but 
with  very  little  loss  on  our  side.  Meanwhile,  our  field-pieces 
opened  upon  the  enemy — and  they  replying,  cannonading  was 
continued  during  the  greater  part  of  the  day.  During  this 
time  our  advance  was  gradually  withdrawn,  and  following  the 
other  troops,  with  the  long  wagon  train  of  supplies,  wounded, 
&c. — the  artillery  having  also  been  brought  off — made  a  suc 
cessful  crossing  of  Hatchie  river,  some  miles  higher  up  the 
stream.  The  retreat  was  eventually  halted  at  a  point  a  little 
north  of  Ripley. 

Our  loss  in  all  the  three  days'  engagements  was  probably 
quite  double  that  of  the  enemy.  In  killed  and  wounded  it  ex 
ceeded  three  thousand ;  and  it  was  estimated,  besides,  that  we 
had  left  more  than  fifteen  hundred  prisoners  in  the  hands  of 
the  enemy. 

The  defeat  of  Corinth  was  followed  by  swift  news  of  disaster 
arid  discouragement.  The  military  prospect  was  not  dark,  but 
it  hud  lost  much  of  the  brightness  it  had  only  a  few  weeks 
before.  Kentucky  had  been  gloomily  abandoned.  In  Vir 
ginia  the  hopes  of  conquering  a  peace  on  the  Potomac  had  for 
the  time  been  given  up ;  the  Kanawha  Yalley  had  again  been 
mostly  surrendered  to  the  enemy  ;  and  Marshall's  forces,  back 
again  in  Southwestern  Virginia,  were  consuming  the  sub 
stance  of  the  country  with  but  little  return  of  other  service. 
In  other  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  the  prospect  was  not  much 
relieved. 

THE   DEPARTMENT    OF   THE   TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. 

The  events  in  the  department  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  were 
too  distant  to  affect  the  general  fortunes  of  the  war ;  they  were 
but  episodes  to  the  great  drama  of  arms  that  passed  over  the 
broad  and  imposing  theatres  of  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Ten 
nessee;  but  they  were  replete  with  romance,  and  if  their  inter 
est  is  at  present  partial,  it  is  so,  perhaps,  for  the  reason  that 
they  are  imperfectly  known. 


522  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Missouri  had  the  better  of  other  seats  of  hostility  for  the  real 
romance  of  war.  The  remote  geography  of  the  country,  the 
rough  character  of  the  people,  the  intensity  and  ferocity  of  the 
passions  excited,  and  the  reduction  of  military  operations  to  a 
warfare  essentially  partisan  and  frontier,  gave  to  the  progress 
of  the  war  in  this  quarter  a  wild  aspect,  and  illustrated  it  with 
rare  and  thrilling  scenes. 

Gen.  Schofield,  the  Yankee  commander,  who  had  been  left 
by  Halleck  with  the  brief  and  comprehensive  instructions  "  to 
take  care  of  Missouri,"  found  the  power  of  the  Confederates 
broken  in  nearly  three-fourths  of  that  State,  but  the  South 
western  portion  threatened  by  the  active  movements  of  Gen. 
Hindman,  in  command  of  State  forces  raised  in  Arkansas  and 
Texas.  But  in  no  part  of  Missouri  was  the  spirit  of  the  people 
broken.  Guerrilla  bands  made  their  appearance  in  all  parts 
of  the  State ;  and  their  numbers  rapidly  augmented  under  the 
despotic  edict  of  Schofield,  calling  out  the  militia  of  the  State 
to  murder  their  own  countrymen. 

The  dark  atrocities  of  the  Yankee  rule  in  Missouri,  enacted 
as  they  were  in  a  remote  country,  and  to  a  great  extent  re 
moved  from  *  observation,  surpassed  all  that  was  known  in 
other  parts  of  the  Confederacy  of  the  cruelty  and  fury  of  «the 
enemy.  The  developments  on  this  subject  are  yet  imperfect ; 
but  some  general  facts  are  known  of  the  inordinate  license  of 
the  enemy  in  Missouri,  while  others  of  equal  horror  have  es 
caped  the  notice  of  the  public. 

In  other  parts  of  the  Confederacy  many  of  the  excesses  of 
the  enemy  were  performed  under  certain  formalities,  and  to 
some  extent  regulated  by  them.  But  in  Missouri  there  was  no 
"  red  tape,"  no  qualification  of  forms ;  the  order  of  the  day 
was  open  robbery,  downright  murder,  and  freedom  to  all  crimes 
of  which  "  rebels"  were  the  victims.  Citizens  were  plundered 
with  barefaced  audacity.  Those  citizens  of  St.  Louis  county 
alone,  who  were  suspected  by  Gen.  Schofield  to  sympathize 
with  the  South,  were  taxed  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  to 
arm,  clothe,  and  subsist  those  who  were  spilling  the  blood  of 
their  brothers,  and  threatening  their  own  homes  with  the  torch 
uud  with  outrages  to  which  death  is  preferable. 

The  sanguinary  guerrilla  warfare  in  Missouri  may  be  said  to 
have  commenced  in  the  month  of  July,  by  the  assembling  ol 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  523 

bands  under  Porter,  Poindexter,  Cobb,  and  others.  The  prin 
cipal  theatre  of  guerrilla  operations  was  at  this  time  the  north 
eastern  division  of  Missouri,  where  the  almost  devilish  cruelties 
of  the  Yankee  commander,  the  notorious  Colonel  McNeil,  had 
lashed  the  people  into  incontrollable  fury. 

On  the  6th  of  August,  Porter's  band  was  attacked  at  Kirks- 
ville  by  McNeil  with  a  large  force  of  cavalry  and  six  pieces  of 
artillery.  This  gallant  partisan  made  a  resistance  of  four 
hours  against  overwhelming  numbers,  and  retired  only  after 
such  a  demonstration  of  valor,  leaving  the  Yankees  to  claim 
as  a  victory  an  affair  in  which  they  had  sustained  a  loss  of 
more  than  five  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded,  probably  double 
our  own. 

The  day  after  the  action,  a  party  of  Yankee  scouts  suc 
ceeded  in  capturing,  near  Edina,  Col.  F.  McCullough,  who  was 
attached  to  Porter's  command,  and  at  the  time  of  his  capture 
was  quite  alone.  The  next  morning  a  train  with  an  armed 
escort  proceeded  from  Edina  to  Kirksville.  McCullough  was 
sent  along.  On  arriving  at  Kirksville,  the  news  of  the  capture 
of  this  famous  partisan  excited  the  most  devilish  feeling  among 
the  Yankee  troops.  He  was  confined  a  brief  time  with  the 
prisoners.  Meantime  a  court-martial  was  held,  and  he  was 
sentenced  to  be  shot  that  very  afternoon.  He  received  the 
information  of  his  fate  with  perfect  composure,  but  protested 
against  it.  Leaning  against  the  fence,  he  wrote  a  few  lines  to 
his  wife.  These,  with  his  watch,  he  delivered  to  the  officer,  to 
be  given  to  her.  Upon  the  way  to  his  execution,  he  requested 
the  privilege  to  give  the  command  to  fire,  which  was  granted. 
All  being  ready,  he  said :  "  What  I  have  done,  I  have  done  as 
a  principle  of  right.  Aim  at  the  heart.  Fire !" 

The  command  taking  the  soldiers  by  surprise,  one  fired 
sooner  than  the  rest.  The  ball  entering  his  breast,  he  fell, 
while  the  other  shots  passed  over  him.  Falling  with  one  leg 
doubled  under  the  body,  he  requested  to  have  it  straightened 
out.  While  this  was  being  done  he  said:  "I  forgive  you  for 
this  barbarous  act."  The  squad  having  reloaded  their  pieces, 
another  volley  was  fired — this  time  into  his  body,  and  he  died. 

On  the  15th  of  August  occurred  the  more  important  action 
of  Lone  Jack.  Large  Yankee  forces  were  moved  from  Lex- 
ington,  with  orders  to  effect  a  junction  near  Lone  Jack  and 


524  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OP    THE    WAR. 

attack  the  forces  under  Hughes  and  Quantrell,  supposed  to  be 
soul owhere  in  Jackson  county.  The  disaster  which  met  the 
Yankees  here  was  the  most  serious  of  the  guerrilla  campaign, 
Their  command  was  defeated,  with  a  loss  of  three  hundred 
killed  and  wounded,  two  pieces  of  their  artillery  captured  on 
the  field,  their  routed  forces  turned  back  upon  Lexington,  and 
that  place  put  in  imminent  peril.  The  timely  reinforcement  of 
Lexington  by  all  the  available  forces  of  the  enemy  in  north 
eastern  Missouri  alone  saved  the  place  from  capture  by  the 
Confederates,  and  disconcerted  their  plans  of  relieving  their 
comrades  north  of  the  river. 

The  guerrilla  campaign  of  Missouri  is  made  memorable  by  the 
fearful  story  of  the  "Palmyra  massacre."  The  important 
incidents  of  this  tragedy  are  gathered  from  the  enemy's  own 
publications,  and  it  was  from  Yankee  newspapers  that  the  peo 
ple  of  the  South  first  learned  the  barbarous  and  exultant  news 
that  McNeil  had  executed  ten  Confederate  prisoners  because  a 
tory  and  spy  had  been  carried  off  a  captive  by  our  forces. 

From  the  enemy's  own  accounts,  it  appears  that  the  missing 
man,  Andrew  Allsman,  was  a  legitimate  prisoner  of  war  ;  that 
on  the  descent  of  the  Confederate  forces  upon  Palmyra  he 
was  captured  by  them ;  that  he  belonged  to  the  Federal 
cavalry,  but  that  being  too  old  to  endure  all  the  hardships  of 
active  duty.,  he  was  detailed  as  a  spy,  being  "frequently,"  as 
one  of  the  Yankee  papers  states,  "  called  upon  for  information 
touching  the  loyalty  of  men,  which  he  always  gave  to  the  ex 
tent  of  his  ability." 

When  McNeil  returned  to  Palmyra  in  October,  he  caused  a 
notice  to  be  issued  that  unless  Allsman  was  returned  in  ten 
days  he  would  shoot  ten  Confederate  prisoners  as  "  a  meet 
•eward  for  their  crimes,  among  vhich  was  the  illegal  restrain 
ing  of  said  Allsman  of  his  liberty."  The  ten  days  elapsed, 
md  the  prisoner  was  not  returned.  The  following  account  of 
,,hat  ensued,  is  condensed  from  the  Palmyra  Courier,  a 

Union"  journal,  without  any  variation  from  the  language  in 
.  iiich  it  describes  the  deed  of  the  demons  with  whom  it  was  in 
,  inpathy : 

"The  tenth  day  expired  with  last  Friday.  On  that  day  ten 
rebel  prisoners,  already  in  custody,  were  selected  to  pay  with 
their  lis-es  the  penalty  demanded.  A  little  after  11  o'clock, 


THE    SECOND    \EAK.  525 

A.  M.,  the  next  day,  three  government  wagons  drove  to  the  jail. 
One  contained  four,  and  each  of  the  others  three  rough  board 
coffins.  The  condemned  men  were  conducted  from  the  prison 
and  seated  in  the  wagons,  one  upon  each  coffin.  A  sufficient 
guard  of  soldiers  accompanied  them,  and  the  cavalcade  started 
for  the  fatal  grounds.  The  ten  coffins  were  removed  from  the 
wagons  and  placed  in  a  row,  six  or  eight  feet  apart,  forming  a 
line  north  and  south.  Each  coffin  was  placed  upon  the  ground 
with  its  foot  west  and  head  east.  Thirty  soldiers  of  the  2d  M. 
S.  M.  were  drawn  up  in  a  single  line,  extending  north  and 
south,  facing  the  row  of  coffins.  The  arrangements  completed, 
the  men  knelt  upon  the  grass  between  their  coffins  and  the 
boldiers.  At  the  conclusion  of  a  prayer  by  the  army  chaplain, 
each  prisoner  took  his  seat  upon  the  foot  of  his  coffin,  facing 
the  muskets  which  in  a  few  moments  were  to  launch  them  into 
eternity.  They  were  nearly  all  firm  and  undaunted.  The  most 
noted  of  the  ten  was  Captain  Thomas  A.  Sidner  of  Monroe 
county,  whose  capture  at  Shelbyville,  in  the  disguise  of  a 
woman,  we  related  several  weeks  since.  He  was  now  elegantly 
attired  in  a  suit  of  black  broadcloth,  with  a  white  vest.  A 
luxurious  growth  of  beautiful  hair  rolled  down  upon  his 
shoulders,  which,  with  his- fine  personal  appearance,  could  not 
but  bring  to  mind  the  handsome  but  vicious  Absalom.  There 
was  nothing  especially  worthy  of  note  in  the  appearance  of 
the  others.  A  few  moments  after  1  o'clock  the  chaplain  in 
attendance  shook  hands  with  the  prisoners.  Two  of  them  ac 
cepted  bandages  for  the  eyes,  the  rest  refused.  A  hundred 
spectators  had  gathered  around  the  amphitheatre  to  witness  the 
impressive  scene.  The  stillness  of  death  pervaded  the  place. 
The  officer  in  command  now  stepped  forward,  and  gave  the 
word  of  command — '  Ready !  aim !  fire !'  The  discharges,  how 
ever,  were  not  made  simultaneously — probably  through  want 
of  a  perfect  understanding  of  the  orders  to  fire.  Two  of  the 
rebels  fell  backwards  upon  their  coffins  and  died  instantly, 
dipt.  Sidner  sprang  forward  and  fell  with  his  head  towards  the 
soldiers,  his  face  upwards,  his  hands  clasped  upon  his  breast, 
and  the  left  leg  drawn  halfway  up.  He  did  not  move  again, 
but  died  immediately.  He  had  requested  the  soldiers  to  aim 
at  his  heart,  and  they  obeyed  but  too  implicitly.  The  othei 


5i!G  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

seven  were  not  killed  outright ;  so  the  reserves  were  called  in 
who  dispatched  them  with  their  revolvers." 

The  "  Palmyra  massacre  "  was  destined  to  a  long  and  painful 
•emembrance  by  the  people  of  the  South,  not  only  because  of 
its  tragic  interest,  but  because  it  was  a  comment  scrawled  in 
olood  on  that  weak  and  remiss  policy  of  our  government,  which 
'aad  so  long  submitted  to  the  barbarous  warfare  of  the  enemy 
tnd  hesitated  at  the  rule  of  retaliation. 


THE    MILITARY    AND   POLITICAL    SITUATION. 

A  slight  survey  of  the  military  situation  at  this  time  adds 
something  to  the  list  of  our  disasters,  and  is  necessary  to  un 
derstand  the  proportions  of  the  crisis  at  which  the  fortunes  of 
the  South  had  arrived. 

The  capture  of  Galveston  on  the  coast  of  Texas,  on  the  9th 
of  October,  was  another  repetition  of  the  almost  invariable 
story  of  disaster  at  the  hands  of  the  enemy's  naval  power.  It 
was  made  almost  without  resistance.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
war,  the  defenceless  condition  of  Galveston  had  been  repre 
sented  to  the  government,  as  in  fact  there  was  no  ordnance 
available  there  but  a  lot  of  old  cannon  captured  from  the 
United  States.  These  representations  in  the  letters  and  peti 
tions  of  the  people  of  Galveston  were  made  without  effect, 
until  at  last,  some  time  in  the  summer  of  1861,  a  deputation 
of  citizens  waited  upon  the  authorities  at  Richmond,  begging 
piteously  a  few  cannon  to  defend  them  from  the  enemy.  The 
whole  extent  of  the  response  of  the  government  to  this  and 
other  appeals  was  to  send  to  Galveston  eleven  or  thirteen  guns, 
two  of  which  were  rifled  ;  and  transportation  for  these  was 
only  given  to  New  Orleans,  whence  they  had  to  be  dragged 
over  piney  hills  and  through  swamps  to  their  destination.  The 
consequence  was,  that  the  enemy  had  made  an  easy  prize  of 
one  of  our  principal  seaports:  when,  after  threatening  it  foi 
eighteen  months,  he  at  last  found  it  practically  defenceless. 

The  fall  of  Galveston  again  turned  the  perplexed  attention 
of  the  people  of  the  South  to  the  enormous  and  rapid  increase 
of  the  enemy's  naval  power  in  this  war  as  one  of  its  most  pain 
ful  subjects  of  interest.  This  arm  had  grown  to  such  size  as 
to  threaten  us  in  many  respects  more  seriously  than  the  ene- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  527 

my's  land  forces.  It  was  calculated  that,  with  the  completion 
of  their  vast  number  of  naval  structures  already  on  the  stocks, 
the  Yankees  would  have  388  vessels,  mounting  3,072  guns— 
nearly  nine  guns  to  the  vessel.  Of  these,  thirty  were  iron 
clad,  mounting  ninety  of  the  heaviest  guns  in  the  world,  each 
weighing  42,240  pounds,  and  throwing  a  solid  shot,  fifteen 
kiches  in  diameter,  weighing  480  pounds. 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  in  view  of  these  vast  preparations 
m  the  North,  the  people  of  the  South  should  have  watched 
with  intense  interest  the  long  lines  of  their  sea-coast,  and  been 
on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation  for  the  fleets  of  the  Yankees, 
which  were  to  sweep  upon  them  in  numbers  and  power  yet  un 
equalled  by  any  naval  demonstration  of  the  enemy  in  this  war. 
It  was  easy  to  see  that  the  South  would  have  to  look  to  its 
foundries  to  set-off  the  naval  power  of  the  enemy.  When  we 
could  match  their  naval  armaments  with  our  batteries  on  shore, 
we  might  expect  to  hold  our  sea-coast  against  their  fleets.  The 
authorities  at  Richmond  were  instructed  that  there  was  but  one 
way  of  replying  to  the  Yankee  iron-clads  on  equal  terms ; 
and  that  was  by  iron-clad  batteries,  with  powerful  guns  in 
them,  and  with  the  use  of  steel-pointed  or  wrought-iron  pro 
jectiles. 

In  the  Southwest,  the  strong  tenure  which  we  maintained 
of  Vicksburg  was  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Yankee  schemes  for 
the  conquest  of  Mississippi.  The  fate  of  that  State  was  also 
confidently  intrusted  to  the  brave  troops  under  the  command 
of  Gen.  Pemberton,  who  was  assisted  by  Van  Dorn  and  Price 
and  an  increasing  army. 

But  it  was  to  Tennessee  that  the  minds  of  the  intelligent 
were  turned  to  look  for  the  earliest  and  severest  conflict  of  the 
campaign  in  the  Welt.  The  enemy  already  held  the  western 
portion  of  the  State  and  a  part  of  the  middle,  and  evidently 
desired  to  obtain  possession  of  the  eastern  portion.  He  was 
reported  to  be  coming  down  from  Kentucky  for  the  purpose, 
in  heavy  columns,  under  Gen.  Rosecrans,  by  way  of  Nash 
ville  ;  and  there  was  reason  to  suppose  that  he  would  endeavor 
to  make  a  flank  movement  on  Knoxville,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  capture  Chattanooga,  as  the  key  of  North  Alabama  and 
Georgia. 

In  Virginia  a  lull  had  followed  the  famous  summer  campaign, 


528  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  our  army  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State  quietly  re- 
cruited,  and  was  daily  improving  in  organization  and  numbers 
The  only  incident  that  had  broken  the  monotony  of  our  canip 
was  the  renewal  in  the  North  of  the  phantom  of  "  invasion  by 
the  rebels"  by  a  raid  into  Pennsylvania,  accomplished  by  the 
rapid  and  brilliant  commander  of  our  cavalry,  Gen.  J.  E.  B. 
Stuart,  with  about  two  thousand  men.  The  expedition  pene 
trated  to  Charnbersburg,  which  was  occupied  for  a  short  time 
by  our  troops  on  the  10th  of  October.  It  met  with  no  resist 
ance,  accumulated  no  stores,  and  accomplished  nothing  beyond 
the  results  of  a  reconnoissance,  and  the  wonder  of  one  of  tho 
most  rapid  marches  on  record. 

This  expedition  left  to  the  Yankees  a  remarkable  souvenir 
of  Southern  chivalry.  Private  property  was  uniformly  re 
spected  by  our  troops ;  Yankee  civilians  were  treated  with 
scrupulous  regard ;  and  many  kindnesses  were  shown  the 
alarmed  people  in  a  knightly  style,  which  would  have  been 
creditable  to  us  had  it  not  been  made  ridiculous  by  excess  of 
courtesy  and  a  tender  and  ceremonious  politeness  which  was 
in  very  absurd  contrast  to  the  manners  of  our  enemy.  On  en 
tering  Chambersburg,  "  the  soft-mannered  rebels,"  as  CoL 
McClure,  the  Yankee  commander  of  the  post,  described  them, 
treated  him  with  the  most  tender  politeness.  Indeed,  the  nar 
rative  of  this  officer's  experience  furnishes  a  curious  leaf  in 
the  history  of  the  war.  To  the  great  amusement  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  North,  Col.  McClure  gave  a  long  account  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  strained  chivalry  of  our  troops.  He  re 
lated  how  they  had  "  thanked  him  for  being  candid,"  when  he 
told  them  that  he  was  a  Republican  ;  how  he  was  politely  asked 
for  food  by  the  officers  ;  and  how  a  private  in  Stuart's  terrible 
command  had,  "  with  a  profound  bow,  asked  for  a  few  coals  to 
light  a  fire." 

The  story  of  these  courtesies  and  salaams  to  our  enemy  is 
not  one  for  our  amusement.  It  affords  an  instructive  illustra 
tion  that  is  valuable  in  history,  of  the  over-amiable  disposition 
and  simple  mind  of  the  South  ;  and  it  places  in  stark  and  hor 
rible  contrast  an  agreeable  picture  with  that  of  the  devilish 
atrocities  and  wanton  and  mocking  destruction  of  the  Yankee 
armies  on  the  soil  of  the  Confederacy. 

While  the  war  lagged,  we  are  called  upon  to  notice  new 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  52§ 

sources  of  resolution  and  power  in  the  South,  which  were  per 
haps  more  valuable  than  victories  in  the  field.     In  this  depart 
ment  of  interest,  which  is  quite  equal  to  that  of  battles  and 
sieges,  it  will  be  necessary  to  pass  in  review  some  political 
acts  of  the  rival  governments,  and  some  events  of  moral  import 
ance. 

At  last  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North  had  had  their  wild 
and  wicked  will.  On  the  22d  day  of  September,  President 
Lincoln  issued  his  celebrated  proclamation  of  "  emancipa 
tion"*  of  the  slaves  of  the  South,  to  take  effect  after  the  1st  of 
next  January,  thus  unmasking  the  objects  of  the  war,  and  ex 
hibiting  to  the  world  the  sublime  of  administrative  madness. 

*  The  following  is  a  copy  of  this  remarkable  document : 

BY  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES — A  PROCLAMATION. 

Washington,  Sept.  22, 1861 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  th^e  United  States  of  America,  and  Com 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and  navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  ac, 
clare,  that  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for  the  object  oft 
practically  restoring  the  constitutional  relation  between  the  United  States  anc* 
the  people  thereof,  in  which  States  that  relation  is,  or  may  be,  suspended  ov 
disturbed ;  that  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting  of  Congress,  to  again 
recommend  the  adoption  of  a  practical  measure  tendering  pecuniaiy  aid  to  the 
free  acceptance  or  rej.ection  of  all  the  slave  States,  so  called,  the  people  whereof 
may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  and  whicn  {States  may 
then  hav.e  voluntarily  adopted  or  thereafter  may  voluntarily  aaopi  the  imme 
diate  or  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery  within  their  respective  limits ;  and  that 
the  efforts  to  colonize  persons  of  African  descent,  with  their  consent,  upon  the 
continent  or  elsewhere,  with  the  previously  obtained  consent  of  the  govern 
ments  existing  there,  will  be  continued  ;  that  on  the  1st  day  of  January,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held 
as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  any  designated  part  of  a  State,  the  people  where 
of  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  thenceforward 
and  forever  free ;  and  the  executive  government  of  the  United  States,  includ 
ing  the  naval  and  military  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the 
ireedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or 
any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom ;  that  the 
Executive  will,  on  the  1st  day  of  January,  aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate 
the  States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  hi  which  the  people  thereof  respectively 
shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States ;  and  the  fact  that  any 
State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by  members  chosen  thereto  at  elections 
wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  such  State  shall  have  participated, 
shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong  countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive 
evidence  that  such  State  and  the  people  thereof  have  not  been  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States. 

34 


i  }  BOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

Sib co  w»o  commencement  of  the  war,  the  Abolitionists  had 
gradually  compassed  their  ends  at  Washington,  or  rather  the 
~eal  objects  and  inherent  spirit  of  the  war  had  been  gradually 
developed.  They  had  legislated  slavery  forever  out  of  the 
Territories;  they  had  abolished  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia; 
they  had  passed  laws  confiscating  the  property  of  "rebels" 
and  emancipating  their  slaves,  and  declaring  all  fugitive  slaves 
free  within  their  military  lines ;  they  had  made  it  a  crime  on 
the  part  of  their  military  officers  to  restore  or  aid  in  restoring 
any  fugitive  slave  to  his  master ;  and  finally,  they  had  pro 
cured  from  President  Lincoln  a  proclamation  declaring  all  the 
slaves  in  the  Confederate  States,  beyond  the  lines  of  their  land 
and  naval  forces,  "  henceforward  and  forever  free." 

This  infamous  proclamation,  while  regarded  by  the  South  as 
a  fulmination  of  exasperated  passion,  was  in  the  North  a  source 
of  weakness  and  division.  It  divided  the  North  and  strength 
ened  the  enemies  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration  without  cre 
ating  any  enthusiasm  among  its  friends.  The  few  in  the  North 
who  still  had  some  regard  for  the  written  constitution  under 
which  they  lived,  contended  that  the  President  could  not  pro 
claim  emancipation  except  under  the  pressure  of  military  ne 
cessity,  and  what  sort  of  a  military  necessity,  it  was  asked,  was 
that  which  admitted  of  a  delay  of  a  hundred  days.  Thefulmen 
Itrutum  issued  to  appease  the  anti-slavery  party  proved  a  fire 
brand  at  home.  Many,  even  of  this  party,  were  dissatisfied, 
and  decried  the  proclamation  because  of  its  tardiness.  "There 
was  a  time,"  said  the  New  York  Tribune,  "when  even  this  bit 
of  paper  could  have  brought  the  negro  to  our  side ;  but  now 
slavery,  the  real  rebel  capital,  has  been  surrounded  by  a  Chick- 

And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and  order  all  persons  engaged  in  the  military 
and  naval  service  of  the  United  States  to  observe,  obey,  and  enforce  within 
their  respective  spheres  of  service  the  act  and  sections  above  recited. 

And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend  that  all  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  who  shall  have  remained  loyal  thereto  throughout  the  rebellion, 
shall  (upon  the  restoration  of  the  constitutional  relation  between  the  United 
States  and  their  respective  States  and  people,  if  the  relation  shall  have  been 
suspended  or  disturbed)  be  compensated  for  all  losses  by  acts  of  the  United 
States,  including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal  of  the 
United  States  to  be  affixed. 

ABRAHAM  LIN<X>LN. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  531 

ahominy  swamp  of  blunders  and  outrages  against  that  race 
which  no  paper  spade  can  dig  through," 

To  the  South  the  fulmination  of  Lincoln  was  a  crowning 
proof  of  the  true  principles  of  the  party  that  had  elevated  him 
to  the  Presidency,  and  that  on  its  accession  to  power  had  made 
perfidious  use  of  the  most  solemn  pledges.*  It  was  a  public 
confession  of  the  fact  that  conquest,  extermination,  and  eman 
cipation  were  the  real  objects  of  the  war — a  fact  which  the 
enemy  for  a  while  had  affected  to  deny.  It  attempted  to  ac 
complish  by  the  horrors  of  servile  insurrection  what  our  enemy 
had  failed  to  accomplish  by  military  operations.  It  confessed 
to  the  world  his  inability  and  failure  to  accomplish  his  pur- 

*  One  of  the  most  singular  juxtapositions  between  the  professions  of  the 
North  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities  and  its  present  ideas,  is  afforded  in 
Mr.  Seward's  famous  letter,  written  to  the  French  government  on  the  22d  April, 
1861,  and  his  subsequent  circular  to  the  Yankee  ministers  in  Europe.  It  is 
one  of  the  most  singular  of  all  the  juggleries  and  summersaults  of  Yankee 
diplomacy. 

In  the  first  pronunciamento  of  Secretary  Seward,  written  "  by  the  direction 
irf  the  President,"  occurs  the  following  passage : 

"  The  condition  of  slavery  in  the  several  States  will  remain  just  the  same, 
whether  it  succeeds  or  fails.  The  rights  of  the  States,  and  the  condition  of 
every  human  being  in  them,  will  remain  subject  to  exactly  the  same  laws  and 
form  of  administration,  whether  the  revolution  shall  succeed  or  whether  it 
shall  fail.  Their  constitutions,  and  laws,  and  customs,  habits,  and  institutions, 
in  either  case  will  remain  the  same.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  to  this 
Incontestable  statement,  the  further  fact  that  the  new  President,  as  well  as  the 
citizens  through  whose  suffrages  he  has  come  into  the  administration,  has 
always  repudiated  all  designs  whatever,  and  wherever  imputed  to  him  and 
them,  of  disturbing  the  system  of  slavery  as  it  is  existing  under  the  constitution 
and  laws.  The  case,  however,  would  not  be  fully  presented  were  I  to  omit  to 
gay  that  any  such  effort  on  his  part  would  be  unconstitutional,  and  all  his  acts 
in  that  direction  would  be  prevented  by  the  judicial  authority,  even  though 
they  were  assented  to  by  Congress  and  the  people." 

Within  eighteen  months  after  Seward  declares  officially  to  one  of  the  minis 
ters  of  the  government  that  the  President  has  no  wish  and  no  right  to  inter 
fere  with  the  institutions  of  the  "rebellious"  States,  he  writes  another  letter, 
also  directed  to  the  ministers  abroad,  announcing  the  adoption  of  a  policy 
which,  if  it  could  be  carried  out,  would  make  a  complete  revolution  in  the 
social  organization  of  the  South.  Utterly  regardless  of  his  former  position  and 
declaration,  he  undertakes  to  justify  the  "emancipation"  proclamation  of  the 
Yankee  President.  But  this  is  not  all.  What  shall  we  say, of  the  effrontery 
of  the  lie,  when  Seward  asserts  that  the  abolition  proclamation  is  not  only  a 
{ust  and  proper  act,  but  avows  his  belief  that  the  world  will  recognize  "the 
moderation  and  magnanimity  with  which  the  government  proceeds  in  a  matter 
to  solemn  and  important !" 


532  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

poses  "by  regular  and  honorable  hostilities.  It  was,  in  shrrt, 
the  diabolical  attempt  of  an  infatuated  ruler,  unworthy  of 
authority,  in  a  fit  of  disappointed  malice,  to  inflict  the  worst 
horrors  known  to  human  nature  upon  eight  millions  of  people 
who  had  wisely  rejected  his  authority. 

The  "  emancipation"  proclamation  not  only  strengthened 
the  South  and  nerved  her  to  greater  exertions  in  the  war,  but 
it  fortunately  gave  occasion  to  the  world  for  a  more  interested 
observation  and  closer  study  of  the  peculiar  institution  of  the 
Confederacy.  The  sympathies  of  Europe  with  the  anti-slavery 
party  in  America  were  depressed  by  the  conduct  of  that  party, 
its  exhibitions  of  ferocity,  and  by  the  new  manifestations  which 
the  war  had  made  of  the  nature  and  moral  condition  of  negro 
slavery  in  the  South. 

Indeed,  the  war  had  shown  the  system  of  slavery  in  th«» 
South  to  the  world  in  some  new  and  striking  aspects,  and  haa 
removed  much  of  that  cloud  of  prejudice,  defamation,  false 
hood,  romance,  and  perverse  sentimentalism  through  which  oi>r 
peculiar  institution  had  been  formerly  known  to  Europe.  )i 
had  given  a  better  vindication  of  our  system  of  slavery  than 
all  the  bocks  that  could  be  written  in  a  generation.  It  had 
shown  that  slavery  was  an  element  of  strength  with  us ;  that 
it  had  assisted  us  in  our  struggle ;  that  no  servile  insurrection  a 
had  taken  place  in  the  South,  in  spite  of  the  allurements  of  our 
enemy ;  that  the  slave  had  tilled  the  soil  while  his  master  had 
fought ;  that  in  large  districts  unprotected  by  our  troops,  and 
with  a  white  population  consisting  almost  exclusively  of  women 
and  children,  the  slave  had  continued  at  his  work  quiet,  cheer 
ful,  and  faithful ;  and  that,  as  a  conservative  element  in  our 
social  system,  the  institution  of  slavery  had  withstood  the 
shocks  of  war,  and  been  a  faithful  ally  of  our  arms,  although 
instigated  to  revolution  by  every  art  of  the  enemy,  and 
prompted  to  the  work  of  assassination  and  pillage  by  the  most 
brutal  examples  of  the  Yankee  soldiery.* 

*  The  missionary  settlements  of  the  Yankees  on  the  coast  of  South  Caro 
lina  were  an  ackaowledged  failure,  so  far  as  the  proposed  education  and  exalta 
tion  of  the  blacks  were  concerned.  The  appearance  of  the  ancient  town  of 
Beaufort,  since  it  had  fallen  into  the  enemy's  possession,  indicated  the  peculiari 
ties  of  Yankee  rule,  and  afforded  an  interesting  exhibition  of  their  relations 
with  the  negro.  The  inhabitants  had  taken  nothing  away  with  them  but  theii 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  533 

Since  the  commencement  of  the  war  the  North  had  had 
almost  exclusive  access  to  the  ear  of  the  world,  and  had  poured 
into  it  whatever  of  slander  or  of  misrepresentation  human  in 
genuity  could  suggest.  This  circumstance,  which  was  at  first 
thought  to  be  a  great  disadvantage  to  us,  had  not  only  proved 
a  harmless  annoyance,  but  had  resulted  in  invaluable  benefit. 
It  had  secured  sympathy  for  us;  it  had  excited  the  inquiries  oi 
the  intelligent,  who,  after  all,  give  the  law  to  public  opinion  ; 
and  it  had  naturally  tempted  the  North  to  such  lying  and 
bravado  as  to  disgust  the  world. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  North  had  assured  the 
world  that  the  people  of  the  South  were  a  sensual  and  bar 
barous  people,  demoralized  by  their  institution  of  slavery,  and 
depraved  by  self-will  and  licentiousness  below  the  capacity  for 
administrative  government.  The  best  reply  to  these  slanders, 
was  our  conduct  in  this  war.  Even  the  little  that  was  known 
in  Europe  of  the  patriotic  devotion,  the  dignity  and  cultivated 
humanity  of  the  people  of  the  South,  as  shown  in  the  war,  had 
been  sufficient  to  win  unbounded  encomiums  for  them.  We 
had  not  only  withstood  for  nearly  two  years  a  power  which  had 
put  thirteen  hundred  thousand  men  in  the  field  ;  but  we  had 


personal  property  and  their  valuable  domestic  slave  servants.  The  furniture 
was  left  untouched  in  the  houses.  These  houses  were  owned  by  the  Barn  wells, 
the  Ehetts,  the  Cuthberts,  .the  Phillipses,  and  other  distinguished  families  of 
North  Carolina.  The  elegant  furniture,  the  libraries,  the  works  of  art,  had 
nearly  all  disappeared.  They  had  been  sent  North  from  time  to  time  by  Yankee' 
officers,  and  many  of  these  officers  of  high  rank.  The  elegant  dwelling-houses 
had  been  converted  into  barracks,  negro  quarters,  hospitals,  and  storehouses. 
The  best  houses  had  been  put  in  complete  order,  and  were  occupied  by  the 
officers  of  the  department  and  the  abolitionist  missionaries  from  Boston  and 
elsewhere.  The  efforts  of  these  missionaries  to  teach  the  negroes  their  letters 
and  habits  of  cleanliness  met  witli  no  success.  Beaufort  was  full  of  negroes, 
well  clothed,  at  government  expense,  fat,  saucy,  and  lazy.  The  town  looked 
dirty  and  disorderly,  and  had  the  appearance  of  a  second-class  Mexican  village. 
Some  of  the  missionaries  had  been  elevated  to  the  position  of  planters,  and 
occupied  the  estates  of  the  old  Carolinians.  The  labor  on  these  estates  was 
performed  by  contraband  negroes.  These  abolition  lords  assumed  all  the 
hauteur  and  dignity  of  the  Southern  planter.  The  only  difference  to  the  black 
laborer  was  that  he  had  the  name  of  freeman  ;  his  labor  was  as  unrelenting  as 
ever.  Massachusetts  missionaries  and  Massachusetts  speculators  enjoyed  the 
larger  share  of  government  patronage  here.  The  department  of  Hunter  aj>- 
peared  to  be  experimenting  in  attempts  to  elevate  a  negro  to  equality  with  the 
white  man.  Military  operations  were  secondary  considerations. 


534  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     vVAK. 

shown  that  we  were  a  people  able  in  public  affairs,  resolute^ 
brave,  and  prudent. 

Another  characteristic  Yankee  misrepresentation,  made  to 
the  world  about  this  time  on  the  subject  of  the  war,  was,  that 
it  was  to  be  concluded  at  an  early  day  by  the  force  of  destitu 
tion  and  suffering  in  the  South.  The  delusion  of  conquering 
the  "rebels"  by  famine  easily  caught  the  vulgar  ear.  The 
North  made  it  a  point  to  exaggerate  and  garble  every  thing  it 
could  find  in  Southern  newspapers,  of  the  ragged  condition  of 
our  armies,  the  high  prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  the 
hardships  of  the  war.  The  Yankees  were  pleasantly  entertained 
with  stories  of  our  suffering.  Their  pictorials  were  adorned 
with  caricatures  of  "secesh"  in  skeleton  soldiers  and  gaunt 
cavalrymen  with  spurs  strapped  to  their  naked  heels.  Their 
perfumed  fops  and  dainty  ladies  had  the  fashion  of  tittering  at 
the  rags  of  our  prisoners.  They  had  an  overwhelming  sense 
of  the  ludicrous  in  the  idea  of  Southern  women  cutting  up  the 
carpets  in  their  houses  to  serve  for  blankets  and  garments  for 
the  soldiers. 

The  fact  was  that  our  sufferings  were  great ;  but  their  mute 
eloquence,  which  the  enemy  misinterpreted  as  a  prospect  ol 
craven  submission,  was  truly  the  sign  of  self-devotion.*  What 
ever  was  suffered  in  physical  destitution  was  not  to  be  regret 
ted.  It  practised  our  people  in  self-denial ;  it  purified  theii 
spirit ;  it  brought  out  troops  of  virtues  ;  it  ennobled  our  wo 
men  with  offices  of  charity  ;  it  gave  us  new  bonds  of  sympathy 
and  love,  and  it  trained  us  in  those  qualities  which  make  a 
nation  great  and  truly  independent. 

In  the  whirl  of  passing  events,  many  strange  things  were 
daily  happening  around  us  that  at  a  remoter  period  of  history 
will  read  like  romance.  The  directions  of  our  industry  were 
changed.  Planters  raised  corn  and  potatoes,  fattened  hogs  and 
cultivated  garden  vegetables,  while  cotton  was  by  universal 
consent  neglected.  Our  newspapers  were  of  all  sizes  and 
colors,  sometimes  containing  four  pages,  sometimes  two,  and 
not  a  few  were  printed  on  common  brown  wrapping  paper. 
Politics  were  dead.  A  political  enemy  was  a  curiosity  only 
read  of  in  the  records  of  the  past.  Our  amusements  hud  been 
revolutionized.  Outside  of  Richmond,  a  theatre  was  remem 
bered  only  as  an  institution  of  by-gone  times.  Most  of  our 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  525 

people  did  their  own  playing  and  their  own  singing  ;  and  the 
ladies  spent  the  mornings  in  sewing  coarse  shirts  or  pantaloons 
for  the  soldiers  to  wear,  and  sung  in  public  at  night  to  gain 
n*oney  for  the  soldiers'  equipments. 

The  footprints  of  the  enemy,  in  Yirginia  especially,  had 
marked  lines  of  desolation  such  as  history  seldom  records. 
Starting  from  Fortress  Monroe  and  running  westward  to  Win 
chester,  scarcely  a  house  within  fifty  miles  of  the  Potomac  but 
bore  evidence  of  Yankee  greed  and  spoliation.  In  nearly 
every  county  the  court-house  in  which  the  assizes  for  each 
county  used  to  be  held,  was  rudely  demolished,  doors  and  win 
dows  torn  down ;  while  within,  upon  the  white  walls  in  every 
phase  of  handwriting,  were  recorded  the  autographs  of  the 
vandals,  whose  handiwork  surrounded  the  beholder. 

While  the  people  of  the  South  suffered,  the  resources  of  the 
country  were  developed  by  harsh  necessity ;  and  about  the  pe 
riod  where  our  narrative  reaches,  we  are  called  upon  to  notice 
that  happy  change  in  the  administration  of  our  government,  in 
which  short-sighted  expectations  of  peace  were  replaced  by 
the  policy  of  provision  and  an  amassment  of  stores  for  a  war 
of  indefinite  duration.  Measures  were  adopted  to  afford  ade 
quate  supplies  of  ordnance,  arms,  and  munitions  for  the  army. 
Of  small-arms  the  supply  was  more  adequate  to  the  regiments 
of  the  army  than  at  any  other  time.  They  had  increased  from 
importation  and  capture  not  less  than  eighty  thousand.  Es 
tablishments  for  making  ordnance  were  founded  in  different 
parts  of  the  South;  a  nitre  corps  was  organized  for  service; 
and  former  dread  of  deficiency  of  the  munitions  of  war  'no 
longer  existed.  The  manufacturing  resources  of  the  country, 
especially  in  iron,  were  liberally  patronized  by  the  government, 
by  large  advances  and  liberal  contracts ;  but  in  this  the  public 
service  met  great  embarrassment  from  the  temptations  con 
stantly  offered  to  contractors  to  prefer  the  superior  profitb 
which  they  could  command  by  supplying  the  general  market. 
The  quartermaster's  department  was  under  the  direction  of 
Gen.  Myers,  of  South  Carolina,  whose  contributions  to  the  cause 
of  the  South,  in  the  zeal  and  ability  which  he  brought  into  his 
important  office,  must  take  a  high  rank  in  all  the  histories  of 
the  war.  He  contended  against  the  great  obstacles  of  the 
blockade,  the  difficulties  of  railroad  transportation,  and  the 


536  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

constant  losses  in  the  enemy's  ravages  of  the  country,  and  per 
formed  wonders  under  the  most  unfavorable  circumstances. 
"Woollens  and  leather  were  imported  from  Europe  through 
trains  of  difficulties ,  the  most  devoted  exertions  were  made  to 
replenish  the  scant  supplies  of  blankets  and  shoes  in  the  army  , 
and  by  using  to  the  utmost  our  internal  resources,  by  the  es 
tablishment  of  factories  and  the  organization  of  workshops ; 
and  by  greater  economy  in  the  use  of  our  supplies,  the  suffer 
ings  of  our  soldiers  were  alleviated  and  their  zeal  refreshed  for 
the  campaign. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  537 


CHAPTER  XX. 

fhe  Heroism  of  Virginia. — Her  Battle-fields. — Burnside's  Plan  of  Cam]  nign. — 
Calculations  of  his  Movement  upon  Fredericksburg. — Failure  to  eurprise  Gen.  Lee.— 
THE  BATTLE  OF  FREDERIOKSBURGK — The  Enemy  crossing  the  Eiver. — Their  Bombard 
ment  of  the  Town. — Scenes  of  Distress. — The  Battle  on  the  Eight  Wing. — The  Story 
of  Marye's  Heights. — Repulse  of  the  Enemy. — The  old  Lesson  of  barren  Victory. — 
Death  of  Gen.  Cobb. — Death  of  Gen.  Gregg. — Romance  of  the  Story  of  Fredericks- 
burg.— Her  noble  Women. — Yankee  Sacking  of  the  Town. — A  Specimen  of  Yankee 
Warfare  in  North  Carolina. — Designs  of  the  Enemy  in  this  State. — The  Engagements 
of  Kinston. — Glance  at  other  Theatres  of  the  War. — Gen.  Hindman's  Victory  at  Prai 
rie  Grove. — Achievements  of  our  Cavalry  in  the  West. — The  Affair  of  Hartsville. — Col. 
Clarkson's  Expedition.— Condition  of  Events  at  the  Close  of  the  Year  1862. 

VIRGINIA,  had  borne  the  brunt  of  the  war.  Nearly  two- 
thirds  of  her  territory  had  been  overrun  by  the  enemy,  and 
her  richest  fields  had  been  drenched  with  blood  or  marked  by 
the  scars  of  the  invader.  The  patriotic  spirit  and  the  chival 
rous  endurance  of  this  ancient  and  admirable  commonwealth 
had  not  only  supported  these  losses  and  afflictions  without  a 
murmur,  but  these  experiences  of  the  war  were  the  sources  or 
new  inspiration,  and  the  occasions  of  renewed  resolution  and 
the  reinforcement  of  courage  by  the  sentiment  of  devotion. 
"When  we  add  to  the  consideration  of  the  grand  spirit  of  this 
State  the  circumstances  that  the  flower  of  the  Confederate 
army  was  naturally  collected  on  this  the  most  critical  theatre 
of  the  war,  and  that  the  operations  in  Virginia  were  assisted 
by  the  immediate  presence  of  the  government,  we  shall  natu 
rally  look  here  for  the  most  brilliant  and  decisive  successes  of 
the  war. 

When  the  Confederate  army  fell  back  into  Virginia,  after 
Its  short  but  eventful  campaign  in  Maryland,  Gen.  Lee,  by  the 
skilful  disposition  of  his  forces  in  front  of  Winchester,  ren 
dered  it  impracticable  for  McClellan  to  invade  the  Valley  of 
the  Shenandoah,  and  forced  him  to  adopt  the  route  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Blue  Kidge.  The  Federal  commander  accepted 
this  alternative  the  more  readity,  since  he  hoped,  by  an  osten 
tatious  display  of  a  part  of  his  forces  near  Shepherdstown,  to 
deceive  Gen.  Lee  and  gain  his  flank  and  rear  at  W°-"°nton 


SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

On  his  arrival  at  this  latter  place,  however,  much  to  his  sur 
prise  and  dismay,  he  found  the  forces  of  Lee  quietly  awaiting 
him  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Rappahannock. 

McClellan  having  been  superseded  by  Burnside,  that  officer 
undertook  a  plan  of  campaign  entirely  on  his  own  responsi 
bility,  in  opposition  to  the  suggestions  of  Halleck  and  to  what 
were  known  to  be  the  predilections  of  the  military  authorities 
at  Washington.  The  plan  of  Gen.  Burnside  was  to  concentrate 
the  army  in  the  neighborhood  of  Warrenton,  to  make  a  small 
movement  across  the  Rappahannock  as  a  feint,  with  a  view  to 
divert  the  attention  of  the  Confederates  and  lead  them  to  be 
lieve  he  was  going  to  move  in  the  direction  of  Gordonsville, 
and  then  to  make  a  rapid  movement  of  the  whole  army  to 
Fredericksburg,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Rappahannock. 

In  moving  upon  Fredericksburg,  Gen.  Burnside  calculated 
that  his  army  would  all  the  time  be  as  near  Washington  as 
would  the  Confederates,  and  that  after  arriving  at  Fredericks 
burg  it  would  be  at  a  point  nearer  to  Richmond  than  it  would 
be  even  if  it  should  take  Gordonsville. 

This  novel,  enterprise  against  the  Confederate  Capital  was 
hailed  by  the  Northern  newspapers  with  renewed  acclamations 
of  "  on  to  Richmond ;"  and  the  brazen  and  familiar  prophecy 
of  the  fall  of  the  city  "  within  ten  days"  was  repeated  with 
new  emphasis  and  bravado.  In  the  mean  time  the  plans  of 
Burnside,  so  far  as  they  contemplated  a  surprise  of  the  Con 
federates,  had  failed,  and  at  Fredericksburg,  as  at  Warrenton, 
his  army  found  itself,  by  the  active  movements  of  Gen.  Lee, 
confronted  by  a  force  sufficient  to  dispute  its  advance  and  to 
deliver  battle  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  stake. 

THE   BATTLE    OF    FREDKKICKSBURG. 

Gen.  Burnside  having  concentrated  his  army  at  Fredericks 
burg,  employed  himself  for  several  days  in  the  latter  part  of 
November  in  bringing  up  from  Aquia  Creek  all  the  pontoons 
he  could  for  building  the  bridges  which  were  necessary  to 
throw  his  forces  across  the  river.  Several  councils  of  war  were 
called  to  decide  about  crossing  the  Rappahannock.  It  was 
finally  determined  to  cross  at  Fredericksburg,  under  the  im 
pression  that  Gen.  Lee  had  thrown  a  large  portion  of  his  force 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  539 

down  the  river  and  elsewhere,  thus  weakening  his  defences  in 
front. 

On  the  night  of  the  10th  of  December  the  enemy  commenced 
to  throw  three  bridges  over  the  Rappahannock — two  at  Fred 
ericksburg,  and  the  third  about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  below 
near  the  mouth  of  Deep  Run.  In  the  prosecution  of  this 
work,  the  enemy  was  defended  by  his  artillery  on  the  hills  of 
Stafford,  which  completely  commanded  the  plain  on  which 
Fredericksburg  stands.  The  narrowness  of  the  Rappahannock, 
its  winding  course,  and  deep  bed,  afforded  opportunity  for  the 
construction  of  bridges  at  points  beyond  the  reach  of  our  artil 
lery,  and  the  banks  had  to  be  watched  by  skirmishers.  The 
houses  of  Fredericksbnrg  afforded  a  cover  for  the  skirmishers 
at  the  bridges  opposite  the  town,  but  at  the  lowest  point  of 
crossing  no  shelter  could  be  had. 

The  17th  Mississippi  regiment,  Barksdale's  brigade,  being  on 
picket  within  the  town,  were  ordered  to  the  bluff  overlooking 
the  site  of  the  old  railroad  bridge.  The  moon  was  brilliant, 
and  by  its  light  our  men  could  distinguish  the  enemy's  forces 
working  on  a  pontoon  bridge  stretching  from  the  Stafford  bank 
towards  the  foot  of  the  bluff.  In  the  course  of  an  hoar  the 
bridge  had  been  stretched  within  sixty  yards  of  the  southern 
shore.  The  work  was  going  bravely  on,  when  the  two  com 
panies  of  the  17th,  who  were  lying  on  the  extreme  verge  of  the 
bluff,  were  ordered  to  fire.  The  order  was  deliberately  given 
and  executed.  At  the  crack  of  our  rifles,  the  bride-builders 
scampered  for  the  shore ;  but  the  next  moment  there  was 
opened  upon  the  bluff  a  terrific  fire  of  shell,  grape,  and  mus 
ketry,  which  was  kept  up  until  our  troops  retired.  Twice  again, 
at  intervals  of  half  an  hour,  the  enemy  renewed  the  attempt 
to  complete  the  .bridge,  but  was  in  each  instance  repulsed. 
After  the  third  repulse  of  the  enemy,  the  whole  of  Barksdale's 
brigade  was  ordered  to  the  support  of  the  17th  regiment,  and 
were  put  into  position,  some  in  the  rear  of  the  bluff  and  others 
higher  up  and  lower  down  the  stream.  At  this  juncture  the 
enemy's  fire  from  cannon  and  small-arms  became  so  tremen 
dous  and  overwhelming,  that  our  troops  were  only  preserved 
from  destruction  by  lying  flat  on  their  faces.  In  every  instance 
in  which  a  man  ventured  to  raise  his  head  from  the  earth,  he 
was  instantly  riddled  by  bullets  or  torn  to  pieces  by  grapcshot. 


540  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

The  emergency  may  be  understood  when  it  is  borne  in  mind 
that  the  position  occupied  by  our  men  was  swept  by  the  enemy5 
batteries  and  sharpshooters  not  two  hundred  yards  distant  on 
the  opposite  heights. 

Towards  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  llth  of  Decem 
ber,  three  rousing  cheers  from  the  river  bank  beneath  the  bluff 
announced  that  the  enemy  had  completed  the  bridge,  and  that 
his  troops  had  effected  a  landing  on  the  southern  bank.  About 
this  time  the  order  for  a  retreat  was  received  by  our  men. 
The  regiments  of  the  brigade  fell  back  by  different  streets, 
firing  as  they  retreated  upon  the  enemy,  who  closely  followed 
them.  The  brigade  rendezvoused  at  the  market-house  and 
faced  the  enemy.  A  sharp  skirmish  ensued,  but  our  troops, 
acting  under  orders,  again  fell  back  and  left  the  town  in  pos 
session  of  the  enemy. 

It  having  become  evident  to  Gen.  Lee  that  no  effectual  op 
position  could  be  offered  to  the-  construction  of  the  bridges  or 
passage  of  the  river,  it  only  remained  that  positions  should  be 
selected  to  oppose  the  enemy's  advance  after  crossing.  Under 
cover  of  the  darkness  of  the  night  of  the  12th  and  of  a  dense; 
fog,  a  large  force  passed  the  river,  and  took  position  on  the 
light  bank,  protected  by  their  heavy  guns  on  the  left/ 

The  effects  of  the  enemy's  bombardment  upon  the  unfortu 
nate  town  were  deplorable.  The  majority  of  the  population 
had  long  ago  fled  the  city  at  the  prospect  of  its  destruction ; 
and  the  touching  spectacles  of  their  misery  and  suffering  were 
seen  for  miles  around  the  city,  where  houseless  women  and 
children  were  camped  out  or  roaming  shelterless  and  hungry 
through  the  fields.  A  number  of  citizens  who  had  returned  to 
the  town  under  the  delusion  that  it  would  not  be  attacked,  left 
it  during  the  day  the  enemy  crossed  the  river,  single  or  in 
families,  and  sought  for  refuge  and  safety  in  the  country. 
They  were  scattered  about — some  in  cabins,  some  in  the  open 
air,  and  others  wandering  vacantly  along  the  railroads.  Little 
children  with  blue  feet  trod  painfully  the  frozen  ground,  and 
those  whom  they  followed  knew  as  little  as  themselves  where 
to  seek  food  and  shelter.  Hundreds  of  ladies  wandered  home 
less  over  the  frozen  highway,  with  bare  feet  and  thin  clothing, 
knowing  not  where  to  find  a  place  of  refuge.  Delicately  nur 
tured  girls,  with  slender  forms,  upon  which  nc  rain  had  ever 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  54:1 

heat,  which  no  wind  had  ever  visited  too  roughly,  walked  hur 
riedly,  with  unsteady  feet,  upon  the  road,  seeking  only  some 
place  where  they  could  shelter  themselves.  "Whole  families 
sought  sheds  by  the  wayside,  or  made  roofs  of  fence-rails  and 
straw,  knowing  not  whither  to  fly,  or  to  what  friend  to  have 
recourse.  This  was  the  result  of  the  enemy's  bombardment. 
Night  had  settled  down,  and  though  the  roar  of  the  batteriea 
had  hushed,  the  flames  of  burning  houses  still  lit  up  the  land 
scape. 

The  sun  of  the  13th  of  December  rose  clear,  but  a  dim  fog 
shrouded  the  town  of  Fredericksburg  and  the  circumjacent 
valleys,  and  delayed  the  opening  of  the  antagonistic  batteries. 
At  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  our  troops  were  all  under  arms, 
and  batteries  in  position  to  receive  the  expected  attack  of  the 
enemy. 

The  Rappahannock,  in  its  coursft  from  west  to  east,  is  skirted 
just  at  the  point  where  Fredericksburg  stands  on  its  southern 
bank,  by  low  crests  of  hills,  which  on  the  northern  bank  run 
parallel  and  close  to  the  river,  and  on  the  southern  bank  trend 
backward  from  the  stream,  and  leave  a  semicircular  plain  six 
miles  in  length  and  two  or  three  in  depth,  inclosed  within  their 
circumference  before  they  again  approach  the  river  in  tho 
neighborhood  of  Massaponax  creek.  Immediately  above  the 
tow^a,  and  on  the  left  of  the  Confederate  position,  the  bluffs 
are  bold  and  bare  of  trees ;  but  south  of  the  railroad,  begin 
ning  near  the  town  and  running  to  a  point  at  Hamilton's  cross 
ing,  and  also  parallel  with  the  river,  is  a  range  of  hills  covered 
with  dense  oak  forest,  fringed  on  its  northern  border  by  pine 
thickets.  Our  forces  occupied  the  whole  length  of  this  forest. 
Longstreet's  corps  occupied  the  highlands  above,  opposite  and 
for  a  mile  below  the  town.  Jackson's  corps  rested  on  Long- 
street's  right,  and  extended  away  to  the  eastward,  the  extreme 
right,  under  A.  P  Hill,  crossing  the  railroad  at  Hamilton's 
crossing,  and  stretching  into  the  valley  towards  the  river. 
Our  front  was  about  six  miles  in  length.  Most  of  tne  batteries 
of  both  corps  were  posted  in  the  skirts  of  the  forest,  along 
the  line  of  the  railroad,  the  seven  batteries  in  Col.  Lindsey 
Walker's  regiment  and  Stuart's  horse  artillery  being  stationed 
in  the  valley,  between  the  railroad  at  Hamilton's  crossing  and 
the  river.  The  enemy's  forces  occupied  the  valley  north  of 


54:2  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  railroad  from  Fredericksburg  to  within  half  a  mile  of  oui 
extreme  right.  His  light  batteries  were  posted  over  the  south 
ern  extremity  of  the  valley,  at  from  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  a 
mile  from  the  railroad,  while  the  hills  on  the  northern  banks  of 
the  river  from  Falmouth  to  Fitzhugh's  farm,  five  miles  below 
Fredericksburg,  were  studded  at  intervals  of  half  a  mile  with 
his  batteries  of  heavy  guns. 

At  noon  the  fog  had  cleared  away,  but  there  was  a  thick 
haze  in  the  atmosphere.  About  this  time  the  enemy's  infantry 
moved  forward  from  the  river  towards  our  batteries  on  the 
hills.  As  they  pressed  forward  across  the  valley,  Stuart's 
horse  artillery  from  our  extreme  right  opened  upon  them  a  de 
structive  enfilading  fire  of  round-shot.  This  fire,  which  an 
noyed  them  sorely,  was  kept  up  in  spite  of  six  batteries  which 
were  directed  against  the  horse  artillery  as  soon  as  it  was  un 
masked.  By  one  o'clock  the  Yankee  columns  had  crossed  the 
valley  and  entered  the  woods  -south  of  the  railroad.  The  bat 
teries  on  both  sides  slackened  their  fire,  and  musketry,  at  first 
scattering,  but  quickly  increasing  to  a  crash  and  roar,  sounded 
through  the  woods.  Dense  volumes  of  smoke  rose  above  the 
trees,  and  volley  succeeded  volley,  sometimes  so  rapidly  as  to 
blend  into  a  prolonged  and  continuous  roar.  A.  P.  Hill's  di 
vision  sustained  the  first  shock  of  battle.  The  rest  of  Jack 
son's  corps  were  in  different  lines  of  reserves.  D.  H.  Hill's 
division  was  drawn  up  in  J.  L.  Marye's  field,  under  a  long  hill, 
in  rear  of  our  line  of  battle.  Here  they  remained  during  the 
most  of  the  day,  being  moved  from  time  to  time  to  the  right 
or  left,  as  the  exigencies  of  battle  dictated.  Shortly  after  the 
infantry  fight  began,  a  brigade  of  this  division  %vas  moved  at  a 
double-quick  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  right,  and  posted  in  a 
dense  clump  of  pines,  in  supporting  distance  of  Stuart's  horse 
artillery.  In  ten  minutes  they  were  brought  back  to  theii 
original  position.  The  celerity  of  this  movement  made  a  sin 
gular  and  exciting  spectacle.  A  long  black  line  shoots  from 
the  position  of  the  reserves,  crosses  the  railroad  at  Hamilton's 
station,  skims  across  the  valley,  and  in  a  few  moments  is  lost 
in  the  pines  nearly  two  miles  away.  After  scarcely  a  breath 
ing  spell,  the  same  line  emerges  from  the  pines  and  retraces 
its  steps  to  its  original  position.  As  this  brigade  resumed  its 
position  in  reserve,  the  fire  of  musketry  directly  in  its  front 


THE  'SECOND  YEAR.  543 

slackened.  A  few  crackling  shots  were  heard  to  our  left, 
along  Longstreet's  division,  and  then  a  succession  of  volleys, 
which  were  kept  up  at  intervals  during  the  remainder  of  the 
evening.  The  musketry  lire  on  our  right  was  soon  renewed, 
and  the  battle  raged  with  increased  fury.  Our  batteries  along 
our  whole  front  again  reopened,  and  Col.  Walker's  artillery 
regiment,  composed  of  Latham's,  Letcher's,  Braxton's,  Pe- 
gram's,  Crenshaw's,  Johnson's  and  Mclntosh's  batteries,  sta 
tioned  in  the  open  low  grounds,  to  the  east  of  the  railroad  at 
Hamilton's  station,  moved  forward  several  hundred  yards  in 
the  direction  of  Fredericksburg.  Hill's  and  Early's  troops 
had  driven  the  enemy  from  the  woods  and  across  the  railroad 
in  the  direction  of  their  pontoon  bridges  near  Deep  Run.  Our 
men  pursued  them  a  mile  and  a  half  across  the  bottom  land, 
and  fell  back  only  when  they  had  gotten  under  the  shelter  of 
their  batteries.  Again  the  enemy  rallied  and  returned  to  re 
new  the  contest,  but  were  again  driven  back.  All  the  batteries 
of  Jackson's  corps  were  at  this  time  in  full  play,  and  in  the 
approaching  twilight  the  blaze  of  the  guns  and  the  quick 
flashes  of  the  shells  more  distinctly  visible,  constituted  a  scene 
at  once  splendid  and  terrific. 

On  the  right  wing  the  enemy  had  been  driven  back 'with 
great  loss.  Gen.  Stuart  had  well  redeemed  his  grim  dispatch — 
that  he  was  "  going  to  crowd  'em  with  artillery."  The  enor 
mous  strength  of  this  military  arm  had  been  used  with  desper 
ation  on  one  side  and  devoted  courage  on  the  other.  The 
enemy  had  twenty  thousand  men  engaged  on  this  wing,  while, 
altogether,  from  first  to  last,  we  had  not  more  than  ten  thou 
sand  in  the  line  of  fire. 

But  while  the  battle  was  dashing  furiously  against  the  lines 
of  Jackson,  the  enemy  was  crossing  troops  over  his  bridges  at 
Fredericksburg  and  massing  them  in  front  of  Longstreet,  in 
the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  town. 

On  reference  to  the  positions  of  the  battle-field,  it  will  be 
apparent  that  the  left  of  the  Confederate  army — a  portion  of  it 
stationed  not  more  than  four  hundred  yards  from  Fredericks 
burg — occupied  a  much  stronger  position  than  the  centre  and 
right.  There  was  not  sufficient  room  for  the  Yankee  troopa 
destined  for  the  attack  of  the  nearest  Confederate  batteries  to 
deploy  and  form,  except  under  a  deadly  Confederate  fire, 


544  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

whereas,  the  Yankee  troops  who  attacked  the  Confederate 
centre  and  right,  had  a  large  plain  on  which  to  deploy,  and 
had  much  fewer  disadvantages  of  ground  to  contend  with,  in 
asmuch  as  they  advanced  against  lower  hills  and  had  the  long 
spurs  of  copse  to  assist  them  as  points  of  attack,  calculated  to 
protect  and  serve  as  points  tfappui  to  the  Yankees  if  they 
could  once  have  succeeded  in  carrying  and  holding  them. 

In  this  part  of  the  field  the  enemy  displayed  a  devotion  that 
is  remarkable  in  history.  This  display  does  not  adorn  the 
Yankees ;  it  was  made  by  a  race  that  has  left  testimonies  of 
its  courage  in  such  stories  as  Waterloo  and  Fontenoy.  To  the 
Irish  division,  commanded  by  Gen.  Meagher,  was  principally 
committed  the  desperate  task  of  bursting  out  of  the  town  of 
Fredericksburg,  and  forming  under  the  withering  fire  of  the 
Confederate  batteries,  to  attack  Marye's  Heights,  towering 
immediately  in  their  front.  The  troops  were  harangued  in 
impassioned  language  by  their  commander,  who  pointed  to  the 
heights  as  the  contested  prize  of  victory. 

The  heights  were  occupied  by  the  Washington  Artillery  and 
a  portion  of  McLaws'  division.  As  the  enemy  advanced,  the 
artillery  reserved  their  fire  until  he  arrived  within  two  hundred 
and  fifty  yards,  when  they  opened  on  the  heavy  masses  with 
grape  and  canister.  At  the  first  broadside  of  the  sixteen  guns 
of  the  battalion,  hundreds  of  the  enemy  went  down,  and  at 
every  successive  discharge,  great  furrows  were  plowed  through 
their  ranks.  They  staggered  repeatedly,  but  were  as  often 
rallied  and  brought  forward.  Again  and  again  they  made 
frantic  dashes  upon  our  steady  line  of  fire,  and  as  often  were 
the  hill-sides  strewn  for  acres  with  their  corpses.  At  last,  no 
longer  able  to  withstand  the  withering  fire,  they  broke  and  fled 
in  confusion.  They  were  pressed  into  town  by  our  infantry. 
Our  victory  was  complete  all  along  the  line.  When  the  voices 
of  our  officers  in  the  darkness  ordered  the  last  advance,  the 
combat  had  terminated  in  the  silence  of  the  foe. 

The  enemy  left  behind  him  a  ghastly  field.  Some  portions 
of  it  were  literally  packed  with  his  dead.  At  the  foct  ot 
Marye's  Heights  was  a  frightful  spectacle  of  carnage.  The 
bodies  which  had  fallen  in  dense  masses  within  forty  yards 
of  the  muzzles  of  Col.  Walton's  guns,  testified  to  the  gallantry 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  545 

)f  die  Irish  division,  and  showed  what  manner  of  men  they 
\vwre  who  pressed  on  to  death  with  the  dauntlessness  of  a  race 
whose  courage  history  has  made  indisputable.  The  loss  of  tho 
enemy  was  out  of  all  comparison  in  numbers  with  our  own ; 
the  evidences  of  its  extent  do  not  permit  us  to  doubt  that  it 
was  at  least  ten  thousand  ;  while  our  own  killed  and  wounded, 
during  the  operations  since  the  movements  of  the  enemy  began 
at  Fredericksburg,  amounted  to  about  eighteen  hundred. 

At  the  thrilling  tidings  of  Fredericksburg  the  hopes  of  the 
South  rose  high  that  we  were  at  last  to  realize  some  important 
and  practical  consequences  from  the  prowess  of  our  arms.  We 
had  obtained  a  victory  in  which  the  best  troops  of  the  ISTorth 
— including  Sumner's  grand  division — had  been  beaten  ;  in 
which  defeat  had  left  the  shattered  foe  cowering  beneath  the 
houses  of  Fredericksburg ;  and  in  which  he  had  been  forced 
into  a  position  which  left  him  no  reasonable  hope  of  escape, 
.with  a  river  in  his  rear,  which,  though  threaded  by  pontoon 
bridges,  would  have  been  impassable  under  the  pressure  of 
attack.  It  is  remarkable  that,  so  far  as  the  war  had  progress 
ed,  although  fought  on  an  almost  unparalleled  scale  in  num 
bers,  it  was  yet  not  illustrated  by  the  event  so  common  in  the 
military  history  of  Europe,  of  the  decisive  annihilation  of  any 
single  army.  But  it  was  thought  that  Fredericksburg,  at  least, 
would  give  an  illustration  of  a  decisive  victory  in  this  war. 
The  Southern  public  waited  with  impatience  for  the  comple 
tion  of  the  success  that  had  already  been  announced,  and  tho 
newspapers  were  eagerly  scanned  for  the  hoped-for  intelligence 
that  Gen.  Lee  had,  by  the  vigor  of  a  fresh  assault,  dispatched 
his  crippled  enemy  on  the  banks  of  the  river.  But  no  such 
assault  was  made.  While  the  public  watched  with  keen  im 
patience  for  the  blow,  the  announcement  came  that  the  enemy, 
after  having  remained  entirely  at  his  leisure  one  day  in  Fred 
ericksburg,  had  the  next  night  crossed  the  Rappahannock 
without  accident  or  a  single  effort  at  interruption  on  our  part, 
and  that  the  army  of'  Burnside,  which  was  a  short  while  ago 
thought  to  be  in  the  jaws  of  destruction,  was  quietly  reorgan 
izing  in  perfect  security  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river.  It 
was  the  old  lesson  to  the  South  of  a  barren  victory.  The  story 
of  Fredericksburg  was  incomplete  and  unsatisfactory  ;  and 

35 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE 

there  appeared  no  prospect  but  that  a  war  waged  at 
sacrifices  was  yet  indefinitely  to  linger  in  the  trail  of  bloody 
skirmishes. 

The  victory,  which  had  only  the  negative  advantage  of  hav 
ing  checked  the  enemy  without  destroying  him,  and  the  vulgar 
glory  of  our  having  killed  and  wounded  several  thousand  men 
more  than  we  had  lost,  had  been  purchased  by  us  with  lives, 
though  comparatively  small  in  numbers,  yet  •  infinitely  more 
precious  than  those  of  mercenary  hordes  arrayed  against  us. 
Two  of  our  brigadier-generals — Gen.  Thomas  E.  E.  Cobb  of 
Georgia  and  Gen.  Maxcy  Gregg  of  South  Carolina — had  fallen 
on  the  field.  The  loss  of  each  was  more  conspicuous  from  ex 
traordinary  personal  worth  than  from  mere  distinctions  of 
rank.  Gen.  Cobb  was  the  brother  of  Gen.  Howell  Cobb,  and 
was  an  able  and  eloquent  member  of  the  Provisional  Congress, 
in  which  body  he  had  served  in  the  important  capacity  of 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  military  affairs. 

Of  the  virtues  and  services  of  Gen.  Maxcy  Gregg  it  is  not 
necessary  to  remind  any  portion  of  the  people  of  the  South 
by  a  detailed  review  of  incidents  in  his  career.  His  name  was 
familiarly  coupled  with  the  first  movements  of  the  war,  he 
having  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  1st  South  Caro 
lina  regiment,  the  first  force  from  the  State  which  arrived  in 
Virginia,  and  whose  advent  at  Richmond  had  been  hailed  with 
extraordinary  demonstrations  of  honor  and  welcome.  The  term 
of  the  service  of  this  regiment  having  expired,  it  returned  to 
South  Carolina,  but  its  commander,  Col.  Gregg,  remained  in 
Virginia,  and  subsequently  reorganized  the  regiment,  which 
had  since  been  constantly  and  conspicuously  in  service.  Its 
commander  was  subsequently  made  a  brigadier-general. 

Gen.  Gregg,  although  the  occupations  of  his  life  were  prin 
cipally  professional,  had  a  large  and  brilliant  political  reputa 
tion  in  his  State.     He  was  a  leading  member  of  the  bar,  and 
practised   his   profession   with   distinction    and   success  for   a 
period  of  more  than  twenty  years  in  Columbia.     In  politics  he 
was  an  extreme  State  Eights  man,  and  stood,  with  others,  at 
the  head  jf  that  party  in  South  Carolina.     He  took  a  promi 
nent  part  in  favor  of  the  policy  of  reopening  the  slave-trade 
which  had  been  the  subject  of  some  excited  and  untimely  dis 
cusfoion  in  the  South  some  years  ago;  he   and   ex-Governoi 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  54:7 

Adams,  of  South  Carolina,  being  associated  as  the  leading 
representatives  of  that  idea  in  the  cotton  States. 

Gen.  Gregg  was  remarkable  for  his  firm  and  unflinching 
temper.  In  the  army  he  had  an  extraordinary  reputation  for 
self-possession  and  sang  froid  in  battle.  He  was  never  discon 
certed,  and  had  the  happy  faculty  of  inspiring  the  courage  of 
his  troops,  not  so  much  by  words  as  by  his  cool  determination 
and  even  behavior. 

The  romance  of  the  story  of  Fredericksburg  is  written  no 
less  in  the  quiet  heroism  of  her  women  than  in  deeds  of  arms. 
The  verses  of  the  poet  rather  than  the  cold  language  of  a  mere 
chronicle  of  events  are  most  fitting  to  describe  the  beautiful 
courage  and  noble  sacrifices  of  those  brave  daughters  of  Vir 
ginia,  who  preferred  to  see  their  homes  reduced  to  ashes, 
rather  than  polluted  by  the  Yankee,  and  who  in  the  blasts  of 
winter,  and  in  the  fiercer  storms  of  blood  and  fire,  went  forth 
undismayed,  encouraging  our  soldiers,  and  proclaiming  their 
desire  to  suffer  privation,  poverty,  and  death,  rather  than  the 
shame  of  a  surrender  or  the  misfortune  of  a  defeat.  In  all 
the  terrible  scenes  of  Fredericksburg,  there  were  no  weakness 
and  tears  of  women.  Mothers,  exiles  from  their  homes,  met 
their  sons  in  the  ranks,  embraced  them,  told  them  their  duty, 
and  with  a  self-negation  most  touching  to  witness,  concealed 
their  want,  sometimes  their  hunger,  telling  their  brave  boys 
they  were  comfortable  and  happy,  that  they  might  not  be 
troubled  with  domestic  anxieties.  At  Hamilton's  crossing, 
many  of  the  women  had  the  opportunity  of  meeting  their  rela 
tives  in  the  army.  In  the  haste  of  flight,  mothers  had  brought 
a  few  garments,  or  perhaps  the  last  loaf  of  bread  for  the  sol 
dier  boy,  and  the  lesson  of  duty  whispered  in  the  ear  gave  to 
the  young  heart  the  pure  and  brave  inspiration  to  sustain  it  in 
battle.  ~No  more  touching  and  noble  evidence  could  be  offered 
of  the  heroism  of  the  women  of  Fredericksburg  than  the  grati 
tude  of  our  army ;  for,  afterwards,  when  subscriptions  for  their 
relief  came  to  be  added  up,  it  was  found  that  thousands  of 
dollars  had  been  contributed  by  ragged  soldiers  out  of  their 
pittance  of  pay  to  the  fund  of  the  refugees.  There  could  be 
no  more  eloquent  tribute  than  this  offered  to  the  women  of 
Fredericksburg— a  beautiful  and  immortal  souvenir  of  their 
sufferings  and  virtues. 


5 £3  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

What  was  endured  in  the  Yankee  sacking  of  the  town,  finds 
scarcely  anywhere  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  civilized  races. 
It  is  impossible  to  detail  here  the  murderous  acts  of  the 
enemy,  the  arsons,  the  robberies,  the  torture  of  women,  and 
the  innumerable  and  indescribable  villanies  committed  upon 
helpless  people.  The  following  extract  from  the  New  York 
Tribune,  written  by  one  of  its  army  correspondents  in  a  tone 
of  devilish  amusement,  affords  a  glimpse  of  Burnside's  brig 
ands  in  Fredericksburg,  and  of  the  accustomed  barbarities  of 
the  enemy : 

"  The  old  mansion  of  Douglas  Gordon — perhaps  the  wealth 
iest  citizen  in  the  vicinity — is  now  used  as  the  headquarters  of 
General  Howard,  but  before  he  occupied  it,  every  room  had 
been  torn  with  shot,  and  then  all  the  elegant  furniture  and 
works  of  art  broken  and  smashed  by  the  soldiers,  who  burst 
into  the  house  after  having  driven  the  rebel  sharpshooters  from 
behind  it.  When  I  entered  it  early  this  morning,  before  its 
occupation  by  Gen.  Howard,  I  found  the  soldiers  of  his  fine 
division  diverting  themselves  with  the  rich  dresses  found  in 
the  wardrobes;  some  had  on  bonnets  of  the  fashion  of  last 
year,  and  were  surveying  themselves  before  mirrors,  which,  an 
hour  or  two  afterwards,  were  pitched  out  of  the  window  and 
smashed  to  pieces  upon  the  pavement ;  others  had  elegant 
scarfs  bound  round  their  heads  in  the  form  of  turbans,  and 
shawls  around  their  waists. 

"  We  destroyed  by  fire  nearly  two  whole  squares  of  build 
ings,  chiefly  used  for  business  purposes,  together  with  the  fine 
residences  of  O.  McDowell,  Dr.  Smith,  J.  H.  Kelly,  A.  S. 
Cott,  William  Slaughter,  and  many  other  smaller  dwellings. 
Every  store,  I  think,  without  exception,  was  pillaged  of  every 
valuable  article.  A  fine  drug-store,  which  would  not  have 
looked  badly  on  Broadway,  was  literally  one  mass  of  broken 
glass  and  jars." 

The  records  of  the  Spanish  and  Moorish  struggles,  the  wars 
of  the  Roses,  and  the  thirty  years'  war  in  Germany,  may  be 
safely  challenged  for  comparisons  with  the  acts  of  barbarity 
of  the  Yankees.  Their  worst  acts  of  atrocity  were  not  com 
mitted  in  the  mad  intoxication  of  combat,  but  in  cold  and 
cowardly  blood  on  the  helpless  and  defenceless.  While  the 
lawless  and  savage  scenes  in  Fredericksburg,  to  whieb  we 


THE    SECOND    YEAH.  549 

have  i  eferred,  <vere  still  fresh  in  the  public  nJnd,  the  enemy  in 
another  department  of  the  war,  was  displaying  the  same  fiend 
ish  temper,  stung  by  defeat  and  emboldened  with  the  prospect 
of  revenging  his  fortunes  on  the  women  and  children  of  the 
South.  The  Yankee  incursions  and  raids  in  North  Carolina 
in  the  month  of  December  are  companion  pieces  to  the  sack  of 
Fredericksburg. 

"  On  entering  Williamstown,  North  Carolina,"  says  an  eye 
witness,  "  the  Yankees  respected  not  a  single  house — it  mat 
tered  not  whether  the  owner  was  in  or  absent.  Doors  were 
broken  open  and  houses  entered  by  the  soldiers,  who  took 
every  thing  they  saw,  and  what  they  were  unable  to  carry 
away  they  broke  and  destroyed.  Furniture  of  every  descrip 
tion  was  committed  to  the  flames,  and  the  citizens  who  dared 
to  remonstrate  with  them  were  threatened,  cursed,  and  buffeted 

about The  enemy  stopped  for  the  night  at  Mr. 

Ward's  mill.  Mr.  Ward  was  completely  stripped  of  every 
thing,  they  not  even  leaving  him  enough  for  breakfast.  While 
on  a  sick-bed,  his  wife  was,  in  his  presence,  searched  and  rob 
bed  of  five  hundred  dollars.  The  Yankees  went  about  fifteen 
miles  above  Hamilton,  when,  for  some  cause,  they  suddenly 
turned  and  marched  back,  taking,  with  some  slight  deviations 
in  quest  of  plunder,  the  same  route  they  had  come.  The  town 
of  Hamilton  was  set  oh  fire  and  as  many  as  fifteen  houses  laid 
in  ashes.  During  the  time  the  Yankees  encamped  at  Wil 
liamstown  every  thing  which  they  left  unharmed  when  last 
there  was  demolished.  Every  house  in  town  was  occupied 
and  defaced.  Several  fine  residences  were  actually  used  as 
horse-stables.  Iron  safes  were  broken  open,  and  in  the  pres 
ence  of  their  owners  rifled  of  their  contents.  Several  citi- 
Eeris  were  seized  and  robbed  of  the  money  on  their  persons. 
.  .  .  .  On  Sunday  morning  Williamstown  was  fired,  and 
no  effort  made  to  arrest  the  flames  until  several  houses  were 
burnt.  No  attempt  was  made  by  the  Yankee  officers,  from 
Gen.  Foster  down,  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  property.  On 
the  contrary,  they  connived  at  it,  and  some  of  the  privates  did 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  they  were  instructed  to  do  as  they  had 
done.  Two  ladies  at  Williamstown  went  to  Gen.  Foster  to  be 
seech  protection  from  his  soldiers,  and  were  rudely  and  arnV 
gantly  ordered  from  his  presence ' 


550  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

Referring  to  the  same  scenes,  a  correspondent  writes :  "  Fam 
ilies  who  fled  in  dismay  at  the  approach  of  the  invader,  re 
turned  and  found,  as  well  as  the  few  who  remained  at  home, 
clothes,  beds,  bedding,  spoons,  and  books  abstracted  ;  cost.lv 
furniture,  crockery,  doors,  harness,  and  vehicles  demolished ; 
locks,  windows,  and  mirrors  broken  ;  fences  burned  ;  corn,  po 
tatoes,  and  peas  gathered  from  the  barns  and  fields  consumed', 
iron  safes  dug  to  pieces  and  thrown  out  of  doors,  and  their  con 
tents  stolen-.'7 

The  object  of  the  enemy's  movements  'in  North  Carolina, 
long  a  subject  of  anxious  speculation,  was-  at  last  developed,  in 
time,  for  a  severe  check  to  be  given-  it.  At  the  time  that  the 
enemy  assaulted  our  lines  in  front  of  Fredericksburg,  following 
his  favorite  policy  of  simultaneous  attack  in  different  depart 
ments,  he  had  planned  a  movement  upon  the  Wilmington  and 
"Weldon  railroad  ;  and  on  the  same  day  that  the  battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg  was  fought,  occurred  an  important  passage  of  arm* 
in  North  Carolina. 

On  the  13th  of  December,  Brigadier-gen.  Evans  encoim 
tered,  with  two  thousand  men,  the  advancing  enemy,  and  with 
this  small  force  held  hrm  in  check  at  Southwest  creek,  beyond 
Kinston.  The  Yankee  force,  commanded  by  Foster,  consisted 
of  fifteen  thousand  men  and  nine  gunboats.  Having  delayed 
their  advance  for  some  time,  Gen.  Evans  succeeded  in  with 
drawing  his  force,  with  small  loss,  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Neuse 
river  at  Kinston.  He  held  the  Yankees  at  bay  until  the  16thT 
when  they  advanced  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  and 
made  an  attack  at  Whitehall  bridge,  about  eighteen  miles 
below  Goldsboro' ;  in  which  they  were  driven  back  by  Gun. 
Robertson,  with  severe  loss. 

The  important  object  on  our  side  was  to  protect  the  railroad 
bridge  over  the  Neuse,  and  the  county  bridge  about  halt'  a 
mile  above;  and  to  effect  this,  reinforcements  having  reached 
us,  a  rapid  disposition  of  our  forces  was  made.  During  the 
17th,  the  enemy  appeared  in  force  before  Gen.  Clingman's  three 
regiments,  aritl  he  withdrew,  across  the  county  bridge,  to  this 
side  of  the  river.  The  artillery  of  the  enemy  was  j  laying  upon 
the  railroad  bridge ;  and  Evans'  brigade  had  at  last  to  move 
'forward  by  the  county  road,  and  cross,  if  at  all,  the  bridge  a 
half  mile  above  the  railroad.  About  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR* 


651 


noor.  one  bold  and  daring  incendiary  succeeded  in  reading  the 
bridge,  and  covered  by  the  wing  wall  of  the  abutment,  lighted 
ii  flame  which  soon  destroyed  the  superstructure,  leaving  the 
masonry,  abutments,  and  pier  intact. 

It  was  very  important  for  us  now  to  save  the  county  bridge, 
the  only  means  remaining  of  crossing  the  river  in  the  vicinity. 
Evans'  and  Clingman's  brigades  were  ordered  to  cross,  sup 
ported  by  Pettigrew's  brigade;  and  the  Mississippi  brigade, 
just  coming  in,  was  ordered  to  move  forward  at  once.  The 
enemy  were  driven  back  from  their  position  on  the  line  of  the 
railroad,  but  on  account  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  the  nature 
of  the  ground,  and  the  fact  that  our  artillery,  cavalry,  and  a 
large  portion  of  the  reinforcements  had  not  yet  arrived,  it  was 
not  deemed  advisable  to  attack  their  strong  second  position  that, 
evening.  During  the  night  the  enemy  made  a  hurried  retreat 
to  their  fortifications  and  gunboats,  moving  with  such  celerity 
that  it  was  useless  to  attempt  pursuit  with  any  other  arms  than 
cavalry,  of  which,  at  that  time,  unfortunately,  we  had  none. 

Our  loss  in  these  engagements  was  inconsiderable — seventy- 
one  killed  and  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight  wounded.  Th& 
enemy's  occupation  of  Kinston,  and  the  bridge  there,  pre 
vented  a  body  of  our  men,  about  five  hundred  in  number,  from 
escaping.  The  greater  part  were  taken  prisoners  and  paroled, 
and  some  few  succeeded  in  escaping  higher  up  on  the  river. 

The  substantial  achievements  of  the  grand  army  of  invasion 
were,  that  they  burned  the  superstructure  of  two  bridges,  which 
cost  originally  less  than  ten  thousand  dollars.  They  had  ut 
terly  failed  to  attempt  to  take  advantage  of  the  temporary 
and  partial  interruption  of  our  railroad  line,  for  the  purpose 
of  striking  a  decisive  blow  at  any  important  point  before  we 
could  thoroughly  re-establish  our  communication  without  it. 

In  other  quarters  of  the  war  less  important  than  Virginia  or 
North  Carolina,  the  early  months  of  the  winter  were  distin 
guished  by  some  combats  of  various  importance.  The  feeble 
campaign  in  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  was  marked 
by  one  engagement,  the  dimensions  of  which  were  large  for 
that  campaign,  but  the  situation  of  which  was  too  distant  to 
affect  the  general  condition  of  the  Confederacy. 

On  the  27th  of  November,  Gen.  Hindman  came  up  with  the 
enemy  at  Prairie  Grove,  near  Fayetteville,  Arkansas,  with  a 


552 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


force  of  about  nine  thousand  men.  The  enemy,  under  the 
command  of  Gen.  Blount,  was  already  largely  superior  in 
numbers;  and  it  was  the  object  of  Hindman  to  cut  off  rein 
forcements  of  seven  or  eight  thousand,  which  were  on  the 
inarch.  In  this  he  failed ;  but,  nothing  daunted,  brought  on 
the  attack  at  daylight,  capturing,  in  the  first  charge  of  Gen. 
Marmaduke's  cavalry,  a  whole  regiment,  and  twenty-three 
wagons  heavily  laden  with  quartermaster  and  medical  stores. 
Soon  after  sunrise  the  fight  commenced  in  good  earnest,  and 
with  no  cessation  the  artillery  continued  until  nightfall.  Our 
whole  line  of  infantry  were  in  close  conflict  nearly  the  whole 
day  with  the  enemy,  who  were  attempting,  with  their  force  of 
eighteen  thousand  men,  to  drive  us  from  our  position.  In  every 
instance  they  were  repulsed,  and  finally  driven  back  from  the 
field ;  Gen.  Hindman  driving  them  to  within  eight  miles  of 
Fayetteville,  when  our  forces  fell  back  to  their  supply  depot, 
between  Cane  Hill  and  Yan  Buren.  "We  captured  three  hun 
dred  prisoners  and  vast  quantities  of  stores.  The  enemy's  loss 
in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  one  thousand;  the  Confeder 
ate  loss,  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  about  three  hundred. 
In  one  of  the  charges  of  the  engagement,  Gen.  Stein,  of  the 
Missouri  State  Guard,  was  killed,  a  ball  passing  directly  through 
his  brain. 

The  close  of  the  year  1862  leaves  little  to  record  of  events  of 
importance  sufficient  to  affect  the  fortunes  of  the  war,  beyond 
what  has  been  related  in  these  pages  with  more  or  less  par 
ticularity  of  detail.  In  that  large  expanse  of  country  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  tributaries  of  the  Atlantic,  events,  since 
our  last  reference  to  these  theatres  of  the  war,  were  of  little  ap 
parent  importance,  although  they  were  preparing  for  a  grand 
tragedy  of  arms  upon  which  we  shall  find  that  the  first  page 
of  the  new  year  opens.  There  were  daring  forays,  brilliant 
skirmishes  and  enterprises  of  our  cavalry,  to  which  a  brief 
reference  is  only  possible  in  these  pages.  Such  were  the  ex 
ploits  of  Generals  Forrest  and  Morgan,  our  distinguished  cav 
alry  commanders  in  West  Tennessee,  in  which  they  annoyed 
the  enemy,  destroyed  railroad  bridges  and  Federal  property, 
and  captured  several  towns  in  successful  raids.  On  the  7th  of 
December  a  single  expedition,  sent  out  under  Morgan  from 
G-en.  Bragg's  lines,  attacked  an  outpost  of  the  enemy  at  Harts- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  553 

rille,  on  the  Cumberland,  killed  and  wounded  two  hundred, 
captured  eighteen  hundred  prisoners,  two  pieces  of  artillery, 
and  two  thousand  small-arms,  and  all  other  stores  at  the  po 
sition.  Nor  in  our  slight  record  of  indecisive  but  gallant 
incidents  of  the  war,  must  we  neglect  to  mention  the  brave 
enterprise  of  Col.  Clarkson,  another  choice  spirit  of  Southern 
chivalry,  who,  with  a  detachment  of  the  Virginia  State  line, 
penetrated  into  Kentucky,  captured  the  town  of  Piketon  on 
the  8th  of  December,  secured  a  large  amount  of  stores,  and 
nipped  an  important  enterprise  of  the  enemy  in  the  bud. 

In  the  mean  time  some  important  new  assignments  of  mili 
tary  command  had  been  made  in  preparation  for  the  winter 
campaign,  and  happily  inspired  the  country  with  renewed 
confidence  in  the  fortunes  of  the  war.  Gen.  Gustavus  W.  Smith, 
whose  patriotism  was  as  enthusiastic  as  his  military  genius  waa 
admirable  (for  he  had  broken  ties  as  well  as  restraints  in  es 
caping  from  the  North  to  join  the  standard  of  his  native 
South),  had  taken  command  in  North  Carolina.  Gen.  Beau- 
regard  had  been  assigned  to  the  important  care  of  the  defences 
of  Charleston  and  Savannah,  threatened  by  the  most  formida 
ble  armadas  that  the  warlike  ingenuity  and  lavish  expenditure 
of  the  enemy  had  yet  produced.  Gen.  Pemberton  had  relieved 
Van  Dorn  of  the  army  of  the  Southwest  at  Holly  Springs, 
which  had  been  taken  by  surprise  on  the  20th  of  December, 
and  was  now  in  our  possession  ;  and  that  latter  officer,  ill- 
B tarred  by  fortune,  but  whose  gallantry  and  enterprise  were 
freely  acknowledged,  was  appropriately  appointed  to  take 
command  of  the  cavalry  forces  in  the  West.  The  command 
of  all  the  forces  between  the  Alleghany  and  the  Mississippi 
was  intrusted  to  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  whose  matchless 
strategy  had  more  than  once  enlightened  the  records  of  the 
war,  and  whose  appointment  to  this  large  and  important  com 
mand  was  hailed  with  an  outburst  of  joy  and  enthusiastic  confi 
dence  in  all  parts  of  the  South. 


554  SOUIHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTEE  XXI. 

The  eastern  Portion  of  Tennessee. —  Its  Military  Importance.—  Composition  Oi 
Bragg's  Army. — THE  BATTLE  or  MURFREESBORO'. — The  Eight  Wing  of  the  Enemy 
routed. — Bragg's  Exultations. — The  Assault  of  the  2d  of  January. — "  The  bloody 
crossing  of  Stone  River." — The  Confederates  fall  back  to  Tullahoma. — Review  of  the 
Battle-field  of  Murfreesboro'.— Repulse  of  the  Enemy  at  Vicksburg.— THE  RECAP 
TURE  OF  GALVESTON. — The  Midnight  March. — Capture  of  the  "  Harriet  Lane." — 
Arkansas  Post  taken  by  the  Yankees. — Its  Advantages. — The  affair  of  the  Rams  in 
Charleston  Harbor. — Naval  structure  of  the  Confederacy. — Capture  of  the  Yankee 
gunboat  "  Queen  of  the  West."— Heroism  of  George  Wood.— Capture  of  the  "  In- 
dianola."— The  War  on  the  Water.— The  Confederate  Cruisers.— Prowess  of  the 
"  Alabama." 

THE  eastern  portion  of  Tennessee  abounds  in  hills,  rocks, 
poverty,  and  ignorance.  But  its  military  situation  was  one  of 
great  importance  to  the  Confederacy.  The  enemy  already 
held  West  and  Middle  Tennessee.  It  required  but  to  occupy 
East  Tennessee  to  have  entire  possession  of  one  of  the  most 
valuable  States  of  the  Confederacy.  They  also  felt  bound  in 
honor  and  duty  to  render  the  long-promised  assistance  to  the 
Unionists  of  East  Tennessee.  Tennessee  would  be  more 
thoroughly  theirs  than  Kentucky,  when  once  they  filled  thia 
eastern  portion  of  it  with  their  armies.  The  essential  geo 
graphical  importance  of  this  country  to  the  Confederacy  was 
too  obvious  to  be  dwelt  upon.  It  covered  Georgia  and  involved 
the  defences  of  the  cotton  region  of  the  South.  Through  it  ran 
a  great  continental  line  of  railroad,  of  which  the  South  could 
not  be  deprived*  without  unspeakable  detriment.  The  impor 
tance  of  this  road  to  the  supply  of  our  armies  was  no  less  con 
siderable  than  to  the  supply  of  our  general  population. 

The  gallant  and  heroic  army  of  the  Confederacy,  commanded 
by  Gen.  Braxton  Bragg,  composed  of  Floridians,  Louisianians, 
South  Carolinians,  Georgians,  and  Kentuckians,  numbering  be 
tween  thirty  and  forty  thousand  men,  had  occupied  Murfrees 
boro'  for  over  a  month,  in  confidence  and  security,  never 
dreaming  of  the  advance  of  the  enemy.  President  Davis  had 
visited  and  reviewed  the  brave  veterans  of  Fishing  creek, 


GEN.   BRAXTON    BRAGG. 


C.  B.  Richards  on, 
Publisher. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  555 

Pensacola,  Donelson,  Shiloh,  Perrjville,  and  Hartsril'e,  and, 
satisfied  of  their  ability  to  resist  any  foe  who  should  have  the 
temerity  to  attack  them,  he  withdrew  from  our  forces  Steven- 
son's  division,  of  Kirby  Smith's  corps,  numbering  about  eight 
thousand  men,  leaving  scarcely  thirty  thousand  men  to  defend 
what  was  left  to  us  of  Tennessee. 

Balls,  parties,  and  brilliant  festivities  relieved  the  ennui  of 
the  camp  of  the  Confederates.  On  Christmas  eve  scenes  of 
revelry  enlivened  Murfreesboro',  and  officers  and  men  alike 
gave  themselves  up  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  hour,  with  an 
abandonment  of  all  military  cares,  indulging  in  fancied  se 
curity. 

The  enemy's  force  at  Nashville,  under  command  of  Rose- 
crans,  was  not  believed  to  have  been  over  forty  thousand,  and 
the  opinion  was  confidently  entertained  that  he  would  not 
attempt  to  advance  until  the  Cumberland  should  rise,  to  aiford 
him  the  aid  of  his  gunboats.  Indeed,-  Morgan  had  been  sent 
to  Kentucky  to  destroy  the  Nashville  road  and  cut  off  his 
supplies,  so  that  he  might  force  the  enemy  to  come  out  and 
meet  us.  Yet,  that  very  night,  when  festivity  prevailed,  the 
enemy  was  marching  upon  us  ! 


The  grounds  in  front  of  Murfreesboro'  had  been  surveyed 
and  examined  a  month  before,  in  order  to  select  a  position  for 
battle  in  case  of  surprise,  and  our  troops  were  thrown  forward 
to  prevent  such  a  misfortune.  Folk's  corps,  with  Cheatham's 
division,  occupied  our  centre,  Maney's  brigade  being  thrown 
forward  towards  Lavergne,  where  Wheeler's  cavalry  was  annoy 
ing  the  enemy.  A  portion  of  Kirby  Smith's  corps,  McCown's 
division,  occupied  Readyville  on  our  right,  and  Hardee's  corps 
occupied  Triune  on  our  left,  with  Wharton's  cavalry  thrown 
out  in  the  vicinity  of  Franklin. 

Festival  and  mirth  continued  on  Christmas  day,  but  the  day 
following,  Friday,  the  26th,  was  a  most  gloomy  one.  The  rain 
fell  in  torrents.  That  same-  evening  couriers  arrived  and 
reported  a  general  advance  of  the  enemy.  All  was  excitement 
and  commotion,  and  the  greatest  activity  prevailed.  The 
enemy  had  already  driven  in  our  advance  front.  Hardens 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAS. 

corps  fell  back  from  Triune.  Major-gen.  McCown's  division 
was  ordered  to  march  to  Murfreesboro'  at  once,  having  received 
the  order  at  midnight.  Heavy  skirmishing  by  Wheeler  and 
Wharton's  cavalry  had  continued  since  the  25th.  On  the  27th 
the  ground  for  our  line  of  battle  was  selected  in  front  of  the 
town,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  distant  on  Stone's  river.  The 
enemy  had  now  advanced  beyond  Triune,  his  main  body 
occupying  Stuart's  creek,  ten  miles  from  town.  On  the  28th 
our  troops  took  up  their  position  in  line  of  battle.  Folk's 
corps,  consisting  of  Withers'  and  Cheatham's  divisions,  formed 
our  left  wing,  and  was  posted  about  a  mile  and  a  half  on  the 
west  side  of  Stone's  river,  its  right  resting  on  the  Nashville 
road,  and  its  left  extending  as  far  as  the  Salem  pike,  a  distance 
of  nearly  six  miles.  Hardee's  corps,  consisting  of  Breckin- 
ridge's  and  Cleburne's  divisions,  was  formed  on  the  east  bank 
of  the  river,  its  left  resting  near  the  Nashville  road,  and  its 
right  extending  towards  the  Lebanon  pike,  about  three  miles 
in  length,  making  our  line  of  battle  about  nine  miles  in  length, 
in  the  shape  of  an  obtuse  angle.  McCown's  division  formed 
the  reserve,  opposite  our  centre,  and  Jackson's  brigade  was 
held  in  reserve  on  the  right  flank  of  Hardee.  Stone's  river 
crosses  the  Salem  pike  about  a  mile  and  a  half  on  the  south 
side  of  the  town,  making  a  curve  below  the  pike  about  a  mile 
further  south,  and  then  runs  nearly  north  and  south  in  front 
of  Murfreesboro',  crossing  the  Nashville  pike  and  extending 
towards  the  Lebanon  pike,  some  half  a  mile,  when  it  makes 
another  turn  or  bend  and  runs  nearly  east  and  west,  emptying 
into  the  Cumberland  river.  The  river,  at  the  shoals,  where 
it  crosses  the  Nashville  pike,  was  fordable,  and  not  over  ankle 
deep.  The  banks  above  and  below  were  rather  steep,  being 
some  five  to  eight  feet  high,  with  rocky  protrusions.  The 
nature  of  the  country  was  undulating,  but  mostly  level  in  our 
front,  with  large,  open  fields.  To  the  right  or  the  west  side 
'the  ground  was  more  rolling,  with  rocky  upheaval  and  crop- 
pings  of  limestone  and  thick  cedar  groves.  On  the  side  of  the 
river  towards  the  Lebanon  pike  were  thin  patches  of  woods 
and  rocky^  projections. 

On  the  29th  there  was  continued  skirmishing  by  our  cavalry 
forces,  the  enemy  gradually  advancing.  On  the  30th  the 
enemy  had  advanced  by  three  columns  and  took  up  his  posi- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  557 

tion  about  a  mile  in  < /nr  front.  At  noon  lie  shelled  our 
right  and  centre,  in  order  to  feel  our  reserves.  At  3  p.  M. 
the  enemy  made  an  advance  on  our  left,  and  attempted  to 
drive  us  back  in  order  to  occupy  the  ground  for  his  right  wing. 
A  spirited  engagement  immediately  commenced,  Gen.  Polk 
having  ordered  forward  a  portion  of  Withers'  division.  Eobin- 
son's  battery  held  the  enemy  in  check,  keeping  up  a  most 
deadly  and  destructive  fire.  Three  times  the  enemy  charged 
this  battery,  but  were  repulsed  by  the  gallant  one  hundred  and 
fifty-fourth  Tennessee.  Col.  Loornis,  commanding  Gardner's 
brigade,  and  the  brigade  formerly  Duncan's,  with  the  South 
Carolinians,  Alabamians,  and  Louisianians,  were  most  hotly 
engaged,  and  though  suffering  considerably,  succeeded  in  dri 
ving  back  the  enemy  with  great  slaughter.  It  was  now  clear 
that  the  enemy  intended  to  mass  his  forces  on  our  left,  in  order 
to  make  a  flank  movement  the  next  day,  and  obtain,  if  possible, 
the  Salem  pike,  which,  if  successful,  would  give  him  possession 
of  the  Chattanooga  railroad.  Cleburne's  division,  of  Hardee's 
corps,  and  Major-gen.  McCown's  division,  were  immediately 
ordered  over  towards  the  Salem  pike  to  reinforce  our  extreme 
left  wing.  Wheeler's  cavalry  had  already  gained  the  enemy's 
rear,  and  had  captured  a  train  of  wagons  and  a  number  of 
prisoners.  A  cold,  drizzling  rain  had  "set  in,  and  our  troops 
were  greatly  exposed,  being  without  shelter,  and  bivouacking 
by  their  camp  fires. 

On  the  morning  of  the  31st,  the  grand  battle  was  opened. 
At  the  break  of  day  on  the  cold  and  cloudy  morning,  Gen. 
Hardee  gave  the  order  to  advance,  and  the  fight  was  opened 
by  McCown's  division,  with  Cleburne,  advancing  upon  the 
enemy's  right  wing  under  Gen.  McCook.  The  charge  was  of 
the  most  rapid  character.  The  alarm  given  by  the  enemy's 
pickets  scarcely  reached  his  camp  before  the  Confederates 
were  upon  it.  The  sight  of  our  advance  was  a  most  magnifi 
cent  one.  Two  columns  deep,  with  a  front  of  nearly  three- 
fourths  of  a  mile,  the  line  well  preserved  arid  advancing  with 
great  rapidity,  on  came  the  Confederate  left  wing,  the  bayo 
nets  glistening  in  a  bright  sun,  which  had  broken  through  the 
thick  fog. 

The  enemy  wns  taken  completely  by  surprise,  their  artillery 
hordes  nc^  even  being  hitched  up.  Such  was  the  impetuosity 


558  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY  OF    THE    WAS,. 

of  the  tharge,  that  the  enemy  fell  back  in  disn.ay,  our  troops 
pouring  in  a  most  murderous  fire.  "With  such  rapidity  did  our 
men  cross  the  broken  ploughed  fields,  that  our  artillery  could 
not  follow  them.  Wharton's  cavalry  had  charged  a  battery, 
the  horses  not  being  harnessed,  and  driving  back  the  infantry 
supporting  it,  succeeded  in  capturing  it.  The  enemy  having 
gradually  recovered,  now  disputed  our  further  advance,  and 
the  battle  raged  with  terrific  violence.  They  continued  to  fall 
back,  however,  under  our  fire,  until  we  had  swung  round  nearly 
our  whole  left  on  their  right,  as  if  on  a  pivot,  driving  the  en 
emy  some  six  miles  towards  his  centre,  when  Withers  and 
Cheatham  also  hurled  their  divisions  on  the  foe  with  such  ter 
rible  effect,  that  battery  after  battery  was  taken,  and  their 
dead  lay  in  heaps  upon  the  field.  The  enemy  was  now  driven 
towards  the  Nashville  road,  about  a  mile  in  front  of  our  centre, 
and  took  a  commanding  position  on  an  eminence  overlooking 
the  plain,  and  which  was  protected  by  rocks  and  a  dense  cedar 
wood. 

The  battle  had  been  terrific ;  crash  upon  crash  of  musketry 
stunned  the  ear ;  the  ground  trembled  with  the  thunder  of  ar 
tillery  ;  the  cedars  rocked  and  quivered  in  the  fiery  blast,  and 
the  air  was  rent  with  the  explosion  of  shells.  The  enemy  at 
several  points  offered  a  most  gallant  resistance,  but  nothing 
human  could  withstand  the  impetuosity  of  that  charge.  A 
spirit  of  fury  seemed  to  possess  our  men,  from  the  command 
ers  down  to  the  common  soldiers,  and  on  they  swept,  shot  and 
shell,  canister,  grape,  and  bullets  tearing  through  their  ranks, 
until  the  way  could  be  traced  by  the  dead  and  dying.  Still  on 
they  went,  overturning  infantry  and  artillery  alike,  driving  the 
enemy  like  the  hurricane  scatters  the  leaves  upon  its  course, 
capturing  hundreds  of  prisoners,  and  literally  blackening  the 
ground  with  the  dead.  Such  a  charge  was  never  before  wit 
nessed.  For  miles,  through  fields  and  forests,  over  ditches, 
fences,  and  ravines,  they  swept.  Brigade  after  brigade,  bat 
tery  after  battery,  were  thrown  forward  to  stay  their  onward 
march ;  but  another  volley  of  musketry,  another  gleaming  of 
the  bayonet,  and  like  their  predecessors  they  were  crushed  into 
one  common  ruin. 

It  was  now  about  noon.     Our  charge  had  been  one  of  splen- 
Ud  results.     We  had  already  captured   some  five  thousand 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  559 

,  jisoners,  nearly  thirty  pieces  of  cannon,  some  five  thousand 
6  and  of  arms,  and  ammunition  wagons.  We  had  broken  the 
enemy's  right,  having  driven  him  for  nearly  five  hours  on  a 
cui  re,  a  distance  of  over  five  miles  from  our  extreme  left  to 
the  enemy's  centre,  and  backwards  about  three  miles  from  onr 
centre.  The  Yankees  had  made  a  stand  only  where  the  natu 
ral  adjutages  of  the  ground  sheltered  them. 

Kosecrans  had  not  been  dismayed  by  the  events  of  the  morn- 
ing,  and  had  watched  them  with  an  air  of  confidence  which  his 
subordinate  officers  found  it  difficult  to  understand.  Referring 
to  his  adversary,  he  said :  "  I'll  show  him  a  trick  worth  two  of 
his."  Gen.  H^secrans  was  well  aware  of  the  danger  of  advan 
cing  reinforcements  from  his  left  or  centre.  The  Confederates 
lay  in  his  front,  within  sight  and  almost  within  hearing.  He 
knew  that  they  were  anxiously  watching  his  movements,  and 
waiting  to  see  wLich  part  of  his  line  would  be  weakened.  But 
though  he  declined  to  send  McCook  reinforcements,  Rosecrans 
employed  himself  in  so  preparing  his  line  as  to  aid  McCook  to 
get  safely  on  his  right.  His  preparations  were  to  halt  the  Con 
federates  on  his  defeated  right  without  exposing  his  left  and 
centre  to  imminent  danger.  For  this  purpose  he  quickly  de 
termined  to  mass  his  artillery  on  the  position  occupied  by  the 
centre.  These  movements  were  masked  by  immense  cedar 
forests.  Thus  prepared,  at  the  proper  moment  the  centre  of 
the  enemy  was  advanced  a  few  hundred  yards,  and  soon  after 
the  Confederates  appeared  in  force  pursuing  his  right  wing. 

The  position  of  the  enemy  was  on  an  oval-shaped  hill  not 
very  high,  but  furnishing  an  excellent  position  for  his  artillery 
It  was  determined  to  carry  this  stronghold  at  all  hazards,  and 
the  brigades  of  Chalmer  and  Donelson,  supported  by  Manley's 
and  Stewart's  brigades,  with  Cobb's,  Byrne's,  Chas.  Smith's, 
and  Slocomb's  batteries,  were  ordered  to  prepare  for  the 
charge.  It  was  a  forlorn  hope,  but  our 'men  faced  the  mighty 
whirlwind  of  shot  and  shell  with  heroic  firmness,  and  did  not 
fall  back  till  they  had  captured  two  batteries.  The  brigades 
of  Generals  Adams  and  Jackson,  of  Breckinridge's  division, 
who  held  our  right,  were  now  ordered  across  the  river  to  re 
lieve  our  broken  columns,  and  advanced  towards  the  enemy's 
grand  battery  with  a  like  coolness  and  heroism,  but  they  weru 
also  reprised  and  fell  back  under  the  enemy's  terrible  fire. 


560  SOUTHERN"    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAS. 

A  portion  of  Gen.  Ilardee's  command  bivouacked  for  the 
night  in  the  cedars,  within  five  hundred  yards  of  the  enemy's 
lines.  That  night  it  was  cold  to  freezing.  Upon  the  battle 
field  lay  thousands  of  the  enemy's  dead  and  wounded,  who 
froze  stiff,  presenting  a  ghastly  scene  by  moonlight. 

The  scene  in  the  cedars  was  fearful  and  picturesque.  A 
brilliant  winter  moon  shed  its  lustre  amid  the  foliage  of  the 
forest  of  evergreens,  and  lighted  up  with  silver  sheen  the 
ghastly  battle-field.  Dismounted  cannon,  scattered  caissons, 
glittering  and  abandoned  arms  strewed  the  forest  and  field. 
The  dead  lay  stark  and  stiff  at  every  step,  writh  clenched  hands 
and  contracted  limbs  in  the  wild  attitudes  in  which  they  fell, 
congealed  by  the  bitter  cold.  It  was  the  eve  of  the  new  year. 
Moans  of  the  neglected  dying,  mingled  with  the  low  peculiar 
shriek  of  the  wounded  artillery  horses,  chanted  a  miserere  for 
the  dying  year. 

Amid  the  dim  camp-fires,  feebly  lighted  to  avoid  attracting 
the  artillery  of  the  enemy,  groups  of  mutilated  and  shudder 
ing  wounded  were  huddled,  and  the  kneeling  forms  of  surgeons 
bending  in  the  firelight  over  the  mangled  bodies  of  the  dying, 
added  to  the  solemnity  of  the  night. 

The  appearance  of  the  dead  on  the  field  was  remarkable,  for 
the  large  proportion  was  evidently  slain  by  artillery.  The 
bodies  of  many  of  the  Confederates  who  had  advanced  to  the 
assault  on  the  enemy's  masked  batteries  were  literally  torn  to 
pieces.  The  cross-fire  of  the  artillery  had  had  this  terrible 
effect.  "  I  saw,"  says  a  spectator  of  this  terrible  seen,  "  an 
officer,  whose  two  legs,  one  arm,  and  body  lay  in  separate  parts 
of  the  field.  1  saw  another  whose  dislocated  right  arm  lay 
across  his  neck,  and  more  than  half  his  head  wras  gone." 

On  the  day  succeeding  the  fight,  Gen.  Bragg  telegraphed  to 
Richmond  the  news  of  a  great  victory,  presented  his  compli 
ments  to  the  authorities,  and  wrote  k<  God  has  granted  us  a 
happy  new  year."  His  exultations  were  over  hasty,  for  though 
we  had  routed  on  the  morning  of  the  preceding  day  the  right 
wing  of  the  enemy,  the  final  contest  was  yet  to  be  decided. 

In  the  mean  time,  Rosecrans  fearing  that  his  position  might 
be  flanked,  or  from  some  suspicion  that  it  was  not  secure, 
abandoned  it  that  night,  only  to  take  up  a  still  stronger  one 
in  the  bend  of  the  river,  towards  the  Lebanon  pike,  on  a  couple 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  561 

of  hillocks,  which  he  again  crowned  with  his  strongest  bat 
teries. 

Many  of  his  generals  felt  despondent ;  some  favored  retreat; 
but  the  constancy  of  Rosecrans  remained  untouched.  One  of 
his  staff-officers  remarked,  "  Your  tenacity  of  purpose,  general, 
is  a  theme  of  universal  comment."  "I  guess,"  he  replied, 
"  that  the  troops  have  discovered  that  Bragg  is  a  good  dog, 
but  hold-fast  is  better." 

The  first  of  the  year  found  the  enemy  strongly  intronched, 
with  his  right  drawn  up  a  little  on  the  south  side  of  the  Nash 
ville  pike,  while  his  left  remained  fortified  in  the  bend  of  the 
river,  already  Described.  Our  position  was  greatly  advanced 
on  the  left  and  centre,  but  otherwise  remained  the  same.  On 
that  day  Gen.  Bragg  issued  the  following  address  to  his  army  : 

"  The  general  commanding  is  happy  to  announce  to  the 
troops  the  continued  success  of  our  arms  yesterday.  Generals 
"Wheeler  and  Wharton,  with  the  cavalry,  again  assaulted  the 
enemy's  line  of  communication,  capturing  over  two  hundred 
wagons  and  other  stores.  Twice  have  we  now  made  the  cir 
cuit  of  the  enemy's  forces,  and  destroyed  his  trains,  and  not 
less  than  six  hundred  wagons,  and  three  thousand  mules  have 

fallen  into  our  hands Our   success  continues 

uninterrupted.  One  more  struggle,  and  the  glorious  victory 
already  achieved  will  be  crowned  by  the  rout  of  the  enemy, 
who  are  now  greatly  demoralized.  The  general  commanding 
has  every  confidence  that  his  gallant  troops  will  fully  meet  his 
expectations." 

It  was  confidently  believed  that  the  enemy  would  retreat 
on  the  night  of  the  31st,  but  as  he  did  not,  it  was  concluded 
to  wait  and  see  if  he  would  make  any  attack.  The  day  conse 
quently  passed  off  quietly,  excepting  some  slight  skirmishing. 

On  the  2d  of  January,  the  ill-omened  Friday,  the  attitude 
of  the  two  armies  remained  the  same  during  the  morning,  and 
without  incident,  except  some  shelling  on  our  right. 

By  three  o'clock  it  was  determined  to  assault  the  enemy's 
stronghold  on  the  bend  of  the  river.  It  was  a  desperate  de 
termination.  Unfortunately,  Gen.  Bragg  had  given  the  enemy 
nearly  two  days  to  reorganize  and  concentrate  his  baffled 
army,  so  that  he  might  the  more  effectually  make  a  stubborn 

86 


582  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OP    THE    WAR. 

The  enemy  had  taken  up  a  position  at  a  point  near  the  bend 
of  the  river  where  it  takes  a  westerly  course.  Here  rises  a 
high  ridge  covered  by  a  skirt  of  woods,  on  which  the  enemy 
had  planted  their  artillery,  supported  by  a  line  of  infantry. 
Behind  this  ridge,  and  in  the  woods  and  rocky  ravines,  lay 
concealed  also  a  large  force  of  the  enemy.  Further  to  the 
enemy's  left  was  another  skirt  of  woods,  which  the  enemy  also 
occupied,  out-flanking  our  front  nearly  one  thousand  yards. 
Near  the  first  skirt  of  woods  mentioned  is  a  ford  of  the  river, 
the  opposite  banks  of  which,  from  its  elevated  position,  over 
looks  and  commands  the  ridge  above  described  on  this  side,  or 
the  south  and  east  bank  of  the  river,  while  one  mile  further 
down  the  river  is  another  ford.  It  was  at  this  commanding 
position  in  the  river  bend  where  the  enemy  had  made  his  cita 
del,  having  massed  his  batteries  of  artillery  and  infantry  in 
such  a  skilful  manner  as  to  protect  his  centre  on  the  Nashville 
pike,  and  his  extreme  left,  which  now  extended  on  our  side  of 
the  river.  Such  was  the  position  of  the  enemy  on  our  extreme 
right  on  the  morning  of  that  memorable  day  of  slaughter,  the 
2d  of  January. 

Gen.  Breckinridge  was  ordered  to  carry,  by  assault,  the  po 
sition  of  the  enemy  on  the  ridge  already  described.  He  form 
ed  his  division  in  two  lines,  changing  front  from  his  former 
position  to  nearly  a  right  angle,  and  facing  in  the  direction  of 
the  river.  Gen.  Hanson's  brigade,  with  Palmer's,  now  com 
manded  by  Gen.  Pillow,  formed  the  first  line,  with  Pillow  on 
the  right ;  the  second  line  being  formed  by  Preston's  and  Gib 
son's,  two  hundred  yards  in  the  rear.  Col.  Hunt's  regiment, 
of  Hanson's  brigade,  was  left  to  support  Cobb's  battery  on  the 
hill.  From  the  enemy's  commanding  position  across  the  river, 
he  was  enabled  to  see  all  of  our  movements,  and  consequently 
prepared  to  resist  us.  Between  Gen.  Breckin ridge's  division 
and  the  enemy's  batteries  on  the  ridge  was  an  intervening  space 
of  eight  hundred  yards,  extending  over  an  open  field  skirted 
by  woods,  along  which  the  enemy's  skirmishers  were  in  such 
force  as  almost  amounted  to  a  line  of  battle. 

The  attack  was  to  be  made  at  four  o'clock,  and  a  signal  gun 
was  to  announce  the  hour.  In  those  battalions  stood  the  noble 
soldiers  of  Florida,  Alabama,  Kentucky,  Louisiana,  Tennessee, 
and  North  Carolina  in  battle  array,  firm  and  inflexible,  await- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  563 

ing  the  signal  for  combat.  The  report  of  a  cannon  had  not 
died  upon  the  ear  before  the  bugle  from  Hanson's  brigade 
sounded  a  charge.  The  brigades  moved  rapidly  forward 
through  the  thinned  woods  until  gaining  the  open  fields,  the 
men  having  been  instructed  not  to  deliver  their  fire  until  close 
upon  the  enemy,  and  then  to  charge  with  the  bayonet.  On 
came  Pillow,  followed  by  Preston ;  forward  hurried  Hanson, 
followed  by  Gibson.  From  the  moment  of  gaining  the  field 
the  enemy's  artillery  from  the  ridge  opened  a  sweeping  fire, 
and  a  whirlwind  of  Minnie  balls  from  their  infantry,  with  shot 
and  shell,  filled  the  air.  Our  men  were  ordered  to  lie  down 
for  a  few  minutes  to  let  the  fury  of  the  storm  pass.  Then  the 
cry  from  Breckinridge — "  Up,  my  men,  and  charge  I" — rang 
out.  With  the  impetuosity  of  a  torrent  they  rushed  forward 
to  the  woods  sloping  the  ridge.  On  dashed  Wright's  battery 
of  Preston's  brigade  at  a  furious  gallop,  and  soon  opened  fire 
upon  one  of  the  enemy's  batteries  about  three  hundred  yards 
to  our  right.  The  enemy,  awed  by  the  mad  bravery  of  our 
men,  recoiled ;  their  ranks  thinned  rapidly,  notwithstanding 
they  received  reinforcement  after  reinforcement.  Their  left 
wing,  which  already  out-flanked  us  on  our  right,  was  driven 
back  towards  the  river  bank,  the  20th  Tennessee  capturing 
some  two  hundred  prisoners.  The  contest  now  raged  fierce 
and  bloody.  It  was  one  continuous  roar  of  musketry  and  artil 
lery.  Facing  the  storm  of  death,  our  heroes  charged  with 
fury,  and  so  effective  was  the  firing  of  our  lines,  that  we  car 
ried  the  ridge  with  a  wild  demoniac  yell,  driving  the  enemy 
from  it,  with  his  artillery,  down  the  hill-side  and  across  the 
river.  Capt.  Wright  soon  reached  the  top  of  the  ridge  with 
his  battery,  and  opened  on  the  enemy  with  spherical  case.  At 
this  time  the  concentrated  fire  of  the  enemy  became  terrible 
and  appalling.  A  sheet  of  flame  was  poured  forth  from  their 
artillery  on  the  hills  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  overlook 
ing  our  left  and  front,  and  from  their  batteries  on  the  river 
bank,  while  the  opposite  side  also  swarmed  with  their  infantry, 
who  poured  in  on  us  a  most  murderous  fire.  Still  our  men 
never  quailed,  but  pressed  forward  and  crossed  the  river,  the 
enemy  making  frightful  gaps  in  our  ranks,  but  which  were 
immediately  closed  up.  Here  ir  was  that  in  less  than  half  an 
Lour  over  two  thousand  of  our  brave  boldiers  went  down  !  Tiit 


564  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

ntter  hopelessness  of  carrying  the  opposite  heights,  and  of  con 
tending  against  the  overwhelmingly  superior  numbers  of  the 
enemy,  without  artillery  or  reinforcements  to  support  us,  hav 
ing  been  fully  tested,  Gen.  Breckinridge  ordered  his  division 
to  fall  back.  It  was  nearly  dark  when  the  conflict  closed,  and 
during  the  night  he  occupied  a  portion  of  the  field  in  advance 
of  that  he  occupied  during  the  day. 

It  was  after  the  capture  of  the  enemy's  position  on  the  ridge, 
when  our  men  drove  him  across  the  river  with  terrible  slaugh 
ter  of  his  forces,  that  the  noble  Hanson  fell  mortally  wounded, 
exclaiming,  "  Forward  —  forward,  my  brave  boys,  to  the 
charge  ;"  and  afterwards,  when  brought  from  the  field,  he  said 
with  his  flickering  breath,  "  I  am  willing  to  die  with  such  a 
wound  received  in  so  glorious  a  cause."  We  had  held  the 
enemy's  position  on  the  ridge  for  about  half  an  hour,  Capt. 
E.  E.  Wright's  battery  doing  admirable  execution,  when  that 
gallant  officer  fell  at  his  guns  mortally  wounded,  the  enemy 
having  charged  within  seventy-five  yards  of  his  pieces. 

The  final  repulse  of  Breckenridge  was  a  sad  blow  to  our 
hopes.  The  prudence  of  this  terrible  attack  upon  the  impreg 
nable  position  of  the  enemy  has  been  seriously  questioned,  and 
military  critics  of  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro'  have  also  found 
room  for  censuring  the  neglect  of  Gen.  Bragg  in  not  previously 
securing  the  hillocks  in  the  bend  of  Stone's  river,  which  he 
permitted  the  enemy  to  occupy.  As  it  happened,  it  was  a  bad 
repulse,  and  the  vivid  recollections  of  the  "  bloody  crossing  of 
Stone's  river,"  in  which  in  less  than  one  hour  two  thousand 
of  our  men  were  killed  and  wounded,  long  survived  in  our 
army.  It  lost  us  the  vantage  ground  we  had  gained  over  the 
enemy  on  the  31st  and  greatly  depressed  our  troops.  But  for 
this  we  would  still  have  held  Murfreesboro'.  On  the  3d  the 
rain  fell  in  torrents,  and  as  our  troops  were  worn  out  and 
nearly  exhausted,  it  was  determined  to  fall  back  that  night, 
and  not  run  the  risk  of  meeting  the  enemy's  reinforcements, 
which,  it  was  reported,  he  was  receiving.  Every  thing  had 
previously  been  provided  for  the  retreat.  It  was  conducted 
with  order  and  composure.* 

*  In  liis  official  report  of  the  battle,  Gen.  Bragg  makes  the  following  state 
ment  on  the  subject  of  the  first  day's  operations,  relative  to  their  check  and  th« 
failure  to  break  the  enemy's  centre : 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  565 

Sunday  morning  Rosecrans  moved  into  Murfreesboro5,  und 
Gen.  Bragg  retired  to  the  position  of  Tullahorna.  This  place 
is  in  Coffee  county,  Tennessee,  situated  on  Rock  creek,  and 
offers  admirable  means  of  defence.  It  is  seventy-one  miles 
from  Nashville  and  thirty-two  from  Murfreesboro',  and  lies  im 
mediately  on  the  Nashville  and  Chattanooga  railroad,  where 
it  is  intersected  by  the  McMinnville  and  Manchester  road.  As 
a  base  of  operations,  and  as  a  position  of  defence,  the  place 
offered  great  advantages. 

So  far  as  the  relative  amount  of  carnage  affects  the  question 
of  victory,  no  doubt  can  be  entertained  to  which  side  in  the 
battle  of  Murfreesboro'  is  to  be  ascribed  the  superiority.  In 
the  iirst  day's  fight,  the  number  of  the  enemy's  killed  and 
wounded  was  probably  six  or  seven  thousand  ;  in  the  engage 
ment  which  succeeded,  our  loss  was  disproportionate  to  the 
enemy's ;  but  at  the  close  of  the  whole  affair,  the  Yankees  were 
doubtless  greater  losers  in  life  than  ourselves.  In  point  of  cap- 


"  To  meet  our  successful  advance,  and  retrieve  his  losses  in  the  front  of  his 
left,  the  enemy  early  transferred  a  portion  of  his  reserve  from  his  left  to  that 
flank,  and  by  two  o'clock  had  succeeded  in  concentrating  such  a  force  in  Lieii- 
tenant-gen.  Hardee's  front  as  to  check  his  further  progress.  Our  two  lines  had 
by  this  time  become  almost  blended,  so  weakened  were  they  by  losses,  exhaus 
tion,  and  extension  to  cover  the  enemy's  whole  front.  As  early  as  10  o'clock, 
A..  M.,  Major-gen.  Breckenridge  was  called  on  for  one  brigade,  and  soon  after  for 
a  second,  to  reinforce  or  act  as  a  reserve  to  Lieutenant  gen.  Hardee.  His  reply 
to  the  first  call  represented  the  enemy  crossing  Stone's  river  in  heavy  force^  la 
his  immediate  front,  and  on  receiving  the  second  order,  he  informed  me  that 
they  had  already  crossed  in  heavy  force,  and  were  advancing  to  attack  his 
lines.  He  was  immediately  ordered  not  to  await  attack,  but  to  advance  and 
meet  him.  About  this  same  time  a  report  reached  me  that  a  heavy  force  of 
the  enemy's  infantry  was  advancing  on  the  Lebanon  road,  about  five  miles  in 
Breckenridge's  front.  Brigadier-gen.  Pegram,  who  had  been  sent  to  that  road 
to  cover  the  flank  of  the  infantry  with  his  cavalry  brigade,  save  two  regiments 
detached  with  Wheeler  and  Wharton,  was  ordered  forward  immediately  to  de 
velop  any  such  movement.  The  orders  for  the  two  brigades  from  Brecken 
ridge  were  countermanded,  whilst  dispositions  were  made,  at  his  request,  to  re 
inforce  him.  Before  they  could  be  carried  out,  the  movements  ordered  disclosed 
the  fact  that  no  force  had  crossed  Stone's  river  ;  that  the  only  enemy  in  oui 
immediate  front  then  was  a  small  body  of  sharpshooters  ;  and  that  there  was 
no  advance  on  the  Lebanon  road.  These  unfortunate  misapprehensions  on  tha 
part  of  the  field,  which  with  proper  precaution  could  not  have  existed,  withheld 
from  active  operations  three  fine  brigades  until  the  enemy  had  succeeded  in 
checking  our  progress,  had  re-established  his  lines,  and  had  collected  many  of 
hia  broken  battalions." 


SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tures  and  with  respect  to  the  number  of  prisoners  taken,  th« 
battle  of  Murfreesboro'  may  be  accounted  a  Confederate  suc 
cess.  The  ground  which  the  North  has  for  claiming  a  victory 
is,  that  our  forces  fell  back,  and  that  their  positions  were  occu 
pied.  But  the  occupation  of  Murfreesboro'  was  no  important 
consideration  ;  the  works  were  neither  extensive  nor  strong ; 
and  the  new  line  of  defence  reorganized  by  Gen.  Bragg  was, 
as  we  shall  see,  quite  sufficient  to  hold  the  enemy  in  check. 
The  truth  is,  that  the  Yankees,  although  their  claims  to  the 
victory  of  Murfreesboro'  are  questionable,  had  great  reasons 
to  congratulate  themselves  that  an  army  which,  in  the  first 
day's  battle,  had  its  right  wing  broken  and  one-third  of  its  ar 
tillery  lost,  should  have  escaped  destruction  and  extricated 
itself  in  a  manner  to  assure  its  further  safety. 

But  however  the  issue  of  Murfreesboro'  is  to  be  decided,  the 
South  had  reason  to  expect  considerable  material  advantages 
from  events  in  other  parts  of  the  West.  The  siege  of  Yicks- 
burg  by  land  was  for  the  time  virtually  abandoned.  Some 
engagements  had  taken  place  before  this  town,  which  were  ex 
aggerated  by  the  telegraph  ;  but  they  were  mere  skirmishes, 
intended  to  feel  the  strength  of  the  defences.  Being  satisfied 
that  they  were  too  strong  to  be  attacked  with  safety,  and  prob 
ably  learning  that  Grant's  army  would  never  effect  a  junction 
with  it,  the  Yankee  force  before  Yicksburg  re-embarked,  with 
a  great  loss  of  material  employed  in  the  intrenchments  pre 
paratory  to  the  siege. 

THE  RECAPTURE  OF  GALVESTON. 

While  the  new  year  had  doubtfully  opened  in  Tennessee,  a 
brilliant  success  marked  the  same  period  in  the  distant  State 
of  Texas.  An  expedition  was  skilfully  planned  and  gallantly 
executed  by  the  brave  and  energetic  Magruder,  the  results  of 
which  were  the  capture  of  the  city  and  harbor  of  Galveston, 
a  large  quantity  of  arms,  ammunition,  stores,  &c.,  the  famous 
Yankee  steamer  Harriet  Lane,  and  some  other  craft  of  less 
mportance. 

On  the  night  of  the  31st  of  December,  Gen.  Magruder  silently 
marched  along  the  road  to  Galveston  city.  Our  forces  con 
sisted  of  several  regiments  of  infantry  and  about  twenty-two 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  567 

pieces  of  artillery,  though  the  principal  attack  was  to  be  made 
by  the  artillery,  as  there  Avere  only  about  three  hundred  of  the 
enemy  in  the  city,  and  they  were  behind  a  barricade  at  the 
outer  end  of  the  wharf. 

Our  troops  reached  the  suburbs  of  the  city  about  three 
o'clock.  The  streets  were  completely  deserted ;  the  few  in 
habitants  who  had  remained  in  the  city  were  sleeping  soundly, 
and  had  our  men  not  awaked  and  warned  them  of  their  danger, 
they  would  have  slept  on  until  the  cannon's  roar  had  startled 
them.  The  march  of  our  troops  through  the  city  was  a  quiet 
procession. 

The  scene,  the  dead  hour  of  night,  and  the  fact  that  this  was 
to  be  the  first  battle  of  many  of  them,  all  conspired  to  make 
them  serious.  Then,  too,  the  great  heavy  waves  came  tum 
bling  and  roaring  in  from  the  Gulf,  chanting  out  upon  the  still 
night  air,  as  they  dashed  along,  something  that  sounded  like  a 
funeral  dirge.  But  onward  our  men  stole,  through  long,  lonely 
streets,  now  around  this  corner  and  now  turning  that,  until  at 
length  they  reached  Strand -street,  which  runs  parallel  with 
the  water,  and  is  the  next  one  to  the  wharves.  The  moon 
was  now  down,  and  every  thing  was  enveloped  in  darkness ; 
the  guns  were  noiselessly  placed  in  position  and  loaded,  the 
men  looking  like  so  many  shadows  as  they  took  their  places  in 
the  gloom.  There,  within  three  hundred  yards  lay  the  Har 
riet  Lane,  the  Owasso,  the  Clifton,  and  two  other  boats,  with 
their  broadsides  turned  towards  our  troops,  and  ready  to  open 
upon  them  the  moment  they  fired.  This  they  knew,  for  the 
Yankees  had  been  ashore  the  day  before  and  told  the  people 
that  they  knew  all  about  the  plans  of  the  "  rebels,"  and  were 
waiting  for  them.  In  fact,  they  were  so  certain  of  victory  that 
they  allowed  our  men  to  place  their  guns  in  position  without 
firing  upon  them. 

Gen.  Magruder  opened  the"  attack  by  firing  the  first  gun. 
In  a  few  moments  the  bright  flashes,  the  booming  reports,  and 
whizzing  shells  told  plainer  than  words  that  the  action  had  begun 
in  earnest ;  for  the  next  hour  the  roar  of  cannon  was  incessant. 
The  clear  keen  crack  of  our  little  rifled  guns,  the  dull  sound 
of  our  sea-coast  howitzers,  and  the  mighty  thundering  bass  of 
the  columbiads  and  100-pound  Parrott  guns  on  the  gunboats, 
combined  to  form  a  piece  of  music  fitted  for  Pandemonium. 


568  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  fight  raged  furiously  on  both  sides,  but  it  was  fast  be 
coming  evident  that  our  land  forces  alone  were  no  match  for 
the  Yankee  boats,  with  their  great  guns  and  mortars,  which 
vomited  a  half  bushel  of  grape  and  canister  at  every  discharge. 
Early  in  the  engagement  a  charge  was  made  by  three  hundred 
of  our  infantry  on  three  companies  of  the  42d  Massachusetts 
regiment,  stationed  behind  a  barricade  at  the  end  of  Kuhn's 
wharf.  The  enemy  had  torn  up  the  planks  from  the  wharf,  and 
made  a  breastwork  of  them.  Our  men  rushed  out  into  the 
waters  with  their  scaling  ladders  and  dashed  up  to  them,  but 
the  position  was  too  strong  and  they  had  to  retire,  leaving  our 
artillery  to  shell  them  out.  We  lost  some  ten  or  fifteen  iu  this 
charge,  and  would  have  lost  more,  but  it  was  pitch  dark  and 
the  Yankees  fired  very  wildly. 

Daylight  at  length  arrived,  and  every  one  was  anxiously 
looking  for  our  boats,  which  ought  to  have  been  up  two  hours 
before.     They  had  come  down  within  sight  at  about  12  o'clock, 
and,  hearing  nothing  of  our  troops,  retired  five  or  six  miles, 
under  the  impression  that  the  land  attack  had  been  postponed. 
There  they  waited  until  about  three  o'clock,  when  the  land 
rattack  began.     As  soon  as  Major  Smith,  who  commanded  the 
^expedition,  saw  that  the  work  had  begun,  he  ordered  all  steam 
>to  be  put  on  and  started  back.     He  was  then  a  considerable 
*  distance  from  the  city,  and  was  unable  to  reach  it  until  day 
light.     At  that  time  the  Bayou  City  and  Neptune,  followed  in 
the  'distance  by  the  John  F.  Can  and  Lucy  Gwinn,  hospital 
•boats,  bore  steadily  down  upon  the  Harriet  Lane,  then  lying  at 
'the  end  of  the  wharf,  opposite  the  Cotton  Press. 

The  Harriet  Lane  had  for  some  time  directed  her  fire  at 
'them,  but  fortunately  without  effect;  but  when  within  about 
fifty  yards,  the  Neptune  received  several  balls,  damaging  her 
.  considerably.  She  kept  steadily  on  her  way,  however,  and  in 
.a  few  moments  more  ran  into  the  Lane  amidship.  The  enemy's 
decks  were  soon  cleared  with  the  buckshot  from  the  double- 
barrel  guns  of  the  Neptune's  crew,  who  would  have  boarded 
her,  but  it  was  discovered  that  the  Neptune  was  rapidly  sink 
ing,  in  consequence  of  the  damages  she  had  received.  She  was 
accordingly  run  into  shoal  water,  about  fifty  yards  from  the 
Xane,  where  she  sunk  immediately.  In  the  mean  time  the 
Yankee  crow,  seeing  the  predicament  of  the  Neptune,  came 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  569 

np  on  deck  again,  and  were  preparing  to  give  her  a  broadside 
when  the  Bayou  City  fortunately  interfered  with  their  prepa 
rations,  by  running  into  the  Lane's  wheel-house.  Anothei 
volley  of  buckshot  again  cleared  her  decks.  The  next  instant 
the  crew  of  the  Bayou  City  were  aboard  of  her,  Major  Smith 
gallantly  leading  the  way,  and  shooting  the  Lane's  command 
ing  officer  (Capt.  Wainwright)  as  he  leaped  upon  the  deck. 
The  vessel  was  immediately  surrendered,  and  down  came  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  and  up  went  our  flag.  It  was  found  that  the 
captain  and  first  lieutenant  of  the  boat 'were  both  killed,  and 
about  thirty  of  her  crew  killed  or  wounded.  Our  loss  on  the 
boats  was  about  sixteen  killed,  and  thirty  wounded. 

The  Yankee  boats,  the  Clifton  and  Owasso,  saved  themselves 
by  beating  out  of  the  harbor,  while  the  Bayou  City  was  in 
some  way  entangled  with  her  prize.  The  Westfield  was  burnt, 
as  she  was  fast  aground.  Our  prize  was  one  of  which  we 
might  well  be  proud.  The  Harriet  Lane  was  a  vessel  of  six 
hundred  tons  burden,  was  originally  built  for  the  revenue  ser 
vice,  but  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  with  the  South  she  was 
turned  over  to  the  navy,  and  at  once  underwent  such  altera 
tions  as  were  thought  necessary  to  adapt  her  to  her  new  ser 
vice.  At  the  time  of  her  capture,  she  mounted  eight  guns  ot 
heavy  calibre,  her  bow  gun  being  a  fifteen-inch  rifle. 

The  recapture  of  Galveston  and  the  advantages  which  en 
sued,  were  perhaps  outbalanced  by  a  disaster  which  shortly 
followed  and  overshadowed  much  of  the  prospect  in  the  remote 
regions  west  of  the  Mississippi.  This  was  the  forcible  occupa 
tion  by  the  Yankees  of  Arkansas  Post  and  the  surrender  of  its 
entire  garrison. 

The  troops  garrisoning  Arkansas  Post  at  the  time  of  attack, 
consisted  of  three  brigades,  mostly  Texans,  and  commanded 
respectively  by  Cols.  Garland,  Deshler,  and  Dunnington,  the 
whole  forming  a  division  under  the  command  of  Brigadier- 
gen.  T.  J.  Churchill,  and  numbering,  on  the  day  of  the  fight, 
not  more  than  thirty-three  hundred  effective  men.  On  the  9th 
day  of  January  a  scout  from  below  brought  intelligence  to 
Gen.  Churchill  of  a  Yankee  gunboat  having  made  its  appear 
ance  in  the  Arkansas  river,  some  thirty  miles  below  the  Post. 
Some  hours  later,  on  the  same  day,  aitother  scout  brought  news 
of  other  gunboats,  followed  by  transports,  making  their  way 


570  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

np  the  river.  Upon  the  receipt  of  this  intelligence,  Gen. 
Churchill  ordered  every  thing  in  readiness  for  an  attack,  and 
ere  night  closed  in,  all  the  troops  were  distributed  along  the 
line  of  intrenchments,  where  they  remained  all  night,  in  a 
pelting  storm  of  rain.  The  enemy,  in  the  mean  time,  had 
landed  a  force  about  two  miles  below  the  fort,  but  they  made 
no  demonstration  until  about  nine  or  ten  o'clock  the  next  morn 
ing,  when  they  commenced  shelling  the  fort  from  their  advance 
gunboats,  that  were  cautiously  and  slowly  feeling  their  way  up 
the  river. 

Our  troops  held  the  position  first  taken  by  them  until  about 
four  o'clock,  p.  M.,  when  the  general,  fearing  a  flank  movement 
on  our  left,  ordered  the  men  to  fall  back  to  a  line  of  intrench 
ments  near  the  yet  unfinished  fort,  which  line  was  speedily 
completed  and  all  the  troops  properly  distributed  before  night 
set  in.  Just  as  darkness  was  drawing  near,  four  gunboats  ap 
proached  the  fort  and  commenced  their  bombardment,  our 
guns  from  the  fort  answering  gallantly ;  and  after  two  hours' 
terrific  shelling,  the  gunboats  retired,  one  of  them,  the  East- 
port,  badly  disabled.  Our  loss  up  to  this  time  consisted  of 
only  three  killed  and  some  three  or  four  wounded. 

The  next  morning,  at  ten  o'clock,  the  enemy  renewed  the 
attack  with  gunboats  and  land  forces  combined.  They  had 
also  erected  a  battery  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  by 
means  of  which  they  kept  up  a  terrible  cross-fire  that  swept 
the  whole  area  of  ground  occupied  by  our  men.  The  firing 
continued  until  about  four  o'clock  in  the  evening,  when  Gen. 
Churchill,  seeing  his  defences  exposed  to  a  raking  fire  and 
storming  parties  closing  upon  his  rear,  surrendered,  Gen. 
McClernand  taking  the  whole  force,  making  more  than  three 
thousand  men  prisoners.  Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was 
not  two  hundred  men. 

The  results  of  this  success  of  the  Yankees  were  many  thou 
sand  prisoners  of  war,  and  a  fortified  point  guarding  the  navi 
gation  of  the  Arkansas  river,  and  shutting  out  its  commerce 
from  the  Mississippi.  But  the  prospect  which  they  indulged 
of  ascending  without  interruption  to  Little  Rock  and  taking 
full  possession  of  the  Arkansas  capital,  was  rather  pr.ematn.re. 

There  is  nothing  yet  important  to  record  of  the  operations 
of  the  immense  fleets  of  the  enemy  collected  on  our  coast  in 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  571 

the  winter  of  1862.  The  armadas  were  as  yet  silent.  For 
months  a  large  fleet  of  the  enemy  had  been  at  the  mouth  01 
Charleston  harbor,  or  picketed  off  the  coast. 

On  the  30th  of  January  the  Confederate  rams  in  the  harbor 
of  Charleston,  under  command  of  Capt.  Ingraham,  had  made  a 
sally  towards  the  enemy's  fleet.  The  success  of  this  sally  was 
ignorantly  exaggerated  by  the  Confederates,  and  a  claim  made 
that  the  blockade  had  been  raised,  which  pretension  was  after 
wards  abandoned.  The  fact  was,  that  one  of  the  Yankee  ves 
sels — the  Mercedita — was  seriously  injured,  and  another — the 
Keystone  State — got  a  shot  through  her  steam-drum,  causing 
the  death  of  t went)  -one  persons.  The  Mercedita  was  saved  by 
the  treachery  of  the  Yankees,  who  represented  the  ship  to  be 
in  a  sinking  condition,  thus  deceiving  the  Confederates  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  damage  they  had  inflicted.  She  steamed 
down  to  Port  Royal,  after  our  rams  had  left  her,  under  the  sup 
position  that  she  was  sinking  in  shoal  water.  Her  commander 
had  called  out,  "  "We  are  in  a  sinking  condition,"  and  the  reply 
of  Capt.  Ingraham  was  that  she  could  only  sink  as  far  as  he* 
rails,  and  we  could  not  take  her  crew  aboard.  A  mean  and 
cowardly  falsehood  saved  the  vessel,  but  in  Yankee  estimation 
the  triumphs  of  such  villany  were  quite  equal  to  the  congratu 
lations  of  a  victory. 

Our  victory  at  Galveston,  of  which  we  have  given  some 
account,  was  the  precursor  of  other  captures  of  the  enemy's 
vessels,  which  were  important  accessions  to  our  little  navy. 
That  arm  of  service,  in  which  we  were  so  deficient,  and  had 
shown  such  aptitude  for  self-destruction,  was  not  entirely  pow 
erless  ;  for  we  not  only  had  rams  for  harbor  defences  and  three 
fleet  privateers  at  sea,  but  our  power  on  the  water  was  enlarged 
even  beyond  our  expectations,  as  we  shall  see,  by  captures 
from  the  enemy. 

The  Yankee  gunboat  Queen  of  the  West,  having  succeeded 
in  running  our  batteries  at  Yicksburg,  had  for  some  weeks 
been  committing  ravages,  penetrating  the  country  of  the  Red 
river.  On  the  14th  of  February  she  encountered  in  this  rivei 
and  captured  a  small  Confederate  steamer,  the  Era.  The  crew 
and  passengers  of  the  Era  were  taken  prisoners,  and  all  were 
guarded  011  board  the  Era  by  a  band  of  soldiers,  save  Mr. 
George  Wood,  the  pilrl,  who  was  ordered  aboard  the  Queen 


572  SOUTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    THE     WAK. 

of  the  West,  and,  with  threats,  directed  to  her  pilot-wheel  to 
assist  her  pilot  in  directing  her  onward  to  the  capture  of  our 
fort  on  the  river.  On  they  glided,  but  not  distrustful,  and 
much  elated  at  their  success,  till  they  came  in  reach  of  our 
battery  at  five  p.  M.,  when  the  vessel  commenced  firing,  still 
advancing.  She  had  come  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  our 
battery  and  on  the  opposite  shore  in  full  range  for  our  guns, 
when  the  gallant  Wood,  who  directed  her  wheel,  had  her 
rounded,  ran  her  aground,  breaking  her  rudder  and  thus  crip 
pling  her  and  turning  her  broadside  to  give  our  guns  a  fair 
chance.  This  gallant  man,  in  the  confusion,  made  good  his 
escape.  Thus  crippled  and  disabled  by  the  hand  that  drove 
her  on  to  her  destiny,  she  lay  like  a  wounded  falcon,  at  the 
mercy  of  her  adversaries. 

The  night  was  dark  and  stormy,  the  heavens  overhung  witl/ 
clouds,  which  now  and  then  pealed  forth  their  muttering  thun 
der,  and  drenched  the  earth  with  rain.  Thus  in  the  rain-storm 
this  crippled  Queen  lay  beaten  by  the  tempest.  She  was  well 
barricaded  witli  cotton  bales.  On  seeing  all  hope  of  success 
gone,  the  commanding  officer,  Col.  Ellett,  made  his  escape, 
with  nearly  all  his  crew,  by  getting  on  cotton  bales  and  float 
ing  down  the  river.  She  raised  the  white  signal,  as  the  storm 
abated,  as  it  was  seen  by  the  light  of  a  burning  warehouse,  but 
it  was  not  answered  till  next  morning.  Thirteen  of  the  crew 
remained  in  silence  till  daylight,  then  her  white  banner  was 
still  afloat,  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  our  soldiers  crossed  the 
river  and  took  possession  of  her. 

The  fog  which  had  enabled  the  Queen  of  the  West  to  get  by 
Vicksburg  had  also  availed  for  the  passage  of  another  gunboat, 
the  Indianola.  This  vessel  had  also  continued  for  weeks  to  go 
at  large,  preying  on  the  boats  that  were  transporting  our  sup 
plies,  and  harassing  our  forces  in  every  way.  Seeing  the  great 
injury  and  havoc  that  she  might  do,  a  council  was  held,  and 
the  capture  of  the  Indianola  at  every  sacrifice  was  determined 
upon. 

Accordingly  an  expedition  was  ntted  out,  consisting  of  twc 
gunboats — the  Queen  of  the  West  and  the  Webb — and  two 
steamers — the  Era  and  Dr.  Batey.  The  expedition  was  com 
manded  by  Major  Walker,  with  Captain  Hutton  as  executive 
officer  of  the  fleet.  All  being  ready,  the  expedition  started 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  573 

.™t  from  the  mouth  of  the  Bed  river  in  pursuit  of  the  Indian 
nla.  Coming  up  the  Mississippi  to  Grand  Gulf,  it  was  learned 
that  the  Indianola  was  not  far  off,  and  a  halt  was  ordered  that 
all  the  vessels  might  come  up.  All  being  in  line,  the  expedi 
tion  put  up  the  river,  and  on  the  24th  of  February  came  upon 
the  Indianola,  overhauling  her  about  five  miles  below  New 
Carthage,  and  some  thirty  below  Yicksburg.  It  was  about 
nine  o'clock  at  night.  The  enemy  had  received  no  information 
of  the  movement,  and  was  not  aware  of  our  approach  until  we 
were  within  a  half  mile  of  her.  Seeing  the  rapid  approach  of 
the  vessels,  the  Indianola  at  once  knew  that  it  was  an  attempt 
to  capture  her,  and  she  immediately  rounded  her  broadside  to, 
lashing  a  coal  barge  alongside  her  to  parry  the  blows  that 
might  be  made  to  run  in  and  sink  her.  On  the  vessels  nearing, 
fire  was  opened,  and  a  most  terrific  and  desperate  engagement 
ensued,  lasting  over  an  hour.  Putting  on  all  her  steam,  the 
Queen  of  the  West  made  a  blow  at  the  Indianola,  cleaving  the 
barge  in  two  and  striking  her  with  such  tremendous  force  that 
the  Indianola's  machinery  was  badly  injured.  Here  the  action 
on  both  sides  became  desperate.  The  blow  of  the  Queen  of 
the  West  was  quickly  followed  up  by  the  Webb  with  a  terrific 
"  butt"  at  full  speed.  This  finished  the  work.  The  Indianola 
was  discovered  to  be  in  a  sinking  condition,  and  was  put  for 
the  shore  on  the  Louisiana  side.  Seeing  this,  the  Dr.  Batey 
was  ordered  to  board  her.  On  bearing  alongside  her,  the  In 
dianola  surrendered,  and  all  her  officers  and  crew — number 
ing  in  all  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  men — were  made 
prisoners. 

These  additions  to  our  naval  structures  on  the  Mississippi 
were  important.  We  now  possessed  some  power  in  the  inte 
rior  waters  of  the  Confederacy  ;  to  our  harbor  defences  we  had 
already  added  some  rams ;  and  our  deficiency  in  a  navy  was 
not  a  laughing-stock  to  the  North  as  long  as  our  few  privateers 
were  able  to  cruise  in  the  Atlantic,  and  carry  dismay  to  the 
exposed  commerce  of  the  Gulf. 

The  few  ships  the  North  possessed  that  were  the  equals  in 
point  of  speed  of  the  Confederate  privateers,  the  Alabama  and 
Florida,  were,  with  a  single  exception,  purchased  vessels,  built 
for  the  merchant  service,  and  exceedingly  liable  to  be  disabled 
in  thoir  machinery  on  account  of  its  being  nearly  all  above  the 


574  SOUTHERN    HISTORY     OF    THE    WAR. 

water-line.  Taking,  as  samples  of  vessels  of  this  class,  the 
Vanderbilt,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island,  the  North  had 
three  ships  which,  for  the  purpose  they  were  intended,  were 
without  superiors ;  but  the  chances  were  that,  if  coming  under 
the  fire  of  the  Alabama  or  Florida,  they  would  be,  by  a  well- 
directed  shot  or  shell  at  close  quarters,  crippled  and  become  an 
easy  prize. 

The  exploits  of  our  cruisers  were  sufficient  to  show  the  value 
and  efficiency  of  the  weapon  of  privateering,  and  to  excite 
many  regrets  that  our  means  in  this  department  of  warfare 
were  so  limited.  One  national  steamer  alone—the  Alabama — 
commanded  by  officers  and  maimed  by  a  crew  who  were  de: 
barred  by  the  closure  of  neutral  ports  from  the  opportunity 
of  causing  captured  vessels  to  be  condemned  in  their  favor  as 
prizes,  had  sufficed  to  double  the  rates  of  marine  insurance  in 
Yankee  ports,  and  consigned  to  forced  inaction  numbers  oi 
Yankee  vessels,  in  addition  to  the  direct  damage  inflicted  by 
captures  at  sea.  The  Northern  papers  paid  a  high  tribute  to 
the  activity  and  daring  of  our  few  privateers  in  the  statement 
that,  during  one  month  of  winter,  British  steamers  had  carried 
from  San  Francisco  to  Europe  six  and  a  quarter  millions  of 
gold,  whilst  during  the  same  time  from  the  same  port  there 
had  arrived  in  New  York  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou 
sand  dollars  of  the  precious  metal.  In  view  of  such  results, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  over-estimate  the  effects,  if  we  had 
had  a  hundred  of  private  armed  vessels,  and  especially  if  we 
could  have  secured  from  neutral  Europe  the  means  of  dis 
posing  of  such  prizes  as  we  might  make  of  the  commerce  of 
the  enemy. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  575 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

An  extraordinary  Lull  in  the  War. — An  Affair  with  the  Enemy  on  the  Black- 
water. — Raids  in  iho  West. — Van  Dorn's  Captures. — THE  MEETING  OF  CONGRESS. — 
Character  of  this  Body. — Its  Dulness  and  Servility. — Mr.  Foote  and  the  Cabinet. — 
Two  Popular  Themes  of  Confidence. — Party  Contention  in  the  North. — Successes  of 
the  Democrats  there. — Analysis  of  the  Party  Politics  of  the  North. — The  Interest  of 
New  England  in  the  War. — How  the  War  affected  the  Northwestern  Portions  of  the 
United  States. — Mr.  Foote's  Resolutions  respecting  the  Northwestern  States. — How 
they  were  received  by  the  Southern  Public. — New  War  Measures  at  Washington. — 
Lincoln  a  Dictator. — Prospect  of  Foreign  Interference. — Action  of  the  Emperor  Na 
poleon. — Suffering  of  the  Working  Classes  in  England. — The  Delusions  of  an  early 
Peace. — The  Tasks  before  Congress. — Prostrate  Condition  of  the  Confederate  Fi 
nances. — President  Davis's  Blunder. — The  Errors  of  our  Financial  System. — The 
Wealth  of  the  South. — The  Impressment  Law  of  Congress. — Scarcity  of  Supplies. — 
Inflated  Prices. — Speculation  and  Extortion  in  the  Confederacy. — Three  Remarks 
about  these.— The  Verdict  of  History. 

THE  battle  of  Murfreesboro'  was  followed  by  an  extraordi 
nary  lull  of  the  movements  of  the  war.  For  months  the  great 
armies  in  Tennessee  and  Virginia  were  to  stand  agaze  of  each 
other.  The  events  of  this  period  are  slight,  and  easily  re 
counted. 

While  the  lines  of  the  Rappahannock  remained  undisturbed, 
our  forces  on  the  Blackwater  had  an  engagement  of  outposts 
on  the  31st  of  January,  which  was  unduly  magnified  into  a 
battle.  The  success  of  the  affair  was  not  wholly  unimportant, 
as  a  loss  of  some  hundreds  was  inflicted  upon  the  enemy  before 
our  forces  fell  back  to  Carrsville,  which  they  were  compelled 
to  do  in  the  face  of  superior  numbers. 

In  Tennessee  there  was  a  series  of  exploits  of  our  cavalry, 
the  details  of  which  it  is  impossible  now  to  recount.  The  most 
remarkable  of  these  successes  was  probably  that  of  Yan  Dorn, 
who,  on  the  1st  day  of  March,  at  Thompson's  station,  between 
Columbia  and  Franklin,  captured  five  regiments  of  the  enemy's 
infantry,  comprising  twenty-two  hundred  officers  and  men. 

THE    MEETING   OF   CONGRESS. 

The  reader  will  be  interested  in  turning  from  the  unim 
portant  military  events  of  this  period  to  notice  the  reassein- 


576  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAK. 

bling  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  and  its  proceedings  in  the 
early  months  of  1863.  It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  this  body 
fell  below  the  spirit  and  virtue  of  the  people,  and1  was  remark 
able  for  its  destitution  of  talents  and  ability.  Not  a  single 
speech  that  has  yet  been  made  in  it  will  live.  It  is  true  that 
the  regular  Congress,  elected  by  the  people,  was  an  improve 
ment  upon  the  ignorant  and  unsavory  body  known  as  the  Pro 
visional  Congress,  which  was  the  creature  of  conventions,  and 
which  was  disgraced  in  the  character  of  some  of  its  members; 
among  whom  were  conspicuous  corrupt  and  senile  politicians 
from  Virginia,  who  had  done  all  they  could  to  sacrifice  and 
degrade  their  State,  who  had  "  toadied  "  in  society,  as  well  as 
in  politics,  to  notabilities  of  New  England,  and  who  had  taken 
a  prominent  part  in  emasculating,  and,  in  fact,  annulling  the 
Sequestration  Law,  in  order  to  save  the  property  of  relatives 
who  had  sided  with  the  North  against  the  land  that  had  borne 
them  and  honored  their  fathers. 

But  the  regular  Congress,  although  it  had  no  taint  of  dis 
loyalty  or  Yankee  toadyism  in  it,  was  a  weak  body.  It  had 
made  no  mark  in  the  history  of  the  government;  it  was  desti 
tute  of  originality ;  its  measures  were,  generally,  those  which 
were  recommended  by  the  Executive,  or  suggested  by  the  news 
papers  ;  it  had  produced  no  great  financial  measure ;  it  made 
not  one  stroke  of  statesmanship ;  it  uttered  not  a  single  fiery 
appeal  to  the  popular  heart,  such  as  is  customary  in  revolu 
tions.  It  afforded,  perhaps,  a  proof  of  the  frequent  assertion 
that  our  democratic  system  did  not  produce  great  men.  The 
most  of  the  little  ability  it  had  was  occupied  with  servility  to 
the  Executive  and  demagogical  displays. 

It  is  difficult,  indeed,  for  a  legislative  body  to  preserve  its 
independence,  and  to  resist  the  tendency  of  the  Executive  to 
absorb  power  in  time  of  war,  and  this  fact  was  well  illustrated 
by  the  Confederate  Congress.  One  of  the  greatest  political 
scholars  of  America,  Mr.  Madison,  noticed  this  danger  in  the 
political  constitution  of  the  country.  He  said: — "War  is  in 
fact  the  true  nurse  of  Executive  aggrandizement.  In  war  a 
physical  force  is  to  be  created,  and  it  is  the  Executive  will 
which  is  to  direct  it.  In  war  the  public  treasures  are  to  be 
unlocked,  and  it  is  the  Executive  hand  which  is  to  dispense 
them.  In  war  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  office  are  to  be 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  577 

multiplied,  and  it  is  the  Executive  patronage  under  which  they 
are  to  be  enjoyed.  It  is  in  war,  finally,  that  laurels  are  to  he 
gathered,  and  it  is  the  Executive  brow  they  are  to  encircle." 

There  was  but  little  opposition  in  Congress  to  President 
Davis ;  but  there  was  some  which  took  a  direction  to  his  cabi 
net,  and  this  opposition  was  represented  by  Mr.  Foote  of  Ten 
nessee — a  man  of  acknowledged  ability  and  many  virtues  of 
character,  who  had  re-entered  upon  the  political  stage  after  a 
public  life,  which,  however  it  lacked  in  the  cheap  merit  of 
partisan  consistency,  had  been  adorned  by  displays  of  wonder 
ful  intellect  and  great  political" genius.  Mr.  Foote  was  not  a 
man  to  be  deterred  from  speaking  the  truth  ;  his  quickness  to 
resentment  and  his  chivalry,  which,  though  somewhat  Quixotic, 
was  founded  in  the  most  noble  and  delicate  sense  of  honor,, 
made  those  who  would  have  bullied  or  silenced  a  weaker  per 
son  stand  in  awe  of  -him.  A  man  of  such  temper  was  not 
likciy  to  stint  words  in  assailing  an  opponent;  and  his  sharjt 
declamations  in  Congress,  his  searching  comments,  and  hia 
gri-at  powers  of  sarcasm,  used  upon  such  men  as  Mallory, 
Benjamin,  and  Northrop,  were  the  only  relief  of  the  dulness  of 
the  Congress,  and  the  only  historical  features  of  its  debates. 

Mr.  Foote  was  of  a  temperament  that  easily  indulged  the 
prospects  of  peace  which  so  generally  existed  when  Congress 
resumed  its  session  in  the  opening  of  the  new  year.  At  an 
early  period  of  the  session  resolutions  were  introduced  by  him 
inviting  the  Northwestern  States  to  abstention  from  the  war, 
and  expressing  a  lively  and  friendly  confidence  in  the  negotia 
tion  which  the  Emperor  of  the  French  had  just  undertaken 
for  a  qualified  mediation  in  the  war  in  America.  Of  these  two 
popular  themes  of  confidence  some  explanation  is  due. 

Since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  there  had  been  some 
few  people  in  the  North  who  had  opposed  its  prosecution,  and 
many  more  who  were  averse  to  its  policy  and  measures.  The 
removal  of  McClellan  added  a  bitter  feud  to  animosities  al 
ready  existing,  and  the  enunciation  at  Washington  of  the 
policy  of  emancipation  contributed  to  the  party  divisions  in. 
the  North.  The  result  of  the  Northern  elections  in  the  fall  o 
18t>2  was  apparently  an  emphatic  and  impressive  popular  ver 
dict  against  the  Abolition  party,  which  had  ruled  the  govern 
ment  at  Washington.  In  the  face  of  a  majority  of  107,000 

37 


578  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

against  them  in  1860,  the  Democrats  had  carried  the  State  01 
New  York.  The  metropolis  of  New  York  was  carried  by  a 
Democratic  majority  of  31,000 — a  change  of  48,000  votes  in 
twelve  months.  Within  the  great  States  of  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  the  results  or 
the  popular  elections  were  a  more  or  less  emphatic  avowal  of 
opposition  to  the  schemes  of  those  who  were  using  the  power  of 
the  government  to  advance  and  fasten  upon  the  country  their 
political  vagaries,  regardless  of  right  and  written  constitutions. 
These  six  States  contained  a  majority  of  the  free  State  popula 
tion.  They  furnished  the  majority  of  the  troops  in  the  field 
against  us.  They  had  two-thirds  of  the  wealth  of  the  North. 
It  was  clear  that  the  Washington  government  needed  men 
and  money  to  carry  on  the  war,  and  to  have  a  united  North 
the  Democratic  States  must  furnish  more  than  half  of  either. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
people  of  the  South  should  have  convinced  themselves  that  an 
important  reaction  was  taking  place  in  public  sentiment  in  the 
North,  and  that  it  naturally  tended  to  a  negotiation  for  peace. 
But  in  one-half  of  this  opinion  they  were  mistaken.  There 
was  a  reaction  in  the  North  ;  but  it  had  scarcely  any  thing 
more  than  a  partisan  significance.  It  was  a  struggle  between 
those  in  power  and  those  out  of  power ;  the  issues  of  which 
were  feigned  and  exaggerated ;  in  which  much  that  was  said 
against  the  war  was  not  really  meant;  and  at  the  close  of 
which  the  passions  it  had  excited  suddenly  evaporated.  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  who,  in  the  Democratic  campaign  in  New  York, 
had  made  speeches  quite  warm  enough  for  Southern  latitudes, 
was  after  the  elections  an  advocate  of  the  war  and  a  mocker 
of  "  the  rebellion."  Many  more  followed  the  distinguished 
lead  of  the  demagogue  in  raising  a  clamor  about  the  admin 
istration  merely  for  party  purposes,  and  having  served  those 
purposes,  in  returning  to  the  advocacy  of  a  war,' in  which,  by 
giving  false  encouragement  to  the  North,  and  holding  out 
hopes  of  "  reconstruction,"  they  were  enemies  more  fatal  to 
the  South  than  the  blind  and  revengeful  radicals  who  sought 
her  destruction. 

It  is  probable  that  the  movements  in  the  Northwestern 
States  against  the  administration,  were  better  founded  in  prin 
ciple  than  those  that  had  taken  place  in  other  parts  of  tha 


THE    SECOND    YEAJK.  579 

North,  and  that  they  denoted  a  sincere  aversion  to  tne  war. 
The  opposition  of  Mr.  Vallandigham,  who  assumed  to  repre 
sent  this  sentiment  of  the  Northwest  in  Congress,  was  appa 
rently  superior  to  the  demagogical  clamor  of  such  men  as 
Van  Buren  and  Seymour  of  New  York.  The  sentiment  was 
undoubtedly  sincere,  whatever  the  merits  or  demerits  of  its 
officious  representative.* 

The  pecuniary  interest  of  New  England  in  the  war  was 
plain  enough.  The  demand  for  the  products  of  her  industry 
for  objects  of  this  war  was  greater  than  at  any  former  period 
in  the  history  of  this  continent.  Her  workshops  were  in  full 
blast.  Ships  and  locomotives  were  to  be  built,  the  weapons  of 
war  were  to  be  created,  and  the  ironmongers  of  New  England 
found  a  vast  and  profitable  employment  in  answering  these 
demands.  The  spinners  and  weavers  and  blanket-makers  and 
artisans  were  kept  busy  at  their  avocations,  and  everywhere  in 
these  avaricious  districts  of  the  North  arose  the  hum  of  profit 
able  industry. 

But  while  New  England  rioted  in  the  gains  of  the  war,  it 
was  stark  ruin  to  the  agricultural  States  of  the  Northwest. 

*  There  is  unavoidable  reason  for  doubting  the  virtue  of  Mr.  Vallandigham. 
[t  is  difficult  to  discover  the  motives  of  the  Yankee.  The  people  of  the  South 
have  reason  to  know,  from  former  political  association'  with  this  faithless  race, 
how  indirect  are  their  courses  and  how  affected  their  zeal.  What  appears  to  be 
the  inspiration  of  virtue,  may  be  the  deep  design  of  a  selfish  ambition ;  singu 
larity  of  opinion  may  prove  nothing  but  an  itch  for  a  cheap  reputation ;  and 
an  extraordinary  display  of  one's  self  before  the  public  may,  at  best,  be  but 
the  ingenious  trick  of  a  charlatan. 

When* Mr.  Vallandigham  was  exiled  for  obstructing  enlistments  in  the 
North,  he  had  an  opportunity,  in  his  travels  in  the  Confederacy,  of  learning  the 
sentiments  of  the  people,  and  of  these  he  gave  the  following  report  in  an  ad 
dress  to  the  people  of  Ohio  : 

"  Travelling  a  thousand  miles  and  more  through  nearly  one-half  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  and  sojourning  for  a  time  at  widely  different  points,  I  met  not 
one  man,  woman,  or  child,  who  were  not  resolved  to  perish  rather  than  yield 
to  the  pressure  of  arms,  even  in  the  most  desperate  extremity. 

Neither,  however,  let  me  add,  did  I  meet  any  one,  what 
ever  his  opinion  or  station,  political  or  private,  who  did  not  declare  his  readi 
ness,  when  the  war  shall  haw  ceased  and  invading  armies  be  withdrawn,  to  con 
sider  and  dib'itss  tlie  question  of  reunion.  And  who  shall  doubt  the  issue  of 
the  argument  ?" 

A  man  who  can  be  guilty  of  such  a  deliberate  falsehood,  and  one  evidently 
planned  to  catch  votes  for  his  political  hobby,  can  certainly  make  no  preten- 
iion  to  heroism,  and  may  even  have  his  claims  te  honesty  justly  doubted. 


580  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  people  there  were  growing  poorer  every  day  in  the  midst 
of  plenty.  The  great  Southern  market  which  their  resources 
supplied  had  been  closed,  and  there  was  no  new  demand  for 
tneir  agricultural  products.  The  corn,  wheat,  and  bacon  oi 
Indiana  and  Illinois  were  scarcely  worth  the  cost  of  transporta 
tion  to  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  railroads  connecting  the  West 
with  the  seaboard  were  principally  in  the  hands  of  the  Eastern 
capitalists,  ard  the  rates  of  freight  were  so  enormous,  that  the 
surplus  agricultural  product  of  the  Northwestern  farmers  was 
in  many  instances  left  to  rot  on  their  lands,  or  be  used  as  fuel. 

This  violent  contrast  between  New  England  and  the  West, 
in  the  effects  on  each  of  the  war,  was  developed  in  a  formida 
ble  opposition  of  opinion.  Indications  of  this  opposition  had 
already  been  given  in  the  press  of  St.  Louis  and  Chicago. 
The  jealousy  of  the  agricultural  States  of  the  North  was  being 
inflamed  by  the  unequal  profits  of  the  war  and  the  selfish 
policy  of  the  Abolitionists ;  and  the  opinion  plainly  grew  in 
the  press  and  public  discussion  that  the  West  had  not  a  single 
interest  in  the  war  beyond  securing  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi. 

How  far  statesmanship  in  the  South  might  have  profited  by 
this  disaffection  in  the  Northwestern  States  is  left  a  matter  oi 
conjecture  and  controversy.  The  efforts  made  in  the  Confed 
erate  Congress  by  Mr.  Foote  in  this  direction,  tendering  to 
these  States  a  complete  assurance  of  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  proposing  an  alliance  with  the  Confederacy, 
without  political  complications,  met  with  feeble  encourage 
ment  in  that  body,  a  doubtful  response  from  the  army,  and 
divided  comments  of  the  press.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
merits  of  Mr.  Foote's  proposition,  it  admitted  of  no  delay. 
While  our  government  treated  it  with  hesitation,  the  authori 
ties  at  Washington  were  making  anxious  and  immense  prepar 
ations  to  overcome  the  disaffection  of  the  people  and  to  cany 
on  the  war ;  and  the  means  to  do  this  were  supplied  by  an  act 
suspending  the  habeas  corpus,  and  making  Lincoln  absolute 
dictator ;  by  new  measures  of  finance,  and  by  a  conscription 
law  which  called  into  the  field  three  million  of  men. 

The  prospect  of  a  termination  of  the  war  by  any  action  of 
foreign  governments,  was  more  distant  than  that  afforded  by 
party  elections  and  movements  in  the  North.  This  action  was 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  581 

limited  to  the  French  Emperor  alone  ;  it  had  not  piogresscd 
further  at  this  time  than  an  invitation  to  England  and  Russia 
made  in  November,  1862,  to  unite  in  proposing  an  armistice  to 
the  Washington  government,  which  should  merely  give  an  op 
portunity  for  discussion,  without  affecting  in  any  way  the  pres 
cnt  military  interests  and  positions  of  the  belligerents.  Mild 
as  the  French  proposition  was,  it  was  rejected  by  Russia  and 
England.  Lord  Russell  replied  for  his  government  that  the 
time  was  riot  ripe  for  such  mediation  as  was  proposed,  and  that 
it  would  be  better  to  watch  carefully  the  progress  of  opinion  in 
America,  and  wait  for  some  change  in  which  the  three  Courts 
could  offer  their  friendly  counsel  with  a  prospect  of  success. 
The  British  statesman  had  nothing  to  plead  for  the  mass  of 
suffering  humanity  in  his  own  land,  which  the  war  he  was  im 
plored  to  stop  or  to  ameliorate  had  occasioned  ;  for  humanity 
was  easily  outweighed  by  political  reasons,  which  are  as  often 
worked  out  through  the  blood  and  tears  of  its  own  people  as 
through  the  misfortunes  of  others.* 


*  In  a  letter  of  Mr.  Cobden,  published  during  the  early  winter  in  an  English 
Journal,  he  declares  that  in  travelling  from  Manchester  to  Blackburn,  over  a 
country  covered  with  snow,  he  found  hundreds  of  wasted  victims  of  cold  and 
want.  He  says :  "  Hitherto  the  distressed  population  have  felt  little  more  than 
the  want  of  food.  Now  and  from  henceforth  blankets,  fuel,  and  clothing  are 
as  essential  to  health  as  bread  and  soup."  He  argues  that  it  is  useless  to  save 
people  from  dying  by  hunger,  only  that  they  may  perish  by  fever,  or  by  the 
exhaustion  consequent  on  cold  and  insufficient  food. 

The  early  advent  of  winter  enhanced  the  misery  of  the  suffering.  In  many 
districts  there  was  no  fuel,  no  means  of  warmth  except  the  scanty  allowance 
of  coals  distributed  in  some  places  by  the  Relief  Committees.  Everywhere 
the  people  had  too  little  to  eat,  and  that  little  was  not  sufficiently  nutritious  ; 
everywhere  they  suffered  from  cold  yet  more  cruelly  than  from  hunger ;  and 
nowhere  was  there  a  fund  sufficient  to  provide  for  their  necessities. 

The  humane  shuddered  with  horror  as  they  read  the  frightful  accounts  of 
the  suffering  of  the  poor  published  day  after  day  in  the  London  Times.  A 
letter  from  Stockport  described  the  people  there  as  "  suffering  all  the  horrors 
of  a  protracted  famine."  The  same  writer  says :  "  One  poor  man  upon  whom 
I  called  this  morning,  having  stripped  the  walls  of  every  little  ornament  to 
purchase  bread  for  his  wife  and  three  little  children,  took  the  fender  and  sold 
it  for  a  shilling."  The  cases  of  distress  reported  in  the  newspapers  merely 
represented  the  average  condition  of  the  unemployed.  An  aged  couple,  we  are 
told,  had  saved  thirty-six  pounds ;  this  is  gone,  their  furniture  is  pawned,  the 
husband  is  in  the  infirmary,  and  the  old  woman  living  on  a  charitable  dole  of 
half  a  crown  per  week,  with  some  soup  and  bread.  In  another  case  five  per 
sons,  among  them  a  sick  woman,  are  living  on  seven  shillings  a  week.  One 


582  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

But  while  the  prospect  "of  an  early  peace  dissolved  before 
the  eyes  of  Congress,  a  subject  of  instant  and  practical  impor 
tance  was  sorely  pressing  upon  its  attention.  The  vast  volume 
of  Treasury  notes  issued  by  the  government  had  occasioned  a 
rapid  depreciation  of  our  currency,  inflated  prices,  and  pro 
duced  serious  financial  difficulties.  So  crude  and  short-sighted 
had  been  our  notions  of  public  finance,  that  at  the  meeting  of 
Congress  in  August,  1862,  we  find  President  Davis  recom 
mending  to  it  that  the  public  creditors  should  not  be  paid  in 
bonds,  but  that  unlimited  issues  of  currency  should  be  made. 
He  then  said  in  his  written  message  to  Congress  :  "  The  legis 
lation  of  the  last  session  provided  for  the  purchase  of  supplies 
with  the  bonds  of  the  government,  but  the  preference  of  the 
people  for  Treasury  notes  has  been  so  marked,  that  legislation 
is  recommended  to  authorize  an  increase  in  the  issue  of  Treas 
ury  notes,  which  the  public  service  seems  to  require.  No 
grave  inconvenience  need  be  apprehended  from  this  increased 
issue,  as  the  provision  of  law  by  which  these  notes  are  con 
vertible  into  eight  per  cent,  bonds,  forms  an  efficient  and  per- 

family  of  six — considered  to  be  particularly  well  off— have  seven  ah  tilings,  ac 
allowance  of  coals  and  gome  soup  and  bread  from  their  former  employer.  An 
other  family  of  six  or  seven  had  lived  for  twelve  months  on  six  shillings  a 
week. 

The  University  of  Oxford  had  subscribed  about  £4000  towards  the  relief  oi 
the  suffering  people.  A  meeting  was  held  to  promote  further  action,  at  which 
the  following  facts  were  stated  by  the  Hon.  E.  L.  Stanley  of  Baliol  College  : 

"  They  received  from  America  before  the  blockade  five-sixths  of  their  cotton  -t 
five  days  of  the  week  they  worked  on  what  came  from  America  ;  only  one  day 
on  what  came  from  other  countries.  That  supply  was  now  practically  at  an 
end.  The  few  ships  that  ran  the  blockade  made  no  noticeable  difference,  and 
even  if  other  countries  should  double  their  production,  we  should  be  only  sup 
plied  with  material  for  one-third  of  our  usual  work.  The  country,  then,  was 
losing  two-thirds  of  the  industry  engaged  in  this  trade,  and  two-thirds  of  the 
capital  were  making  no  return.  And  this  trade  was  such  a  main  part  of  the 
industry  of  the  nation,  that  what  affected  it  must  affect  all.  A  Parliamentary 
return  gave  the  persons  actually  engaged  in  the  mills  at  near  500,000.  If  they 
reckoned  their  families,  the  traders  who  supplied  them,  the  colliers,  machinists, 
builders,  and  shipping  interest  engaged  in  supplying  cotton,  they  would  proba 
bly  not  overstate  the  number  of  dependents  on  cotton  only  at  8,000,000.  These 
people  were  now  deprived  of  fully  two-thirds  of  their  subsistence." 

Such  is  a  picture  of  the  "  Cotton  Famine"  in  England.  The  most  remark- 
able  circumstance  in  connection  with  it  was  the  profound  indifference  of  the 
English  Ministry  to  the  distress  of  near  a  million  of  those  for  whose  lives  and 
happiness  they  were  responsible. 


THE   SECOND    YEAR.  583 

manent  safeguard  against  any  serious  depreciation  of  the 
currency. 

The  consequences  of  this  ignorant  and  wild  financial  policy 
were,  that,  by  the  next  meeting  of  Congress,  the  volume  01 
currency  was  at  least  four  times  what  were  the  wants  of  the 
community  for  a  circulating  medium ;  that  prices  were  inflated 
more  than  an  equal  degree,  for  want  of  confidence  in  the  paper 
of  the  government  had"  kindled  the  fever  of  speculation ;  that 
the  public  credit,  abused  by  culpable  ignorance  and  obstinate 
empiricism,  had  fallen  to  an  ebb  that  alarmed  the  cauntry 
more  than  any  reverse  in  the  military  fortunes  of  the  war ; 
and  that  the  government  was  forced  to  the -doubtful  and  not 
very  honorable  expedient  of  attempting  to  restore  its  currency 
by  a  system  of  demonetizing  its  own  issues. 

The  redundancy  of  the  currency  was  the  chief  cause  of  its 
depreciation.  The  amount  of  money  in  circulation  in  the 
South,  in  time  of  peace,  was  $80,000,000.  In  January,  1863, 
it  was  $300,000,000.  In  September,  1861,  Confederate  notes 
were  about  equal  to  specie ;  before  December,  specie  was  at 
20  per  cent,  premium;  before  April,  1862,  it  was  at  50  per 
cent.  ;  before  last  September,  at  100 ;  before  December,  at 
225  ;  before  February,  at  280  ;  and  in  the  spring  of  1863,  at  the 
frightful  premium  of  400  per  cent.,  while  bank  bills  were  worth 
190  cents  on  the  dollar. 

Since  the  foundation  of  the  Confederate  government,  its 
finances  had  been  grossly  mismanaged.  The  Treasury  note 
was  a  naked  promise  to  pay ;  there  was  no  fund  pledged  for 
its  redemption ;  and  the  prospect  of  the  rigid  liquidation  of  the 
enormous  debt  that  this  class  of  paper  represented  six  months 
after  the  restoration  of  peace,  depended  solely  on  the  specula 
tive  prospect  of  a  foreign  loan  to  the  amount  of  many  hun 
dred  millions  of  dollars.  At  the  commencement  of  the  war 
the  South  had  the  elements  for  the  structure  of  one  of  the 
most  successful  and  elastic  schemes  of  finance  that  the  world 
had  seen.  The  planters  were  anxious  to  effect  the  sales  of 
tkeir  cotton  and  tobacco  to  the  Confederate  States  ;  these  would 
have  supplied  the  government  with  a  basis  of  credit  which 
would  have  been  extended  as  the  prices  of  these  staples 
advanced,  and  therefore  kept  progress  with  the  war ;  but  thia 
scheme  was  opposed  by  the  -Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr, 


584  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Memminger,  and  defeated  by  his  influence.  He  was  unfortu 
nately  sustained  by  an  Executive  grossly  incompetent  on  sub 
;ects  of  finance ;  which  was  ignorant  of  the  principle  of  political 
economy,  that  there  are  no  royal  ways  of  making  money 
out  of  nothing,  that  governments  must  raise  money  in  the 
legitimate  way  of  taxation,  loans,  &c. ;  which  relied  upon  the 
manufacture  of  a  revenue  out  of  naked  paper  obligations;  and 
which  actually  went  to  the  foolish  extremity  of  recommending 
that  the  creditors  of  the  government  should  take  their  payment 
in  currency  rather  than  in  the  public  stocks.  It  appears, 
indeed,  that  our  government  was  ignorant  of  the  most  primitive 
truths  of  finance,  and  that  it  had  not  read  in  history  or  in 
reason  the  lesson  of  the  fatal  connection  ~betioeen  currency  and 
revenue. 

It  is  true  that  some  appreciation  of  this  lesson  was  at  last 
shown  by  Congress  in  its  new  tax-bill ;  for  the  theory  of  that 
bill  was,  by  an  enormous  weight  of  taxation,  to  pay,  at  least 
measurably,  the  expenses  of  the  war  as  it  progressed,  and  to 
risk  no  further  connection  between  the  two  distinct  financial 
•concerns  of  revenue  and  currency.  But  on  the  other  hand,  its 
Bystem  of  forcing  the  funding  of  treasury  notes  £>y  arbitrary 
reductions  of  interest,  betrayed  the  ignorance  of  Congress ;  left 
incomplete  and  embarrassed  a  system  of  finance  which  might 
have  otherwise  been  carried  to  a  point  of  extraordinary  suc 
cess  ;  and  aimed  a  direct  blow  at  the  integrity  of  the  public 
credit. 

It  was  easy  to  see  that  slight  differences  in  rates  of  interest 
would  afford  but  feeble  inducements  for  the  conversion  of  the 
treasury  note  into  the  bond,  when  money  was  easily  doubled 
or  quadrupled  in  the  active  commercial  speculations  peculiar 
to  the  condition  of  the  South  in  the  war,  unless  the  bond  could 
be  readily  used  as  a  medium  of  exchanges ;  and  in  that  event 
there  would  only  be  a  change  in  the  form  of  the  paper,  the 
volume  of  the  currency  would  be  undiminished,  and  its  depre 
ciation  therefore  remain  the  same.  But  while  the  analysis  of 
this  system  of  funding  shows  it  to  be  a  transparent  juggle,  it 
was  by  no  means  certain  that  it  did  not  contain  the  germ  of 
many  positive  evils.  The  right  of  a  government  to  make  ar 
bitrary  changes  in  any  of  the  terms  of  its  obligations  which 
ttffe  t  their  value,  is  questionable,  and  the  commercial  honor 


THE    SECOKD    YEAH.  585 

of  such  an  expedient  is  more  than  doubtful.  While  it  intro 
duced  the  shadow  of  repudiation  only  to  weak  and  suspicious 
minds,  it  is  yet  to  be  regretted  that  even  whispers  on  that  sub 
ject  were  ever  heard  in  the  South.  But  as  far  as  our  foreign 
credit  was  concerned,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  empirical  action 
of  Congress,  which  involved,  even  to  the  smallest  extent,  the  in 
tegrity  of  our  obligations,  was  of  serious  prejudice.  It  might 
indeed  have  been  logically  arid  certainly  expected  that  the  gen 
eral  confidence  in  Europe  in  the  military  fortunes  of  the  Con 
federacy  would  have  been  productive  of  unlimited  credit  to  us 
abroad,  had  the  faith  of  Europe  in  the  management  of  our 
finances  equalled  that  in  the  success  of  our  arms.* 

On  the  subject  of  the  financial  management  of  the  new  Con 
federacy,  one  general  reflection  at  least  admits  of  no  doubt. 
The  attentive  reader  will  recognize  as  the  most  remarkable  cir 
cumstance  of  this  war,  that  within  two  years  the  public  finances 
of  the  Confederacy  should  have  been  brought  to  the  brink  of 
ruin.  The  sympathy  of  the  people  with  the  revolution  was 
unbounded.  The  disposition,  of  all  classes  towards  the  govern 
ment  was  one  of  extreme  generosity.  The  property  of  the 
States  of  the  Confederacy  was  greater  per  capita  than  that  of 
any  community  on  the  globe.  No  country  in  the  world  had 
export  values  comparable  in  magnitude  to  those  of  the  South, 
jind  the  exports  of  all  other  countries  were  produced  at  a  cost 
in  labor  four  times  that  of  ours.  In  such  circumstances  it  is 
highly  improbable  that  ths  government  of  the  Confederacy 


*It  is  true  that  a  small  foreign  loan  lias  been  negotiated  in  Europe;  but  it 
affords  no  test  of  our  credit  in  present  circumstances,  as  it  was  made  on  a  pledge 
of  cotton.  It  shows,  however,  what  might  have  been  done,  if  the  cotton  had 
been  purchased  by  the  government  and  mobilized,  for  the  whole  crop  might 
have  been  secured  in  1861  at  seven  cents  a  pound.  But  against  this  scheme 
the  government  had  set  its  face  as  flint,  and  when  it  did  become  distrustful  of 
its  former  conclusion,  it  had  only  the  nerve  to  make  a  very  limited  experiment 
in  the  application  of  this  staple  to  support  a  credit  almost  hopelessly  abused  by 
paper  issues. 

It  was  estimated  that  there  remained  in  the  States  of  the  Confederacy  at  this 
time  3,500,000  bales  of  cotton,  which  could  be  exported  in  the  event  of  the  port 
being  opened  to  trade.     This  estimate  is  made  after  deducting  from  the  crop 
of  1861  and  1862  the  quantity  of  cotton  which  had  run  the  blockade,  the  amount 
destroyed  to  prevent  capture  by  the  Yankees,  and  the  quantity  used  for  home 
consumption,  which,  since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  had  enormously  in 
creased,  being  now  fully  500,000  bales  per  annum. 


586  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

could,  within  two  years,  have  wrecked  its  credit  with  its  own 
people,  unless  by  the  most  ignorant  trifling  with  great  ques 
tions  and  the  childish  management  of  its  treasury. 

At  an  early  period  of  the  war  it  had  been  our  boast  that  we 
had  spent  only  fifteen  millions,  while  the  Yankees  had  spent 
ten  or  fifteen  times  that  amount.  But  we  find  that  the  debt  of 
the  general  government  of  the  Confederate  States  in  January 
last  was  $556,000,000,  with  the  prospect,  at  the  current  rate 
of  expenditure,  that  it  would  reach  nine  hundred  millions  by 
the  close  of  the  fiscal  year  on  the  first  of  July ;  and  it  is  curi 
ous  to  observe  what  miscalculations  were  made  of  public  debt 
both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South.  The  newspapers  of  the 
two  nations  flourished  the  estimates  of  their  debt  in  enume 
rations  only  of  the  obligations  of  the  general  government  ot 
each,  and  made  complacent  comparisons  of  these  sums  with 
the  debts  of  European  governments.  But  according  to  the 
estimates  of  Europe,  and  the  calculations  of  plain  reason,  the 
true  volume  of  the  debt  of  each  of  these  nations  was  repre 
sented  not  only  by  what  was  owed  by  the  Richmond  and 
Washington  governments,  but  by  the  aggregate  amount  of  the 
indebtedness  of  the  several  States  composing  each  confedera 
tion.  Here  could  be  the  only  true  and  just  measure  of  the 
national  debt  of  either  the  South  or  the  North,  in  comparison 
with  the  debts  of  other  governments,  to  which  the  system  of 
the  division  of  powers  between  a  central  authority  and  State* 
was  unknown.  The  debt  of  each  member  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  as  well  as  that  of  a  central  authority,  was  a  bur 
den  on  the  nation,  for  the  problem  of  its  payment  was  at  last 
to  resolve  itself  into  a  tax  upon  the  people.  It  is  only  by  a 
calculation  of  these  aggregates  that  just  comparisons  could  be 
made  between  our  financial  condition  and  that  of  the  North  or 
European  nations ;  and  although  such  comparisons  on  our  side 
were  to  the  disadvantage  of  our  enemies,  yet  they  exhibited 
facts  which  were  unpleasant  enough  to  ourselves. 

The  law  of  impressment  enacted  by  Congress  affords  the 
evidence  of  the  scarcity  of  supplies  in  the  South.  The  ques 
tion  of  food  with  that  of  finance  divided  the  attention  of  the 
government.  The  grain-growing  and  provision-raising  coun 
try,  which  stretches  from  the  Potomac  at  Harper's  Ferry  to 
Memphis  on  the  Tennessee,  was  now  exhausted  of  it0  provi- 


THE    SECOND    YEAE.  587 

eions.  Much  of  the  productive  portions  of  North  Carolina 
and  the  Gulf  States  had  been  also  exhausted.  The  great  and 
true  source  of  meat  supply,  the  State  of  Kentucky,  which 
contained  more  hogs  and  cattle,  two  or  three  to  one,  than  were 
left  in  all  the  South  besides,  had  fallen  into  the  undivided  pos 
session  of  the  Yankees.  The  general  scarcity  of  all  sorts  of 
supplies  was  attested  by  the  high  prices  of  every  thing  eatable. 
The  advance  in  prices  induced  by  the  scarcity  of  supplies,  was 
still  further  enormously  enhanced  by  the  greedy  commercial 
speculation  which  distressed  the  South,  and  threw  a  shadow  of 
dishonor  upon  the  moral  aspects  of  our  struggle. 

It  is  a  subject  of  extraordinary  remark,  that  the  struggle 
for  our  independence  should  have  been  attended  by  the  ignoble 
circumstances  of  a  commercial  speculation  in  the  South  unpar 
alleled  in  its  heartlessness  and  selfish  greed.  War  invariably 
excites  avarice  and  speculation ;  it  is  the  active  promoter  of 
rapid  fortunes  and  corrupt  commercial  practices.  But  it  is  a 
matter  of  surprise  that  more  than  an  ordinary  share  of  this 
bad,  avaricious  spirit  should  have  been  developed  in  the  South 
during  a  war  which  involved  the  national  existence,  which  pre 
sented  so  many  contrasts  of  heroic  self-sacrifice,  and  which 
was  adorned  with  exhibitions  of  moral  courage  and  devotion 
such  as  the  world  had  seldom  seen. 

But  of  this  social  and  moral  contradiction  in  our  war  for 
independence,  some  explanation  may  be  offered.  It  may,  in 
some  measure,  be  found  in  three  facts :  first,  that  a  distrust  oi 
the  national  currency  prevailed  in  the  country  ;  secondly,  that 
the  initiative  (for  it  is  the  first  steps  in  speculation  which  are 
more  responsible)  was  made  by  Jews  and  foreign  adventurers 
who  everywhere  infested  the  Confederacy  ;  and  thirdly,  that 
the  fever  of  gain  was  greatly  inflamed  by  the  corruptions  of 
the  government,  the  abuse  of  its  pecuniary  patronage,  and  a 
system  of  secret  contract,  in  which  officials  who  were  dishon 
est  shared  the  profits,  and  those  who  were  incompetent  were 
easily  overreached  in  the  negotiation.  The  only  serious  blot 
which  defaced  our  struggle  for  independence  was,  at  least  to 
some  extent,  the  creature  of  circumstances  ;  and  that  is  lost  to 
the  eye  of  humane  and  enlightened  history  in  the  lustre  of 
arms  and  virtues  shed  on  the  South  in  the  most  sublime  trials 
of  the  war. 


588  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Character  of  Military  Events  of  the  Spring  of  1863. — Repulse  of  the  Enemy  at  Fort 
McAllister. — THE  SIEGE  OF  VICKSBURCK — The  Yazoo  Pass  Expedition. — Confederate 
Success  at  Fort  Pemberton. — The  Enemy's  Canals,  or  "  Cut-offs." — Their  Failure. — 
BOMBARDMENT  OF  PORT  HUDSON. — Destruction  of  "The  Mississippi." — A  Funeral 
Pyre.— Plappy  Effects  of  our  Victory.— A  Review  of  the  line  of  inland  Hostilities.— 
Hooker's  hesitation  on  the  Rappahannock. — The  Assignment  of  Confederate  com 
mands  west  of  the  Mississippi.— -The  Affiiir  of  Kelly's  Ford.— Death  of  Major  Pel- 
ham. — NAVAL  ATTACK  ON  CHARLESTON. — Destruction  of  "  The  Keokuk." — Scenery  of 
the  Bombardment. — Extent  of  the  Confederate  Success. — Events  in  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky. — Pegram's  Reverse.— The  Situation  of  Hostilities  at  the  close  of  April,  1862. 

ALTHOUGH  but  little  is  to  be  found  of  a  decisive  character  in 
the  military  events  of  the  Spring  of  1862,  there  was  yet  a  series 
of  interesting  occurrences  which  went  far  to  prove  the  ineffi 
ciency  of  the  most  boasted  naval  structures  of  the  enemy,  and 
the  progress  we  had  made  in  defensive  works  on  the  lines  of 
our  harbors  and  the  banks  of  our  rivers. 

The  first  of  these  may  be  mentioned  as  the  repulse  of  the 
enemy  at  Fort  McAllister  on  the  3d  of  March.  This  fort  is  on 
the  outer  line  of  the  defences  of  Savannah.  Off  the  Georgia 
coast,  and  eighteen  miles  to  the  southward  of  the  Savannah 
river,  is  Ossabaw  sound.  Into  this  sound  flows  the  Ogechee 

7  •  O 

river,  a  stream  navigable  some  distance  up — some  thirty  miles 
— to  vessels  of  a  larger  class.  On  the  Ogechee  river,  four 
miles  above  the  sound,  is  situate  Fort  McAllister.  The  fort 
stands  on  the  mainland,  directly  on  the  river  bank,  and  com 
mands  the  river  for  a  mile  and  a  half  or  two  miles. 

The  attack  of  the  enemy  on  this  fort  was  made  with  three 
iron-clads  and  two  mortar-boats.  The  result  of  a  whole  day's 
bombardment  was,  that  one  gun  was  dismounted,  but  the  fort 
remained  uninjured,  and  no  loss  of  life  was  sustained  on  our 
side.  The  iron-clad  Montauk  was  struck  with  solid  shot 
eventy-one  times,  and  was  lifted  clear  out  of  the  water  by 
the  explosion  of  a  torpedo  under  her  bow,  but  the  Yankees 
stated  that  she  was  not  seriously  injured.  Indeed,  they  de 
clared  that  the  whole  affair  was  nothing  more  than  an  experi- 
inentum  crucis,  to  ascertain  the  power  of  their  new  iron-dads 


THE    SECOND    YEAE.  589 

to  resist  cannon  shot,  and  that  me  result  of  the  encounter  was 
all  that  they  had  hoped.  If  the  enemy  was  pleased  with  the 
result,  the  Confederates  had  certainly  no  reason  to  dispute  his 
satisfaction,  as  long  as  they  had  the  solid  gratification  of  hav 
ing  resisted  a  bombardment  of  eight  hours,  without  injury  to 
their  works  or  the  loss  of  a  single  life. 

While  the  enemy  menaced  the  seaboard,  he  had  found  an 
other  theatre  for  his  naval  power  on  the  waters  of  the  Missis 
sippi  river.  His  operations  there  were  even  more  important 
than  those  on  our  sea  lines,  for  they  were  an  essential  part  of 
the  campaign  in  the  West.  In  fact,  Yicksburg  was  for  a  long 
time  the  point  on  which  depended  the  movements  in  Tennes 
see  and  the  resolution  of  the  great  crisis  in  the  West. 

THE    SIEGE    OF    VICKSBURG. 

The  siege  of  Yicksburg  furnishes  a  most  remarkable  in 
stance  of  the  industry  and  physical  perseverance  of  the  Yan 
kees.  Ever  since  December,  1862,  they  had  been  busily  en 
gaged  in  the  attempt  to  circumvent  our  defences,  even  to  the 
extremity  of  forcing  our  internal  navigation  of  swampy  la 
goons  and  obstructed  creeks  for  a  distance  of  four  hundred  and 
fifty  miles. 

The  enemy's  operations  in  other  directions  kept  him  quiet 
directly  in  front  of  Yicksburg,  but  his  purpose  was  all  the 
same — the  capture  and  occupation  of  the  place.  The  enemy 
had  three  distinct  projects  for  compassing  the  capture  of 
Yicksburg :  Slrst,  the  canal  across  the  isthmus  opposite  the 
city;  secondly,  the  project  of  getting  through  the  Yazoo 
Pass  ;  third,  the  Lake  Providence  canal  project.  It  had  been 
all  the  time  the  principal  aim  of  the  Yankees  to  get  in  the 
rear  or  below  Yicksburg.  Their  present  plan,  and  one  on 
which  they  were  now  at  work,  was  to  get  through  the  Yazoo 
Pass,  in  the  hope  of  getting  in  our  rear  and  cutting  off  our 
supplies.  Their  idea  was  to  flank  Yicksburg,  capture  Jack 
son,  cut  off  Grenada,  and  destroy  all  possibility  of  our  ob 
taining  supplies  throughout  that  rich  country,  by  this  one  bold 
stroke. 

The  route  mapped  out  by  the  Yankees  commences  near 
Helena,  Arkansas,  where  the  Yazoo  Pass  connects  the  Mia' 


590  SOUTHEEN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

sissippi  with  the  Coldwater  river,  through  Moon  lake.  The 
distance  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Coldwater,  by  this  pass,  is 
about  twenty  miles — a  very  narrow  and  tortuous  channel,  only 
navigable  when  the  Mississippi  is  quite  high  arid  its  waters 
overflow  the  low  lands  of  this  region.  The  Coldwater  river 
empties  into  the  Tallahatchie,  and  the  Tallahatchie  into  the 
Yazoo.  The  whole  distance  by  this  route  from  the  Mississippi 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Vicks- 
burg,  is  some  five  hundred  miles,  and  over  one-half  of  it,  or 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Tallahatchie,  it  is  easily  obstructed.  The 
Yankees  met  with  no  obstruction  on  their  ascent  of  the  TaDa- 
hatchie,  except  the  overgrowth  and  tortuousness  of  the  stream 
— which  prevented  the  gunboats,  in  some  instances,  from  mak 
ing  more  than  three  and  four  miles  a  day — until  reaching  the 
rnouth  of  the  Tallahatchie,  or  its  neighborhood,  where  they 
encountered  the  batteries  known  as  Fort  Pemberton,  which 
stood  as  the  barrier  against  the  entrance  of  their  fleet  into  the 
Yazoo  river,  formed  by  the  confluence  of  the  Tallahatchie  and 
Yalabusha  rivers. 

This  fort  was  nothing  more  than  an  indented  line  of  earth 
works,  composed  of  cotton  bales  and  mud,  thrown  up  on  the 
neck  of  a  bend  of  the  Tallahatchie  river,  where  the  river  was 
only  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  wide.  The  site  was  selected 
by  Major-gen.  Loring  as  the  best  position  on  the  Yazoo  or 
Tallahatchie  river. 

It  was  here,  on  the  13th  of  March,  that  the  Yazoo  expedi 
tion  was  intercepted  and  driven  back  by  our  batteries,  which 
achieved  a  splendid  victory  over  the  Yankee  gunboats.  The 
Yalabusha  river  unites  with  the  Tallahatchie  in  the  bend, 
forming  the  Yazoo,  so  that  the  right  flank  of  our  works  rest 
ed  upon  the  Tallahatchie,  and  the  left  upon  the  Yazoo,  both, 
however,  being  really  the  same  stream.  The  left  flank  was 
opposite  Greenwood,  which  is  situated  on  the  east  side  of 
the  Yazoo.  The  Tallahatchie,  under  the  guns  of  the  fort,  was 
obstructed  by  an  immense  raft,  behind  which  the  Star  of  the 
West  was  sunk  in  the  channel.  The  intervention  of  the  point 
above  the  bend  masked  the  whole  of  our  line  except  the  left, 
upon  which,  consequently,  the  fire  of  the  enemy's  boats  was 
directed.  The  fire  was  terrific,  uninterrupted  for  four  hours, 
from  ten  to  sixteen  heavy  calibre  guns  on  gunboats,  two  heavy 


THE    SECOND    YEAK.  591 

guns  on  land  and  one  mortar.  Yet  the  line  of  our  batteries 
was  maintained.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  in  this  unsuccessful 
attack  is  not  known  ;  but  his  gunboats  and  batteries  were  con 
stantly  hit,  and  large  quantities  of  burning  cotton  were  struck 
from  them. 

The  defeat  of  the  enemy  at  Fort  Pemberton  prevented  his 
fleet  from  passing  by  to  the  lower  Yazoo.  But  this  was  not 
the  only  canal  project  of  the  Yankees.  One  at  Lake  Provi 
dence,  was  intended  to  afford  a  passage  from  the  Mississfppi 
to  the  head-waters  of  the  Red  river,  by  which  they  might  com 
mand  a  vast  scope  of  country  and  immense  resources.  This 
canal,  which  it  was  said  was  to  change  the  bed  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  turn  its  mighty  current  in  the  Atchafalaya  river  on 
its  way  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  also  a  failure.  The  canal 
had  been  opened,  and  an  enormous  extent  of  country  sub 
merged  and  ruined,  but  it  was  found  that  no  gunboais  or 
transports  could  ever  reach  the  Mississippi  below  Yicksburg 
by  that  route.  Snags  and  drift  choked  up  the  tortuous 
streams  formed  by  the  flood  from  the  cut  levees,  and  even  if 
navigation  had  been  possible,  the  channel  might  have  been 
rendered  impassable  in  a  hundred  places  by  a  score  of  active 
guerrillas. 

In  the  mean  time,  there  was  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Yankees  were  content  to  abandon  the  project  of  cutting  a 
ditch  through  the  mainland  opposite  Yicksburg,  by  which  it 
was  hoped  to  force  the  current  of  the  Mississippi  into  an  un 
accustomed  course,  through  which  to  pass  their  vessels  without 
going  within  range  of  our  batteries. 

It  was  thus  that  the  enemy  was  apparently  brought  to  the 
point  of  necessity  of  either  attacking  our  fortifications  at  Sny- 
der's  Bluff  on  the  Yazoo,  or  our  batteries  in  front  of  the  city. 
These  were  the  only  two  points  left  against  which  he  could 
operate,  and  they  were  the  same  which  he  had  been  trying  to 
avoid  for  the  last  three  months.  When  he  first  arrived,  these 
were  the  only  points  susceptible  of  assault,  but  wishing  to 
flank  them,  he  had  wasted  three  months'  time,  lost  a  number  of 
gunboats  and  transports,  and  many  thousands  of  his  troops. 

"An  attack  directly  in  front  of  the  city  plainly  threatened 
the  most  serious  disaster  to  the  enemy.  From  a  point  of  the 
river  above,  where  high  land  begins,  there  is  a  high  and  pre- 


592  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

cipitous  bluff,  which  would  not  afford  any  landing-place  for  the 
troops — only  about  two  acres  of  ground  are  to  be  found  where 
a  landing  could  be  effected,  and  upon  this  a  formidable  battery 
was  ready  to  receive  them,  and  in  the  rear  there  were  number 
less  other  batteries  to  protect  it.  The  whole  bluff,  extending 
£  distance  of  two  miles,  was  also  frowning  with  guns,  all  of 
which  would  bear  upon  an  enemy  in  the  river. 

The  expedition  of  the  enemy  on  the  Tallahatchie,  which 
met  such  unexpected  and  disgraceful  defeat  from  the  guns  of 
a  hastily  made  fort,  is  memorable  as  another  of  those  Yankee 
raids  which,  unable  to  accomplish  military  results,  was  left  to 
gratify  itself  with  the  plunder  of  citizens  and  the  cowardly 
atrocities  of  marauders.  From  the  barbarity  of  the  Yankee, 
Mississippi  was  a  distinguished  sufferer  as  well  as  Virginia 
Two-thirds  of  Sherman's  army  was  composed  of  new  troops 
from  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  and  they  had  conn* 
down  the  Mississippi  with  the  intention  of  burning  and  de 
stroying  every  thing  they  could  lay  their  hands  on.  The  whole 
line  of  their  march  was  one  continued  scene  of  destruction. 
Private  dwellings  were  burned,  women  and  children  driven  out 
of  their  houses,  and  even  the  clothes  stripped  from  their  backs, 
to  say  nothing  of  acts  committed  by  the  soldiery  which  might 
make  the  blackest-hearted  libertine  blush  for  shame.* 

Another  attempt  of  the  enemy  to  force  our  strongholds  on 
the  Mississippi,  which  we  have  to  relate  at  this  time,  was  made 


*  The  following  is  a  private  confession  taken  from  the  letter  of  a  Yankee 
officer,  attached  to  Sherman's  command  :  "  I  have  always  blamed  Union  gen 
erals  for  guarding  rebel  property,  but  I  now  see  the  necessity  of  it.  Three  weeks 
of  such  unbridled  license  would  ruin  our  army.  I  tell  you  the  truth  when  I 
say  we  are  about  as  mean  a  mob  as  ever  walked  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  is 
perfectly  frightful.  If  I  lived  in  this  country,  I  never  would  lay  down  my  arms 
while  a  '  Yankee'  remained  on  the  soil.  I  do  not  blame  Southerners  for  being 
secessionists  now.  I  could  relate  many  things  that  would  be  laughable  if  they 
were  not  so  horribly  disgraceful.  For  instance,  imagine  two  privates  in  an 
elegant  carriage,  belonging  to  some  wealthy  Southern  nabob,  with  a  splendid 
span  of  horses  riding  in  state  along  the  road  we  are  marching  over,  with  a 
negro  coachman  holding  the  reins  in  all  the  style  of  an  English  nobleman, 
and  then  two  small  drummer-boys  going  it  at  a  two-forty  pace,  in  an  elegant 
buggy,  with  a  fast  horse,  and  the  buggy  loaded  with  a  strange  medley  of  house 
hold  furniture  and  kitchen  utensils,  from  an  elegant  parlor  mirror  to  a  pair  of 
fire-dogs,  all  of  which  they  have  '  cramped'  from  some  fine  house,  which,  frou» 
sheer  wantonness,  they  had  rified  and  destroyed." 


THE    SECOND    YEAH.  593 

on  Port  Hudson  on  the  15th  of  March.  We  have  seen  how 
fatal,  so  far,  had  been  the  enemy's  attempts  to  run  our  batter 
ies  and  to  get  to  the  south  of  Vicksbnrg.  His  first  attempt 
was  with  the  Queen  of  the  West,  his  second  with  the  Indianola; 
but  though  successful  in  these  two  cases  in  running  our  batter 
ies,  the  boats  were  soon  captured  by  our  men,  and  the  enemy 
completely  foiled  in  his  design.  It  was  now  proposed  that  the 
enemy's  fleet  should  attack  Port  Hudson  and  attempt  to  force 
a  passage  up  the  river. 

THE   BOMBARDMENT   OF    PORT   HUDSON. 

Port  Hudson  is  a  strongly  fortified  position  on  the  lower 
Mississippi — about  sixteen  miles  above  Baton  Rouge  and 
three  hundred  below  Vicksburg.  It  is  situated  on  a  bend  in 
the  river,  and  its  great  strength  as  a  place  of  defence  against 
a  fleet  consists  in  the  height  of  its  cliffs  and  the  peculiar  for 
mation  of  the  river  at  that  place.  The  cliffs  are  very  high, 
and  also  very  steep — in  fact,  almost  perpendicular.  The  river, 
just  at  the  bend  opposite  the  town,  suddenly  narrows,  so  that 
the  rapid  current  strikes  against  the  west  bank,  and  then 
sweeps  through  a  narrow  channel  just  at  the  base  of  the  cliff. 
Our  batteries  were  located  on  a  bluff  at  the  elbow  of  the  river, 
and  commanded  a  range  of  three  miles  above  and  below,  com 
pelling  any  vessel  which  might  attempt  the  passage  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  a  plunging  fire. 

Six  vessels  were  to  comprise  the  enemy's  expedition,  divided 
into  two  divisions.  The  vanguard  was  to  consist  of  the  flag 
ship  Hartford,  a  first-class  steam  sloop-of-war,  carrying  twenty- 
six  eight  and  nine  inch  Paixhan  guns,  leading,  followed  by  the 
Monongahela,  a  second-class  steam  sloop,  mounting  sixteen 
heavy  guns,  and  the  Eichmond,  a  first-class  steam  sloop  of 
twenty-six  guns,  principally  eight  and  nine  inch  columbiad:. 
The  rear-guard  was  composed  of  the  first-class  steam  sloop 
Mississippi,  twenty-two  guns,  eight  and  nine  inch,  and  the 
gunboats  Kinnes  and  Genesee,  each  carrying  three  columbiads 
and  two  rifled  thirty-two  pounders.  The  Mississippi  was  a 
side- wheel  steamer.  All  the  others  were  screw  propellers. 
The  vanguard  was  commanded  by  Admiral  Farragut  in  per 
son,  on  board  the  Hartford.  The  rear  was  under  command  of 

38 


594:  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Captain  Melancthon  Smith,  flying  his  pennant  from  the  Missis 
sippi.  They  were  to  proceed  np  the  stream  in  a  single  iile,  the 
Btern  of  the  one  following  close  upon  the  stern  of  another,  and 
keeping  their  fires  and  lights  well  concealed  until  they  should 
be  discovered  by  our  batteries,  when  they  were  to  get  by  the 
best  they  could,  fighting  their  passage ;  and  once  above,  they 

.  believed  they  would  have  the  stronghold  on  both  sides,  their 
guns  covering  every  part  of  the  encampment. 

Shortly  before  midnight,  the  boats  having  formed  the  line  of 
battle  as  described,  their  decks  cleared  for  action,  and  the  men 
at  their  quarters,  the  Hartford  led  the  way  and  the  others 
promptly  followed  her  direction.  At  the  moment  of  their  dis 
covery,  a  rocket  was  to  be  sent  up  from  the  admiral's  flag-ship, 
as  the  signal  for  the  Essex  and  her  accompanying  mortar-boats 
to  commence  work. 

Although  there  had  been  no  indications  of  such  a  determined 
night  attack  by  Farragut,  the  usual  vigilant  precautions  were 
in  force  at  our  batteries.  Every  gun  was  ready  for  action, 
and  around  each  piece  slept  a  detachment  of  gunners.  So 

•  dark  was  the  night,  however,  and  so  slightly  had  the  armed 

.craft  nosed  their  way  up,  that  the  flag-ship  had  passed  some  01 

.  our  guns,  and  all  the  fleet  were  within  easy  range  before  their 
approach  was  known.  Almost  at  the  same  time  a  rocket  from 
our  signal  corps,  and  the  discharge  of  muskets  by  an  infantry 

-picket,  aroused  our  line.  Quick  as  a  flash,  while  the  falling 
fire  of  our  alarm  rocket  was  yet  unextinguished,  there  shot 
up" into  the  sky,  from  the  Hartford's  deck,  another.  Then  came 
one  grand,  long,  deafening  roar,  that  rent  the  atmosphere  with 
its  mighty  thunder,  shaking  both  land  and  water,  and  causing 
the  hi^h  battery-crowned  cliffs  to  tremble,  as  if  with  fear  and 
wonder. 

,  The  darkness  of  the  night  gave  extraordinary  sublimity  to 
the  scene  of  bombardment.  The  sheets  of  flame  that  poured 

1  from  the  sides  of  the  sloops  at  each  discharge  lit  up  nearly  the 
whole  stretch  of  river,  placing  each  craft  in  strong  relief  against 
the  black  sky.  On  the  long  line  of  bluff,  the  batteries,  but  a 
•moment  before  silent  as  the  church-yard,  now  resounded  to  the 
hurrying  tread  of  men,  while  the  quick,  stern  tones  of  command 
were  hear"d  above  the  awful  din,  and  the  furtively  glancing 

:  rays  of  light  from  the  battle-lanterns  revealed  the  huge  instru- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  595 

ments  of  death  and  destruction,  and  showed  the  half-cohered 
way  to  magazines. 

Minute  after  minute  passed  away,  and  the  fleet  kept  its  un 
checked  course  up  the  stream.  The  feeling  of  its  officers  was 
one  of  amazement  at  the  silence  of  the  batteries.  The  question 
was  seriously  propounded,  had  not  the  Confederates  deserted 
them  ?  But  only  too  soon  did  the  enemy  discover  that  we 
were  but  waiting  to  bring  their  whole  fleet  irretrievably  under 
our  guns  before  we  went  to  work. 

For  fifteen  minutes  had  they  plied  at  their  monster  cannon, 
and  now  they  were  commencing  to  relax  from  sheer  vexation, 
when  a  flash  of  light  from  the  crest  of  a  cliff  lights  the  way 
for  a  shell  to  go  plunging  through  the  Hartford's  deck.  This 
was  the  monitor,  and  at  once  the  enemy  saw  a  cordon  of  vivid 
right  as  long  as  their  own. 

Now  commenced  the  battle  in  all  its  terrible  earnestness. 
Outnumbered  in  guns  and  outweighed  in  metal,  our  volleys 
were  as  quickly  repeated,  and  the  majority  of  them  unerring  in 
their  aim.  As  soon  as  the  enemy  thus  discovered  our  batter 
ies,  they  opened  on  them  with  grape  and  canister,  which  was 
more  accurately  thrown  than  their  shells,  and  threw  clouds  of 
dirt  upon  the  guns  and  gunners ;  the  shells  went  over  them  in 
every  conceivable  direction  except  the  right  one. 

The  Hartford,  a  very  fast  ship,  now  made  straight  up  the 
river,  making  her  best  time,  and  trying  to  divert  the  aim  of 
our  gunners  by  her  incessant  and  deafening  broadsides.  She 
soon  outstripped  the  balance  of  the  fleet.  Shot  after  shot  struck 
her,  riddling  her  through  and  through,  but  still  she  kept  on 
her  way. 

Every  craft  now  looking  out  for  itself  and  bound  to  make 
*ts  very  best  time  to  get  by,  the  fleet  lost  its  orderly  line  of 
battle,  and  got  so  mixed  up,  it  was  difficult,  and  sometimes  im 
possible  to  distinguish  one  from  another.  It  was  speedily  ap 
parent  to  the  enemy  that  the  flre  was  a  great  deal  hotter  and 
more  destructive  than  had  been  expected,  and  the  captains  oi 
the  two  gunboats  and  of  the  Monongahela,  doubtless  resolved 
quickly  that  it  would  be  madness  to  attempt  to  run  such  a  ter 
rific  gauntlet  of  iron  hail.  Whether  the  commanders  of  the 
Eichmond  and  Mississippi  had  already  arrived  at  the  same  de 
termination,  or  came  to  it  soon  after,  is  not  known  ;  but  thej 


596  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

all,  except  the  Hartford,  undertook  to  put  about  and  return 
the  way  they  came. 

For  this  purpose  the  Richmond  came  close  in  to  the  left 
bank,  under  the  batteries,  and  then  circled  round,  her  course 
reaching  nearly  up  to  the  opposite  point.  In  executing  this 
manoeuvre,  she  gave  our  batteries  successively  a  raking  posi 
tion,  and  they  took  excellent  advantage  of  it,  seriously  damag 
ing  her,  as  the  crashing  of  her  timbers  plainly  told. 

The  Mississippi  undertook  to  execute  the  same  manoeuvre,  of 
turning  round  and  making  her  escape  back  to  the  point  she 
started  from.  She  had  rounded  and  just  turned  down  stream, 
when  one  of  our  shots  tore  off  her  rudder,  and  another  went 
crushing  through  her  machinery.  Immediately  after  came  the 
rushing  sound  of  steam  escaping  from  some  broken  pipe,  and 
the  now  unmanageable  vessel  drifted  aground  directly  opposite 
our  crescent  line  of  batteries.  Her  range  was  quickly  gained, 
and  she  was  being  rapidly  torn  to  pieces  by  our  missiles,  when 
her  commander  gave  the  order  for  all  hands  to  save  themselves 
the  best  way  they  could.  At  the  same  time  fire  broke  out  in 
two  places.  At  this  time  her  decks  were  strewn  with  dead 
and  wounded.  Some  fifty-five  or  sixty  persons  saved  them 
selves  by  jumping  overboard  and  swimming  to  the  shore. 

The  dead  and  wounded  were  left  upon  the  Mississippi,  which 
soon  floated  off  and  started  down  with  the  current.  All  the 
other  vessels  were  now  out  of  range,  and  the  spectacle  of  the 
burning  ship  was  a  grand  and  solemn  one,  yet  mingled  with 
painful  thoughts  of  the  horrible  fate  of  those  mangled  unfor 
tunates  who  were  being  burned  to  death  upon  this  floating 
funeral  pyre.  As  the  flames  would  reach  the  shells  lying 
among  her  guns,  they  exploded  one  by  one,  adding  to  the 
novel  grandeur  of  the  sight.  The  light  of  the  burning  wreck 
could  be  seen,  steadily  increasing  its  distance,  for  two  hours 
and  a  half.  At  five  minutes  past  five  o'clock,  when  the  Mis 
sissippi  was  probably  within  five  miles  of  Baton  Rouge,  a  sud- 
ileu  glare  lit  up  the  whole  sky.  The  cause  was  well  known  to 
be  the  explosion  of  the  magazine.  After  a  considerable  inter 
val  of  time,  a  long  rumbling  sound  brought  final  proof  that 
the  Mississippi,  one  of  the  finest  vessels  of  the  United  States 
navy,  which  had  earned  an  historical  fame  before  the  com 
mencement  of  the  present  war,  for  her  usefulness  in  the  Gulf 


THE    SECOND    \EAR.  597 

during  the  Mexican  war,  and  as  the  flag-ship  of  the  Japan  ex 
pedition,  was  a  thing  of  the  past. 

The  victory  of  Port  Hudson  forms  one  of  the  most  satisfac 
tory  and  brilliant  pages  in  the  history  of  the  war.  The  fleet, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Hartford,  had  been  driven  back  by 
our  batteries,  and  a  grateful  surprise  had  been  given  to  many 
of  our  people,  who  had  acquired  the  disheartening  conviction 
that  gunboats  could  treat  shore  batteries  with  contempt.  So 
far  our  strongholds  on  the  Mississippi  had  bid  defiance  to  the 
foe.  and  months  of  costly  preparation  for  their  reduction  had 
been  spent  in  vain. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring  on  the  Mississippi,  the 
long  line  of  inland  hostilities  remained  unvaried  and  almost 
silent.  In  Yirginia  and  in  Tennessee,  the  powerful  armies  of 
Lee  and  Hooker,  Bragg  and  Rosecrans,  had  camped  for  months 
in  close  proximity,  without  a  cannonade,  and  almost  without  a 
skirmish.  To  some  extent  the  elements  had  proclaimed  a 
truce,  while  the  hesitating  temper  of  the  enemy  betrayed  a 
policy  strangely  at  variance  with  the  former  vigorous  campaign 
in  the  same  season  of  the  last  year.  Especially  was  the  hesi 
tation  remarkable  in  Virginia,  where  the  new  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  enemy — Hooker — was  a  violent  member  of  the 
Abolitionist  party.  He  was  the  chief  of  that  clique  among 
the  Yankee  officers  who  made  the  war,  not  to  realize  the  dream 
of  a  restored  Union,  but  for  the  subjugation  and  destruction 
of  the  Southern  social  system,  the  massacre  or  exile  of  the  in 
habitants  of  the  Southern  country,  and  the  confiscation  of  their 
entire  real  and  personal  property. 

Beyond  the  Mississippi  there  was  scarcely  any  thing  to  re 
mark  but  a  new  assignment  of  military  commands.  We  had 
now  west  of  the  Mississippi  Lieutenant-gen.  Kirby  Smith,  Gen. 
Price,  Gen.  Magruder,  and  Gen.  Sibley.  Gen.  Smith  had  been 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  department,  and  had  already  issued 
an  order  announcing  that  fact;  Gen.  Price  was  assigned  to 
lead  the  field  movements  for  the  redemption  of  Arkansas  and 
his  own  State,  Missouri ;  Gen.  Sibley  was  moving  to  other  irn 
portant  points;  and  Gen.  Magruder's  field  of  operations  was 
Texas. 

We  have  to  record  but  a  single  incident  in  the  spring  of 
1863,  to  break  the  long  silence  of  the  lines  of  the  Kappahan- 


598  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

nock.  On  the  morning  of  the  17th  of  March  the  enemy  dous 
ed  the  river  at  Kelly's  ford,  with  both  a  cavalry  and  artillery 
force,  numbering  probably  three  thousand  men.  Thej  ad 
vanced  within  six  miles  of  Culpepper  Court-house,  where  <hey 
were  engaged  by  the  brigade  of  Gen.  Fitzhugh  Lee.  The 
fight  was  severe  and  lasted  several  hours.  The  Yankees  *ere 
finally  repulsed,  and  fell  back  routed  and  panic-stricken,  after 
having  inflicted  a  loss  upon  us  of  about  one  hundred  in  killed 
and  wounded.  They  had  fought  with  some  advantages  at  first, 
bravely  contesting  their  ground,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
a  report  of  reinforcements  coming  up  to  us  was  the  occasion  of 
their  retreat.  When  the  retreat  was  ordered,  they  fled  in 
dismay  and  confusion. 

This  affair — if  it  was  worth  any  thing — cost  us  the  life  of 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  artillery  officers  in  the  army.  Major 
Pel  ham,  of  Alabama,  who  had  acquired  the  title  of  "the  gal 
lant  Pelham"  from  the  hands  of  Gen.  Lee  in  the  official  report 
of  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  was  killed  by  the  fragment  ot 
a  shell.  At  Fredericksburg,  he  had  distinguished  himself  by 
sustaining  the  concentrated  fire  of  a  number  of  the  enemy's 
batteries.  In  that  terrible  trial  he  had  stood  as  a  rock.  In 
the  aifair  which  cost  him  his  life,  he  had  just  risen  in  his  sad 
dle  to  cheer  a  troop  of  cavalry  rushing  to  the  charge,  when 
the  fatal  blow  was  given.  He  was  only  twenty-two  years  of 
age,  and  had  been  through  all  the  battles  in  Virginia.  Un 
usual  honors  were  paid  his  remains,  for  they  were  laid  in  the 
capitol,  and  tributes  of  rare  flowers  strewn  upon  the  bier  oi 
"  the  young  Marcellus  of  the  South." 

NAVAL    ATTACK    ON    CHARLESTON. 

The  city  of  Charleston  had  long  been  the  object  of  the 
enemy's  lust ;  it  was  considered  a  prize  scarcely  less  important 
than  the  long-contested  one  of  Richmond;  and  with  more  than 
their  customary  assurance,  the  Yankees  anticipated  the  glory 
and  counted  the  triumphs  of  the  capture  of  the  cradle  of  the 
revolution.  It  was  thought  to  be  an  easy  matter  for  Admiral 
Dupont's  iron-clad  fleet  te  take  the  city,  and  the  Yankee  news 
papers  for  months  had  indulged  the  prospect  of  the  capture  oi 
Charleston  as  a  thing  of  the  future  that  only  awaited  theii 
pleasure. 


THE    SECOND    YEAK.  599 

On  Sunday  morning,  the  5th  of  April,  four  "  monitors,"  tho 
Ironsides  (an  armor-plated  frigate  with  an  armament  of  twenty- 
two  10,  11,  and  15-inch  guns),  and  thirty  vessels  of  various 
sizes,  were  seen  off  the  bar.  Four  monitors  and  thirty-five 
wooden  vessels  were  added  to  the  fleet  on  the  following  day  v 
thirty-five  vessels,  for  the  most  part  transports,  appeared  in 
the  Stono,  and  the  enemy  landed  a  force -of  about  six  thousand 
men  on  Coles'  and  Battery  Islands.  These  facts,  with  other 
indications,  led  Gen.  Beauregard  to  count  upon  an  attack  on 
Tuesday,  and  the  expectations  of  that  sagacious  and  vigilant 
commander  were  not  disappointed. 

The  atmosphere  early  on  Tuesday  morning,  7th  of  April, 
was  misty,  but  as  the  day  advanced,  the  haze  lightened,  and 
the  monitors  and  the  Ironsides  were  seen  lying  off  Morris 
Island.  Between  two  and  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a  dis 
patch  from  Col.  Rhett,  commandant  of  Fort  Sumter,  informed 
Gen.  Beauregard  that  five  monitors  and  the  Ironsides  were  ap 
proaching  the  fort.  The  fleet  were  seen  rounding  the  point  of 
Morris  Island,  the  Keokuk  in  the  advance.  It  was  a  happy 
moment  for  the  defenders  of  Charleston.  So  long  had  sus 
pense  reigned  in  that  city,  that  the  booming  of  the  signal  gun 
and  the  announcement  that  at  last  the  battle  had  begun  was  a 
positive  relief.  A  thrill  of  joy  came  to  every  heart,  and  tho 
countenances  of  all  declared  plainly  that  a  signal  victory  over 
the  mailed  vessels  was  reckoned  upon  without  doubt  or  mis 
giving.  The  long-roll  beat  in  Fort  Sumter;  the  artillerists 
in  that  work  rushed  to  their  guns.  The  regimental  flag  of  the 
1st  South  Carolina  Artillery,  and  "  the  stars  and  bars"  of  the 
Confederate  States,  flaunted  out  from  their  flagstaff's  on  tho 
fort,  and  were  saluted  as  the  enemy  advanced  with  an  out 
burst  of  "  Dixie"  from  the  band  and  the  deep-mouthed  roar  of 
thirteen  pieces  of  heavy  artillery. 

On  came  the  mailed  monitors.  Their  ports  were  closed,  and 
they  appeared  deserted  of  all  living  things.  They  moved 
northwardly  towards  Sullivan's  Island,  and  at  a  distance  from 
'ts  batteries  of  about  1,200  yards  they  began  to  curve  around 
towards  Sumter.  A  flash,  a  cloud  of  srnoke,  a  clap  of  thunder, 
herald  a  storm  of  heavy  shot,  which  bursts  from  the  island 
upon  the  side  of  the  frigate.  The  ships  move  on  silently.  Tho 
deep-mouthed  explosions  of  Sumter  in  the  next  instant  burst 


600  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THfi    WAR. 

upon  the  advancing  ships,  and  hurl  tremendous  bolts  of 
wrought  iron  against  the  armor  of  the  Ironsides.  The  frigate 
halts.  At  a  distance  of  about  twelve  hundred  yards  from  that 
work-she  delivers  from  seven  guns  a  broadside  of  15-inch  shot 
that  dashes  against  the  sea- face  of  Sumter  with  a  heavy  crash. 
Bricks  fly  from  the  parapet  and  whirl  from  the  traverse.  A 
shell  smashes  a  marble  lintel  in  the  officers'  quarters,  hustles 
through  a  window  on  the  other  side,  and,  striking  the  parapet, 
hurls  a  tornado  of  bricks  far  to  the  rear.  The  works  on  Morris 
Island  burst  into  the  deafening  chorus — on  land  and  on  sea, 
from  all  the  batteries  of  the  outer  circle,  from  all  the  turrets  of 
the  inner  circle. 

It  was  manifest  that  the  Ironsides  was  appointed  to  test  the 
strength  of  the  fort.  Fort  Sumter  acknowledged  the  compli 
ment  by  pouring  the  contents  of  her  biggest  guns  into  that 
pride  of  the  Yankee  navy.  Advancing  on  her  circling  course, 
the  Ironsides  made  way  for  her  attendant  warriors  ;  and  one  by 
one,  as  their  turrets  moved  in  the  solemn  waltz,  they  received 
the  fire,  sometimes  diffused,  sometimes  concentrated,  of  the 
surrounding  circle  of  batteries.  The  first  division  of  the  ships 
curved  on  its  path  under  an  iron  storm  that  rended  the  air  with 
its  roar,  and  burst  upon  their  mail  in  a  quick  succession  01 
reports ;  sometimes  with  the  heavy  groan  of  crushing,  some 
times  with  the  sharp  cry  of  tearing.  Delivering  a  fire  of  shot 
and  shell  as  they  passed  the  works  on  Morris  Island,  the  Iron 
sides  and  her  monitors  moved  slowly  out  of  range.  As  the 
Ironsides  withdrew  from  the  action,  taking  position  to  the  south 
of  Fort  Sumter,  steam  was  seen  issuing  from  her  in  dense  vol 
umes,  and  it  was  believed  that  she  was  seriously  damaged. 

The  Keokuk,  a  double-turreted  iron-clad,  led  into  the  fight 
four  monitors.  More  bold  than  even  the  Ironsides,  she  advanced 
under  a  tornado  of  shot  to  a  position  within  about  nine  hundred 
yards  of  Fort  Sumter.  Halting  at  that  distance,  she  discharged 
her  15-inch  balls  from  her  turrets  against  the  sea-face  of  that 
fort.  Crushing  and  scattering  the  bricks  on  the  line  of  her 
tremendous  fire,  she  failed,  however,  to  make  any  serious  im 
pression  on  the  walls.  A  circle  of  angry  flashes  radiated  to 
wards  her  from  all  sides,  while  a  tempest  of  iron  bolts  and 
round-shot  crashed  against  her  sides.  For  about  twenty  min 
utes  she  stood  still,  in  apparent  helplessness.  At  the  expiration* 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  601 

of  that  time  she  moved  slowly  on,  and  after  receiving  the  fire 
of  the  works  on  Morris  Island,  passed  out  of  range.  She  was 
fairly  riddled,  for  she  had  been  the  target  of  the  most  powerfr.l 
guns  the  Confederates  could  command.  Great  holes  were  visi 
ble  in  her  sides,  her  prow,  her  after-turret,  and  her  smoke 
stack.  Her  plates  were  bent  and  bolts  protruded  here  and 
there  ail  over  her.  She  was  making  water  rapidly,  and  it  was 
plain  to  see  that  she  was  a  doomed  ship. 

After  the  Keokuk  and  her  companions  had  passed  out  of 
range,  the  circular  movement  was  not  renewed.  The  ships 
retired  outside  the  harbor  to  their  anchorage ;  and  after  about 
two  hours  and  a  half  of  a  most  terrible  storm  of  shot  and  thun 
der  of  artillery,  Fort  Sumter  and  its  supporting  batteries  set 
tled  down  under  sluggish  clouds  of  smoke  into  triumphs  of 
quiet. 

Our  victory  was  one  of  unexpected  brilliancy,  and  had  cost 
us  scarcely  more  than  the  ammunition  for  our  guns.  A  drum 
mer  boy  was  killed  at  Fort  Sumter  and  five  men  wounded. 
Our  artillery  practice  was  excellent,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  the  nine  Yankee  vessels  were  struck  five  hundred  and 
twenty  times.  The  Keokuk  received  no  less  than  ninety  shots. 
She  did  not  outlive  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter  twelve  hours. 
The  next  day  her  smoke-stack  and  one  of  her  turrets  were 
visible  during  low  water  off  Morris  Island,  where  she  had 
sunk. 

The  battle  had  been  fought  on  the  extreme  outer  line  of  fire, 
and  the  enemy  had  been  defeated  at  the  very  threshold  of  our 
defences.  Whether  his  attack  was  intended'  only,  as  a  recon- 
noissance,  or  whether  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  preliminary 
skirmish  was  in  fact  the  whole  affair,  it  is  certain  that  our  suc 
cess  gave  great  assurances  of  the  safety  of  Cha/leston  ;  that  it 
had  the  proportions  of  a  considerable  victory ;  and  that  it  went 
far  to  impeach  the  once  dreaded  power  of  the  iron-clads  of  the 
enemy.* 


*  It  is  a  question  of  scientific  interest  whether,  in  the  construction  of  iron- 
clads,  the  Confederate  plan  of  slanted  sides  is  not  superior  to  the  Yankee  plan 
of  thick-walled  turrets — the  Virginia-Merrimac,  and  not  the  Monitor,  the  true 
model.  The  Yankee  monitor  is  an  upright,  cylindrical  turret.  If  a  shot  strikes 
the  centre  line  of  this  cylinder,  it  will  not  glance,  but  deliver  its  full  force.  On 
the  contrary,  the  peculiarity  of  the  Virginia-Merrimac  was  its  roof-shaped  sides, 


602  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  month  of  April  has  but  few  events  of  military  note  je- 
yond  what  has  been  referred  to  in  the  foregoing  pages.  The 
check  of  Van  Dorn  at  Franklin,  Tennessee,  and  the  reverse  of 
Pegram  in  Kentucky,  were  unimportant  incidents ;  they  did 
not  affect  the  campaign,  and  their  immediate  disasters  were 
inconsiderable.  The  raid  of  the  latter  commander  into  Ken 
tucky,  again  revived  reports  of  the  reaction  of  public  sentiment 
in  that  unhappy  State  in  favor  of  the  Confederacy.  It  was  on 
his  retreat  that  he  was  set  upon  by  a  superior  force  of  the  en 
emy  near  Somerset,  from  which  he  effected  an  escape  across 
the  Cumberland,  after  the  loss  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
men  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners. 

This  period,  properly  the  close  of  the  second  year  of  hostili 
ties,  presents  a  striking  contrast  with  the  corresponding  month 
of  the  former  year  with  respect  to  the  paramount  aspects  of 
the  war.  In  April,  1862,  the  Confederates  had  fallen  back  in 
Virginia  from  the  Potomac  beyond  the  Rappahannock,  and 
were  on  the  point  of  receding  from  the  vicinity  of  the  lower 
Chesapeake  before  the  advancing  army  of  McClellan.  Now 
they  confronted  the  enemy  from  the  Rappahannock  and  hov 
ered  upon  his  flank  within  striking  distance  to  the  Potomac, 
while  another  portion  of  our  forces  manosuvred  almost  in  the 
rear  and  quite  upon  the  flank  of  Norfolk.  Twelve  months  ago 
the  enemy  threatened  the  important  Southern  artery  which 
links  the  coast  of  the  Carolinas  with  Virginia  ;  he  was  master 
of  Florida,  both  on  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf;  and  Mobile 
trembled  at  every  blast  from  the  Federal  bugles  of  Pensacola. 
Now  his  North  Carolina  lines  were  held  exclusively  as  lines  of 
occupation ;  he  was  repulsed  on  the  seaboard ;  his  operations 
in  Florida  were  limited  to  skirmishing  parties  of  negroes ;  and 
Mobile  had  become  the  nursery  of  cruisers  in  the  very  face  of 
his  blockading  squadron.  A  year  ago  the  grasp  of  the  enemy 


on  which  the  shot  glances.  The  inventor  of  that  noble  naval  structure,  Com 
mander  Brooke,  claimed  the  slanted  or  roof-shaped  sides  as  constituting  the 
original  feature  and  most  important  merit  of  his  invention.  We  may  add  now 
that  to  the  genius  of  this  accomplished  officer  the  Confederacy  was  variously 
indebted ;  for  it  was  a  gun  of  his  invention — "  the  Brooke  gun" — that  fired  the 
bolt  which  pierced  the  turret  of  the  Keokuk,  and  gave  the  first  proof  in  the 
war  that  no  thickness  of  iron,  that  is  practical  in  the  construction  of  such  a 
machine,  is  sufficient  to  secure  it 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  603 

was  ciosing  on  the  Mississippi  from  Cair_  to  the  Gulf;  but 
while  Butler  was  enjoying  his  despotic  amusements  and  build 
ing  up  his  private  fortunes  in  the  Crescent  City,  the  strong 
holds  of  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson  were  created,  and  held 
at  bay  the  most  splendid  expeditions  which  the  extravagance  01 
the  North  had  yet  prepared.  A  year  ago  the  enemy,  by  his 
successes  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  held  the  way  almost  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  Confederacy,  through  Eastern  Tennessee 
and  Western  Virginia.  Now  the  fortunes  of  the  war  in  that 
whole  region  were  staked  upon  the  issues  of  impending  battle. 
For  three  months  the  "  grand  hesitation"  of  the  North  had 
continued.  With  some  seven  or  eight  hundred  thousand  sol 
diers  in  the  field  and  countless  cruisers  swarming  on  our  coasts, 
the  enemy  had  yet  granted  us  a  virtual  suspension  of  arms 
since  the  great  battles  of  Fredericksburg  and  .Mnrfreesboro', 
interrupted  only  by  petty  engagements  and  irresolute  and  fruit 
less  bombardments.  He  had  shown  that  he  possessed  no  real 
confidence  in  the  success  of  his  arms ;  he  had  so  far  failed  to 
reduce  any  one  of  "  the  three  great  strongholds  of  the  rebel 
lion,"  Richmond,  Charleston,  and  Yicksburg;  and  he  had  ceased 
to  map  out  those  plans  of  conquest  of  which  he  was  former!  v 
BO  prolific. 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAP.. 


CHAPTER  XXIY. 

Close  of  the  Second  Year  of  the  War.  Propriety  of  an  Outline  o  ?ome  succeed 
ing  Events. — Cavalry  Enterprises  of  the  Enemy. — The  raids  in  Mississippi  and  Vir 
ginia. — SKETCH  OF  THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  KAPPAHANNOOK.— The  Enemy's  Plan  of  Attack. 
— The  Fight  at  Chancellorsville. — The  Splendid  Charge  of  "Stonewall"  Jackson. — 
The  Fight  at  Fredericksburg. — The  Fight  at  Salem  Church. — Summary  of  our  Victory. 
— DEATH  OF  "  STONEWALL"  JACKSON. — His  Character  and  Services. 

THE  second  year  of  the  war,  having  commenced  with  the 
fall  of  New  Orleans,  1st  of  May,  1862,  properly  closes  with 
the  events  recorded  in  the  preceding  chapter.  Of  succeeding 
events,  which  have  occurred  between  this  period  and  that  of 
publication,  we  do  not  propose  to  attempt  at  this  time  a  full 
narrative;  their  detail  belongs  to  another  volume.  It  is  pro 
posed  at  present  only  to  make  an  outline  of  them,  so  as  to 
give  to  the  reader  a  stand-point  of  intelligent  observation, 
from  which  he  may  survey  the  general  situation  at  the  time, 
these  pages  are  given  to  the  public. 

The  next  volume  of  our  history  will  open  on  that  series  of 
remarkable  raids  and  enterprises  on  the  part  of  the  enemy's 
cavalry,  which,  in  the  months  of  April  and  May,  disturbed 
many  parts  of  the  Confederacy.  We  shall  find  that  the  ex 
tent  of  these  raids  of  Yankee  horsemen,  their  simultaneous 
occurrence  in  widely  removed  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
the  circumstances  of  each,  betrayed  a  deliberate  and  extensive 
purpose  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  and  a  consistency  of  design 
deserving  the  most  serious  consideration. 

We  shall  relate  how  the  people  of  Richmond  were  alarmed 
by  the  apparition  of  Yankee  cavalry  near  their  homes.  But 
we  shall  find  causes  of  congratulation  that  the  unduly  famous 
expedition  of  Stoneman  was  not  more  destructive.  The  dam 
age  which  it  inflicted  upon  our  railroads  was  slight,  its  hurried 
pillage  did  not  amount  to  much,  and  the  only  considerable., 
capture  it  effected  was  a  train  of  commissary  wagons  in  King 
William  county. 

Other  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  visited  about  the  same  time 


TFE    SECOND    YEAR.  605 

by  Yankee  cavalry,  were  not  so  fortunate.  The  State  of  Mis 
sissippi  was  ransacked  almost  through  its  entire  length  by  the 
Grierson  raid.  Starting  from  Corinth,  near  the  northern 
boundary  of  Mississippi,  a  body  of  Yankee  horsemen,  cer 
tainly  not  exceeding  two  thousand,  rode  down  the  valley  of 
the  Tombigbee,  penetrated  to  a  point  below  the  centre  of  the 
State,  and  then  making  a  detour,  reached  the  Mississippi  Gulf 
coast  in  safety.  This  force,  so  insignificant  in  numbers,  made 
the  entire  passage  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  from  the  north 
east  to  the  southwest  corner  ;  and  the  important  town  of  En 
terprise  was  barely  saved  by  reinforcements  of  infantry  which 
arrived  from  Meridian  just  fifteen  minutes  before  the  Yankees 
demanded  the  surrender  of  the  place. 

We  shall  have  to  add  here  cotemporary  accounts  of  another 
Yankee  raid  in  Georgia.  That  adventure,  however,  was  hap 
pily  nipped  in  the  bud  by  Forrest,  who  captured  the  Yankee 
commander,  Stuart,  and  his  entire  party,  at  Rome,  Georgia, 
after  one  of  the  most  vigorous  pursuits  ever  made  of  an  enemy. 

The  interest  of  these  raids  was  something  more  than  that  of 
the  excursions  of  brigands.  That  of  Stoneman  was  an  im 
portant  part  of  the  great  battle  which  signalized  the  opening 
of  the  month  of  May  on  the  banks  of  the  Rappahannock,  and 
broke  at  last  the  "  grand  hesitation"  of  the  enemy,  which  had 
been  the  subject  of  so  much  impatience  in  the  South. 

SKETCH  OF  THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  RAPPAHANNOCK. 

The  plan  of  attack  adopted  by  Gen.  Hooker  may  be  briefly 
characterized  as  a  feint  on  our  right,  and  a  flank  movement  in 
force  on  our  left.  It  was  determined  to  throw  a  heavy  force 
across  the  river  just  below  the  mouth  of  Deep  Run,  and  three 
miles  below  Fredericksburg,  and  pretend  to  renew  the  attempt 
in  which  Burnside  had  previously  been  unsuccessful.  The  ob 
ject  of  this  movement  was  two-fold — first,  to  hold  the  Confed 
erate  forces  at  that  point ;  and  second,  to  protect  Hooker's 
communications  and  supplies,  while  the  other  half  of  the  army 
should  make  a  crossing  above  the  fortifications,  and  sweeping 
down  rapidly  to  the  rear  of  Fredericksburg,  take  a  strong  po 
sition  and  hold  it  until  they  could  be  reinforced  by  the  portion 
of  the  arrry  engaged  in  making  the  feint,  which  was  to  with- 


606  SOUTHERNS     HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

draw  from  its  position,  take  the  bridges  to  the  point  of  the 
river  which  had  been  uncovered  by  the  flank  movement,  and 
the  whole  army  was  thus  to  be  concentrated  in  the  rear  of 
Fredericksburg. 

The  execution  of  this  plan  was  commenced  on  Monday,  the 
26th  of  April.  Three  corps  d'armee — the  Fifth,  Eleventh,  and 
Twelfth — were  ordered  to  march  up  the  river  with  eight  days' 
rations  to  Kelly's  ford,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock,  near  the  Orange  and  Alexandria  railroad.  This  force, 
under  the  command  of  Gen.  Slocum,  of  the  Twelfth  corps, 
reached  the  point  at  which  it  was  to  cross  the  Rappahannock 
on  Tuesday  night.  On  the  same  night  three  other  corps — the 
First,  Third,  and  Sixth — were  sent  to  the  mouth  of  Deep  Run, 
three  miles  below  Fredericksburg,  to  be  ready  to  undertake 
the  crossing  simultaneously  with  the  other  corps  at  Kelly's 
ford  on  Wednesday  morning,  before  day.  The  movement 
was  successfully  conducted  at  both  points,  and  without  serious 
opposition  from  the  Confederates. 

The  Second  corps,  under  Couch,  which  had  remained  at 
Banks'  ford,  four  miles  above  the  town,  was  moved  up  to  the 
United  States  ford,  just  below  the  point  of  confluence  of  the 
Rappahannock  and  Rapidan,  and  crossed  to  join  Gen.  Slocum, 
who  had  crossed  the  Rappahannock  several  miles  higher  up  at 
Kelly's  ford,  and  the  Rapidan  at  Germania  Mills  and  Ely's 
ford,  and  marched  down  to  Chancellorsville.  These  move 
ments  occupied  Wednesday  and  Thursday.  Hooker  now  as 
sumed  command  of  the  right  wing  of  his  army.  He  took  his 
position  across  the  plank-road  and  turnpike  at  Chancellorsville, 
eleven  miles  from  Fredericksburg,  in  order  to  cut  on0  our  an 
ticipated  retreat  in  the  direction  of  Gordonsville,  and  strength 
ened  his  naturally  formidable  position  by  a  series  of  elaborate 
abatis  and  field-works. 

The  North  eagerly  seized  upon  the  different  circumstances 
of  the  existing  situation  as  indicative  of  victory.  Gen.  Hooker 
had  made  himself  conspicuous  in  the  eyes  of  the  Yankees, 
lie  was  confident,  when  examined  before  the  Congressional 
Committee  on  the  conduct  of  the  war,  that  he  could  have 
marched  into  Richmond  at  any  time  at  his  ease  had  he  been 
at  the  head  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  instead  of  Gen 
McClellan  ;  and  if  he  had  had  command  instead  of  Burnside 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  607 

he  would  have  achieved  wonders.  He  had  recently  stated 
that  the  army  he  led  was  u  the  finest  on  the  planet,"  u  an  army 
of  veterans,"  as  the  Tribune  remarked,  "  superior  to  that  of  the 
Peninsula;"  and  so  large  was  it  that  Northern  journals  as 
serted  that  Hooker  had  more  troops  than  he  knew  what  to  do 
with.  ]S"or  was  this  all.  He  was  allowed  by  Lee  to  cross  the 
Eappahannock,  without  opposition  and  without  loss,  and  to  se 
cure  a  position  deemed  impregnable — one  which,  according  ta 
the  order  he  issued  on  Thursday  the  30th  of  April,  had  ren 
dered  it  necessary  that  "  the  enemy  must  either  ingloriously 
fly,  or  come  out  from  behind  his  defences  and  give  us  (the  Yan 
kee  army)  battle  on  our  own  ground,  where  certain  destructioa 
waits  him." 

In  the  mean  time,  Gen.  Lee  was  not  slow  to  meet  the  dispo 
sitions  of  his  adversary.  The  enemy  continued  to  pour  across 
the  river  at  Deep  Run,  until  three  entire  corps,  numbering  be 
tween  h'fty  and  sixty  thousand  men  under  Gen.  Sedgwick,  had 
crossed  to  the  south  side.  Lee  calmly  watched  this  movement, 
as  well  as  the  one  higher  up  the  river  under  Hooker,  until  he 
had  penetrated  the  enemy's  design,  and  seen  the  necessity  of 
making  a  rapid  division  of  his  own  forces,  to  confront  him  on 
two  different  fields,  and  risking  the  result  of  fighting  him  in 
detail. 

About  noon  on  Wednesday,  the  29th,  information  was  re 
ceived  that  the  enemy  had  crossed  the  Rappahannock  in  force 
at  Kelly's  and  Ellis'  fords  above,  and  were  passing  forward 
towards  Germania  Mills  and  Ely's  ford  on  the  Rapidan.  Two 
brigades  of  Anderson's  division,  Posey's  Mississippians,  and 
Mahoue's  Virginians,  numbering  about  8,000  men,  and  one 
battery  of  four  guns,  were,  and  had  been  for  several  weeks, 
stationed  in  the  neighborhood  of  Ely's  ford  on  the  Rapidan, 
and  United  States  ford  on  the  Rappahannock,  guarding  the 
approaches  to  Fredericksburg  in  that  direction.  It  was  appa 
rent  that  this  small  force  would  be  entirely  inadequate  to  ar 
rest  the  approach  of  Hooker's  heavy  column,  and  Wright's 
brigade  was  ordered  up  to  their  support.  At  daylight  on 
Thursday  morning,  the  head  of  Wright's  brigade  reached 
Chancellorsville,  at  which  point  Posey  and  Mahone  had  con 
centrated  their  forces  with  a  view  of  making  a  stand.  Major- 
gen.  Anderson  having  also  arrived  in  the  latter  part  of  the 


608  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

night,  and  having  obtained  further  information  of  the  number 
of  the  Yankee  forces,  upon  consultation  with  his  brigade  com 
manders,  determined  to  fall  back  from  Chancellorsville  in  the 
direction  of  Fredericksburg,  five  miles,  to  a  -point  where  the 
Old  Mine  road,  leading  from  the  United  States  ford,  crosses 
the  Orange  and  Fredericksburg  turnpike  and  plank-road. 
The  turnpike  and  plank- road  were  parallel  to  each  other 
from  Chancellorsville  to  the  point  where  the  Old  Mine  road 
crosses  them,  and  from  there  to  Fredericksburg  they  make  one 
road. 

Chancellorsville  is  eleven  miles  above  Fredericksburg,  and 
about  four  miles  south  of  the  point  of  confluence  of  the  Rapi- 
dan  with  the  Rappahannock,  and  consists  of  a  large  two-story 
brick  house,  formerly  kept  as  a  tavern,  and  a  few  out-houses. 
It  is  situated  on  the  plank-road  leading  from  Fredericksburg 
to  Orange  Court-house,  and  is  easily  approached  by  roads 
leading  from  Germania  Mills,  and  Ely's,  United  States,  and 
Banks'  fords.  Between  Chancellorsville  and  the  river  and 
above  lies  the  Wilderness,  a  district  of  country  formerly 
covered  with  a  scrubby  black-jack,  oaks,  and  a  thick,  tangled 
under-growth,  but  now  somewhat  cleared  up.  The  ground 
around  Chancellorsville  is  heavily  timbered,  and  favorable  for 
defence.  Seven  miles  from  Chancellorsville,  on  the  road  to 
Fredericksburg,  and  four  miles  from  the  latter  place,  is  Salem 
Church. 

During  the  night  of  Thursday,  Gen.  Lee  ordered  Jackson  to 
march  from  his  camp  below  Fredericksburg,  with  A.  P.  Hill's 
and  Rhodes'  (formerly  D.  H.  Hill's)  division,  to  the  relief  of 
Anderson.  Gen.  Lee  brought  up  the  divisions  of  Anderson 
and  McLaws.  He  occupied  the  attention  of  the  enemy  in 
front,  while  Gen.  Jackson,  with  the  divisions  of  Hill,  Rhodes, 
and  Trimble,  moved  by  the  road  that  leads  from  the  Mine 
road,  behind  the  line-ot'-battle,  to  the  road  that  leads  to  Ger 
man  a  ford.  This  movement  of  General  Jackson  occupied 
nearly  the  whole  of  Saturday,  May  2d,  so  that  he  did  not  get 
into  position  at  the  Wilderness  Church  until  near  sunset  of 
that  day. 

While  Jackson  was  gaining  the  enemy's  rear,  McLaws  and 
Anderson  had  successfully  maintained  their  position  in  front. 
Hooker  had  been  felicitating  himself  upon  his  supposed  good 


THE    SECOND    TEAK.  609 

fortune  in  gaining  our  rear.  What  must  have  been  his  sur 
prise,  then,  to  find  Stonewall  Jackson  on  his  extreme  right  and 
rear.  Jackson's  assault  was  sudden  and  furious.  In  a  short 
time  he  threw  Siegel's  corps  (the  llth)  of  Dutchmen  into  a 
perfect  panic,  and  was  driving  the  whole  right  wing  of  the 
Yankee  army  fiercely  down  upon  Anderson's  and  McLaw's 
sturdy  veterans,  who,  in  turn,  hurled  them  back,  and  rendered 
futile  their  efforts  to  break  through  our  lower  lines,  and  made 
it  necessary  for  them  to  give  back  towards  the  river. 

There  was  an  intermission  of  about  one  hour  in  the  firing 
from  three  until  nine  o'clock.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Jack 
son  received  his  death  wound  from  his  own  men,  who  mistook 
him  for  the  enemy.  Gen.  Hill,  upon  whom  the  command  now 
devolved,  was  soon  afterwards  wounded  also,  when  Gen.  Rhodes 
assumed  command  until  Gen.  Stuart  could  arrive  upon  that 
part  of  the  field.  Stewart  renewed  the  fight  at  nine  o'clock, 
night  as  it  wras,  in  accordance  with  Gen.  Jackson's  original 
plan,  and  did  not  withhold  his  blows  until  the  enemy's  right  had 
been  doubled  in  on  his  centre  in  and  around  Charicellorsville. 

At  daylight  Sunday  morning,  our  army,  which  now  sur 
rounded  the  enemy  on  all  sides  except  towards  the  river,  com 
menced  advancing  and  closing  in  upon  him  from  all  points. 
The  enemy  had  dug  rifle-pits  and  cut  abatis  in  front  and  along 
his  whole  line,  while  his  artillery,  well  protected  by  earth 
works,  covered  every  eminence  and  swell  of  rising  ground,  so 
as  to  get  a  direct  and  enfilading  fire  upon  our  advancing 
columns.  But  on  our  gallant  men  moved,  their  ranks  plaved 
upon  by  an  incessant  fire  of  shell,  grape,  and  canister,  from  the 
front,  the  right,  and  left.  On  they  pressed  through  the  wood, 
over  the  fields,  up  the  hills,  into  the  very  mouths  of  the  enemy's 
guns  and  the  long  line  of  rifle-pits.  With  a  terrible  shout  they 
sprang  forward,  and  rushing  through  the  tangled  abatis,  they 
gained  the  bank  in  front  of  the  rifle-pits,  when  the  foe  gave 
way  in  great  confusion  arid  fled. 

An  extraordinary  victory  appeared  to  be  in  our  grasp.  The 
capture  or  destruction  of  Hookers  army  now  appeared  certain. 

Gen.  Lee,  finding  the  enemy  still  in  force  towards  the  river, 
ordered  the  army  to  form  on  the  plank-road  above  Chancellors- 
ville,  extending  his  line  in  a  southeasterly  direction  down  the 
turnpike  below  Chancellorsville,  with  his  centre  resting  about 

39 


610  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

X 

"  the  latter  point.  Just  then,  news  was  received  tiat  Sedgwick< 
taking  advantage  of  our  weakness,  had  crossed  the  river  at 
Fredericksburg,  driven  Barksdale  from  the  town,  and  occupied 
Marye's  hill,  after  capturing  several  pieces  of  the  Washington 
Artillery.  It  was  also  stated  that  Sedgwick  was  advancing  up 
the  plank-road  upon  Lee's  rear.  This  movement  of  the  enemy 
was  all  that  saved  Hooker  from  destruction. 

The  story  of  the  reverse  at  Fredericksburg  is  easily  told. 
Our  forces  in  defence  of  the  line,  commencing  at  Marye's  hill 
and  terminating  at  Hamilton's  crossing,  consisted  of  Gen. 
Barksdale's  brigade  and  Gen.  Early's  division.  Gen.  Barks- 
dale  held  the  extreme  left.  His  line  had  its  beginning  at  a 
point  two  hundred  yards  north  of  Marye's  heights,  and  ex 
tended  a  mile  and  a  half  to  a  point  opposite  the  pontoon  bridge 
on  the  left  of  Mansfield.  This  brigade,  on  the  morning  of  the 
battle,  did  not  exceed  two  thousand  in  numbers,  rank  and  file, 
and  throughout  the  entire  length  of  its  line  had  no  other  sup 
port  than  six  pieces  of  the  Washington  Artillery, which  were 
posted  on  Marye's  heights,  and  Read's  battery,  which  was 
placed  in  position  on  the  hill  to  the  left  of  Howison's  house. 

Against  this  position  the  enemy  brought  to  bear  the  com 
mand  of  Gibbins  on  the  left  flank,  and  about  twenty  thousand 
of  Sedg wick's  corps.  The  first  assault  was  made  in  front  of 
the  stone  wall,  as  in  the  case  of  last  December,  and  was  sig- 

-nally  repulsed.  This  was  repeated  three  times,  and  on  each 
occasion  the  handful  of  men  behind  the  wall,  with  shouts  of 
enthusiasm  and  deadly  volleys,  drove  tack  the  assailants.  The 
first  charge  was  made  before  sunrise,  and  the  others  in  as  rapid 
succession  as  was  possible  after  rallying  and  reinforcement. 
About  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  enemy  adopted  the  ruse 
of  requesting  a  flag  of  truce,  for  the  alleged  purpose  of  carry 
ing  off  the  wounded,  but  for  the  real  object  of  ascertaining  our 
force.  The  flag  was  granted,  and  thereby  our  insufficient  de 
fence  was  exposed,  the  bearer  coming  up  on  the  left  flank  from 
a  direction  whence  our  whole  line  was  visible.  Immediately 
after  the  conclusion  of  the  truce,  the  enemy  reinforced  their 
front,  and  threw  the  whole  of  Gibbins'  division  on  our  Jeft,  de 
fend  3d  by  the  21st  Mississippi  regiment  alone,  commanded  by 
Col.  B.  J.  Humphreys.  This  regiment  faced  the  advancing 
host  without  quailing,  and,  after  firing  until  but  a  few  feet  iu 


THE    SECOND    YEAH.  6H 

(ervened  between  them  and  the  foe,  they  clubbed  muskets  and 
aiccessfully  dashed  back  the  front  line  of  their  assailants.  The 
enemy,  by  the  force  of  overwhelming  numbers,  however,  broke 
through  our  line,  and  Marye's  hill  was  flanked  about  eleven 
o'clock  Sunday  morning. 

The  turn  which  events  had  taken  in  front  of  Fredericksburg 
made  it  necessary  for  Gen.  Lee  to  arrest  the  pursuit  of  Hooker, 
and  caused  him  to  send  back  to  Fredericksburg  the  divisions  of 
Anderson  and  McLaws  to  check  the  advance  of  Sedgwick. 
Gen.  McLaws  moved  down  the  plank-road  to  reinforce  Barks- 
dale  and  Wilcox,  the  latter  of  whom  had  been  observing 
Banks'  ford,  and  who  had  been  driven  back  to  Salem  Church. 
McLaws  reaching  Salem  Church  in  time  to  relieve  Wilcox 
from  the  pressure  of  overwhelming  numbers,  checked  the  ad 
vance  of  Sedgwick,  and  drove  him  back,  with  great  loss  to  both 
parties,  until  night  closed  the  conflict. 

The  enemy,  however,  was  not  yet  defeated.  One  more 
struggle  remained,  and  to  make  that  the  enemy  during  the 
night  massed  a  heavy  force  against  McLaws'  left  in  order  to 
establish  communication  with  Hooker  along  the  river  road. 
Anderson  moved  rapidly  to  the  support  of  McLaws,  and 
reached  the  church  about  12  M.,  having  marched  fifteen  miles. 
Gen.  Lee  having  arrived  on  the  field,  ordered  Anderson  to 
move  round  the  church  and  establish  his  right  on  Early's  left, 
(Early  having  come  up  from  Hamilton's  crossing,  in  rear  of 
the  enemy).  The  enemy  having  weakened  his  left  in  order  to 
force  McLaws  and  gain  the  river  road,  Gen.  Lee  massed  a 
heavy  force  upon  this  weakened  part  of  the  enemy,  and  at  a 
concerted  signal,  Anderson  and  Early  rushed  upon  the  enemy's 
left. 

The  signal  for  the  general  attack  was  not  given  until  just 
before  sunset,  when  our  men  rushed  upon  the  enemy  like  a 
hurricane.  But  little  resistance  was  made,  the  beaten  foe  hav 
ing  fled  in  wild  confusion  in  the  direction  of  Banks'  ford.  At 
dark  a  short  pause  ensued  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  moon  rose,  the 
enemy  was  speedily  driven  to  Banks'  ford,  and  on  that  night 
of  the  4th  of  May  ended  this  remarkable  series  of  battles  on 
the  lines  of  the  Rappahannock. 

The  enemy  being  driven  from  every  point  around  Freder- 
jcksburg,  Gen.  Lee  determined  to  make  short  work  of  Hookei 


612  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAB. 

at  United  States  ford.  Therefore,  Tuesday  noon  Anderson 
was  ordered  to  proceed  immediately  back  to  Chancellorsville, 
while  McLaws  was  instructed  to  take  up  his  position  in  front 
of  United  States  ford,  at  or  near  the  junction  of  the  Old  Mine 
and  River  roads.  But  a  drenching  storm  of  wind  and  rain  set 
in  and  continued  without  cessation  until  Wednesday  forenoon, 
when  it  was  discovered  that  Hooker,  taking  advantage  of  the 
darkness  and  the  storm,  had  also  retreated  across  the  river  the 
preceding  night. 

Our  forces  engaged  in  the  fight  did  not  exceed  fifty  thousand 
men.  The  enemy's  is  variously  estimated  at  from  one  hundred 
thousand  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  Yet  the  greater 
gallantry  of  our  troops,  even  despite  the  emergency  into  which 
their  commander  had  brought  them,  enabled  him  not  only  to 
beat  this  immense  army,  but  to  capture  several  thousand  pris 
oners,  thirty  or  forty  thousand  sma,H-arms,  several  stands  of 
colors,  and  an  immense  amount  of  personal  property,  and  to 
kill  and  wound  some  twenty-five  thousand  men.  It  was  a  glo 
rious  week's  work.* 

"We  have  not  at  present  those  lights  before  us  necessary  for 
a  just  criticism  of  the  military  aspects  of  these  battles  of  the 
Eappahannock.  They  were  undoubtedly  a  great  victory  for 
the  Confederacy.  But  there  were  two  remarkable  misfortunes 
which  diminished  it.  The  breaking  of  our  lines  at  Fredericks- 
burg  withdrew  pursuit  from  Hooker.  When  thereupon  our 


*  The  army  which  accomplished  this  work  was,  according  to  the  Yankee  de 
scription  of  it,  a  curiosity.  Some  of  the  military  correspondence  of  the  Yankee 
journals  was  more  candid  than  usual,  and  admitted  a  shameful  defeat  by  the 
"  ragged  rebels."  One  of  these  correspondents  wrote : 

"We  had  men  enough,  well  enough  equipped  and  well  enough  posted,  to 
have  devoured  the  ragged,  imperfectly  armed  and  equipped  host  of  our  ene 
mies  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  Their  artillery  horses  are  poor,  starved- 
frames  of  beasts,  tied  on  to  their  carriages  and  caissons  with  odds  and  ends  of 
rope  and  strips  of  raw  hide.  Their  supply  and  ammunition  trains  look  like  a 
congregation  of  all  the  crippled  California  emigrant  trains  that  ever  escaped 
off  the  desert  out  of  the  clutches  of  the  rampaging  Camanche  Indians.  The 
men  are  ill-dressed,  ill-equipped,  and  ill-provided — a  set  of  ragamuffins  that  a 
man  is  ashamed  to  be  seen  among,  even  when  he  is  a  prisoner  and  can't  help 
it.  And  yet  they  have  beaten  us  fairly,  beaten  us  all  to  pieces,  beaten  us  so 
easily  that  we  are  objects  of  contempt  even  to  their  commonest  private  soldiers, 
with  no  shirts  to  hang  out  of  the  holes  in  their  pantaloons,  and  cartridge-boxen 
tied  round  their  waists  with  strands  of  rope." 


LT   CEN.  T.  J.  JACKSO  N. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  -613 

forces  were  turned  upon  Sedgwick,  a  second  misfortune  robbed 
us  of  a  complete  success ;  for  he  managed  to  secure  his  retreat 
by  Banks'  ford,  which  exit  might  possibly  have  been  cut  off, 
and  the  exclusion  of  which  would  have  secured  his  surrender. 
Of  these  events  there  is  yet  no  official  detail. 

But  a  shadow  greater  than  that  of  any  partial  misfortunes 
on  the  field  rested  on  the  Confederate  victory  of  Chancellors- 
ville.  It  was  the  death  of  Gen.  Jackson.  This  event  is  impor 
tant  enough  to  require,  even  in  the  contracted  limits  of  these 
supplementary  pages,  a  separate  title  and  a  notice  apart  from 
our  general  narrative. 


THE  DEATH  OF  "STONEWALL"  JACKSON". 

It  was  about  eight  o'clock  on  Saturday  evening,  2d  of  May, 
when  Gen.  Jackson  and  his  staff,  who  were  returning  on  the  front 
of  our  line  of  skirmishers,  were  fired  upon  by  a  regiment  of  his 
own  corps,  who  mistook  the  party  for  the  enemy.  At'the  time 
the  general  was  only  about  fifty  yards  in  advance  of  the  enemy 
He  had  given  orders  to  fire  at  any  thing  coming  up  the  road, 
before  he  left  the  lines.  The  enemy's  skirmishers  appeared 
ahead  of  him  and  he  turned  to  ride  back.  Just  then  some  one 
cried  out,  "  Cavalry  !  charge !"  and  immediately  the  regiment 
fired.  The  whole  party  broke  forward  to  ride  through  our  line 
to  escape  the  fire.  Captain  Boswell  was  killed  and  carried 
through  the  line  by  his  horse,  and  fell  amid  our  own  men.  The 
general  himelf  was  struck  by  three  balls :  one  through  the  left 
arm,  two  inches  below  the  shoulder  joint,  shattering  the  bone 
and  severing  the  chief  artery ;  another  ball  passed  through  the 
same  arm,  between  the  elbow  and  wrist,  making  its  exit  through 
the  palm  of  the  hand  ;  a  third  ball  entered  the  palm  of  the  right 
hand  about  its  middle,  and  passing  through,  broke  two  of  the 
bones.  As  Gen.  Jackson  was  being  borne  from  the  field,  one 
of  the  litter-bearers  was  shot  down,  and  the  general  fell  from 
the  shoulders  of  the  men.  receiving  a  severe  contusion,  adding 
to  the  injury  of  the  arm,  and  injuring  the  side  severely.  Th 
enemy's  fire  of  artillery  on  the  point  was  terrible.  Gen.  Jack 
son  was  left  for  five  minutes,  until  the  fire  slackened,  then 
placed  in  an  ambulance  and  carried  to  the  field  hospital  at 


614:  SOUTHERN    HISTORF    OF    THE    WAR. 

Wilderness  Run.  He  lost  a  large  amount  of  blood,  and  at  one 
time  told  Dr.  McGuire  he  thought  he  was  dying,  and  would 
have  bled  to  death,  but  a  tourniquet  was  immediately  applied. 
For  two  hours  he  was  nearly  pulseless  from  the  shock. 

Amputation  of  the  arm  was  decided  upon,  and  the  operation 
was  borne  so  well  that  hopes  of  a  speedy  recovery  were  confi 
dently  entertained.  A  few  days  had  elapsed,  and  his  physi 
cians  had  decided  to  remove  the  distinguished  sufferer  to 
Richmond,  when  symptoms  of  pneumonia  were  unfortunately 
developed.  The  complication  of  this  severe  disease  with  his 
wounds,  left  but  little  hope  of  his  life,  and  on  Sunday,  the 
eighth  day  of  his  suffering,  it  was  apparent  that  he  was  rap 
idly  sinking,  and  he  was  informed  that  he  was  dying.  The 
intelligence  was  received  with  no  expression  of  disappointment 
or  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  dying  hero ;  his  only  responsb 
was,  "It  is  all  right,"  which  was  repeated.  He  had  pre 
viously  said  that  he  considered  his  wounds  "  a  blessing,"  aa 
Providence  had  always  a  good  design  in  whatever  it  ordained, 
and  to  that  Providence  in  which  he  had  always  trusted  he 
had  committed  himself  with  uninterrupted  confidence.  But 
once  he  regretted  his  early  fall,  and  that  was  with  reference 
to  the  immediate  fortunes  of  the  field.  He  said :  "  If  I  had 
not  been  wounded,  or  had  had  an  hour  more  of  daylight, 
I  would  have  cut  off  the  enemy  from  the  road  to  the 
United  States  ford,  and  we  would  have  had  them  entirely 
surrounded,  and  they  would  have  been  obliged  to  surrender  or 
cut  their  way  out ;  they  ha<J  no  other  alternative.  My  troops 
sometimes  may  fail  in  driving  the  enemy  from  a  position,  but 
the  enemy  always  fail  to  drive  my  men  from  a  position."  This 
was  said  with  a  sort  of  smiling  playfulness. 

The  following  account  of  the  dying  moments  of  the  hero  is 
taken  from  the  authentic  testimony  of  a  religious  friend  and 
companion: 

"  He  endeavored  to  cheer  those  who  were  around  him.  No 
ticing  the  sadness  of  his  beloved  wife,  he  said  to  her  tenderly, 
4 1  know  you  would  gladly  give  your  life  for  me,  but  I  am  per 
fectly  resigned.  Do  not  be  sad — I  hope  I  shall  recover.  Pray 
for  me,  but  always  remember  in  your  prayer,  to  use  the  peti 
tion,  Thy  will  be  done.'  Those  who  were  around  him  noticed 
a  remarkable  development  of  tenderness  in  his  manner  and 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  615 

feelings  during  Ins  illness,  that  was  a  beautiful  mellowing  oi 
that  iron  sternness  and  imperturbable  calm  that  characterized 
him  in  his  military  operations.  Advising  his  wife,  in  th 
event  of  his  death,  to  return  to  her  father's  house,  he  remarked, 
i  You  have  a  kind  and  good  father ;  but  there  is  no  one  so  kind 
and  good  as  your  Heavenly  Father.'  When  she  told  him  that 
the  doctors  did  not  think  he  could  live  two  hours,  although  he 
did  not  himself  expect  to  die,  he  replied,  'It  will  be  infinite 
gain  to  be  translated  to  Heaven  and  be  with  Jesus.'  He  theu 
said  he  had  much  to  say  to  her,  but  was  too  weak. 

"  He  had  always  desired  to  die,  if  it  were  God's  will,  on  the 
Sabbath,  and  seemed  to  greet  its  light  that  day  with  peculiar 
pleasure,  saying,  with  evident  delight,  'It  is  the  Lord's  day;' 
and  inquired  anxiously  what  provision  had  been  made  for 
preaching  to  the  army ;  and  having  ascertained  that  arrange 
ments  were  made,  he  was  contented.  Delirium,  which  occa 
sionally  manifested  itself  during  the  last  two  days,  prevented 
some  of  the  utterances  of  his  faith,  which  would  otherwise 
have  doubtless  been  made.  His  thoughts  vibrated  between 
religious  subjects  and  the  battle-field;  now  asking  some  ques 
tions  about  the  Bible,  or  church  history,  and  then  giving  an 
order — 'Pass  the  infantry  to  the  front.'  'Tell  Major  Hawks 
to  send  forward  provisions  to  the  men.'  'Let  us  cross  over  the 
river,  and  rest  under  the  shade  of  the  trees,' — until  at  last  his 
gallant  spirit  gently  passed  over  the  dark  river  and  entered  on 
its  rest." 

It  is  not  proposed  here,  nor  could  space  be  found  within  the 
limits  of  a  supplementary  chapter  to  make  a  record  of  the  life 
and  services  of  Gen.  Jackson.  A  very  brief  sketch  is  all  that 
is  possible ;  and  indeed  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  do  more,  as 
so  much  of  his  military  life  is  already  spread  on  the  pages  of 
this  volume  and  intermixed  'with  th^  general  narrative  of  the 
war. 

Gen.  Thomas  Jonathan  Jackson  was  born  in  Harrison  county. 
Virginia,  in  1825,  and  graduated  at  West  Point  in  18-16.  His 
first  military  services  were  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  he  behaved 
so  well  that  he  was  breveted  major  for  his  services.  The  Army 
Register  and  the  actual  history  and  facts  of  the  Mexican  war 
do  not  furnish  the  name  of  another  person  entering  the  war 
without  position  or  office,  who  attained  the  high  rank  of  major 


616  SOUTHERN    HISTORY     of    THE    WAR. 

in  the  brief  campaign  and  series  of  battles  from  Yera  Cruz  tc 
the  city  of  Mexico 

At  the  close  of  the  Mexican  war  Jackson  resigned  his  posi 
tion  in  the  army,  and  obtained  a  professorship  in  the  Virginia 
Military.  Institute.  His  services  were  not  conspicuous  here. 
Col.  Gilharn  was  considered  as  the  military  genius  of  the 
school,  and  Thomas  Jackson  was  but  little  thought  of  by  the 
small  hero-worshippers  of  Lexington.  The  cadets  had  but 
little  partiality  for  the  taciturn,  praying  professor. 

Perhaps  none  of  the  acquaintances  of  Jackson  were  more 
surprised  at  his  brilliant  exhibitions  of  genius  in  this  war,  than 
those  who  knew  his  blank  life  at  the  Institute,  and  were  familiar 
with  the  stiff  and  uninteresting  figure  that  was  to  be  seen  every 
Sunday  in  a  pew  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Lexington.  But 
true  genius  awaits  occasion  commensurate  with  its  power  and 
aspiration.  The  spirit  of  Jackson  was  trained  in  another  school 
than  that  of  West  Point  or  Lexington,  and  had  it  been  confined 
there,  it  never  would  have  illuminated  the  page  of  history. 

In  the  early  periods  of  the  war,  Jackson,  commissioned  colonel 
by  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  was  attached  to  Gen.  Johnston's 
command,  on  the  Upper  Potomac.  At  Falling  Waters,  on  the 
2d  of  July,  1861,  he  engaged  the  advance  of  Patterson,  and 
gave  the  Yankees  one  of  the  first  exemplifications"  of  his  ready- 
witted  strategy ;  as  Patterson  never  knew  that,  for  several  hours, 
he  was  fighting  an  insignificant  force,  skilfully  disposed  to  con 
ceal  their  weakness,  while  Johnston  was  making  his  dispositions 
in  the  rear. 

The  first  conspicuous  services  of  Jackson  in  this  war  were 
rendered  at  Manassas,  in  1861 ;  although  the  marks  of  active 
determination  he  had  shown  on  the  Upper  Potomac,'  and  the 
affair  at  Falling  Waters,  had  already  secured  for  him  promo 
tion  to  a  brigadier-generalship.  The  author  recollects  some 
paragraphs  in  a  Southern  newspaper  expressing  great  merri 
ment  at  the  first  apparition  of  the  future  hero  on  the  battle 
field.  His  queer  figure  on  horseback,  and  the  habit  of  settling 
his  chin  in  his  stock,  were  very  amusing  to  some  correspond 
ents,  who  made  a  flippant  jest  in  some  of  the  Southern  news 
papers  of  the  military  specimen  of  the  Old  Dominion.  The 
jent  ia  forgiven  and  forgotten  in  the  tributes  of  admiration  and 
]«  -rs  "Ariiich  were  to  ensue  to  the  popular  hero  of  the  war. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  617 

/ 

We  have  already  given  in  another  part  of  this  work  (the 
first  volume),  an  account  of  the  remarkable  expedition  of  Jack 
son  in  the  depth  of  the  winter  of  1861-2,  to  Winchester,  where 
he  had  been  sent  from  Gen.  Johnston's  lines.  The  expedition 
was  successful,  and  the  inarch  was  made  through  an  almost 
blinding  storm  of  snow  and  sleet,  our  troops  bivouacking  at 
night  in  the  forest,  where  many  died  from  cold  and  exhaustion. 

Without  doubt,  the  most  brilliant  and  extraordinary  passages 
in  the  military  life  of  General  Jackson  was  the  ever  famous 
campaign  of  the  summer  of  1862  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia. 
From  the  valley  he  reached  by  rapid  marches  the  lines  of  the 
Chickahominy  in  time  to  play  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  splen 
did  conclusion  of  the  campaign  of  the  Peninsula. 

Since  the  battles  of  the  Chickahominy,  the  military  services 
of  General  Jackson  are  comparatively  fresh  in  the  recollections 
of  the  public.  We  have  already  seen  in  these  pages  that  the 
most  substantial  achievements  and  brilliant  successes  of  last 
Bummer's  campaign  in  Virginia  are  to  be  attributed  to  him. 

The  participation  of  Jackson  in  the  campaign  of  Maryland, 
and  that  of  the  Rappahannock,  shared  their  glory,  but  without 
occasion  for  observation  on  those  distinct  and  independent 
movements  which  were  his  forte,  and  for  the  display  of  which 
he  had  room  in  the  valley  .campaign,  and  that  against  Pope. 

The  most  noble  testimony  of  the  services  of  the  departed 
hero  in  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  is  to  be  found  in  the  note 
of  Gen.  Lee,  which  is  characteristic  of  his  own  generosity  and 
worth.  Gen.  Lee  wrote  him  : 

"  General :  I  have  just  received  your  note  informing  me 
that  you  were  wounded.  I  cannot  express  my  regret  at  the 
occurrence.  Could  I  have  dictated  events,  I  should  have  chosen 
for  the  good  of  the  country  to  have  been  disabled  in  your 
stead. 

"  I  congratulate  you  upon  the  victory  which  is  due  to  your 
skill  and  energy." 

Jackson's  response  to  his  attendants  on  hearing  the  note  read 
is  said  to  have  been,  "  Gen.  Lee  should  give  the  glory  to  God." 
It  was  an  expression  of  his  modesty  and  reverence. 

A  friend  relates  that  a  few  nights  before  this  battle,  an 
equally  characteristic  incident  occurred  that  is  w^-fhy  of 


618  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

record.  lie  was  discussing  with  one  of  his  aids  the  proba 
bility  and  issue  of  a  battle,  when  he  became  unusually  excited, 
After  talking  it  over  fully,  he  paused,  and  with  deep  humility 
and  reverence  said,  "  My  trust  is  in  God ;"  then,  as  if  the 
sound  of  battle  was  in  his  ear,  he  raised  himself  to  his  tallest 
stature,  and,  with  flashing  eyes  and  a  face  all  blazoned  with  the 
fire- of  the  conflict,  he  exclaimed,  "  I  wish  they  would  come." 

A  strong  religious  sentiment  combined  with  practical  energy, 
and  an  apparent  dash  of  purpose  qualified  by  the  silent  calcu 
lations  of  genius,  were  the  remarkable  traits  of  the  character 
of  Jackson.  It  was  his  humble  Christian  faith  combined  with 
the  spirit  of  the  warrior  that  made  that  rare  and  lofty  type  of 
martial  prowess  that  has  shrined  Jackson  among  the  great 
heroes  of  the  age. 

From  all  parts  of  the  living  world  have  come  tributes  to  his 
fame.  "  He  was,"  says  the  London  Times,  "  one  of  the  most 
consummate  generals  that  this  century  has  produced.  .  .  . 
That  mixture  of  daring  and  judgment,  which  is  the  mark  oi 
'  Heaven-born'  generals,  distinguished  him  beyond  any  man 
of  his  time.  Although  the  young  Confederacy  has  been 
illustrated  by  a  number  of  eminent  soldiers,  yet  the  applause 
and  devotion  of  his  countrymen,  confirmed  by  the  judgment 
of  European  nations,  have  given  the  first  place  to  Gen.  Jack 
son.  The  military  feats  he  accomplished  moved  the  minds  of 
the  people  with  astonishment,  which  it  is  only  given  to  the 
highest  genius  to  produce.  The  blows  lie  struck  at  the  enemy 
were  as  terrible  and  decisive  as  those  of  Bonaparte  himself." 

It  is  proposed  already  that  the  State  of  Virginia  shall  build 
for  him  a  stately  tomb,  and  strike  a  medal  to  secure  the 
memory  of  his  name.  These  expressions  of  a  nation's  grati 
tude  may  serve  its  own  pleasure.  But  otherwise  they  are  un 
necessary. 

"  Dear  son  of  memory,  great  heir  of  fame, 
What  need'st  thou  such  weak  witness  of  thy  name !" 


THE    SECOND    YEAR. 


CHAFTEE  XXV. 

A  Period  of  Disasters. — DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. — Granfa  March  upon 
Vicksbnrg.—  Its  Steps  and  Incidents.— The  Engagement  of  Port  Gibson.— The  Evacu 
ation  of  Jackson. — The  Battle  of  Baker's  Creek. — Pemberton's  Declarations  as  to  tha 
Defence  of  Vicksburg.— A  grand  Assault  upon  the  "Heroic  City."— Its  Repulse.— 
The  Final  Surrender  of  Vicksburff.—Row  the  Public  Mind  of  the  South  was  shocked. 
— Consequences  of  the  Disaster. — How  it  involved  affairs  on  the  Lower  Mississippi. 
—Other  Theatres  of  the  War.— THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  MAINLAND.— 
Hooker  manoeuvred  oat  of  Virginia. — The  Recapture  of  Winchester. — The  Second 
Invasion  of  the  Northern  Territory.— The  Alarm  of  the  North.— Gen.  Lee's  object  ia 
the  Invasion  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania. — His  Essays  at  Conciliation. — The  Er 
ror  of  such  Policy. — The  advance  of  his  Lines  into  Pennsylvania. — The  Battle  ol 
Gettysburg.— The  Three  Days'  Engagements.— Death  of  Barksdale.— Pickett's  splen 
did  Charge  on  the  Batteries. — Repulse  of  the  Confederates. — Anxiety  and  Alarm  in 
Richmond. — Lee's  sate  Retreat  into  Virginia. — Mystery  of  his  Movement. — Recovery 

of  the  Confidence  of  the  South Review  of  the  Present  Aspects  of  th a 

War.— Comparison  between  the  Disasters  of  1862  and  those  of  1863.— The  Vitals  of 
the  Confederacy  yet  untouched. — Review  of  the  Civil  Administration. — President 
Davis,  his  Cabinet,  and  his  Favorites. — His  private  Quarrels. — His  Deference  to  Euro 
pean  Opinion. — Decline  of  the  Finances  of  the  Confederacy. — Reasons  of  their  Decline. 
The  Confederate  Brokers. — The  Blockade  Runners. — The  Disaffections  of  Property- 
holders. — The  Spirit  of  the  Army. — The  Moral  Resolution  of  the  Confederacy. — How 
the  Enemy  has  strengthened  it. — The  Prospects  of  the  Future. 

WE  find  it  necessary  to  give  another  chapter  to  the  exten 
sion  of  our  narrative  beyond  its  appropriate  limit.  We  shall 
proceed  rapidly  with  a  general  reference  to  such  events  as  may 
exhibit  the  condition  of  the  Confederacy  at  the  time  of  this 
writing,  reserving  details  for  another  volume  that  will  properly 
cover  the  period  of  the  third  year  of  the  War.  That  year  has 
opened  with  disasters,  at  which  we  can  now  glance  only  im 
perfectly,  for  upon  them  the  lights  of  time  have  scarcely  yet 
developed. 

DEPARTMENT   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

As  the  attention  of  the  reader  returns  to  the  busy  scenes  of 
the  war,  it  is  taken  by  one  of  those  sudden   translations,  so 
common  in  this  history,  from  Virginia  to  the  distant  theatres 
of  the  West.     The  smoke  of  battle  yet  lingered  on  the  Ilappa 
kj  when  the  attention  of  the  public  was  suddenly  drawn  to 


»or  i  in  K\    msTOKY    V»N    Tin.:.    \v  \K 


<i>"  VMI  "  mrtUag  moou 

tho  ononn    NX.I-.  on  tho  ovorUihl  umivli 

^*    '  that  had  10  '•••          ad  MI  ittai  K  from  iiu«  wafe 

Wo  IIMYO  ;it  (his  timo  onlv  \-orv  umvi'iaiu   umtormls  for   (ho 

Wo    Mill:.!    Jit    jMVSOUt 

.-'.-.-il  ouilino  (hut  will  Mtdttdt 

!'u>vl  (hut   \\h:K  \v  o  i-.'ii»  ilo 
Ml   1  ipl\   to  JMI 

tfa   i-i4Uipjii:'.u    in    ilu'ii-    u.-itin-:»l    sihvfs^ion.  .-nul 
\\hu-h,  up  (v»  thU  (uuo,  1»M\  o 
^       • 
•inning  thflgnuutlot  of  our   1  :»in-^>\i(h 

;s,  (iruni    uvo'ultHl   the  atOMftitv  of  tho  roinph" 
of  tl»o  otuwl,  tuui  stHninnl  a  pMMgtt  of  Urn  rtver,  after  K  :ulin>-; 
lus  troopt  OVtM'  tho  n  ul:i  Ivlov.  :u\\ 

}»oiut  wl  1!  ../:  .->  \\hiv-h   ho  »ui^ht  »eleot      It  UJ>P> 

thnt  tho  itcttaww  at  Gnuul  luilf,  twtntj^two  n  :\  ot 

^^'      .     ,  ::    .••'.    .,'       ::>'    :::>•   .'. 

wflor  thr  v    had  ftVlOCMdttd  ill  ^>ttin^  aouio  of  his  vt'ssoU 

•  :i:ul   N'u-lv-lMi:^        l':io  B 

naT^fibltfor  »<>m«  dUtanms  thi  -v  i  to  ol^t 

tho  patmi^  of  n  !\MVO  to  tho  rfcar  of  Viokaburv:  l\v  this  route. 

Thottl»ttuaoun\o!\tof  our  \v  ,aoraMTerebt>mbartU 

u\out,  OJVIUH!   tho  Uoor  to  tho   ouowv,  unil  tho  l>  l*ort 

•iou^lit   on   tho    1  >f  Maj,  r  tluxr 

hoir\YH\  •.;•£,    ilio  evaenation  of  1 

^  v  Joiu  Bovvou  \va«i  followed  by  tlwt  1  his 

witUilnuvu   aOTOM  the  Big  1'h^k   \\ithin   twenty 
luiKv*  of  Vioksbw^ 

So  fur  in  tho  onuijnugn  tho  ouowy  had  a  rtmafkaMe  advan* 
v^uv-  ^noraU  \von>  whollv  u\\aMo  to  ponotrate  his 

,o  ovMiipolKnl  to  wait  tho  proi»roiiaive  att^  of  their 
loptutftt 

It  was  i)\4HvssiUle  to  \\wwft  the  precise  }>oint  at  whioh  the 
bloxv  \vowM  ho  $trnok,  o-  --.ohahlo  *vi\jwtim>  of 

tho  Jm\uodUto  objtvt*  of  tho  omvwyNi  enttn  uu%a 

tn^\^^orrs  hud  siuvo<\tovi  in  )>at»iug  thebatteriet  atViek&V 
ho  had  a  rJvor  trout  v^f  tuort*  than  a  hnndixni  nuhx*  where  h 
ov^uKl  laud,    Tho  |>oiut  of  hU  landing  having  hwn  dotonnuunl 
«t  <iraud  tvwlf,  vt  wa*  still  untertair  wheUier  he  meant  to  «}>* 


TJIK    IfJCOfD     ITrfAlt 

• 

' 

lull*  Jackwn 

WM  t;<  ('attack, 

0  f>ok  portion  of  Jii« 

Gen*  Johnaion  wa»  i/ 

-thwart  too  late  t 

t;-,  whid.  .ady  O&:1 

i  JM:  WHH  foi  '  bating  <• 

evit''  .    i,fi-uj 

-f  Miiwiwippi  MMmin  t-  <?en  but  :,M  inii 

:   it   J-    j//'/l/:«lyl«:    th;it,  <;V«'n    WJfh    r 

J'i   Ji;tV<;   |y«;cn   ri;-.J'i»J    tl,<r<;  jf  JuekftOtt 

!'"  "    ;  n/)j/«>rtanco  than  H»  a  p^int  <^'  railroad  iu 
Mttiion  of  lh< 

Alii-  •.,  in   UM;  an'/wuwnl  of  Port  ^ 

failed^  «  n^iny,  it  wa*  uj» 

•U>o  -;i(jUttto  in  g'  po* 

n    M.U'lj    of   tin:   jJi;'    I;J:i';k,  and    i  | 

along  that  stream  c'tt«t  fn/iu  iJx;  Ali..viM>ij>j>i,  HO  a»  t/> 

j  !,   fwaauJt    ffOtn    I!M;   iv-yufh.      'J'ljiw,  Ui»j 

Q    liii«;   of  OU1  I  <•,    w:w  o<  '  • 


0     '  May  o':'  :ni<']    th.     blood/    l>attl«  of  Bft] 

'  r«  •  1     (OH    ll»«:    .J.     .  . 

ton   w;ib   '  0  I'/KM  of 

artiJ;  (>     I       f'-llowi/j^  day  iji<-  <  '-rate*  again  tu»- 

<d  a  di*a*ter  at  Big  I-  -i^;  an«J  </n  th.-  Joth  Vick*- 

•>J^J  bj  i  the  right  of  lib 

.v;j. 
Iti»  prol':tl>J<;  that  it  w^  "m<mt»  t^> 

•   •     •       ,         : 

('")i',  J'-/rt    G  .     f,ij;n<,<J     I/;.'  tli0 

of  Vi<;bl,'< 

.;">»u  JjJx  work»  t'  t,  in 

»))«;  ojM-jj  Ji(,-]<J  and   )-<  :,,,„,  ;M  ; 

U)a<J<:<jn;i1«;    ;  . 

A»»ljiit  r«'^ort  J,. 
ltd  liia  work*  wi  ,1^ 


622  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAE. 

but  still  glorious  little  army.  The  unfortunate  commander  ap* 
peased  the  clamor  against  himself  by  an  apparently  noble  can 
dor  and  memorable  words  of  heroism.  He  said  that  it  had 
been  declared  that  he  would  sell  Yieksburg,  and  exhorted  hia 
soldiers  to  follow  him  to  see  the  price  at  which  he  would  sell 
it — for  it  would  not  be  less  than  his  own  life  and  that  of  every 
man  in  his  command.  Those  words  were  not  idle  utterances  ; 
they  deserve  to  be  commemorated  ;  they  were  heroic  only  in 
proportion  as  they  were  fulfilled  and  translated  into  action. 

The  events  of  the  19th,  20th,  and  21st  of  May  wearied  the 
Yankees,  who  imagined  that  they  saw  in  their  grasp  the  palm 
of  the  Mississippi.  So  fully  assured  were  they  of  victory,  that 
they  postponed  it  from  day  to  day.  To  storm  the  works  was 
to  take  Yicksburg,  in  their  opinion  ;  and  when  it  was  known, 
on  the  morning  of  the  21st,  that  at  ten  o'clock  next  morning 
the  whole  line  of  Confederate  works  would  be  assaulted,  the 
credulous  and  vain  enemy  accounted  success  so  certain  that  it 
was  already  given  to  the  wings  of  the  telegraph. 

Indeed,  there  is  'no  doubt  that  at  one  hour  of  this  famous 
day,  McClernand,  the  Yankee  general  who  made  the  assault 
on  the  left,  sent  a  dispatch  to  Grant  that  he  had  taken  three 
forts,  and  would  soon  be  in  possession  of  the  city.  But  the 
success  was  a  deceitful  one.  The  redoubts  carried  by  the  en 
emy  brought  him  within  the  pale  of  a  devouring  fire.  At  every 
point  he  was  repulsed ;  and  with  reference  to  completeness  ot 
victory,  exhibitions  of  a  devoted  courage,  and  the  carnage  ac 
complished  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  these  battles  of  Yicks- 
Durg  must  be  accounted  among  the  most  famous  in  the  annals 
of  the  war. 

But  despite  the  discouragements  of  the  repulse,  there  still 
remained  to  the  enemy  the  prospects  of  a  siege  under  circum 
stances  of  peculiar  and  extraordinary  advantage.  Although 
Grant's  attack  was  made  from  Grand  Gulf,  that  place  was  not 
long  his  base;  and  when  he  gained  Haines'  Bluff  and  the 
Yazoo,  all  communication  with  it  was  abandoned.  He  was 
enabled  to  rely  on  Memphis  and  the  river  above  Yicksburg  for 
food  and  reinforcements ;  his  communications  were  open  with 
the  entire  "West;  and  the  Northern  newspapers  urgently  de 
manded  that  the  utmost  support  should  be  given  to  a  favorite 


THE    SECOND    YEAH.  023 

general,  and  that  the  Trans-Mississippi  should  be  sti  ipped  01 
troops  to  supply  him  with  reinforcements. 

But  the  South  still  entertained  hopes  of  the  safety  of  Ticks- 
burg.  It  was  stated  in  Richmond  by  those  who  should  have 
been  well  informed,  that  the  garrison  numbered  considerably 
more  than  twenty  thousand  men,  and  was  provisioned  for  a 
siege  of  six  months.  Nearly  every  day  the  telegraph  had 
some  extravagance  to  tell  concerning  the  supreme  safety  oi 
Yicksburg  and  the  confidence  of  the  garrison.  The  heroic 
promise  of  Pernberton  that  the  city  should  not  fall  until,  the 
last  man  had  fallen  in  the  last  ditch  was  called  to  the  popular 
remembrance.  The  confidence  of  the  South  was  swollen  even 
to  insolence  by  these  causes ;  and  although  a  few  of  the  intel 
ligent  doubted  the  extravagant  assurances  of  the  safety  of 
Yicksburg,  the  people  at  large  received  them  with  an  unhesi 
tating  and  exultant  faith. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  -surprise  and  consternation  of 
the  people  of  the  South  may  be  imagined,  when,  without  the 
least  premonition,  the  announcement  came  that  the  select  an 
niversary  of  the  Fourth  of  July  had  been  signalized  by  the 
capitulation  of  Yicksburg,  without  a  fight;  the  surrender  of 
twenty  odd  thousand  troops  as  prisoners ;  and  the  abandon 
ment  to  the  Yankees  of  one  of  the  greatest  prizes  of  artillery 
that  had  yet  been  made  in  the  war.  The  news  fell  upon  Rich 
mond  like  a  thunder-clap  from  clear  skies.  The  day  of  our 
humiliation  at  Yicksburg  had  been  ill-selected.  But  it  was 
said  that  Gen.  Pemberton  was  advised  that  the  enemy  intended 
to  make  a  formidable  assault  on  the  next  day,  and  that  he  was 
unwilling  to  await  it  with  an  enfeebled  garrison,  many  of  whom 
were  too  weak  to  bear  arms  in  their  hands.  The  condition  of 
the  garrison,  although  certainly  not  as  extreme  as  that  which 
Pemberton  had  heroically  prefigured  as  the  alternative  of  sur 
render,  and  although  holding  no  honorable  comparison  with 
the  amount  of  privation  and  suffering  borne  in  other  sieges  re 
corded  in  history,  was  yet  deplorable.  Our  troops  had  suffered 
more  froih  exhausting  labors  than  from  hunger;  and  their 
spirit  had  been  distressed  by  the  melancholy  isolation  of  a  siege 
in  which  they  were  cut  off  from  communication  with  their 
homes,  and  perhaps  by  other  causes  which  are  not  now  cer 
tainly  known.  Patience  is  not  s,  virtue  of  Southern  soldiers, 


624  SOUTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  for  it  at  least  the  garrison  of  Yicksburg  will  not  be  con 
spicuous  in  history. 

It  is  not  possible  at  this  time  to  determine  the  consequences 
of  the  fall  of  Yicksburg.  That  it  was  the  ostensible  key  to  a 
vast  amount  of  disputed  territory  in  the  West,  and  that  it  in 
volved  a  network  of  important  positions,  were  universally  ad 
mitted  in  the  South.  But  this  estimate  of  its  importance  is 
intricate  and  uncertain,  and  awaits  the  development  of  events. 
The  army  of  Johnston  was  saved,  instead  of  being  risked  in 
an  attack  on  Grant's  rear  at  Yicksburg,  and  is  still  disputing 
the  enemy's  encroachments  in  the  Southwest.  We  must  leave 
its  movements  to  more  convenient  and  future  narration. 

But  we  must  recognize  the  fact  of  various  disasters  which 
have  immediately  ensued  from  the  fall  of  Yicksburg.  It  com 
pelled  the  surrender  of  Port  Hudson  as  its  necessary  conse 
quence.*  It  neutralized  in  a  great  measure  a  remarkable  series 


*  The  fall  of  Port  Hudson  did  not  take  place  until  after  a  prolonged  and  gal- 
ant  resistance,  the  facts  of  which  may  be  briefly  commemorated  here.  On  the 
morning  of  the  22d  of  May,  the  enemy,  under  command  of  Gen.  Banks,  pushed 
his  infantry  forward  within  a  mile  of  our  breastworks.  Having  taken  his  posi 
tion  for  the  investment  of  our  works,  he  advanced  with  his  whole  force  against 
the  breastworks,  directing  his  main  attack  against  the  left,  commanded  by  Col. 
Steadman.  Vigorous  assaults  were  also  made  against  the  extreme  left  of  Col. 
Miles  and  Gen.  Beale,  the  former  of  whom  commanded  on  the  centre,  the  latter 
on  the  right.  On  the  left  the  attack  was  made  by  a  brigade  of  negroes,  com 
posing  about  three  regiments,  together  with  the  same  force  of  white  Yankees 
across  a  bridge  which  had  been  built  over  Sandy  creek.  About  five  hundred 
negroes  in  front  advanced  at  double-quick  within  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
of  the  works,  when  the  artillery  on  the  river  bluff,  and  two  light  pieces  on  our 
left,  opened  upon  them,  and  at  the  same  time  they  were  received  with  volleys 
of  musketry.  The  negroes  fled  every  way  in  perfect  con  usion,  and,  according 
to  the  enemy's  report,  six  hundred  of  them  perished.  The  repulse  on  Miles' 
left  was  decisive. 

On  the  13th  of  June  a  communication  was  received  from  Gen.  Banks,  de 
manding  the  unconditional  surrender  of  the  post.  He  complimented  the  gar 
rison  in  high  terms  for  their  endurance.  He  stated  that  his  artillery  was  equal 
to  any  in  extent  and  efficiency ;  that  his  men  outnumbered  ours  five  to  one, 
and  that  he  demanded  the  surrender  in  the  name  of  humanity,  to  prevent  a 
useless  sacrifice  of  life.  Gen.  Gardner  replied  that  his  duty  required  him  to  de 
fjnd  the  post,  and  he  must  refuse  to  entertain  any  such  proposition. 

On  the  morning  of  the  14th,  just  before  day,  the  fleet  and  all  the  land  oat- 
teries,  which  the  enemy  had  succeeded  in  erecting  at  one  hundred  to  three  hun 
dred  yards  from  our  breastworks,  opened  fire  at  the  same  time.  About  day 
light,  under  cover  of  the  smoke,  the  enemy  advanced  along  the  whole  line,  and 


THE    SECOND   .YEAR.  625 

of  successes  on  the  Lower  Mississippi,  including  the  victory  of 
Gen.  Taylor  at  Ashland,  Louisiana,  which  broke  one  of  the 
points  of  investment  around  Yicksburg,  and  his  still  more 
glorious  achievement  in  the  capture  of  Brashear  City.  The 
defence  of  the  cherished  citadel  of  the  Mississippi  had  involved 
exposure  and  weakness  in  other  quarters.  It  had  almost  strip 
ped  Charleston  of  troops ;  it  had  taken  many  thousand  men 
from  Bragg's  army  ;  and  it  had  made  such  requisitions  on  his 
force  for  the  newly  organized  lines  in  Mississippi,  that  that 
general  was  compelled  or  induced,  wisely  or  unwisely,  to  fall 
back  from  Tullahoma,  to  give  up  the  country  on  the  Memphis 
and  Charleston  railroad,  and  practically  to  abandon  the  de 
fence  of  Middle  Tennessee. 

While  people  in  Richmond  were  discussing  the  story  of 
Yicksburg,  the  grief  and  anxiety  of  that  disaster  were  sud 
denly -swallowed  up  by  what  was  thought  to  be  even  more 

in  many  places  approached  within  ten  feet  of  onr  works.  Our  brave  soldier* 
were  wide  awake,  and,  opening  upon  them,  drove  them  back  in  confusion,  a 
great  number  of  them  being  left  dead  in  the  ditches.  One  entire  division  and 
a  brigade  were  ordered  to  charge  the  position  of  the  1st  Mississippi  and  the  9th 
Alabama,  and  by  the  mere  physical  pressure  of  numbers  some  of  them  got 
within  the  works,  but  all  these  were  immediately  killed.  After  a  sharp  con 
test  of  two  hours,  the  enemy  were  everywhere  repulsed,  and  withdrew  to  their 
old  lines. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  month  of  June,  there  was  heavy  skirmishing 
daily,  with  constant  firing  night  and  day  from  the  gun  and  mortar  boats.  Du 
ring  the  siege  of  six  weeks,  from  May  27th  to  July  7th,  inclusive,  the  enemy 
must  have  fired  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  thousand  shot  and  shell,  yet  not  more 
than  twenty-five  men  were  killed  by  these  projectiles.  They  had  worse  dangers 
than  these  to  contend  against. 

About  the  29th  or  30th  of  June,  the  garrison's  supply  of  meat  gave  out,  when 
Gen.  Gardner  ordered  the  mules  to  be  butchered,  after  ascertaining  that  the 
men  were  willing  to  eat  them.  At  the  same  time  the  supply  of  ammunition 
was  becoming  exhausted,  and  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  there  were  only 
twenty  rounds  of  cartridges  left,  with  a  small  supply  for  artillery 

On  Tuesday,  July  7th,  salutes  were  fired  from  the  enemy's  batteries  and  gun 
boats,  and  loud  cheering  was  heard  along  the  entire  line,  and  Yankees  who 
were  in  conversing  distance  of  our  men  told  them  that  Vicksburg  had  fallen. 
That  night  about  ten  o'clock  Gen.  Gardner  summoned  a  council  of  war,  who, 
without  exception,  decided  that  it  was  impossible  to  hold  out  longer,  consider 
ing  that  the  provisions  of  the  garrison  were  exhausted,  the  ammunition  almost 
expended,  ard  a  large  proportion  of  the  men  sick  or  so  exhausted  as  to  be  unfit 
for  duty.  The  surrender  was  accomplished  on  the  morning  of  the  9th.  The 
number  of  the  garrison  which  ejirrendered  was  between  fiveand^six  thousand, 
of  whom  not  more  than  half  were  effective  men  for  duty. 

40 


626      %  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

painful  news  from  the  army  of  Gen.  Lee.  For  once  it  appeared 
to  the  popular  imagination  that  a  great  disaster  in  the  West 
had  a  companion  in  the  East.  The  fall  of  Yicksburg  was  pre 
ceded  but  one  day  by  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  To  that  bat 
tle-field  we  must  translate  the  reader  by  a  very  rapid  summary 
of  the  operations  which  led  to  it. 

THE    CAMPAIGN    IN    PENNSYLVANIA   AND   MARYLAND. 

By  a  series  of  rapid  movements,  Gen.  Lee  had  succeeded 
in  manoeuvring  Hooker  out  of  Yirginia.  On  the  extreme  left, 
Jenkins  with  his  cavalry,  began  the  movement  by  threatening 
Milroy  at  Winchester,  while,  under  the  dust  of  Stuart's  noisy 
cavalry  reviews,  designed  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  ene 
my,  Swell's  infantry  marched  into  the  valley  by  way  of  Front 
Royal.  Advancing  by  rapid  marches  across  the  Blue  Eidge, 
Gen.  Ewell,  the  successor  to  Jackson's  command,  fell  like  a 
thunder-bolt  upon  .Milroy  at  Winchester  and  Martinsburg, 
capturing  the  greater  part  of  his  forces,  many  guns,  and  heavy 
supplies  of  grain,  ammunition,  and  other  military  stores.  The 
Yankees'  own  account  of  their  disaster  indicated  the  magni 
tude  of  our  success.  The  New  York  Herald  declared,  unot  a 
thing  was  saved  except  that  which  was  worn  or  carried  upon 
the  persons  of  the  troops.  Three  entire  batteries  of  field  artil 
lery  and  one  battery  of  siege  guns — all  the  artillery  of  the 
command,  in  fact — about  two  hundred  and  eighty  wagons, 
over  twelve  hundred  horses  and  mules,  all  the  commissary 
and  quartermaster's  stores,  and  ammunition  of  all.  kinds,  over 
six  thousand  muskets  and  small  arms  without  stint,  the  private 
baggage  of  the  officers  and  men,  all  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  Of  the  seven  thousand  men  of  the  command,  but 
from  sixteen  hundred  to.  two  thousand  have  as  yet  arrived 
here,  leaving  to  be  accounted  for  five  thousand  men." 

After  accomplishing  his  victory  at  Winchester,  Gen.  Ewell 
moved  promptly  up  to  the  Potomac,  and  occupied  such  fords 
as  we  might  desire  to  use,  in  the  event  it  should  be  deemed 
proper  to  advance  into  the  enemy's  country.  The  sudden  ap 
pearance  of  Ewell  in  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  coupled 
with  the  demonstration  at  Culpepper,  made  it  necessary  for 
Hooker  to  Abandon  Fredericksburg  entirely,  and  to  occupy  the 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  627 

strong  positions  at  Centreville  and  Manassas,  so  as  to  inter 
pose  his  army  between  us  and  Washington,  and  thus  prevent 
a  sudden  descent  from  the  Blue  Ridge  by  Gen.  Lee  upon  the 
Yankee  capital.  Meanwhile,  Longstreet  and  Hill  were  follow 
ing  fast  upon  Ewell's  track,  the  former  reaching  Ashby's  and 
Snicker's  Gaps  in  time  to  prevent  any  movement  upon  Ewell's 
rear,  and  the  latter  (Hill)  getting  to  Culpepper  in  good  season 
to  protect  Longstreet's  rear,  or  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the 
event  of  an  attack  upon  his  flank,  or  to  guard  against  any  de 
monstration  in  the  direction  of  Richmond. 

Having  gained  over  the  Yankee  commander  the  important 
advantage  of  the  military  initiative,  and  firmly  established  his 
communications  in  the  rear  of  his  base  of  operations  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Potomac,  Gen.  Lee  was  in  a  position  to  hurl 
his  forces  wherever  he  might  desire  ;  and  it  was  soon  announced 
in  the  North  that  Hooker  had  declined  a  battle  in  Virginia, 
and  that  the  second  invasion  of  the  Northern  territory  had 
been  commenced  by  the  Confederates  under  auspices  that  had 
not  attended  the  first.  It  was  soon  known  that  the  light  horse 
men  of  Lee  had  appeared  upon  his  war  path  in  the  southern 
region  of  Pennsylvania.  For  weeks  the  dashing  and  adventu 
rous  cavalry  of  Jenkins  and  Imboden  were  persistently  busy  in 
scouring  the  country  between  the  Susquehannah  and  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  the  Mouocacy  and  the  Potomac,  and  from  the  lines 
before  Harrisburg  to  the  very  gates  of  Washington  and  Balti 
more  their  trumpets  had  sounded. 

The  North  was  thrown  into  paroxysms  of  terror.  At  the 
first  news  of  the  invasion,  Lincoln  had  called  for  a  hundred 
thousand  men  to  defend  Washington.  Governor  Andrews  of 
fered  the  whole  military  strength  of  Massachusetts  in  the  ter 
rible  crisis.  Governor  Seymour  of  New  York,  summoned 
McClellan  to  grave  consultations  respecting  the  defences  oi 
Pennsylvania.  The  bells  were  set  to  ringing  in  Brooklyn. 
Regiment  after  regiment  was  sent  off  from  New  York  to  Phil 
adelphia.  The  famous  Seventh  regiment  took  the  field  and 
proceeded  to  Harrisburg.  The  Dutch  farmers  in  the  valley 
drove  their  cattle  to  the  mountains,  and  the  archives  were  re 
moved  from  Harrisburg. 

Nor  did  the  alarm  exceed  the  occasion  for  it.     It  was  obvi 
ous  to  the  intelligent  in  the  North  that  their  army  of  the  Po- 


SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tomac  was  the  only  real  obstacle  which  could  impede  the 
triumphant  march  of  the  army  of  Lee  into  the  very  heart  of 
the  Yankee  States,  and  in  whatever  direction  he  might  choose 
to  push  his  campaign.  The  press  attempted  some  ridiculous 
comfort  by  writing  vaguely  of  thousands  of  militia  springing 
to  arms.  But  the  history  of  modern  warfare  afforded  better 
instruction,  for  it  taught  clearly  enough  that  an  invading  army 
of  regular  and  victorious  troops  could  only  be  effectively 
checked  by  the  resistance  of  a  similar  army  in  the  field,  or  of 
fortified  places  strong  enough  to  compel  a  regular  siege.  In 
certain  circumstances,  a  single  battle  had  often  decided  the 
fate  of  a  long  war ;  and  the  South  easily  indulging  the  pros 
pect  of  the  defeat  of  Hooker's  forces,  was  elated  with  renewed 
anticipations  of  an  early  peace. 

While  the  destruction  of  Hooker's  army  was  the  paramount 
object  of  Gen.  Lee's  campaign,  he  had  unfortunately  fallen 
into  the  error  of  attempting  to  conciliate  the  people  of  the 
North  and  to  court  the  opinions  of  Europe  by  forswearing  all 
acts  of  retaliation  and  omitting  even  the  devastation  of  the 
enemy's  country.  The  fertile  acres  of  the  Pennsylvania  valley 
were  untouched  by  violent  hands ;  all  requisitions  for  supplies 
were  paid  for  in  Confederate  money  ;  and  a  protection  was  given 
to  the  private  property  of  the  enemy,  which  had  never  been 
afforded  even  to  that  of  our  own  citizens.  So  far  as  the  orders 
of  Gen.  Lee  on  these  subjects  restrained  pillage  and  private 
outrage,  they  were  sustained  by  public  sentiment  in  the  South, 
which,  in  fact,  never  desired  that  we  should  retaliate  upon  the 
Yankees  by  a  precise  imitation  of  their  enormities  and  crimes. 
But  jetaliation  is  not  only  the  work  of  pillagers  and  marauders. 
Its  ends  might  have  been  accomplished,  as  far  as  the  people  of 
the  South  desired,  by  inflicting  upon  the  enemy  some  injury 
commensurate  with  what  they  had  suffered  at  his  hands;  the 
smallest  measure  of  which  would  have  been  the  devastation  of 
the  country,  which,  done  by  our  army  in  line  of  battle,  would 
neither  have  risked  demoralization  nor  detracted  from  disci 
pline.  Such  a  return  for  the  outrages  which  the  South  had 
Buffered  from  invading  hordes  of  the  Yankees,  would  in  fact 
have  been  short  of  justice,  and  so  far  have  possessed  the  merit 
of  magnanimity.  But  Gen.  Lee  was  resolved  on  more  exces 
sive  magnanimity  ;  and  at  the  time  the  Yankee  armies,  par- 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  629 

dcularly  in  the  Southwestern  portion  of  the  Confederacy,  were 
enacting  outrages  which  recalled  the  darkest  days  of  mediaeval 
warfare,  our  forces  in  the  Pennsylvania  valley  were  protecting 
the  private  property  of  Yankees,  composing  their  alarm,  and 
making  a  display  of  stilted  chivalry  to  the  amusement  of  the 
Dutch  farmers  and  to  the  intense  disgust  of  our  own  people.* 

If  Gen.  Lee  had  supposed  that  his  moderate  warfare  would 
conciliate  the  Yankees,  he  was  greatly  mistaken ;  for  it  is  pre 
cisely  this  warfare  which  irritates  a  people  without  intimidat 
ing  them.  The  simple  object  of  his  campaign  appears  to  have 
been  the  defeat  of  Hooker,  which  would  uncover  Washington 
and  Baltimore.  The  critical  conjuncture  which  had  been  so  long 
sought  was  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. 

We  must  spare  here  many  of  the  details  of  those  movements 
which  brought  the  two  armies  in  contact,  and  trust  ourselves 
to  a  brief  and  general  account  of  this  great  engagement  in 
Pennsylvania,  followed,  as  it  is,  by  a  rapid  current  of  events 
there  and  elsewhere. 


*  A  letter  from  our  lines  in  Mississippi  thus  describes  the  outrages  of  the 
enemy  there,  which  were  cotemporary  with  Lee's  civilities  in  Pennsylvania : 

"  I  thought  the  condition  of  Northern  Mississippi,  and  the  country  around 
my  own  home  in  Memphis,  deplorable.  There  robberies  were  committed, 
houses  were  burned,  and  occasionally  a  helpless  man  or  woman  was  murdered ; 
but  here,  around  Jackson  and  Vicksburg,  there  are  no  terms  used  in  all  the 
calendar  of  crimes  which  could  convey  any  adequate  conception  of  the  revolt 
ing  enormities  perpetrated  by  our  foes.  Women  have  been  robbed  of  their 
jewelry  and  wearing  apparel — stripped  almost  to  nakedness  in  the  presence  ot 
jeering  Dutch  ;  ear-rings  have  been  torn  from  their  ears,  and  rings  from  bleed 
ing  fingers.  Every  houee  has  been  pillaged,  and  thousands  burned.  The 
whole  country  between  the  Big  Black  and  the  Mississippi,  and  all  that  district 
through  which  Grant's  army  passed,  is  one  endless  scene  of  desolation.  This 
is  not  the  worst ;  robbery  and  murder  are  surely  bad  enough,  but  worse  than 
all  this,  women  have  been  subjected  to  enormities  worse  than  death. 

"  Negroes,  men  and  women,  who  can  leave  their  homes,  are  forced  or  enticed 
away.  The  children  alone  are  left.  Barns  and  all  descriptions  of  farmhouses 
have  been  burned.  All  supplies,  bacon  and  flour,  are  seized  for  the  use  of  the 
invading  army,  and  the  wretched  inhabitants  left  to  starve.  The  roads  along 
which  Grant's  army  has  moved,  are  strewn  with  all  descriptions  of  furniture, 
wearing  apparel,  and  private  property.  In  many  instances  husbands  have  been 
arrested  and  threatened  with  instant  death  by  the  hangman's  rope,  in  order  to 
make  their  wives  reveal  the  places  of  concealment  of  their  valuable  effects. 
The  poor  women  are  made  to  ransom  their  sons,  daughters,  and  husbands.  Th* 
worst  slaves  are  selected  to  insult,  taunt  and  revile  their  masters,  and  the  wive* 
and  daughters  of  their  masters." 


G30  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 

Having  crossed  the  Potomac  at  or  near  Willia*naport,  the 
Confederates  marched  to  Hagerstown,  to  Greencastle,  and 
thence  to  Chambersburg.  Ewell,  who  held  the  advance,  went 
as  far  as  Carlisle,  some  twelve  miles  from  Harrisburg.  Mean 
while,  Hooker,  having  withdrawn  his  forces  from  Stafford, 
moved  to  and  across  the  Potomac,  and  took  up  a  line  extend 
ing  from  "Washington  to  Baltimore,  expecting  Gen.  Lee  to  offer 
him  battle  in  Maryland.  Finding  himself  disappointed  in  this, 
and  compelled  by  pride  or  by  his  superiors,  he  relinquished 
his  command  to  Mead,  who>  finding  out  that  Lee  had  deflected 
in  his  march  through  Pennsylvania,  and  was  moving  down  the 
Baltimore  turnpike  from  Chambersburg,  moved  from  Balti 
more  on  the  same  road  to  meet  him.  The  two  armies  which 
had  ceased  to  confront  each  other  since  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Fredericksburg  lines,  found  themselves  again  face  to  face  near 
Gettysburg,  on  Wednesday,  July  1st. 

The  action  of  the  1st  July  was  brought  on  by  Gen.  Reynolds, 
who  held  the  enemy's  advance,  and  who  thought  himself  in 
superior  force  to  the  Confederates.  He  paid  the  penalty  ot 
his  temerity  by  a  defeat ;  he  was  overpowere4  and  outflanked, 
and  fell  mortally  wounded  on  the  field. 

In  this  fight  the  corps  of  A.  P.  Hill  was  generally  engaged ; 
but,  about  one  hour  after  its  opening,  Gen.  Ewell,  who  was 
moving  from  the  direction  of  Carlisle,  came  up  and  took  a  po 
sition  on  our  extreme  left.  Two  divisions  of  this  corps,  Rhodes' 
and  Early's,  advanced  upon  and  engaged  the  enemy  in  front. 
Longstreet,  who  was  not  engaged  in  the  fight  of  the  first  day, 
swung  around  his  column  to  A.  P.  Hill's  right,  but  did  not 
take  position  for  action  until  Thursday  morning.  The  result 
of  the  first  day  was  that  the  enemy  was  repulsed  at  all  points 
of  the  line  engaged,  and  driven  over  the  range  of  hills  to  the 
south  of  Gettysburg,  through  the  town  and  about  half  a  mile 
beyond.  At  this  point  is  a  mountain  which  commands  the 
ground  in  front  for  a  mile  on  all  sides.  This  the  enemy  re 
treated  to  after  their  repulse,  and  immediately  fortified,  their 
line  occupying  the  mountain,  and  extending  on  the  right  and 
Jeftofit. 

The  early  part  of  Thursday,  the  22d  of  July,  wore  away 
without  any  positive  demonstration  of  attack  on  either  side. 
Late  in  the  afternoon  an  artillery  attack  was  made  by  our 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  631 

forces  on  the  left  and  centre  of  the  enemy,  which  was  rapidly 
followed  by  the  advance  of  our  infantry,  Longstreet's  corps  on 
our  side  being  principally  engaged.  A  fearful  but  indecisive 
conflict  ensued,  and  for  four  hours  the  sound  of  musketry  was 
incessant.  In  the  fight  we  lost  a  number  of  officers,  among 
them  Gen.  Barksdale  of  Mississippi,  whose  brave  and  generous 
spirit  expired,  where  he  preferred  to  die,  on  the  ensanguined 
field  of  battle.  Of  this  "  haughty  rebel,"  who  had  fallen  within 
their  lines,  the  Yankees  told  with  devilish  satisfaction  the  story 
that  his  end  was  that  of  extreme  agony,  and  his  last  words 
were  to  crave  as  a  dying  boon  a  cup  of  water  and  a  stretcher 
from  an  ambulance  boy.  The  letter  of  a  Yankee  officer  testi 
fies  that  the  brave  and  suffering  hero  declared  with  his  last 
breath  that  he  was  proud  of  the  cause  he  died  fighting  for ; 
proud  of  the  manner  in  which  he  received  his  death ;  and  con 
fldent  that  his  countrymen  were  invincible. 

The  third  day's  battle  was  commenced  by  the  Confederates. 
The  enemy's  position  on  the  mountain  was  apparently  impreg 
nable,  for  there  was  no  conceivable  advance  or  approach  that 
could  not  be  raked  and  crossed  with  the  artillery.  The  reserve 
artillery  and  all  the  essentials  to  insure  victory  to  the  Yankees 
were  in  position  at  the  right  time.  All  the  heights  and  every 
advantageous  position  along  the  entire  line  where  artillery 
could  be  massed  or  a  battery  planted,  frowned  down  on  the 
Confederates  through  brows  of  brass  and  iron.  On  the  slopes 
of  this  mountain  occurred  one  of  the  most  terrific  combats  of 
modern  times,  in  which  three  hundred  cannon  were  belching 
forth  their  thunders  at  one  time,  and  nearly  two  hundred 
thousand  muskets  were  being  discharged  as  rapidly  as  men 
hurried  with  excitement  and  passion  could  load  them. 

The  battle  of  Friday  had  commenced  early  in  the  morning. 
With  the  exception  from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  one  in 
the  afternoon,  it  lasted  all  day.  The  Confederates  did  not  suc 
ceed  in  holding  any  of  the  crests,  although  one  or  two  were 
reached  ;  and  night  again  closed  on  the  smoke- wrapped  field. 

The  most  glorious  incident  of  Gettysburg,  and  the  one  upon 
which  the  eye  of  history  will  beam,  was  the  charge  of  our 
devoted  men  upon  the  deadly  heights  where  turned  the  tide  of 
battle.  The  principal  stronghold  of  the  enemy  was  known  aa 
McPherson's  heights,  where  his  centre  rested.  In  Thursday's 


032  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

light  this  important  position  had  for  a  short  time  been  in  pop 
session  of  a  single  one  of  our  brigades — Wright's  noble  Geor 
gians: — who  had  charged  it  with  the  bayonet  and  captured  the 
heavy  batteries  on  the  crest,  but  were  unable  to  hold  it  for 
want  of  timely  support. 

In  Friday's  contest,  a  more  formidable  and  elaborate  attempt 
was  to  be  made  to  wrest  from  the  enemy  the  crest  which  was 
the  key  of  his  position.  Pickett's  division  being  in  the  ad 
vance,  was  supported  on  the  right  by  Wilson's  brigade,  and  on 
the  left  by  Heth's  division,  commanded  by  Pettigrew.  The 
steady  movement  of  Pickett's  men  into  the  tempest  of  fire  and 
steel,  against  a  mountain  bristling  with  guns,  had  nothing  to 
exceed  it  in  sublimity  on  any  of  the  battle-fields  of  the  revolu 
tion.  Into  the  sheets  of  artillery  fire  advanced  the  unbroken 
lines  of  our  men.  The  devoted  Confederates  are  struggling 
not  only  against  the  enemy's  artillery,  but  against  a  severe  fire 
from  heavy  masses  of  his  infantry,  posted  behind  a  stone  fence. 
But  nothing  checks  their  advance ;  they  storm  the  fence,  they 
shoot  the  gunners,  and  Kemper's  and  Armistead's  banners  are 
already  planted  on  the  enemy's  works. 

There  is  no  doubt  but   that  at  this  auspicious  moment  a 
f -proper  amount  of  support  to  Pickett  would  have  secured  his 
.  position,  and  carried  the  fortunes  of  the  day.     But  that  sup- 
;  port  was  not  at  hand.     Pettigrew's  division  had  faltered,  and 
\  tlial  gallant  commander  in  vain  strove  to  rally  the  raw  troops. 
In, -the  mean  time,  the  enemy  had  moved  around  strong  flank 
ing,  bodies  of  infantry,  and  was  rapidly  gaining  Pickett's  rear. 
With  overwhelming  numbers  in  our  front,  almost  hemmed  in 
by  the  .enemy,  the  order  is  given  to  fall  back.     The  retreating 
line  is  pressed  heavily.    It  does  not  give  way  ;  but  many  noble 
spirits  .who  had  passed  safely  through  the  fiery  ordeal  of  the 
advance  and  charge,  now  fall  on  the  right  and  on  the  left. 

Iii'  this  great  battle,  though  unfavorable  to  us,  the  enemy's 
loss  probably  exceeded  our  own,  as  the  Yankees  were  closely 
crowded  on  the  hills,  and  devoured  by  our  artillery  fire.  The 
information  of  the  enemy's  loss  is  perhaps  most  accurately  ob 
tained  .from  the  bulletin  furnished  by  his  Surgeon -general, 
which  stated  that  he  had  something  over  12,000  Yankees 
wounded  Jiinder  his  control.  Counting  one  killed  for  four 
wounded,;  and  making  some  allowance  for  a  large  class  of 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  633 

wounded  men  who  had  not  come  under  the  control  of  the 
official  referred  to,  we  are  justified  in  stating  the  enemy's  loss, 
in  casualties  at  Gettysburg,  as  somewhere  between  fifteen  and 
eighteen  thousand.  Our  loss,  slighter,  by  many  thousands  in 
comparison,  was  yet  frightful  enough.  On  our  side,  Pickett's 
division  had  been  engaged  in  the  hottest  work  of  the  day,  and 
the  havoc  in  its  ranks  was  appalling.  Its  losses  on  this  day 
are  famous,  and  should  be  commemorated  in  detail.  Every 
brigadier  in  the  division  was  killed  or  wounded.  Out  of 
twenty-four  regimental  officers,  only  two  escaped  unhurt.  The 
colonels  of  five  Virginia  regiments  were  killed.  The  9th  Vir 
ginia  went  in  two  hundred  and  fifty  strong,  and  came  out  with 
only  thirty-eight  men,  while  the  equally  gallant  19th  rivalled 
the  terrible  glory  of  such  devoted  courage. 

The  recoil  at  Gettysburg  was  fatal,  not  necessarily,  but  by 
the  course  of  events,  to  Geri.  Lee's  campaign ;  and  the  return 
of  his  army  to  its  defensive  lines  in  Virginia,  was  justly  re 
garded  in  the  South  as  a  reverse  in  the  general  fortunes  of  the 
contest.  Yet  the  immediate  results  of  the  battle  of  Gettys 
burg  must  be  declared  to  have  been  to  a  great  extent  negative. 
The  Confederates  did  not  gain  a  victory,  neither  did  the  enemy. 
The  general  story  of  the  contest  is  simple.  Lee  had  been 
unable  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  taking  the  highlands,  many 
of  them  with  very  steep  declivities,  and  nearly  a  mile  in  slope. 
The  battle  was  an  effort  of  the  Confederates  to  take  those 
heights.  The  .right  flank,  the  left  flank,  the  centre,  were  suc- 
cessively  the  aim  of  determined  and  concentrated  assaults. 
The  Yankee  lines  were  broken  and  driven  repeatedly.  But 
inexhaustible  reserves,  and  a  preponderant  artillery,  advan 
tageously  placed,  saved  them  from  rout. 

The  first  news  received  in  Kichmond  of  Gen.  Lee's  retreat 
was  from  Yankee  sources,  which  represented  his  army  as  a  dis 
organized  mass  of  fugitives,  unable  to  cross  the  Potomac  on 
account  of  recent  floods,  and  at  the  mercy  of  an  enemy  im 
mensely  superior  in  numbers  and  flushed  with  victory.  This 
news  and  that  of  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  reached  the  Confeder 
ate  capital  the  same  day.  Twenty -four  hours  served  to  dash 
the  hope  of  an  early  peace,  and  to  overcloud  the  horizon  of  the 
war.  The  temptation  of  despair  was  again  whispered  to  weak 
minds.  It  was  the  second  period  of  great  disaster  to  the 


634  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

South,  and  renewed  a  grief  similar  to  what  had  been  expended 
a  year  ago  upon  the  sorrowful  stories  of  Donelson  and  New 
Orleans. 

But  happily  in  this  instance  the  public  despondency  was  of 
short  duration.  A  few  days  brought  news  from  our  lines,  which 
exploded  the  falsehoods  of  the  Yankees,  and  assured  the  people 
of  the  South  that  the  engagements  of  Gettysburg  had  resulted 
in  worsting  the  enemy,  in  killing  and  wounding  a  number  ex 
ceeding  our  own,  and  in  the  capture  of  a  large  number  of 
prisoners.  The  public  was  yet  further  satisfied  that  the  fall 
ing  back  of  our  army,  at  least  as  far  as  Hagerstown,  was  a 
movement  dictated  by  general  considerations  of  strategy  and 
prudence.  It  consoled  itself  that  the  subsequent  retirement  of 
our  forces  into  Virginia  was  the  excess  of  safety  ;  and  it  found 
reason  for  congratulation  that  the  retreat  of  Lee  to  his  old 
lines  was  accomplished  with  a  dexterity  and  success  that  foiled 
the  enemy,  and  disappointed  the  greater  portion  of  his  tri 
umph. 

But  notwithstanding  these  causes  of  moderate  thankfulness, 
it  must  be  confessed  that  the  retreat  from  Hagerstown  across 
the  Potomac  was  an  inconsequence  and  a  mystery  to  the  intel 
ligent  public.  Lee's  position  there  was  strong ;  his  force  was 
certainly  adequate  for  another  battle  ;  preparations  were  made 
for  aggressive  movements;  and  in  the  midst  of  all  came  a 
sudden  renouncement  of  the  campaign,  and  the  retreat  into 
Virginia.  The  history  of  this  untimely  retreat  -has  not  been 
developed  ;  but  there  is  one  fact  to  assist  the  explanation  of  it, 
and  that  is  that  the  authorities  at  Richmond  were  much  more 
alarmed  than  Gen.  Lee,  and  much  less  capable  than  the  com 
mander  himself  of  judging  the  military  situation  from  which 
his  army  was  recalled.  The  troops  availed  themselves  of  no 
other  refuge  than  that  of  their  own  soil ;  they  had  not  been 
defeated  or  seriously  worsted ;  and  so  far  the  public  had 
its  secondary  wish  for  the  safety  of  the  army.  But  this  did 
not  exclude  mortification  on  the  part  of  those  who  believed  that 
Gen.  Lee  had  abandoned  the  enemy's  territory,  not  as  a  conse 
quence  of  defeat,  but  from  the  undue  timidity  or  the  arrogant 
disposition  of  the  authorities  who  controlled  him.  The  grounds 
of  such  a  belief  are  not  certainly  stated;  but  its  existence  iu 
che  public  mind  is  a  fact  to  be  recognized  by  the  historian,  and 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  635 

'to  be  determined  by  evidence,  when  time  and  occasion  ehaL 

produce  it. 

######*##* 

The  check  at  Gettysburg  and  the  fall  of  Yicksburg,  which 
we  have  seized  upon  as  the  prominent  events  of  the  summer  o- 
1863,  and  of  which  we  hope  hereafter,  in  another  volume,  to 
give  a  more  minute  and  faithful  account,  in  connection  with 
many  contemporary  or  closely  consequent  events,  which  are 
here  omitted,  afford  a  natural  pause  in  which  we  may  well 
review  the  events  of  the  revolution,  and  speculate  on  its  distant 
or  ultimate  future. 

The  disasters  to  which  we  have  briefly  referred,  although 
considerable,  were  far  from  being  desperate,  and  were  scarcely 
occasions  of  any  serious  alarm  in  the  South,  as  to  the  ultimate 
issue  of  the  struggle.  The  military  condition  of  the  country 
was  certainly  far  better  than  at  the  former  unhappy  period  of 
the  spring  of  1862.  Then  our  armies  were  feeble,  and,  in  a 
great  measure,  disorganized  ;  the  conscription  law  had  not  gone 
into  operation,  and  our  reduced  forces  were  scattered  along  an 
extended  frontier.  Now  well-disciplined  and  seasoned  armies 
hold  with  compact  forces  the  critical  positions  in  the  Confed 
eracy.  The  loss  of  territory, .which  in  a  European  campaign, 
where  inland  fortresses  and  great  cities  give  convenient  foot 
holds  to  an  invading  army,  would  have  been  estimated  as  a 
fatal  disadvantage,  had  a  very  different  signification  in  a  war 
between  the  two  great  American  powers.  Indeed  it  may  be 
said  that  the  armies  of  our  enemy  scarcely  did  more  than  hold 
the  ground  they  stood  upon,  and  that  in  a  war  now  passing 
into  its  third  year,  they  had  failed  to  touch  the  vitals  of  the 
Confederacy.  The  temporary  cession  of  large  bodies  of  terri 
tory  to  them,  was  really  to  their  disadvantage  in  military  re 
spects  ;  for  it  occasioned  the  necessity  of  extending  their  lines 
of  communication,  exposing  their  rear,  and  subjecting  them 
selves,  on  every  side,  to  the  dangers  of  a  hostile  country,  where 
there  were  no  great  fortresses  or  citadels  to  protect  them. 

But  it  must  be  confessed  that  there  were  to  be  found  at  this 
time  but  few  subjects  of  congratulation  in  the  internal  condi 
tion  of  the  Confederacy.  The  civil  administration,  in  many  oi 
the  departments,  was  ignorant,  defective,  and,  in  some  in 
stances,  oppressive.  The  appendage  of  Congress  might  well 


636  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

have  been  dispensed  with  in  our  revolution,  for  it  accomplished 
nothing;  all  its  legislation  was  patch-work,  and  its  measures 
but  the  weak  echoes  of  the  newspapers.  The  extraordinary 
cabinet  of  Mr.  Davis  still  survived  as  a  ridiculous  cipher ;  for 
its  members  never  dared  to  raise  their  voices  on  any  public 
measure,  or  to  assert  their  existence  beyond  signing  their  names 
to  certify  the  laws  and  orders  of  the  government,  or  the  will  of 
the  President. 

The  military  pragmatism  of  the  President  was  his  worst  fail 
ing.  He  had  treated  Price,  among  the  earliest  heroes  of  the 
war,  with  cold  and  insolent  neglect*  He  had  constrained  Gus- 
tavus  Smith  to  resign,  and  deprived  the  country  of  one  of  its 
most  brilliant  generals.  He  had  taken  the  unfair  opportunity 
of  a  sick  furlough  on  the  part  of  Beauregard,  to  deprive  him 
of  his  command  in  the  West  and  give  it  to  a  favorite.  He 
had  even  attempted  to  put  Jackson  in  leading-strings ;  for  it 
was  the  Presidential  order  that  set  bounds  to  his  famous  Win 
chester  expedition,  and  that  would  have  timidly  recalled  him 
from  his  splendid  campaign  in  the  valley.  Nor  was  this  all. 
There  was  reason  to  suppose  that  Lee's  return  from  the  terri 
tory  of  the  North  was  constrained  by  the  views  of  the  Execu 
tive,  and  that  the  President,  who  had  once  defeated  the  cap 
ture  of  Washington,  by  his  interference  at  the  first  field  ot 
Manassas,  had  again  repeated  his  intermeddling,  removed  a 
decisive  victory  from  the  grasp  of  our  armyy  and  turned  back 
the  war  for  years. 

While  such  was  the  envious  or  ignorant  interference  of  the 
President  with  our  most  meritorious  generals,  he  was  not  with 
out  favorites.  While  he  quarrelled  with  such  men  as  Price, 
Beauregard,  Gustavus  Smith,  and  Johnston,  he  maintained 
such  favorites  as  Holmes,  Heth,  Lovell,  and  Pemberton.  No 
man  was  ever  more  sovereign  in  his  likes  and  dislikes.  Favor 
ites  were  elevated  to  power,  and  the  noblest  spirits  consigned 
to  obscurity  by  the  fiat  of  a  single  man  in  the  Confederacy, 
and  that  man  one  of  the  strongest  prejudices,  the  harshest  ob- 
ruinacy,  and  the  most  ungovernable  fondness  for  parasites. 

in  this  war  Mr.  Davis  has  evidently  been  anxious  to  appear 
in  .the  eyes  of  Europe  as  the  military  genius  of  the  Confederacy 
a&  well  as  the  head  of  its  civil  administration.  He  has  been 
careless  of  public  opinion  at  home.  But  this  has  been  no  proof 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  637 

of  stoicism  or  of  greatness  ;  it  has  merely  shown  his  conceit  to 
be  in  a  different  direction.  This  conceit  has  been  that  of 
"  provincialism"  —  the  courting  of  that  second-hand  public 
opinion  which  is  obtained  from  the  politicians  and  journalists 
of  Europe  ;  the  bane  of  political  and  civil  society  in  the  South. 
No  man  of  equal  public  station  on  this  continent  has  ever 
courted  the  opinions  of  Europe  more  assiduously  than  the 
President  of  this  Confederacy.  The  proclamations  of  the  Ex 
ecutive,  the  general  orders  of  the  army,  the  pronunciamentoes 
of  chivalry  which  have  denied  the  rights  of  retaliation,  bilked 
the  national  conscience,  and  nursed  a  viperous  enemy  with  the 
milk  of  kindness,  have  all  been  composed  with  an  eye  to  Eu 
ropean  effect.  Compromises  of  dignity  and  self-respect  have 
been  made  to  conciliate  foreign  nations.  Consuls  drawing  their 
exequaturs  from  the  Washington  government — a  standing  dero 
gation  to  the  Confederacy  which  has  received  them — have  been 
sheltered  and  endured  here ;  and  Europe,  which  denies  our 
rights  over  our  territory,  has  received  at  our  hands  the  safety 
of  her  citizens. 

We  have  referred  in  other  pages  to  the  low  condition  of  the 
finances  of  the  Confederacy  in  the  opening  months  of  this  year. 
It  had  since  declined  much  further.  In  February,  1862,  Presi 
dent  Davis  had  made  the  most  extravagant  congratulations  to 
the  country  on  our  financial  condition,  and  pointed  with  an 
air  of  triumph  to  the  failing  fortunes  of  the  enemy's  treasury. 
In  less  than  eighteen  months  thereafter,  when  gold  wTas  quoted 
in  New  York  at  twenty-five  per  cent,  premium,  it  was  selling 
in  Richmond  at  nine  hundred  per  cent,  premium  !  Such  have 
been  the  results  of  the  financial  wisdom  of  the  Confederacy, 
dictated  by  the  President,  who  advised  Congress  to  authorize 
illimitable  issues  of  treasury  notes,  and  aggravated,  no  doubt, 
by  the  ignorance  of  his  Secretary,  who  invented  a  legerdemain 
of  funding  which  succeeded  not  only  in  depreciating  the  cur 
rency,  but  also  in  dishonoring  the  government. 

The  experiments  of  Mr.  Memminger  on  the  currency  was 
the  signal  of  multiplied  and  rapid  depreciation.  While  the 
eccentric  and  pious  Secretary  was  figuring  out  impossible 
schemes  of  making  money,  or  ransacking  the  bookstores  for 
works  on  religious  controversy,  unprincipled  brokers  in  the 
Confederacy  were  undermining  the  currency  with  a  zeal  for 


638  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY"    OF    THE    WAE. 

the  destruction  of  their  country  not  less  than  that  of  the  Yan 
kees.  The  assertion  admits  of  some  qualification.  Sweeping 
remarks  in  history  are  generally  unjust.  Among  those  en 
gaged  in  the  business  of  banking  and  exchange  in  the  South, 
there  were  undoubtedly  some  enlightened  and  public-spirited 
men,  who  had  been  seduced  by  the  example  or  constrained  by 
the  competition  of  meaner  and  more  avaricious  men  of  the 
same  profession,  to  array  themselves  against  the  currency,  and 
to  commit  offences  from  which  they  would  have  shrunk  in  hor 
ror,  had  they  not  been  disguised  by  the  casuistry  of  commerce 
and  gain. 

It  was  generally  thought  in  the  South  reprehensible  to  re 
fuse  the  national  currency  in  the  payment  of  debts.  Yet  the 
broker,  who  demanded  ten  dollars  in  this  currency  for  one  in 
gold,  really  was  guilty  of  nine  times  refusing  the  Confederate 
money.  It  was  accounted  shocking  for  citizens,  in  the  South 
to  speculate  in  soldiers'  clothing  and  bread.  Yet  the  broker, 
who  demanded  nine  or  ten  prices  for  gold,  the  representative 
of  all  values,  speculated  alike  in  every  necessary  in  the  coun 
try.  Nor  was  this  the  greatest  of  their  offences.  With  unsur 
passed  shamelessness  brokers  in  the  Confederacy  exposed  the 
currency  of  the  North  for  sale,  and  demanded  for  it  four  hun 
dred  per  cent,  premium  over  that  of  the  Confederacy  !  This 
act  of  benefit  to  the  Yankees  was  openly  allowed  by  the  gov 
ernment.  A  bill  had  been  introduced  in  Congress  to  prohibit 
this  traffic,  and  to  extirpate  this  infamous  anomaly  in  our  his 
tory  ;  but  it  failed  of  enactment,  and  its  failure  can  only  be  at 
tributed  to  the  grossest  stupidity,  or  to  sinister  influences  of 
the  most  dishonorable  kind.  The  traffic  was  immensely  prof 
itable.  State  bonds  arid  bank  bills  to  the  amount  of  many 
millions  were  sent  North  by  the'  brokers,  and  the  rates  of  dis 
count  were  readily  submitted  to  when  the  returns  were  made 
in  Yankee  paper  money,  which,  in  the  Richmond  shops,  was 
worth  in  Confederate  notes  five  dollars  for  one. 

One — but  only  one — cause  of  the  depreciation  of  the  Con 
federate  currency  was  illicit  trade.  It  had  done  more  to 
demoralize  the  Confederacy  than  any  thing  else.  The  inception 
of  this  trade  was  easily  winked  at  by  the  Confederate  authori 
ties  ;  it  commenced  with  paltry  importations  across  the  Poto 
*nac  ;  it  was  said  that  the  country  wanted  medicines,  surgica. 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  639 

instruments,  and  a  number  of  trifles,  and  that  trade  with  the 
Yankees  in  these  could  result  in  no  serious  harm.  But  by 
the  enlarged  license  of  the  government  it  soon  became  an  in 
famy  and  a  curse  to  the  Confederacy.  What  was  a  petty  trafllc 
in  its  commencement  soon  expanded  into  a  shameless  trade, 
which  corrupted  the  patriotism  of  the  country,  constituted  an 
anomaly  in  the  history  of  belligerents,  and  reflected  lasting 
disgrace  upon  the  honesty  and  good  sense  of  our  government. 
The  country  had  taken  a  solemn  resolution  to  burn  the  cotton 
in  advance  of  the  enemy  ;  but  the  conflagration  of  this  staple 
soon  came  to  be  a  rare  event ;  instead  of  being  committed  to 
the  flames  it  was  spirited  to  Yankee  markets.  Nor  were  these 
operations  always  disguised.  Some  commercial  houses  in  the 
Confederacy  counted  their  gains  by  millions  of  dollars  since 
the  war,  through  the  favor  cfr  the  government  in  allowing 
them  to  export  cotton  at  pleasure.  The  beneficiaries  of  this 
trade  contributed  freely  to  public  charities  and  did  certain 
favors  to  the  government ;  but  their  gifts  were  but  the  parings 
of  immense  gains ;  and  often  those  who  were  named  by  weak 
and  credulous  people  or  by  interested  flatterers  as  public- 
epirited  citizens  and  patriotic  donors,  were,  in  fact,  the  most 
unmitigated  extortioners  and  the  vilest  leeches  on  the  body 
politic. 

In  this  war  we  owe  to  the  cause  of  truth  some  humiliating 
confessions.  "Whatever  diminution  of  spirit  there  may  have 
been  in  the  South  since  the  commencement  of  her  struggle,  it 
has  been  on  the  part  of  those  pretentious  classes  of  the 
wealthy,  who,  in  peace,  were  at  once  the  most  zealous  "  seces 
sionists,"  and  the  best  customers  of  the  Yankees,  and  wL 
now,  in  war,  are  naturally  the  sneaks  and  tools  of  the  enemy. 
The  cotton  and  sugar  planters  of  the  extreme  South  who  prior 
to  the  war  were  loudest  for  secession,  were  at  the  same  time 
known  to  buy  every  article  of  their  consumption  in  Yankee 
markets,  and  to  cherish  an  ambition  of  shining  in  the  society 
of  Northern  hotels.  It  is  not  surprising  that  many  of  these 
affected  patriots  have  found  congenial  occupation  in  this  war 
in  planting  in  copartnership  with  the  enemy,  or  in  smuggling 
cotton  into  his  lines.  The  North  is  said  to  have  obtained  in 
the  progress  of  this  war,  from  the  Southwest  and  Charleston, 
enough  cotton  at  present  prices  to  uphold  its  whole  system  of 


640  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

currency — a  damning  testimony  of  the  avarice  of  the  planter. 
Yet  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  convincing  proof,  in  general,  that 
property,  though  very  pretentious  of  patriotism,  when  identi 
fied  with  selfishness,  is  one  of  the  most  weak  and  cowardly 
things  in  revolutions  and  the  first  to  succumb  under  the  hor 
rors  of  war. 

It  is  pleasing  to  turn  from  the  exhibition  of  ignorance  and 
weakness  in  the  government,  and  the  vile  passions  of  its 
favorites,  to  the  contemplation  of  that  patriotic  spirit  which 
yet  survives  in  the  masses  of  the  people  and  keeps  alive  the 
sacred  animosities  of  the  war.  We  rejoice  to  believe  that  the 
masses  are  not  only  yet  true,  but  that  a  haughtier  and  fiercer 
spirit  than  ever  animates  the  demand  of  our  people  for  inde 
pendence,  and  insures  their  efforts  to  obtain  it.  The  noble 
people  and  army  who  have  sustained  and  fought  this  war  will 
have  cause  to  rejoice.  Society  in  the  South  is  being  upheaved 
by  this  war,  and  with  our  independence  will  be  re-established 
on  new  orders  of  merit.  The  insolent  and  pampered  slave- 
holding  interest  of  the  South;  the  planters'  aristocracy,  blown 
with  conceit  and  vulgar  airs  of  patronage  ;  the  boast  of  lands 
and  kin,  give  way  before  new  aspirants  to  honor.  The  repub 
lic  gives  new  titles  to  greatness.  Many  of  those  who  were 
esteemed  great  politicians  before  the  war,  are  now  well-nigh 
forgotten.  The  honors  of  State,  the  worship  of  society,  the 
rewards  of  affection,  are  for  the  patriots  of  the  revolution  that 
will  date  our  existence.  Such  are  the  great  prizes,  intertwined 
with  that  of  independence,  which  stir  our  people  and  army 
with  noble  desires  and  beckon  them  to  victory. 

It  is  not  only  in  the  present  external  situation  of  the  war 
that  encouragement  is  to  be  found  for  the  South.  With  con 
siderable  additions  to  her  material  elements  of  success,  the 
South  has  in  the  second  year  of  the  war  abated  none  of  that 
moral  resolution  which  is  the  vital  and  essential  principle  of 
victory,  whatever  co-operation  and  assistance  it  may  derive 
from  external  conditions.  That  resolution  has  been  strength 
ened  by  recent  developments ;  for  as  the  war  has  progressed, 
the  enemy  has  made  a  full  exposure  of  his  cruel  and  savage 
purposes,  and  has  indicated  consequences  of  subjugation  more 
terrible  than  death. 

He  has,  by  the  hideous  array  of  the  instruments  of  torture 


THE    SECOND    YEAH.  ; 

wiiich  lie  has  prepared  for  a  new  inauguration  oi  his  authority 
among  those  who  have  disputed  it,  not  only  excited  the  zeal  ot 
a  devoted  patriotism  to  war  with  him,  but  has  summoned  even 
the  mean  but  strong  passions  of  selfishness  to  oppose  him. 
The  surrender  to  an  enemy  as  base  as  the  Yankee,  might  well 
attract  the  scorn  of  the  world,  and  consign  the  South  to  de 
spair.  The  portions  of  such  a  fate  for  the  South  are  gibbets, 
confiscation,  foreign  rule,  the  tutelage  of  New  England,  the 
outlawry  of  the  negro,  the  pangs  of  universal  poverty,  and  the 
contempt  of  mankind. 

War  is  a  thing  of  death,  of  mutilation  and  fire  ;  but  it  has 
its  law  of  order ;  and  when  that  law  is  not  observed,  it  fails  in 
effecting  the  purpose  for  which  it  is  waged,  and  the  curse  it 
would  inflict  recoils  upon  itself.  It  is  remarkable  in  the  pres 
ent  war,  that  the  policy  of  the  Washington  government  has 
been  an  increase  in  every  feature  of  the  first  cause  of  the  re 
volt.  But  this  has  been  fortunate  for  the  South.  The  con 
sequences  of  such  despotic  and  savage  violences,  as  the  eman 
cipation  proclamation,  the  arming  of  slaves,  and  the  legali 
zation  of  plunder,  have  been  the  growth  of  new  hostility 
to  the  Union,  and  an  important  and  obvious  vindication  to 
the  world  of  the  motives  of  the  South,  and  the  virtues  of  her 
cause. 

Regarding  the  condition  of  events  in  which  this  record  closet , 
the  broad  lustre  of  victories  covering  the  space  of  so  many 
months ;  the  numbers  of  our  forces  in  the  field,  unequalled  ;it 
any  other  period  of  the  war;  and  the  spirit  animated  by  the 
recollections  of  victorious  arms,  and  stung  by  the  fresh  cruel 
ties  of  an  atrocious  enemy,  we  may  well  persuade  ourselves 
that  there  is  no  such  word  as  "fail"  in  this  struggle.  Even 

oo 

beneath  the  pall  of  disaster,  there  is  no  place  for  such  a  word,. 
The  banners  of  the  Confederacy  do  not  bear  the  mottoes  and 
devices  of  a  doubtful  contest.  That  brave  phrase  we  may  apply 
to  ourselves,  which  is  the  law  of  progress  and  success  ;  which 
summons  the  energies  of  mankind  and  works  out  the  problems 
of  human  existence ;  which  is  at  once  an  expression  of  the  will 
of  the  Creator,  and  the  power  of  the  creature  ;  and  which 
beautifully  harmonizes  the  dispensations  of  Providence  with 
the  agency  of  men — "  FOKTUNA  FOETIBUS." 

41 


64:2  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    O^    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTEE  XXYT. 


REVIEW-  -POLITICAL   IDEAS    IN   THE    NORTH 


The  Dogma  of  Numerical  Majorities.  —  Its  Date  in  the  Yankee  Mind.  —  Demoraliza 
tion  of  the  Idea  of  the  Sovereignty  of  Numbers.  —  Experience  of  Minorities  in  Ameri 
can  Politics.  —  Source  of  the  Doctrine  of  "  CONSOLIDATION."  —  The  Slavery  Question  the 
logical  Eesult  of  Consolidation.  —  Another  Aspect  of  Consolidation  in  the  Tariif.  — 
Summary  of  the  Legislation  on  the  Tariff.  —  A  Yankee  Picture  of  the  Poverty  of  the 
South.  —  John  C.  Calhoun.  —  President  Davis'  Opinion  of  his  School  of  Politics.  — 
''Nullification,"  as  a  Union  Measure.  —  Mr.  Webster's  "Four  Exhaustive  Proposi 
tions."—  The  True  Interpretation  of  the  Present  Struggle  of  the  South.—  The  North 
ern  Idea  of  the  Sovereignty  of  Numbers.  —  Its  Results  in  this  War.  —  President  Lin 
coln's  Office.  —  The  Revenge  of  the  Yankee  Congress  upon  the  People.  —  The  easy 
Surrender  of  their  Liberties  by  the  Yankees.  —  Lincoln  and  Cromwell.  —  Explanation 
of  the  Political  Subserviency  in  the  North.  —  Superficial  Political  Education  of  the 
Yankee.  —  His  "  Civilization."  —  The  Moral  Nature  of  the  Yankee  unmasked  by  the 
War.—  His  new  Political  System.—  Burnside's  "  Death  Order."—  A  Bid  for  Confeder 
ate  Scalps.  —  A  new  Interpretation  of  the  War.  —  The  North  as  a  Parasite.—  The  Foun 
dations  of  the  National  Independence  of  the  South.  —  Present  Aspects  of  the  War.  — 
Its  external  Condition  and  Morals.  —  The  Spirit  of  the  South  and  the  Promises  of  the 
fc'uture. 

THE  chief  value  of  history  is  the  moral  discoveries  it  makes. 
What  is  discovered  in  the  records  of  the  old  Union  and  the 
events  of  the  present  war,  of  that  portion  of  the  American 
people  commonly  known  as  the  Yankees,  furnishes  not  only 
food  for  curiosity,  but  a  valuable  fund  of  philosophy. 

In  exploring  the  character  and  political  experience  of  the 
people  of  the  North,  much  of  what  is  generally  thought  to  be 
a  confusion  of  vices  may  be  traced  to  the  peculiar  idea  that 
people  have  of  the  nature  and  offices  of  government.  Their 
idea  of  government  may  be  briefly  stated  as  the  sovereignty  of 
numbers.  This  conception  of  political  authority  is  of  no  late 
date  with  the  people  of  the  North  ;  it  came  in  their  blood  and 
in  their  traditions  for  centuries  ;  it  was  part  of  the  Puritanical 
idea  ;  it  was  manifest  in  the  Revolution  of  1776  (the  issues  01 
which  were  saved  by  the  conservatism  of  the  South)  ;  and  it  is 
to-day  exhibited  in  the  passionate  and  despotic  populace  that 
wages  war  upon  the  Confederacy. 

The  peculiarities  of  this  idea  .of  government  are  very  inter 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  613 

esting,  and  its  consequences  are  visible  in  every  part  and  fibre 
of  the  society  of  the  North.  It  excludes  all  the  elements  of 
virtue  and  wisdom  in  the  regulation  of  political  authority ;  it 
regards  numbers  as  the  great  element  of  free  government  ;  it 
represents  a  numerical  majority  as  infallible  and  omnipotent ; 
and  it  gives  opportunity  to  the  flattery  of  demagogues  to  pro 
claim  the  divine  rights  and  sagacity  of  numbers,  and  to  de 
nounce  all  constitutions  which  restrict  liberty  as  most  un 
righteous  inventions. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  comment  at  length  upon  the  error  and 
coarseness  of  this  idea  of  government.  According  to  the  in 
terpretation  of  the  Yankees,  the  body  politic  ought  simply  to 
have  a  political  organization  to  bring  out  and  enforce  the  will 
of  the  majority  ;  and  such  an  organization  was  supposed  to  be 
the  general  government  made  by  our  forefathers.  But  while 
it  is  unnecessary  to  discuss  the  fallacy  of  this  view,  it  is  enter 
taining  and  instructive  to  observe  the  train  of  demoralization 
it  introduced  into  the  society  of  the  North  and  the  conse 
quences  it  involved, 

The  Northern  idea  of  government  was  materialistic ;  it  de 
graded  political  authority,  because  it  despoiled  it  of  its  moral 
offices  and  represented  it  as  an  accident  determined  by  a  com 
parison  of  numbers.  It  destroyed  the  virtue  of  minorities; 
compelled  them  to  servile  acquiescence ;  and  explains  that 
constant  and  curious  phenomenon  in  much  of  American  poli 
tics — the  rapid  absorption  of  minorities  after  the  elections.  It 
laid  the  foundations  of  a  despotism  more  terrible  than  that  of 
any  single  tyrant;  destroyed  moral  courage  in  the  people; 
broke  down  all  the  barriers  of 'conservatism  ;  and  substituted 
the  phrase,  "the  majority  must  govern"  for  the  conscience  and 
justice  of  society. 

This  idea,  carried  out  in  the  early  political  government  of 
America,  soon  attained  a  remarkable  development.  This 
development  was  the  absurd  doctrine  of  CONSOLIDATION.  It 
denied  the  rights  of  the  States  ;  refused  to  interpret  the  Union 
from  the  authority  of  contemporaries,  or  from  the  nature  of  the 
circumstances  in  which  it  was  formed,  or  from  the  objects 
which  it  contemplated  ;  and  represented  it  as  a  central  political 
organization  to  enforce  the  divine  pleasure  of  a  numerical 
majority.  The  Union  was  thus  converted,  though  with  diffi- 


644  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

culty,  into  a  remorseless  despotism,  and  the  various  and  cori 
flicting  interests  and  pursuits  of  one  of  the  vastest  political 
bodies  in  the  world  were  intrusted  to  the  arrogant  and  reckless 
majority  of  numbers. 

The  slavery  question  was  the  logical  and  inevitable  result  o 
Consolidation.  It  is  remarkable  how  many  minds  in  America 
have  proceeded  on  the  supposition  that  this  agitation  was  acci 
dental,  and  have  di&tracted  themselves  with  the  foolish  inquiry 
why  the  Yankees  assailed  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  South, 
while  they  neglected  to  attack  the  similar  institutions  of  Cuba 
and  Brazil.  These  minds  do  not  appreciate  the  fact  that  the 
slavery  agitation  was  a  necessity  of  the  Northern  theory  of 
government.  Duty  is  the  correlative  of  power;  and  if  the 
government  at  Washington  in  Yankee  estimation  was  a  con 
solidated  organization,  with  power  to  promote  the  general 
welfare  by  any  means  it  might  deem  expedient,  it  was  propei 
that  it  should  overthrow  the  hated  institution  of  slavery  in 
the  South.  The  central  government  was  responsible  for  its 
continuance  or  existence,  in  proportion  to  its  power  over  it. 
Under  these  circumstances,  the  duty  of  acting  upon  the  sub 
ject  of  slavery  was  imperious,  and  amounted  to  a  moral  ne 
cessity. 

But  the  slavery  agitation  was  not  the  only  remarkable  con 
sequence  of  the  Northern  idea  of  the  divine  rights  of  ma 
jorities.  It  may  be  said  that  every  political  maxim  of  the 
North  has  its  practical  and  selfish  application  as  well  as  its 
moral  and  sentimental  aspect.  The  same  idea  of  the  power  of 
numerical  majorities  that  kindled  the  slavery  disputes,  gave 
birth  to  the  tariff  and  other  schemes  of  legislation,  to  make  the 
Southern  minority  subservient  and  profitable  to  those  who  were 
their  masters  by  the  virtue  of  numbers. 

The  slavery  and  tariff  issues  are  singularly  associated  in 
American  politics  ;  for  one  at  least  was  an  important  auxiliary 
to  the  other.  It  was  necessary  for  the  Northern  people  to 
make  their  numerical  power  available  to  rule  the  Union  ;  and 
as  slavery  was  strictly  a  sectional  interest,  it  only  had  to  be 
made  the  criterion  of  the  parties  at  the  North  to  unite  this 
section  and  make  it  master  of  the  Union.  When  the  power  of 
the  North  could  thus  be  united,  it  was  easy  to  carry  out  its 
measures  of  sectional  ambition,  encroachment,  and  aggrandize- 


IHE    SECOND    YEAR.  645 

The  history  of  the   enormous  despotism  of  Yankee 
tariffs  is  easily  summed  up. 

The  war  of  1812  left  the  United  States  with  a  debt  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty  millions.  To  provide  for  the  payment  of 
this  debt,  heavy  duties  were  laid  on  foreign  goods ;  and  as  in 
the  exigencies  of  the  war  some  home  manufactures  had  sprung 
up,  which  were  useful  and  deserving,  and  which  were  in  dan 
ger  of  sinking  under  foreign  competition,  on  the  return  of  peact 
it  was  proposed  to  regulate  the  tariff  so  as  to  afford  them  some 
assistance.  Protection  was  an  incidental  feature  in  the  tariff 
of  1816,  and  as  such  was  zealously  recommended  even  by  John 
C.  Calhoun,  who  was  a  conspicuous  advocate  of  the  bill.  But 
the  principle  of  protection  once  admitted,  maintained  its  hold 
and  enlarged  its  demands.  In  the  tariffs  of  1820,  '24:,  and  '28, 
it  was  successively  carried  further ;  the  demand  of  the  North 
for  premiums  to  its  manufacturing  interests  becoming  more 
exacting  and  insolent. 

In  1831  the  public  debt  had  been  so  far  diminished  as  to 
render  it  certain  that,  at  the  existing  rate  of  revenue,  in  three 
years  the  last  dollar  would  be  paid.  The  government  had 
been  collecting  about  twice  as  much  revenue  as  its  usual  ex 
penditures  required,  and  it  was  calculated  that  if  the  existing 
tariff  continued  in  operation,  there  would  be,  after  three  years, 
an  annual  surplus  in  the  treasury  of  twelve  or  thirteen  millions. 
Under  these  circumstances,  the  reduction  of  the  tariff  was  a 
plain  matter  of  justice  and  prudence;  but  it  was  resisted  by 
the  North  with  brazen  defiance.  Unfortunately,  Mr.  Clay  was 
weak  enough  to  court  popularity  in  the  North  by  legislative 
bribes,  and  it  was  mainly  through  his  exertions  that  enough 
was  saved  of  the  protection  principle  to  satisfy  the  rapacity  of 
the  Yankee ;  for  which  the  statesman  of  Kentucky  enjoyed  a 
brief  and  indecent  triumph  in  the  North. 

As  an  engine  of  oppression  of  the  South,  the  tariff  did  its 
work  well ;  for  it  not  only  impoverished  her,  but  fixed  on  her 
a  badge  of  inferiority,  which  was  an  unfailing  mark  for  Yankee 
derision.  The  South  had  no  great  cities.  Their  growth  was 
paralyzed,  and  they  were  scarcely  more  than  the  suburbs  or 
Northern  cities.  The  agricultural  productions  of  the  South 
were  the  basis  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  United  States; 
yet  Southern  cities  did  not  carry  it  on.  The  resources  of  this 


646  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

unhappy  part  of  the  country  were  taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Northern  people,  and  for  forty  years  every  tax  imposed  by 
Congress  was  laid  with  a  view  of  subserving  the  interests  of 
the  North. 

The  blight  of  such  legislation  on  the  South  was  a  source  oi 
yaried  gratification  to  the  Yankee ',  especially  that  it  gave  him 
the  conceit  that  the  South  was  an  inferior.  The  contrast  be 
tween  the  slow  and  limited  prosperity  of  the  South  and  the 
swift  and  noisy  progress  of  the  North,  was  never  more  remark 
able  than  at  the  period  of  the  great  tariff  controversy  of  1831-2. 
The  condition  of  the  country  at  this  time  is  described  by  Par- 
ton,  the  Yankee  biographer  of  Andrew  Jackson,  with  flippant 
self-complacency.  He  says : 

"  The  North  was  rushing  on  like  a  Western  high-pressure 
steamboat,  with  rosin  in  the  furnace,  and  a  man  on  the  safety 
valve.     All  through  Western  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois,  the  primeval  wilderness  was  vanishing  like  a  mist,  and 
towns  were  springing  into  existence  with  a  rapidity  that  ren 
dered  necessary  a  new  map  every  month,  and  spoiled  the  gazel  • 
teers  as  fast  as  they  were  printed.     The  city  of  New  York 
began  already  to  feel  itself  the  London  of  the  New  World,  and 
to  calculate  how  many  years  must  elapse  before  it  would  b« 
the  London  of  the  world. 

"  The  South  meanwhile  was  depressed  and  anxious.  Cotton 
was  down,  tobacco  was  down.  Corn,  wheat,  and  pork  were 
down.  For  several  years  the  chief  products  of  the  South  had 
either  been  inclining  downward,  or  else  had  risen  in  price  too 
slowly  to  make  up  for  the  (alleged)  increased  price  of  the  com 
modities  which  the  South  was  compelled  to  buy.  Few  new 
towns  changed  the  Southern  map.  Charleston  languished,  or 
seemed  to  languish,  certainly  did  not  keep  pace  writh  New  York, 
Boston,  and  Philadelphia.  No  Cincinnati  of  the  South  became 
the  world's  talk  by  the  startling  rapidity  of  its  growth.  No 
Southern  river  exhibited  at  every  bend  and  coyne  of  vantage 
a  rising  village.  No  Southern  mind,  distracted  with  the  im 
possibility  of  devising  suitable  names  for  a  thousand  new  places 
per  annum,  fell  back  in  despair  upon  the  map  of  the  Old  World, 
and  selected  at  random  any  convenient  name  that  presented 
itself,  bestowing  upon  clusters  of  log  huts  such  titles  as  Utica, 
Koine,  Palermo,  Naples,  Kussia,  Egypt.  Madrid,  Paris,  Elba, 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  647 

f.nd  Berlin.  No  Southern  commissioner,  compelled  to  find 
names  for  a  hundred  streets  at  once,  had  seized  upon  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet  and  the  figures  of  arithmetic,  and  called  the 
avenues  A,  B,  C,  and  D,  and  instead  of  naming  his  cross  streets, 
numbered  them." 

For  forty  years  the  North  reaped  the  fruits  of  partial  legis 
lation,  .while  the  South  tasted  the  bitterness  of  oppression. 
The  shoemakers,  the  iron  men,  the  sailmakers,  and  the  cotton 
and  woollen  spinners  in  the  North,  clamored  for  protection 
against  their  English,  Swedish,  and  Kussian  competitors,  and 
easily  obtained  it.  The  South  paid  duties  upon  all  articles 
that  the  tariff  kept  out  of  the  country ;  but  these  duties,  in 
stead  of  going  into  the  treasury  as  revenue,  went  into  the 
purses  of  manufacturers  as  bounty.  After  paying  this  tribute 
money  to  the  North,  the  South  had  then  to  pay  her  quota  for 
the  support  of  the  government.  The  North,  for  there  was  per 
fect  free  trade  between  the  States,  had  a  preference  over  all  the 
world  for  its  wares  in  the  markets  of  the  South.  This  prefer 
ence  amounted  to  20  or  30,  or  40  or  50  per  cent.,  and  even 
more,  according  to  the  article  and  the  existing  tariff.  It  ex  - 
tended  over  a  country  having  twelve  millions  of  customers. 
The  sum  of  the  Yankee  profits  out  of  the  tariff  was  thus  enor 
mous.  Had  the  South  submitted  to  the  "Morrill  tariff,"  it 
would  have  exacted  from  her  something  like  one  hundred  mil 
lion  dollars  as  an  annual  tribute  to  the  North.  But  submission 
has  some  final  period,  and  the  South  has  no  longer  a  lot  in  the 
legislation  at  Washington. 

Iii  the  tariff  controversy  of  1831-2,  we  find  the  premoni 
tions  of  the  present  revolution.  It  is  a  curious  circumstance 
that  in  the  excitement  of  that  period  some  medals  were  se 
cretly  struck,  bearing  the  inscription,  "John,  C.  Calhoun, 
First  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy"  The  name  of 
the  new  power  was  correctly  told.  But  the  times  were  not 
ripe  for  a  declaration  of  Southern  independence,  and  even  the 
public  opinions  of  Mr.  Calhoun  resisted  the  suggestion  of  a  dis 
solution  of  the  Union. 

The  "  nullification"  doctrine  of  the  statesmen  of  North  Caro 
lina,  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  political  studies  of  America ; 
for  it  illustrates  the  long  and  severe  contest  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Southern  people  between  devotion  to  the  Union  and  the  sense 


648  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

of  wrong  and  injustice.  Mr.  Calhoun  either  did  not  dare 
to  offend  the  popular  idolatry,  or  was  sincerely  attached  to  the 
Union ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  was  deeply  sensible  of  the 
oppression  it  devolved  upon  the  South.  Nullification  was 
simply  an  attempt  to  accommodate  these  two  facts.  It  pro- 
fesped  to  find  a  remedy  for  the  grievances  of  States  without 
disturbing  the  Union ;  and  the  nullification  of  an  unconstitu 
tional  law  within  the  local  jurisdiction  of  a  State,  was  proposed 
as  the  process  for  referring  the  matter  to  some  constitutional 
tribunal  other  than  the  Supreme  Court,  whose  judgments  should 
be  above  all  influences  of  political  party.  It  was  a  crude 
scheme,  and  only  remarkable  as  a  sacrifice  to  that  peculiar 
idolatry  in  American  politics  which  worshipped  the  name  of 
the  Union. 

The  present  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy — Mr. 
Jefferson  Davis — has  referred  to  the  political  principles  of  Mr. 
Calhoun,  in  some  acute  remarks  made  on  the  interesting  occa 
sion  of  his  farewell  to  the  old  Senate  at  Washington.  Pie  says : 

"  A  great  man,  who  now  reposes  with  his  fathers,  and  who 
has  often  been  arraigned  for  a  want  of  fealty  to  the  Union, 
advocated  the  doctrine  of  nullification,  because  it  preserved  the 
Union.  It  was  because  of  his  deep-seated  attachment  to  the 
Union,  his  determination  to  find  some  remedy  for  existing  ills 
Bho  i  of  a  severance  of  the  ties  which  bound  South  Carolina  to 
the  other  States,  that  Mr.  Calhoun  advocated  the  doctrine  of 
nul  ification,  which  he  proclaimed  to  be  peaceful ;  to  be  within 
the  limits  of  State  power,  not  to  disturb  the  Union,  but  only  to 
be  the  means  of  bringing  the  agent  before  the  tribunal  of 
the  States  for  their  judgment." 

]  i  defending,  in 'the  speech  referred  to,  the  action  of  the 
Sta*;e  of  Mississippi  in  separating  herself  from  the  Union,  Mr. 
Da  ds  remarks  with  justice,  that  Secession  belongs  to  another 
elaf:s  of  remedies  than  that  proposed  by  the  great  South  Caro 
linian.  The  Kentucky  and  Virginia  resolutions  of  1798,  long 
th**  political  text  of  the  South,  bore  the  seeds  of  the  present 
resolutions  for  they  laid  the  foundation  for  the  right  of  seces- 
sk  a  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  States ;  and  Mr.  Calhoun's  de- 
diction  from  them  of  his  doctrine  of  nullification  was  narrow 
?*-d'  incomplete. 

But  we  shall  not  renew  here  vexed  political  questions.     We 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  64.9 

have  referred  at  some  length  to  the  details  of  the  old  United 
States'  tariffs  and  the  incidental  controversies  of  parties,  be 
cause  we  shall  find  here  a  peculiar  development  of  the  political 
ideas  of  the  North.  To  all  the  ingenious  philosophy  of  State 
rights;  to  the  disquisitions  of  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  Tyler;  to 
the  discussions  of  the  moral  duties  of  the  government,  the 
North  had  but  one  invariable  reply,  and  that  was  the  sover 
eignty  of  the  will  of  the  majority.  It  recognized  no  sovereign 
but  numbers,  and  it  was  thought  to  be  a  sufficient  defence  of 
the  tariff  and  other  legislation  unequal  to  the  South,  that  it  was 
the  work  and  the  will  of  the  majority. 

It  was  during  the  agitation  of  the  tariff  that  the  consolida 
tion  school  became  firmly  established.  Mr.  Webster,  the 
mouth-piece  of  the  manufacturing  interest  in  the  North,  at 
tempted  by  expositions  of  the  Constitution  to  represent  the 
government  as  a  central  organization  of  numbers,  without  any 
feature  of  originality  to  distinguish  it  from  other  rude  democ 
racies  of  the  world.  In  his  attempt  to  simplify  it,  he  degraded 
it  to  the  common-place  of  simple  democracy,  and  insulted  the 
wisdom  of  those  who  had  made  it.  The  political  opinions  or 
Mr.  Webster  wre  summed  up  in  what  he  arrogantly  called 
"  Four  Exhaustive  Propositions."  These  propositions  were  fa 
mous  in  the  newspapers  of  his  day,  and  may  be  reproduced 
here  as  a  very  just  summary  of  the  political  ideas  of  the  North. 

•MR.  WEBSTER'S  FOUR  EXHAUSTIVE  PROPOSITIONS. 

1.  "That  the  Constitution   of  the  United  States  is  nt>t  a 
league,  confederacy,  or  compact  between  the  people  of  the 
several  States  in  their  sovereign  capacity ;  but  a  government 
founded  on  the  adoption  of  the  people,  and  creating  direct  re 
lations  between  itself  and  individuals." 

2.  "That  no  State  authority  has  power  to  dissolve  these  re 
lations  ;   that  nothing  can  dissolve  them  but  revolution ;  and 
that,  consequently,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  secession 
without  revolution.'1 

3.  "  That  there  is  a  supreme  law,  consisting  of  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States,  acts  of  Congress  passed  in  pur 
suance  of  it,  and  treaties;  and  that  in  cases  not  capable  of  as 
suming  the  character  of  a  suit  in  law  or  equity,  Coiiff1""^1  must 


650  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

judge  of,  and  finally  interpret  this  supreme  law,  as  often  as  it 
has  occasion  to  pass  acts  of  legislation ;  and  in  cases  capable 
of  assuming  the  character  of  a  suit,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  is  the  first  interpreter." 

4.  "That  the  attempt  by  a  State  to  abrogate,  annul,  or  nul 
lify  an  act  of  Congress,  or  to  arrest  its  operation  within  her 
limits,  on  the  ground  that,  in  her  opinion,  such  law  is  uncon 
stitutional,  is  a  direct  usurpation  on  the  just  powers  of  the 
general  government,  and  on  the  equal  rights  of  other  States ; 
a  plain  violation  of  the  Constitution ;  and  a  proceeding  essen 
tially  revolutionary  in  its  character  and  tendency." 

It  is  in  the  light  of  these  propositions  that  the  present  as 
sertion  of  the  independence  of  the  South  is  denounced  by  the 
North  as  rebellion.  And  it  is  with  reference  to  them  and 
their  savage  doctrine  of  the  power  of  numbers  in  a  union  of 
sovereign  States,  that  we  may  in  turn  challenge  the  world  to 
declare  if  the  South  in  this  struggle  is  not  enlisted  in  the  cause 
of  free  government,  which  is  more  important  to  the  world  than 
"  the  Union,"  which  has  disappeared  beneath  the  wave  of 
history. 

In  the  present  war  the  North  has  given  faithful  and  constant 
indications  of  its  dominant  idea  of  the  political  sovereignty,  as 
well  as  the  military  omnipotence  of  numbers.  It  is  absurd  to 
refer  to  the  person  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  the  political  master 
of  the  North  ;  he  is  the  puppet  of  the  vile  despotism  that  rules 
by  brute  numbers.  We  have  already  referred  to  some  of  the 
characteristics  of  such  despotism.  We  shall  see  others  in  this 
war,  in  the  timidity  and  subservient  hesitation  to  which  such  a 
government  reduces  party  minorities,  and  in  that  destitution  of 
honor  which  invariably  characterizes  the  many-headed  despot 
ism  of  the  people. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  on  a  principle  of  deadly  antagonism 
to  the  social  order.  His  party  found  him  subservient  to  their 
passions,  and  with  the  President  in  the  hollow  of  their  hand, 
for  two  years  they  have  reigned  triumphantly  in  the  Congress 
ut  Washington.  Such  has  been  the  stupendous  lunacy  and 
knavery  of  this  body,  that  it  will  be  regarded  in  all  coming 
time  as  a  blotch  on  civilization  and  a  disgrace  to  the  common 
humanity  of  the  age. 

There  are  some  minds  in  the  Soi\th  which  are  prejudiced  by 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  651 

the  impression  that  the  power  of  the  Lincoln  party  was  bioken 
by  the  fall  elections  of  1862  ;  that  it  has  lost  the  majority  01 
numbers  in  the  North ;  and  that  thereby  the  despotism  which 
we  have  described  as  characteristic  of  the  North  is  rapidly 
approaching  the  period  of  its  dissolution  or  an  era  of  reaction. 
But  this  reply  to  our  theory  4oes  not  take  into  account  all  the 
facts.  The  Eepublican  party  in  the  North  still  has  the 
majority  of  force — a  majority  more  dangerous  and  appalling 
than  that  of  numbers,  as  it  finds  more  numerous  objects  of 
revenge  among  its  own  people. 

The  Yankee  Congress  rejected  at  the  polls  has  taken  fearful 
revenge  on  the  people  who  ventured  an  opinion  hostile  to  the 
ruling  dynasty.  They  have  passed  the  bank,  conscription, 
and  habeas  corpus  suspension  bills,  thus  placing  every  life  and 
every  dollar,  and,  indeed,  every  right  of  twenty  millions  of 
freeborn  people  at  the  absolute  mercy  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
They  have  abated  none  of  their  legislation  against  the  interests 
of  humanity  and  the  written  and  unwritten  law  of  civilization 
in  this  war.  They  have  added  to  it.  They  are  organizing 
insurrections  in  South  Carolina ;  they  have  sent  a  negro  arnry 
into  Florida;  they  are  organizing  black  regiments  in  Tennessee 
But  a  few  months  ago  the  infamous  law  was  passed  at  Wash 
ington  known  as  "  the  Plunder  Act,"  in  which  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  was  authorized  to  appoint  agents  to  go  South, 
collect  all-  property,  send  it  North,  and  have  it  sold.  In 
different  parts  of  the  Confederacy  the  Yankee  troops  are  now 
destroying  all  farming  implements,  seizing  all  provisions,  and 
preventing  the  planting  of  crops,  with  the  avowed  determina 
tion  of  starving  the  Southern  people  into  submission.  Such  a 
warfare  contemplates  the  extermination  of  women  and  children 
as  well  as  men,  and  proposes  to  inflict  a  revenge  more  terrible 
than  the  tortures  of  savages  and  the  modern  atrocities  of  the 
Sepoys. 

It  is,  perhaps,  not  greatly  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  peopl- 
like  the  Yankees  should  show  a  brutal  rage  in  warfare  upoi 
an  enemy  who  has  chastised  their  insolence  and  exasperated 
their  pride,  and  that  they  should  therefore  be  generally  ready 
to  give  their  adhesion  to  any  train  of  measures  calculated  for 
revenge  upon  the  South.  But  it  is  a  matter  of  grave  and 
solicitous  inquiry  that  this  people  should  so  easily  tolerate 


652  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 

measures  in  the  government  which  have  been  pia/nly  directed 
against  their  own  liberties,  and  which,  while  they  have  been 
applauding  a  "  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,"  have  estab 
lished  a  savage  despotism  at  home.  It  is  yet  more  remarkable 
that  the  erection  of  this  despotism  should  be  hailed  with  a  cer 
tain  applause  by  its  own  victims.  History  has  some  instances 
of  the  servile  and  unnatural  joys  of  a  people  in  the  surrender 
of  their  liberties ;  but  none  grosser  than  that  in  which  has 
been  inaugurated  the  throne  of  Abraham  Lincoln  at  "Wash 
ington. 

There  are  numerous  examples  in  history  where  great  abilities 
or  some  scattered  virtues  in  the  character  of  a  despot  have  won 
the  flattery  of  minds  not  ignoble  and  unconscious  of  their 
humiliation.  Milton  in  his  Latin  superlatives  spoke  of  Crom 
well  very  much  after  the  same  manner  in  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  spoken  of  in  Yankee  vernacular.  Eum  te  agnoscunt  omnes, 
Cromuelle,  ea  tu  civis  maximus  et  gloriosissimus,  dux  publici 
consilii)  exercitum,  fortissimorum  impcrator,  pater  patricR 
gessisti.  But  the  Western  lawyer  and  tavern -jester  is  not  a 
Cromwell.  No  attractions  of  genius  are  to  be  found  in  the 
personal  composition  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  His  person  in  fact 
is  utterly  unimportant.  He  holds  the  reins  for  a  higher  power ; 
and  that  power  is  the  many-headed  monster  of  Fanaticism, 
which  by  numbers  or  by  force  constrains  the  popular  will  and 
rules  with  the  rod  of  iron. 

The  disposition  generally  of  the  Northern  people  to  submit 
to  or  tolerate  the  assaults  of  the  Washington  government  on 
their  own  liberties  and  the  destruction  of  their  civil  rights, 
must  proceed  from  permanent  and  well-defined  causes.  We 
have  already  hinted  in  these  pages  an  explanation  of  this  ser 
vile  acquiescence  in  the  acts  of  the  government.  It  is  doubt 
less  the  fruit  of  the  false  political  education  in  the  North,  that 
gives  none  other  but  materialistic  ideas  of  government,  and 
inculcates  the  virtue  of  time-serving  with  all  political  majori 
ties.  It  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  demoralization  of  the  Yan 
kee  ;  to  the  servile  habit  of  his  mind ;  to  his  long  practice  of 
ubmission  to  the  wild  democracy  of  numbers, — all  proceeding 
from  that  false  idea  of  government  which  recognizes  it  only  a*, 
the  organ  of  an  accidental  party,  and  not  as  a  self-existent 
principle  of  right  arid  virtue.  It  is  a  melancholy  fact  that  the 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  653 

people  of  the  North  have  long  ceased  to  love  or  to  value  lib 
erty.  They  have  ceased. to  esteem  the  political  virtues;  to 
take  any  account  of  the  moral  elements  of  government ;  or  to 
look  upon  it  else  than  as  a  physical  power,  to  be  exercised  at 
the  pleasure  of  a  party,  and  to  be  endured  until  reversed  by 
the  accident  of  numbers. 

The  superficial  political  education  of  the  people  of  the  North 
explains  much  that  is  curious  in  their  society.  Time-serving 
of  power  gave  them  wealth,  while  it  degraded  their  national 
character.  In  the  old  government  they  easily  surrendered  their 
political  virtue  for  tariffs,  bounties,  &c. ;  and  the  little  left  of 
it  is  readily  sacrificed  on  the  devilish  altars  of  this  war.  Their 
habit  of  material  computation  made  them  boastful  of  a  "  civili 
zation"  untouched  by  the  spirits  of  virtue  and  humanity,  con 
sisting  only  of  the  rotten,  material  things  which  make  up  the 
externals  and  conveniences  of  life,  and  the  outer  garments  of  so 
ciety.  Their  wealth  was  blazed  out  in  arts  and  railroads ;  com- 
iron  schools,  the  nurseries  of  an  insolent  ignorance  ;  and  gilded 
churches,  the  temples  of  an  impure  religion.  No  people  haa 
ever  established  more  decisively  the  fact  of  the  worthlessnesa 
of  what  remains  of  "  civilization,"  when  the  principle  of  liberty 
is  subtracted,  or  more  forcibly  illustrated  how  much  of  phos 
phorescent  rottenness  there  is  in  such  a  condition. 

"  Their  much-loved  wealth  imparts 
Convenience,  plenty,  elegance,  and  arts  ; 
But  view  them  closer,  craft  and  fraud  appear, 
Even  liberty  itself  is  bartered  here ; 
At  gold's  superior  charms  all  freedom  flies,   * 
The  needy  sell  it  and  the  rich  man  buys  ; 
A  land  of  tyrants  and  a  den  of  slaves." 

The  present  war  has  sufficiently  demonstrated  the  mistake  of 
the  North  in  the  measure  of  its  civilization,  and  convinced  the 
world  that  much  of  what  it  esteemed  its  former  strength  was 
"  but  plethoric  ill."  It  has  done  more  than  this,  for  it  has  un 
masked  the  moral  nature  of  the  Yankee.  It  has  exposed  to 
the  detestation  of  the  world  a  character  which  is  the  product 
of  materialism  in  politics  and  materialism  in  religion — the 
spawn  of  the  worship  of  power  and  the  lust  of  gain.  The 
Yankee — who  has  followed  up  an  extravagance  of  bluster  by 
the  vilest  exhibitions  of  cowardice — who  has  falsified  his  prate 


654  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  humanity  by  the  deeds  of  a  savage — who,  in  the  South,  has 
been  in  this  war  a  robber,  an  assassin,  a  thief  in  the  night,  and 
at  home  a  slave  fawning  on  the  hand  that  manacles  him — has 
secured  for  himself  the  everlasting  contempt  of  the  world.  The 
characteristics  of  a  people  who  boasted  themselves  the  most 
Enlightened  of  Christian  nations,  are  seen  in  a  castrated  civili- 
-ation  ;  while  the  most  remarkable  qualities  they  have  dis 
played  in  the  war  are  illustrated  by  the  coarse  swagger  and 
drunken  fumes  of  such  men  as  Butler,  and  the  rouged  lies  of 
such  "  military  authorities"  as  Halleck  and  Hooker. 

All  vestiges  of  constitutional  liberty  have  long  ago  been 
lost  in  the  North.  The  very  term  of  "  State  rights"  is  men 
tioned  with  derision,  and  the  States  of  the  North  have  ceased 
to  be  more  than  geographical  designations.  No  trace  is  left  of 
the  old  political  system  but  in  the  outward  routine  of  the  gov 
ernment.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  but  "  the 
skin  of  the  immolated  victim,"  and  the  forms  and  ceremonies 
of  a  republic  are  the  disguises  of  a  cruel  and  reckless  des 
potism. 

During  the  two  miserable  and  disastrous  years  that  Mr.  Lin 
coln  has  held  the  presidency  of  the  United  States,  he  has  made 
the  institutions  of  his  country  but  a  name.  The  office  of  presi 
dent  is  no  longer  recognized  in  its  republican  simplicity  ;  it  is 
overlaid  with  despotic  powers,  and  exceeds  in  reality  the  most 
famous  imperial  titles.  Not  a  right  secured  by  the  Constitution 
but  has  been  invaded  ;  not  a  principle  of  freedom  but  has  been 
overthrown  ;  not  a  franchise  but  has  been  trampled  under  foot. 
The  infamous  "  death  order"  published  by  Burnside,  more 
bloody  than  the  Draconian  penalty  and  more  cruel  than  the 
rude  decrees  of  the  savage,  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  domes 
tic  rule,  or  in  the.  warfare  of  any  people  making  the  feeblest 
pretence  to  civilization.  It  assigns  the  penalty  of  death  t^ 
"  writers  of  letters  sent  by  secret  mails,"  and  to  all  persons 
who  "feed,  clothe,  or  in  any  manner  aid"  the  soldiers  <f  the 
Confederacy.  This  infamous  decree  will  live  in  history  ;  it  is 
already  associated  with  a  memorable  martyrdom  —  that  of 
Clement  Yallandigham. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  North  finds  great  difficulty  in  as^ 
signing  to  the  world  the  objects  of  the  present  mad  and  inhu 
man  war.  The  old  pretences  made  by  the  Yankees  of  f  gbting 


THE    SECOND    YEAR.  655 

for  a  constitutional  Union,  and  contesting  the  cause  of  free 
government  for  the  world,  are  too  absurd  and  disgusting  to  be 
repeated.  They  are  unwilling  to  admit  that  they  are  fighting 
for  revenge,  and  prosecuting  a  war,  otherwise  hopeless,  for  the 
gratification  of  a  blind  and  fanatical  hate.  They  have  re 
cently  changed  the  political  phrases  of  the  war,  and  the  latest 
exposition  of  its  object  is,  that  the  North  contends  for  "  the  life 
of  the  nation."  If  this  means  that  a  parasite  is  struggling  for 
existence,  and  that  the  North  desires  the  selfish  aggrandize 
ments  of  the  Union,  and  its  former  tributes  to  its  wealth,  we 
shall  not  dispute  the  theory.  But  the  plain  question  occurs, 
what  rio-ht  has  the  North  to  constrain  the  association  of  a 

o 

people  who  have  no  benefit  to  derive  from  the  partnership,  and 
who,  by  the  laws  of  nature  and  society,  are  free  to  consult  theii 
own  happiness  ?  The  North  has  territory  and  numbers  and 
physical  resources  enough  for  a  separate  existence,  and  if  she 
has  not  virtue  enough  to  sustain  a  national  organization,  she 
has  no  right  to  seek  it  in  a  compulsory  union  with  a  people 
who,  sensible  of  their  superior  endowments,  have  resolved  to 
take  their  destinies  in  their  own  hands. 

There  is  one  sense,  indeed,  in  which  association  with  the 
South  does  imply  the  national  welfare  of  the  North.  The 
South  gave  to  the  old  government  all  its  ideas  of  statesman 
ship  ;  it  leavened  the  political  mass  with  its  characteristic  con 
servatism  ;  and  it  combated,  and,  to  some  extent,  controlled 
the  brutal  theory  that  represented  numbers  as  the  element  of 
free  government.  The  revolutionary  and  infidel  society  of  the 
North  was  moderated  by  the  piety  and  virtues  of  the  South, 
and  the  old  national  life  was  in  some  degree  purified  by  the 
political  ideas  and  romantic  character  of  that  portion  of  the 
country  now  known -as  the  Confederacy.  It  is  in  this  sense 
that  the  Southern  element  is  desirable  to  the  North,  and  that 
the  Union  involves  "  the  life  of  the  nation  ;"  and  it  is  precisely 
in  the  same  sense  that  an  eternal  dissociation  and  an  independ 
ent  national  existence  are  objects  to  the  South  not  only  of  de 
sire,  but  of  vital  necessity. 

We  can  never  go  back  to  the  embraces  of  the  North.  There 
is  blood  and  leprosy  in  the  touch  of  our  former  associate.  We 
can  never  again  live  with  a  people  who  have  made  of  this  war 
a  huge  assassination  ;  who  have  persecuted  us  with  savage  and 


656  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

cowardly  hate  ;  who  gloat  over  the  fancies  of  starving  A  omen 
and  children  ;  who  have  appealed  to  the  worst  passions  of  the 
black  heart  of  the  negro  to  take  revenge  upon  us ;  and  who, 
not  satisfied  with  the  emancipation  proclamation  and  its  scheme 
of  servile  insurrection,  have  actually  debated  in  their  State 
Legislatures  the  policy  of  paying  negroes  premiums  /or  the 
murder  of  white  families  in  the  South.* 

While  we  congratulate  ourselves  on  the  superiority  of  our 
political  ideas  over  those  of  the  North,  and  the  purer  life  of 
our  society,  we  do  not  forget  that,  although  we  have  carried 
away  much  less  of  the  territory  and  numbers  of  the  old  Union . 
than  have  been  left  to  our  enemy,  we  still  have  a  sufficiency  of 
the  material  elements  of  a  national  existence. 

The  South  has  attempted  to  lay  the  foundations  of  national 
independence,  writh  a  territory  as  great  as  the  whole  of  Europe, 
with  the  exception  of  Russia  and  Turkey ;  with  a  population 
four  times  that  of  the  continental  colonies ;  and  with  a  capacity 
for  commerce  equivalent  to  nearly  four-fifths  of  the  exports  of 
the  old  Union. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  glance  at  the  contemporary  aspects  of 
the  war  to  reassure  our  confidence  in  its  destiny,  and  to  renew 
our  vows"  upoii  its  altars.  The  hope  of  reconstruction  is  a  van 
ity  of  the  enemy.  To  mobocratic  Yankees;  to  New  England 

*  The  following  is  taken  from  an  Abolition  pamphlet  (1863),  entitled  "  In 
teresting  Debate,"  etc.,  in  the  Senate  of  Pennsylvania.  It  is  characteristic  of 
the  blasphemous  fanaticism  of  the  Yankee  and  his  hideous  lust  for  blood  : 

"  Mr.  LOWRY — I  believed  then  and  now  that  He  who  watches  over  the  spar 
row  will  chastise  us  until  we  will  be  just  towards  ourselves  and  towards  four 
millions  of  God's  poor,  down-cast  prisoners  of  war.  I  said  that  I  would  arm 
the  negro — that  I  would-  place  him  in  the  front  of  battle — and  that  I  would 
invite  his  rebel  master  with  his  stolen  arms  to  shoot  his  stolen  ammunition 
into  his  stolen  property  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  dollars  a  shot.  I  said  further, 
that  were  I  Commander-in-chief,  by  virtue  of  the  war  power  and  in  obedience 
to  the  customs  of  civilized  nations,  and  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  civilized 
nations,  I  would  confiscate  every  rebel's  property,  whether  upon  two  legs  or 
four,  and  that  I  would  give  to  the  slave  who  would  bring  me  his  master's  dis 
loyal  scalp  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  his  master's  plantation  ;  nor  would 
I  be  at  all  exacting  as  to  where  the  scalp  was  taken  off,  so  that  it  was  at  sonic 
point  between  the  bottom  of  the  ears  and  the  top  of  the  loins.  This,  sii,  WKS 
my  language  long  before  Fremont  had  issued  his  immortal  proclamation.  The 
logic  of  events  is  sanctifying  daily  these  anointed  truths.  Father,  forgive  thou 
those  who  deride  and  vilify  me,  because  I  enunciated  them:  they  know  ao< 
they  do." 


THE    SECOND    YEAB.  657 

"  majorities ;"  to  the  base  crews  of  Infidelity  and  Abolitionism ; 
to  the  savages  who  have  taken  upon  their  souls  the  curse  of 
fratricidal  blood  and  darkened  an  age  of  civilization  with  unut 
terable  crime  and  outrage,  the  South  can  never  surrender,  giv 
ing  up  to  such  a  people  their  name,  their  lands,  their  wealth, 
their  traditions,  their  glories,  their  heroes  newly  dead,  then 
victories,  their  hopes  of  the  future.  Such  a  fate  is  morally  im 
possible.  We  have  not  paid  a  great  price  of  life  for  nothing. 
"We  have  not  forgotten  our  dead.  The  flower  of  our  youth  and 
the  strength  of  our  manhood  have  not  gone  down  to  the  grave 
in  vain.  "We  are  not  willing  for  the  poor  boon  of  a  life  dishon 
ored  and  joyless  to  barter  our  liberties,  surrender  our  homes  to 
the  spoiler,  exist  as  the  vassals  of  Massachusetts,  or  become 
exiles,  whose  title  to  pity  will  not  exceed  the  penalty  of  con 
tempt.  Any  contact,  friendly  or  indifferent,  with  the  Yankee, 
since  the  display  of  his  vices,  would  be  painful  to  a  free  and 
enlightened  people.  It  would  be  vile  and  unnatural  to  the 
people  of  the  South  if  extended  across  the  bloody  gulf  of  a 
cruel  war,  and  unspeakably  infamous  if  made  in  the  attitude  of 
submission. 


'  bnn  ^t 

iftnov  ij 

•'  oi  nwof 

rrr 

• 

I 

• 


x 
sts0t 


H  .  RicJuardson.Pulilisher 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY 


OF 


THE   WAR. 


E.  A.  POLLARD, 

XDITOB    OF    THK     MBIOHMOKD    B  X  AH  !*•«." 


TWO  VOLUMES  IN  ONE. 

VOL.  II. 


NEW  YORK : 
CHARLES    B.   RICHARDSON, 

640  BBOADWAT. 

1866. 


Yinrmn  HimiTiK 


A  W    :>I  11  T 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  18C0; 

BT  CHAELE8  B.  EICHAEDSON, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  Dietrtet 

,*  I  / 1  A  i 


HI  aaMITJOT  OWT 


ff  o.»a 

• 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  I. 

Review  of  the  Battle  of  Chancellorsville.— Two  Defects  in  the  Victory  of  the  Con 
federates.—"  The  Finest  Army  on  the  Planet."— Analysis  of  the  Victory.— General 
ship  of  Lee.— Services  and  Character  of  the  great  Confederate  Leader.— His  Com 
monplaces  and  his  Virtues. — The  Situation  in  Virginia. — Lee's  Preparations  for  the 
Summer  Campaign. — Hooker  to  be  Maneuvered  out  of  Virginia. — Reorganization  of 
Lee's  Army.— The  Affair  of  Brandy  Station.— THE  CAPTURE  OF  WINCHESTER.— The 
Affair  of  Aldie's  Station. — Lee's  Army  Crossing  the  Potomac. — Invasion  of  Pennsyl 
vania. — Alarm  in  the  North. — Hooker  Out-Generalled  and  Removed. — The  Mild 
Warfare  of  the  Confederate  Invaders. — Southern  "Chivalry." — General  Lee's  Error. 
—His  Splendid  March  from  Culpepper  Court  House  to  Gettysburg. — Feverish  Anti 
cipations  in  Richmond.— THE  BATTLE  OF  GETTYSBURG.— First  Day's  Engagement.  ~ 
A  Regiment  of  Corpses.— Charge  of  Gordon's  Brigade.— The  Nine  Mississippi! 
Heroes.— The  Yankees  Driven  through  Gettysburg.— A  Fatal  Mistake  of  the  Con 
federates. — General  Lee's  Embarrassments. — THE  SECOND  DAT. — Cemetery  Hill. — 
Early's  Attack  Almost  a  Success. — Adventure  of  Wright's  Brigade. — THE  THIRD 
DAY. — Sublime  Terrors  of  the  Artillery. — Heroic  and  Ever-Memorable  Charge  of 
Pickett's  Division  on  the  Heights.— Half  a  Mile  of  Shot  and  Shell.— Pickett's  Sup 
ports  Fail. — The  Recoil  —General  Lee's  Behavior. — His  Greatness  in  Disaster. — Im 
mense  Carnage.— Death  of  General  Barksdale,  "  the  Haughty  Rebel."— General  Lee's 
Retreat. — The  Affair  of  Williamsport. — Lee  Recrosses  the  Potomac. — Success  of  his 
Retreat. — Yankee  Misrepresentation.— Review  of  the  Pennsylvania  Campaign. — Half 
of  Lee's  Plans  Disconcerted  at  Richmond. — Results  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg  Ne 
gative. — Lee's  Retreat  Across  the  Potomac  an  Inconsequence. — Disappointment  in 
Richmond. — The  Budget  of  a  Single  Day  in  the  Confederate  Capital PAGE  19 


CHAPTEK  II. 

Vicksburg,  "  the  Heroic  City."— Its  Value  to  the  Confederacy.— An  Opportunity 
Lost  by  Butler.  —  Lieutenant-general  Pemberton. — A  Favorite  of  President  Da 
vis. — The  President's  Obstinacy. — Blindness  of  Pemberton  to  the  Enemy's  De 
signs.— His  Telegram  to  Johnston.— Plan  of  U.  S.  Grant.— Its  Daring.— THE  BATTLE 
OF  PORT  GIBSON. — Exposure  of  General  Bowen  by  Pemberton. — The  First  Mistake. — 
Pemberton's  Disregard  of  Johnston's  Orders. — Grant's  advance  against  Jackson. — 
Johnston's  Evacuation  of  Jackson. — His  Appreciation  of  the  Situation. — Urgent  Or 
ders  to  Pemberton.— A  Brilliant  Opportunity.— Pemberton's  Contumacy  and  Stupid 
ity. — His  Irretrievable  Error. — Yankee  Outrages  in  Jackson. — THE  BATTLE  OF  BAKER'S 
CREEK,  &c. — Stevenson's  Heroic  Fight. — Alleged  Dereliction  of  General  Loring. — 
His  Division  Cut  Off  in  the  Retreat. — Demoralization  of  Pemberton's  Troops. — The 
Enemy's  Assault  on  the  Big  Black.— Shameful  Behavior  of  the  Confederates.—  A 


CONTENTS. 

Georgia  Hero. — Pemberton  and  the  Fugitives. — His  Return  to  Vicksburg.—  Recrim 
inations  as  to  the  Disaster  of  the  Big  Black. — How  Pemberton  Was  in  the  Wrong. — 
Johnston  Orders  the  Evacuation  of  Vicksburg. — Pemberton's  Determination  to 
Hold  It .  PAOB  47 


CHAPTEE  HI. 

The  Defences  of  Vicksburg.— Pemberton's  Force.— His  Troops  Reinspirited.— A 
Memorable  Appeal. — Grant's  Assault  on  the  Works. — Confidence  of  the  Yankees.  — 
Their  Repulse  and  Losses. — Commencement  of  Siege  Operations. — Confidence  in 
Richmond. — Johnston's  Secret  Anticipation  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — His  Alleged 
Inability  to  Avert  it. — Critical  Condition  of  the  Confederate  Armies  in  Numbers. — 
Secret  Correspondence  of  Richmond  Officials.— Mr.  Seddon's  Bait  of  Flattery.— Suf 
ferings  of  the  Garrison  of  Vicksbnrg. — Johnston's  Attempt  to  Extricate  them. — Pro 
posed  Diversion  in  the  Trans-Mississippi. — Its  Failure. — A  Message  from  Pemberton. 
A  Gleam  of  Hope. — An  Important  Despatch  Miscarries. — The  Garrison  Unable  to 
Fight  Their  Way  Out. — But  Their  Condition  not  Extreme. — Pemberton's  Surrender 
on  the  Fourth  of  July. — Surprise  in  Richmond — Mendacity  of  the  Telegraph. — The 
Story  of  the  Rats  and  Mules. — Pemberton's  Statement  as  to  his  Supplies. — His  Ex 
planation  as  to  the  Day  of  Surrender. — The  last  Incident  of  Humiliation. — Behavior 
of  the  Vicksburg  Population. — A  Rival  of  "The  Beast." — Appearance  and  Manners 
of  the  City  under  Yankee  Rule.— Consequences  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — THE  YAN 
KEE  REOCCUPATION  OF  JACKSON. — Johnston's  Second  Evacuation. — The  Enemy's  Rav 
ages  in  Mississippi. — How  they  Compared  with  Lee's  Civilities  in  Pennsylvania. — 
THE  FALL  OF  PORT  HUDSON,  &c. — Enemy's  Capture  of  Yazoo  City. — THE  BATTLE 
>>F  HELENA. — THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. — Repulse  of  the  Confederates. — Abandonment 
•;.f  Little  Rock.— The  Trials  and  Sufferings  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department.— 
Jlindman's  Memorable  Rule.— Military  Autocracy.— The  Generous  and  Heroic  Spirit 
«.<f  the  Trans-Mississippi PAGE  65 


CHAPTEK  IY. 

Elasticity  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Confederacy.— What  it  Taught.— Decay  of  Confi 
dence  in  President  Davis's  Administration. — His  Affection  for  Pemberton. — A  Season 
of  Encouraging  Events. — THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  LOWER  LOUISIANA. — Capture  of  Brashear 
City. — The  Affair  of  Donaldson. — THE  SIEGE  OF  CHARLESTON. — Operations  of  the 
Enemy  on  Folly  Island. — General  Beauregard's  Embarrassments. — Assault  of  the 
Enemy  of  Fort  Wagner. — His  Foothold  on  Morris  Island. — Beauregard's  Designs.— 
Bombardment  of  Fort  Wagner. — Second  Repulse  of  the  Enemy's  Assault. — Gilmcre's 
Insolent  Demand. — His  Attempt  to  Fire  Charleston. — A  Noble  Reply  from  Beavre- 
i,rard. — Bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. — The  Fort  in  Ruins. — Evacuation  of  Mr /ris 
Hand  by  the  Confederates. — The  Yankee  Congratulations. — Devilish  Penalties  for 
"  the  Secession  City." — Dahlgren's  Part  of  the  Programme. — His  Night  Attack  on 
Miinter. — His  Failure. — Safety  of  Charleston. — Bitterness  of  Yankee  Disappointment. 
--MORGAN'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  INDIANA  AND  OHIO. — His  Capture  of  Lebanon. — ^in 
Unnatural  Encounter. — Murder  of  Captain  Magennis. — The  Incursion  Th rough  Indi 
ana. — The  Yankee  Pursuit. — A  Chaplain's  Trick. — Operations  in  Ohio. — The  Affair 
of  Buffington  Island. — Morgan's  Attempt  to  Escape.— His  Capture  ami  imprison 
ment.— Results  of  his  Expedition,  Strategic  and  Material. — The  Vaiuo  of  Military 
Adventure ...  «.,  i^as  87 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK  Y. 

Contrast  between  our  Military  Fortunes  in  the  East  and  in  the  West.— Som« 
Reasons  for  our  Success  in  Virginia.— Her  Hearty  Co-operation  with  the  Confederate 
Authorities.— Her  Contributions  to  the  War.— General  Bragg's  Situation  in  Tennes- 
Bee> — Confederate  criticisms  on  General  Eosecrans. — Opinion  of  the  "  Chattanooga 
Rebel."—  An  Extensive  Movement  Contemplated  by  Rosecrans.-— Bragg's  Eetreat  to 
Chattanooga. — The  Yankees  on  a  Double  Line  of  Operations. — Buckner's  Evacuation 
of  Knoxville.  THE  SURRENDER  OF  CUMBERLAND  GAP. — President  Davis's  Comment 
on  the  Surrender. — THE  BATTLES  OF  CHICKAMAUGA. — Braggs'  Evacuation  of  Chatta 
nooga. — Topography  of  the  Battle-field. — Thomas's  Column  of  Yankees  in  McLemore's 
Cove. — Disobedience  of  Orders  by  Lieutenant-general  Hill  of  the  Confederates. — 
Bragg's  Orders  to  Lieutenant-general  Polk. — Two  Opportunities  Lost.  Note: 
Bragg's  Secret  and  Official  Eeport  of  the  Miscarriage  of  His  Plans. — The  First  Day's 
Engagement  on  the  Chickamanga. — Second  Day. — General  Polk's  Fight  on  our 
Right. — Longstreet's  Successful  Attack  on  the  Left. — The  Grand  Charge. — Rout  of 
the  Enemy. — Longstreet's  Message  to  Bragg. — Forrest  Up  a  Tree. — Bragg  Declines  to 
Pursue. — His  Hesitation  and  Error. — His  Movement  upon  Chattanooga. — Boast  of 
Rosecrans. — An  Empty  Victory  for  the  Confederates. — Bragg's  Awkward  Pause. — 
Discussions  of  the  Campaign. — His  Supposed  Investment  of  Chattanooga. — Two 
Blunders  of  the  Confederate  Commander. — Chickamauga  a  Second  Edition  of  Bull 
Run.  Note :  Observations  of  a  General  Officer  of  the  Confederate  States  Army  on 
.he  Campaign  in  the  West PAGE  112 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

Political  Movements  in  the  Fall  of  1863.— The  "Peace  Party"  in  the  North.— The 
f  ankee  Fall  Elections. — The  War  Democrats  in  the  North. — The  South's  Worst 
, Enemies. — Yankee  Self-Glorification. — Farragut's  Dinner-Party. — The  Russian  Ban 
quet. — Russia  and  Yankeedom. — The  Poles  and  the  Confederates. — THE  POLITICAL 
TROUBLES  IN  KENTUCKY. — Bramlette  and  Wickcliffe. — The  Democratic  Platform  in 
Kentucky. — Political  Ambidexterity. — Burnside's  Despotic  Orders. — The  Kentucky 
"Board  of  Trade."— An  Election  by  Bayonets.— The  Fate  of  Kentucky  Sealed.— OUR 
EUROPEAN  RELATIONS. — Dismissal  of  the  Foreign  Consuls  in  the  Confederacy. — 
Seizure  of  the  Confederate  "  Rams"  in  England. — The  Confederate  Privateers. — 
Their  Achievements. — British  Interests  in  Privateering. — The  Profits  of  So-called 
"Neutrality." — NAVAL  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. — Embarrassments  of  Our 
Naval  Enterprise. — The  Naval  Structures  of  the  Confederates. — LEE'S  FLANK  MOVE 
MENT  IN  VIRGINIA. — Affair  of  Bristoe  Station. — Failure  of  Lee's  Plans. — Meade's 
Escape  to  Centreville. — Imboden's  Operations  in  the  Valley. — Capture  of  Charlestown. 
— OPERATIONS  AT  RAPPAHANNOCK  BRIDGE. — Kelley's  Ford. — Surprise  and  Capture  of 
Hayes'  and  Hoke's  Brigades. — Gallantry  of  Colonel  Godwin. — Lee's  Army  on  the 
Rapidan.— THE  AFFAIR  OF  GERMANIA  FORD.— Meade  Foiled.— The  "On-to-Rich- 
mond"  Delayed PAGE  140 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Chattanooga  Lines. — Grant's  Command. — The  Military  Division  of  the  Missis^ 
eippi.— Scarcity  of  Supplies  in  Chattanooga.— Wheeler's  Raid.— Grant's  Plans.— Ha 
Opens  the  Communications  of  Chattanooga. — THE  AFFAIR  OF  LOOKOUT  VALLEY.— 
Belief  of  Chattanooga. — THE  BATTLK  OF  MISSIONARY  RIDGE. — Bragg's  Unfortunate 


8  CONTENTS. 

Detachment  of  Longstreet's  Force.— His  Evacuation  of  Lookout  Mountain.-  lh« 
Attack  on  Missionary  Ridge. — Hardee's  Gallant  Resistance. — Rout  and  Panic  ol  the 
Confederates. — President  Davis's  First  Reproof  of  the  Confederate  Troops. — Bragg'a 
Retreat  to  Dalton. — Cleburne's  Gallant  Affair. — LONGSTREET'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINSI 
KKOXVILLE. — More  of  Bragg's  Mismanagement. — Insufficiency  of  Longstreet's  Force. 
— Difficulty  in  Obtaining  Supplies. — His  Investment  of  Knoxville. — An  Incident  of 
Personal  Gallantry. — Daring  of  an  English  Volunteer. — Longstreet's  Plans  Discon 
certed.— The  Assault  on  Fort  Sanders.— Devotion  of  Longstreet's  Veterans.— The 
Yankee  "  Wire-net."— The  Fatal  Ditch.— Longstreet's  Masterly  Retreat.— His  Posi 
tion  in  Northeastern  Tennessee. — He  Winters  his  Army  there. — THE  AFFAIR  OF 
SABINE  PASS,  TEXAS.— THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI.— Franklin's  Expedition  Defeated.— 
The  Upper  Portions  of  the  Trans-Mississippi. — The  Missouri  "  Guerillas." — Quan- 
trell. — Romantic  Incidents. — THE  VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE  FRONTIER. — Operations  of 
General  Sam  Jones. — An  Engagement  near  Warm  Springs. — The  Affair  of  Rogers- 
ville. — BATTLE  OF  DROOP  MOUNTAIN. — The  Enemy  Baffled. — Averill's  Great  Decem- 
oer  Raid.— The  Pursuit.— THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  SWAMPS.— The  Negro  Banditti  in  the 
Swamps.— Wild,  Butler's  "  Jackal."— His  Murder  of  Daniel  Bright.— Confederate 
Women  in  Irons. — Cowardice  and  Ferocity  of  the  Yankees PAGE  159 


CHAPTEK  Yin. 

The  President's  Declaration  to  the  Confederate  Congress  of  1863-64.— "  Want  01 
Capacity"  in  the  Confederate  Authorities. — Character  of  Jefferson  Davis. — Official 
Shiftlessness  at  Richmond. — Early  Prognostications  of  the  War. — The  "  Statesman 
ship"  of  the  Confederates.— Ludicrous  Errors  of  Confederate  Leaders.— What  "  King 
Cotton"  might  have  done. — Gross  Mismanagement  of  the  Confederate  Finances. — Mr. 
Memminger's  Maladministration. — The  Moral  Evils  of  an  Expanded  Currency. — The 
Military  Situation  in  December.— Secretary  Seddon's  Shameful  Confession.—"  De- 
magogism"  in  the  Confederate  War  Department. — Seddon's  Propositions. — Military 
"  Substitutes."— An  Act  of  Perfidy.— Bullying  in  Congress.— Spirit  of  the  Confederate 
Soldiery. — LINCOLN'S  "PEACE  PROCLAMATION." — Its  Stupidity,  Insolence,  and  Out- 
rage._How  the  Confederates  Replied  to  it.— A  New  Appeal  Against  "Recon 
struction." — THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  THE  WAR. — A  French  Opinion. — The 
Abolitionists  Unmasked. — Decay  of  European  Sympathy  with  Them. — Review  of 
Lincoln's  "  Emancipation"  Policy.— The  Arming  of  the  Blacks.— The  Negro  Coloni 
zation  Schemes. — Experiments  of  New  England  "Civilization"  in  Louisiana. — 
Frightful  Mortality  of  "  Freedmen."— The  Appalling  Statistics  of  Emancipation.— 
The  Contraband  Camps  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. — Pictures  of  Yankee  Philanthropy. 
—"Slavery"  Tested  by  the  War.— The  Confederates  the  True  Friends  of  the  African 
Laborer. — The  System  of  Negro  Servitude  in  the  Confederacy. — The  "  War-to-the- 
Knife"  Party  in  the  North.— HISTORY  OF  THE  "  RETALIATION"  POLICY.— The  Outrages 
of  Yankee  Warfare. — President  Davis's  Sentimentalism. — The  Record  of  his  Unpar 
donable  and  Unparalleled  Weakness.— A  Peep  into  Yankee  Prisons.— The  Torture- 
Houses  of  the  North. — Captain  Morgan's  Experience  Among  "the  Convict-Drivers." 
—President  Davis's  Bluster.— His  Two  Faces.— Moral  Effects  of  Submission  to  Yankee 
Outrage. — The  Rival  Administrations  in  December  1863. — Richmond  and  Washing 
ton. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Gaiety. — New  Issues  for  the  Confederacy PAGE  180 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

The  Important  of  the  Winter  Campaigns  of  the  War.— A  Series  of  Remarkable 

vents.  —  Encouragement  of  the  Confederacy.  —  ROSSER'S    RAID.  —  A  Magnificen 

prize> — PIOKBTT'S  EXPKDITION  AGAINST  NEWBKRN. — The  Fight  on  Bachelor's  Creek.— 


CONTENTS.  9 

DeBtruction  of  the  Yankee  Gunboat  "Underwriter."— The  BriL.ant  Exploit  Df  Com 
mander  Wood. — Results  of  the  Expedition. — THE  AFFAIR  OF  JOHN'S  ISLAND. — General 
Wise's  Fight.  —THE  BATTLE  OF  OCEAN  POND.— History  of  the  Yankee  Expeditions  int« 
Florida. — Lincoln's  Designs  upon  Florida. — Their  Utter  Defeat. — F'olitical  Jugglery 
of  Seymour's  Expedition.— Price  of  "  Three  Electoral  Votes."--SHERMAN'8  EXPEDI 
TION  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. — What  it  Contemplated. — Grant's  Extensive  Designs. — Th 
Strategic  Triangle. — Grant's  Proposed  Removal  of  the  Mississippi  River. — Polk'a  Re 
treat  into  Alabama. — Forrest's  Heroic  Enterprise. — His  Defeat  of  Smith's  and  Grier 
son's  Columns.— Sherman's  Retreat  to  Vicksburg. — His  Disgraceful  Failure. — Th« 
Yankee  Campaign  in  the  West  Disconcerted.— The  Lines  in  North  Georgia.— Repulse 
of  the  Yankees. . .  PAGE  21« 


CHAPTER  X. 

Auspicious  Signs  of  the  Spring  of  18(54. — Military  Successes  of  the  Confederates.— 
Improvements  in  the  Internal  Polity  of  the  Confederacy — Two  Important  Measures 
of  Legislation. — Revolution  of  our  Finances.— Enlargement  of  the  Conscription. — 
Theory  of  the  New  Military  Law.— A  Blot  on  the  Political  Record  of  the  Confeder 
acy. — Qualified  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus. — An  Infamous  Edict,  but  a  "  Dead- 
letter."— An  Official  Libel  upon  the  Confederacy.— The  Real  Condition  of  CiviJ 
Liberty  in  the  South.— The  Conscription  not  properly  a  Measure  of  Force. — Im 
pressments  but  a  System  of  Patriotic  Contribution.— Development  of  the  Yankea 
Government  into  Despotism. — An  Explanation  of  this. — The  Essence  of  Despotisn. 
in  One  Yankee  Statute. — MILITARY  RESOURCES  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. — Its  Military 
System,  the  Best  and  Most  Elastic  iu  the  World.— The  War  Conducted  on  A  Volun 
tary  £asu. — Supplies.— Scarcity  of  Meat. — The  Grain  Product. — Two  Centres  of  Sup 
plies. — A  Dream  of  Yankee  Hate. — Great  Natural  Resources  of  the  North. — Summarj 
of  the  Yankee  Military  Drafts.— Tonnage  of  the  Yankee  Navy.— The  Yankee  Wai 
Debt.— Economic  Effects  of  the  War. — Its  Effects  on  European  Industry. — Yanke 
Conquest  of  the  South  an  Impossibility. — A  Remarkable  Incident  of  the  War.— 
DAHLGREN'S  RAID  AROUND  RICHMOND. — Kilpatrick's  and  Custar's  Parts  of  the  Expe 
dition. — Dahlgren  and  his  Negro  Guide. — His  "  Braves"  Whipped  by  the  Richmond 
Clerks  and  Artisans. — Death  of  the  Marauder. — Revelation  of  his  Infamous  Designs. 
—Copy  and  History  of  "the  Dahlgren  Papers."— A  Characteristic  Yankee  Apothe 
osis. — Ridiculous  and  Infamous  Behavior  of  the  Confederate  Authorities. — A  Bru 
tal  and  Savage  Threat.— President  Davis  in  Melodrama PAGE  284 


CHAPTEE  XL 

The  Current  of  Confederate  Victories.— THE  RED  RIVER  EXPEDITION.— Banks'  Am 
bitious  Designs.— Condition  of  the  Confederates  West  of  the  Mississippi.— Banks 
Extensive  Preparations. — A  Gala  Day  at  Vicksburg.— Yankee  Capture  of  Fort  De 
Kussy. — Occupation  of  Alexandria. — Porter's  Warfare  and  Pillage. — Banks'  Con 
tinued  Advance.— Shreveport,  the  Grand  Objective  Point.— Kirby  Smith's  Designs.— 
General  Green's  Cavalry  Fight. — BATTLE  OF  MANSFIELD. — Success  of  the  Confeder 
ates.— BATTLE  OF  PLEASANT  HILL.— The  Heroic  and  Devoted  Charge  of  the  Confeder 
ates.— The  Scene  on  the  Hill. — Banks  Fatally  Defeated. — Price's  Capture  of  Yankee 
Trains. — Grand  Results  of  Kirby  Smith's  Campaign. — Banks  in  Disgrace. — Yankee 
Tenure  of  Louisiana.— FORREST'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  KENTUCKY. — His  Gallant  Assault 
on  Fort  Pillow. — The  Yankee  S'ory  of  u  Massacre." — Capture  of  Union  City. — Con 
federate  Occupation  of  Paducah.  —Chastisement  of  the  Yankees  on  their  own  Theatre 


10  CONTENTS. 

•f  Outrages — CAPTURE  OF  PLYMOUTH,  N.  C. — General  Hoke's  Expedition. — Capture 
of"  Fort  Wessel."— Exploit  of  the  "  Albemarle."~The  Assaults  upon  the  Town.— 
Fruits  of  its  Capture.— The  Yankees  in  North  Carolina PAGE  252 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

Close  of  the  Third  Year  of  the  War.— Sketch  of  the  Subsequent  Operations  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Georgia.— GRANT'S  *•  ON-TO-RICHMOND."— The  Combination  Against  the 
Confederate  Capital. — THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  WILDERNESS. — A  Thrilling  Crisis. — Grant 
en  the  Verge  of  Rout.— His  First  Design  Baffled.— THE  BATTLES  OF  SPOTTSYLVANIA 
COURT-HOUSE. — Death  of  General  Sedgwick.— THE  CARNAOE  OF  MAY  THE  12TH. — Five 
Battles  in  Six  Days.— Grant's  Obstinacy.— "The  Butcher."— Sheridan's  Expedition. 
—Death  of  General  "Jeb"  Stuart.— Butler's  Operations  on  the  South  Side  of  the 
James.— "The  Beast"  at  the  Back-Door  of  Richmond.— He  is  Driven  to  Bermuda 
:  Hundred  by  Beauregard. — Defeat  of  Sigel  in  the  Valley. — Grant's  Movement  Down 
'  the  Valley  of  the  Rappahannock. — His  Passage  of  the  Pamunkey. — Re-organization  of 
General  Lee's  Lines. — Grant's  Favorite  Tactics. — Yankee  Exultation  at  his  Approach 
to  Richmond— Caricatures  of  the  Confederacy.— A  Hasty  Apotheosis.— A  True  The 
ory  of  Grant's  "  Flank  Movements."— His  Occupation  of  McClellan's  Old  Lines.— THE 
BATTLE  OF  THE  CHIOKAHOMINY  OR  COLD  HARBOR. — A  Confederate  Victory  in  Ten 
Minutes. — What  Had  Become  of  Yankee  Exultation. — Review  of  the  Rival  Routes  to 
Richmond.— Grant  Crosses  the  James  River. — His  Second  Grand  Combination  Against 
Richmond.— Hunter's  Capture  of  Staunton.—  THE  BATTLES  OF  PETERSRORG.-  General 
Wise's  Heroic  Address. — Engagement  of  16th  June. — Grand  Assault,  of  13th  June. — 
on  "  the  Cockade  City."— A  Decisive  defeat  of  the  Yankees.— Engagement  at  Port 
Walthal  Junction — Sheridan's  Defeat  Near  Gordonsville.  —  Hunter's  Repulse  at 
Lynchburg. — Two  Affairs  on  the  Weldon  Railroad. — Grant's  Second  Combination  a 
Complete  Failure.— Discouragement  of  the  North. — The  Gold  Barometer. — Secretary 
Chase's  Declaration. — SHERMAN'S  "  ON-TO- ATLANTA." — His  Flanking  Movement. — 
Engagement  in  Resaca  Valley. — Johnston's  Retreat. — Engagement  at  New  Hope. — 
Johnston's  Telegram  to  Richmond. — Defeat  of  Sturgis's  Expedition  in  Mississippi. — 
BATTLE  OF  KENESAW  MOUNTAIN. — Sherman's  Successful  Strategy. — The  Confederates 
Fall  Back  to  Atlanta. — THE  BATTLES  OF  ATLANTA. — Hood's  Gallant  Defence. —  .... 
The  Military  Situation  in  July,  1864. — Grant's  Failure. — His  Consumption  of  Troops. 
— Review  of  Yankee  Atrocities  in  the  Summer  Campaign  of  1864. — Sherman's  Char 
acter.— His  Letter  on  "  Wild  Beasts."— His  War  on  Factory  Girls.— Sufferings  of 
Confederate  Women  and  Children. — Ravages  in  Georgia. — Hunter's  Vandalism  in 
Virginia. — "The  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow." — Sturgis  and  his  Demons. — The  Spirit  of 
the  Confederates. —  .  .  .  Some  Words  on  "  Peace  Negotiations." — A  Piratical  Prop 
osition  and  an  Infamous  Bribe.— The  Heroic  Choice  of  the  Confederates. . .  .PAGE  267 


CHAPTER   XIII. 


AMERICAN    IDEAS  :     A   REVIEW   OF    THE   WAR. 

Sentimental  Regrets  concerning  American  History. — The  European  Opinion  ot 
"State"  Institutions. — Calhoun,  the  Great  Political  Scholar  of  America. — His  Doc 
trines. —  Conservatism  of  "Nullification."— Its  "  Union"  Sentiment. — Brilliant  Vision 
of  the  South  Carolina  Statesman. — WTebster,  the  Representative  of  the  Imperfect  and 
Insolent  "  Education"  of  New  England.— Yankee  Libels  in  the  shape  of  Party 
Nomenclature. — Influence  of  State  Institutions. — How  they  were  Auxiliary  to  the 


CONTENTS. 

CTnion  —  Th«  Moral  Veneration  of  the  Union  Peculiarly  a  Seniiment  of  tht  Soutk.— 
What  the  South  had  done  for  the  Unioji.— Senator  Hammond's  Speech.— TU 
«tates  not  Schools  of  Provincialism  and  Estrangement.— The  Development  of 
America,  a  North  and  South,  not  Hostile  States.— Peculiar  Ideas  of  Yankee  Civil- 
nation.— Ideas  Nursed  in  "Free  Schools."— Yankee  Materialism.— How  it  ha» 
Developed  in  the  War.— Yankee  Falsehoods  and  Yankee  Cruelties.— His  Commer 
cial  Politics.— Price  of  his  Liberties.— Ideas  of  the  Confederates  in  the  War.— How 
the  Washington  Routine  was  introduced.—  The  Richmond  Government,  Weak  and 
Negative.— No  Political  Novelty  in  the  Confederacy.— The  Future  of  Confederate 
Ideas.— Intellectual  Barrenness  of  the  War.— Material  of  the  Confederate  Army. 
—The  Birth  of  Great  Ideas.— The  Old  Political  Idolaters.— The  Recompense  of 
Suffering PAG*  2** 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

Condition  of  tne  Confederacy  in  the  early  summer  of  1864.— The  expectations  and 
hopes  of  the  South.— GRANT'S  "  QN  TO  RICHMOND."— Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  his  com 
mand.— His  services  and  character.— THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  WILDERNESS.— A  heroifl 
stand.— Heth's  and  Wilcox's  divisions.— A  critical  conjuncture.— Grant's  whole 
army  on  the  threshold  of  ruin.— Grant's  change  of  front  and  General  Lee's  neV 
line. — The  Northern  newspapers  go  into  ecstasies. — THE  BATTLES  OF  SPOTTSYL- 
VANIA  COURTHOUSE.— A  crisis.— A  thrilling  scene.—"  General  Lee  to  the  rear  !"— 
Six  days  of  battle.— Grant's  obstinacy.— Shsridan's  expedition.— A  fight  at  Yellow 
Tavern. — Death  of  General  "  Jeb"  Stuart. — Butler's  movement  up  the  James. — 
Beauregard  drives  him  to  Bermuda  Hundred.—"  The  Buzzard  and  the  Falcon."— 
THE  ENEMY'S  OPERATIONS  IN  WESTERN  VIRGINIA. — The  combination  there. — Three 
movements.— Sigel's  defeat  a-t  Newmarket. — McCausland  checks  Crook  at  Dublin 
Depot.— Morgan  defeats  Averill  at  Wytheville.— Grant  moves  down  the  Valley  of 
the  Rappahannock.— Engagements  near  Hanover  Junction. — Grant  crosses  the  Pa  - 
munkey. — He  is  within  a  few  miles  of  Richmond. — The  true  theory  of  his  move 
ments,  defeat,  not  victory. — His  immense  losses. — Lee's  admirable  movements 
and  positive  successes. — Nonsense  of  the  newspapers PAGE  809 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Grant  essays  the  passage  of  the  Chickahominy. — BATTLE  OF  COLD  HARBOR. — A  bril 
liant  and  extraordinary  victory  for  the  Confederates. — Grant's  stock  of  expedients. 
— He  decides  to  move  to  the  south  side  of  the  James.— OPERATIONS  IN  WESTERN 
VIRGINIA. — Shocking  improvidence  of  the  Richmond  authorities. — Hunter  cap 
tures  Stannton. — Death  of  General  Jones. — Grant's  new  combination.— Hunter's 
part.— Sheridan's  part. — THE  BATTLES  OF  PETERSBURG. — Butler  attempts  to  steal 
a  march  upon  "the  Cockade  City." — Engagements  of  the  16th,  17th,  and  18th  of 
June. — Port  Walthal  Junction. — Defeat  of  Sheridan  at  Trevillian  Station. — Defeat 
of  Hunter  near  Lynchburg. — Morgan  draws  Burbridge  into  Kentucky.— Two  af 
fairs  on  the  Petersburg  and  Weldon  Railroad. — THE  GREAT  MINE  EXPLOSION. — A 
scene  of  infernal  horror. — Yankee  comments  on  Grant's  failures. — Great  de 
pression  in  the  North. — Mr.  Chase's  declarations.— General  Lee's  sense  of  success. 
— His  singular  behavior. — THE  SINKING  OF  THE  PRIVATEER  ALABAMA. — A  Yan 
kee  trick  of  concealed  armor. — The  privateer  service  of  the  Confederates.— I n- 
t«"-o8t.ing  statistics PAGE  325 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Sherman's  cam]  aign  in  Georgia.— How  parallel  with  that  in  Vrginia.-  The  tasks 
of  Grant  and  Sherman  compared. — Numerical  inferiority  of  General  Johnston's 
forces. — His  proposition  to  the  Richmond  authorities. — Pragmatism  of  President 
Davis  and  his  secretary. — Engagement  in  Resaca  Valley.— General  Johnston's 
designs. — Why  he  retreated. — His  disappointment  of  a  battle  at  Cassville. — EN 
GAGEMENT  AT  NEW  HOPE  CHUROH. — True  theory  of  the  retrograde  movement  oi 
Johnston.— BATTLE  or  EENESAW  MOUNTAIN. — Sherman's  confession. — Sherman 
master  of  the  Chattahoochee.— Johnston  falls  back  to  Atlanta.— The  vexed  ques 
tion  of  Johnston's  retreat — What  it  surrendered. — What  it  secured. — Its  strategic 
advantages. — The  enemy's  movements  in  Virginia  and  Georgia  both  in  check. — 
Disappointment  of  the  enemy. — Statistics  of  Yankee  recruiting. — Another  Con 
federate  success. — Defeat  of  Sturgis. — "  The  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow."— Barbar 
ities  of  the  enemy's  summer  campaign. — Augmentation  of  Yankee  ferocity. — Its 
effect  on  the  Confederates. — Offensive  operation  of  the  Confederates.— Three 
projects  of  invasion. — EABLY'S  INVASION  OF  .MARYLAND,  &c.— Sigel's  retreat. — 
BATTLE  OF  MONOOACY  BRIDGE. — Early  loses  the  great  opportunity  of  1864. — Result* 
of  his  expedition. — Engagement  at  Kernstown. — MORGAN'S  INVASION  OF  KEN  - 
TCOKY. — His  failure. — PRICE'S  INVASION  OF  MISSOURI. — Pilot  Knob. — General  ETT 
ing's  retreat.— Price  retires PAGE  841 


CHAPTEE  X.VLL 

Great  revulsion  in  the  public  mind  of  the  North  in  the  summer  of  1864.— A  general 
outcry  for  peace.— Spirit  of  Yankee  newspapers. — The  Niagara  Falls  "Commi- 
sion." — The  Jacques-Gilmore  Affair.— Sorry  figure  of  the  Confederacy  in  ther** 
negotiations. — The  question  of  peace  negotiations  in  the  Confederacy. — Tnw 
method  of  peace.— Manifesto  of  the  Confederate  Congress.— Position  of  President 
Davis — His  letter  to  Governor  Vance,  of  North  Carolina. — The  CHICAGO  CONVEN 
TION,  etc. — Speeches,  etc. — The  real  programme  of  the  Democratic  party.—  Why 
it  broke  down. — No  virtue  in  public  opinion  in  the  North. — The  true  peace  men 
of  the  North. — Their  Convention  at  Cincinnati. — A  reaffirmation  of  Jeffersonian 
Democracy. — A  masterpiece  of  statesmanship. — The  Presidential  campaign  of 
/864. — The  RIVAL  ADMINISTRATIONS  AT  RICHMOND  AND  WASHINGTON. — A  COMPARA 
TIVE  VIEW  OF  NORTHERN  DESPOTISM. — The  conscription  and  impressment  laws  of  the 
Confederacy.— The  offerings  of  Southern  patriotism.— The  Yankee  record  in  the 
matter  of  slavery. — "  Military  necessity." — The  Yankee  record  in  the  matter  of 
civil  liberty. — An  outrage  upon  history PAGE  359 


CHAPTEE  XYHL 

The  business  of  blockade-running. — Its  risks. — Interesting  statistics. — Value  of  the 
port  of  Mobile. — NAVAL  FIGHT  AND  CAPTURE  OF  THE  FORTS  IN  MOBILE  BAY. — A 
•frightful  disparity  of  force. — Heroic  fight  of  the  ram  Tennessee. — Absurd  boasts 
of  the  Yankees. — Surrender  of  Fort  Gaines. — Fall  of  Fort  Morgan. — THE  GEORGIA 
CAMPAIGN. — Its  importance. — Johnston's  situation  at  Atlanta. — His  removal  by 
President  Davis. — A  fatal  error. — Lieutenant-General  Hood. — THE  BATTLES  OF 
ATLANTA, — THE  FALL  OF  "THE  GATE  CITY." — Reckless  and  desperate  fighting— 


CONTENTS.  13 

Yankee  raid  on  the  Macon  road. — Hood's  "magnificent  advance." — Bombard 
ment  of  Atlanta. — Hood's  fatal  mistake. — Sherman's  new  movement. — He  "cuts 
the  Confederates  in  two." — The  Yankees  in  Atlanta. — Sherman's  cruelties. — Hi» 
depopulation  of  Atlanta. — Enormity  of  the  order. — Sherman  as  a  pacificator,-  • 
Governor  Brtwn's  letter. — Position  of  Vice-President  Stephens. — Effects  of  the 
fall  of  Atlanta. — President  Davis'  Macon  speech. — Its  swollen  tone.— CAPTURE  OF 
THK  CONFEDERATE  PRIVATEER  FLORIDA. — Its  cowardice  and  outrage. — Yankee  idea 
of  glory. — THK  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  RAM  ALBEMARLE. — Yankee  es 
timation  of  the  exploit. — The  North  Carolina  Sounds. — THK  ST.  ALBANS  RAID. — 
Stories  of  the  savage  vengeance  of  the  Confederates. — How  much  truth  there  was  in 
them .' PAGE  377 

. 

CHAPTER  *TX 

Wtl-  2. 

The  Richmond  lines.— THE  FALL  OF  FORT  HARRISON,  ETC.— The  attempt  to  retake  it 
— Why  it  failed. — ENGAGEMENT  ON  THE  CHARLES  CITY  ROAD. — Death  of  General 
Gregg. — ENGAGEMENT  ON  THE  WILLIAMSBURG  AND  BOTDTON  ROADS. — ANOTHER 
GRAND  ATTEMPT  ON  RICHMOND. — A  shameful  failure. — The  "  electoral  necessity"  at 
Washington. — THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  VIRGINIA. — Early's  mission  in  the 
Valley. — How  a  part  of  the  combination  to  protect  Richmond. — Sheridan's  com 
mand. — His  strategy. — BATTLE  NEAR  WINCHESTER. — A  critical  moment. — The  en 
emy's  centre  broken. — He  recovers. — Misconduct  of  the  Confederate  cavalry. — 
Early  retreats  to  Fisher's  Hill. — THE  BATTLE  OF  FISHER'S  HILL. — A  most  unex 
pected  reverse  to  the  Confederates.— Misgivings  and  alarm  in  Richmond.— The 
capture  of  Staunton. — Sheridan's  devastations  of  the  Valley. — "  Barn-burning."— 
An  affair  of  Rosser's  cavalry.—"  Thel  Savior  of  the  Valley." — BATTLE  OF  CEDAR 
CREEK. — Two-thirds  of  Sheridan's-  army  completely  routed. — Early's  awkward 
pause.— Plunder  of  the  Yankee  camp.— The  enemy  regains  the  day.— Shameful 
rout  of  the  Confederates. — The  Valley  campaign  virtually  ended. — SOUTHWESTERN 
V'IRGINIA. — Breckinridge's  campaign. — The  Yankees  capture  the  salt-works  at 
Saltville. — Destruction  of  the  works . .  PAGE  394 


CHAPTEE  XX. 

Ifr.  Lincoln's  extraordinary  triumph.— Reassembling  of  the  Richmond  Congress.  ~ 
President  Davis'  review  of  the  situation.— A  memorable  boast.— New  demands  of 
the  Confederate  conscription.— Military  resources  of  the  North  and  South  com 
pared.— Plethoric  wealth  of  the  North.-"  Twenty  against  one."— Two  advantages 
the  South  had  in  the  war.— Its  conditions  of  success.— The  value  of  endurance  on 
the  part  of  the  South.— THE  HOOD-SHERMAN  CAMPAIGN.— Speeches  at  headquarters. 
—Hood  commences  his  march.— Capture  of  Dalton.— Sherman  follows  as  far  as 
Gaylesville.— He  turns  back.— Georgia  and  South  Carolina  "  at  his  mercy."— An 
extraordinary  campaign.- Hood  and  Sherman  marching  away  from  each  otheK — 
flood  crosses  into  Tennessee.— The  Yankee  retreat  to  Franklin.— THE  BATTLE  OF 
FRANKLIN.— Great  loss  in  Confederate  officers.— The  enemy  retreats  to  Nashville.— 
BATTLE  ow  NASHViLLE.-The  giving  way  of  Bates'  division.— A  shameful  stampede. 
—Hood's  losses.-  -The  whole  scheme  of  Confederate  defence  west  of  the  Al!«- 
ghanies  broken  down.— The  errors  of  Hood's  campaign PAGE  412 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


Sherman's  march  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea. — Yankee  boasts. — Easy  raturo  : 
Sherman's  enterprise. — "  Grand"  mistake  of  the   Confederates. — The  burning  o 
Atlanta. — Five   thousand  houses  in  ruins. — Sherman's  route  to  Milledgeville.— 
Second  stage  of  the  march  to  Millen. — Last  stage  of  the  march. — Wheeler's  cavalry 
—THE  FALL  OF   SAVANNAH.— Capture  of  Fort  McAllister.— Probable  surprise  of 
Hardee. — The  Confederates  evacuate  Savannah. — Sherman's  Christnuu-gift  to  Mr. 
Lincoln. — The  true  value  of  Sherman's  exploit. — His  own  estimation  of  it. — De 
spondency  in  the  South.— Depletion  of  the  Confederate  armies.— THK  EXCHANGE  or 
PRISONERS,  etc. — Bad  faith  of  the  Yankees. — Their  misrepresentations. — The  ques 
tion  of  recaptured  slaves.— A  Yankee  calculation.— The  Washington  Government 
responsible  for  the  sufferings  of  Yankee  prisoners. — How  capital  was  made  out  of 
their  sufferings. — A  game  with  " sick"  prisoners. — How  "rebel  barbarities"  were 
manufactured. — Noble  conduct  of  General  Grant. — Its  commentary  on  the  Wash 
ington  cabinet. — His  "  victory"  over  that  body PAGE  426 

CHARTER  XXII. 

The  blockade  at  Wilmington. — How  ineffective. — FIRST  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  FORT 
FISHER. — Butler's  powder-ship. — The  two  days'  bombardment. — Landing  of 
Butler's  troops. — Butler-  decides  not  to  attack. — His  sudden  departure. — He  is 
removed  from  command. — SECOND  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  FORT  FISHER. — FALL  o» 
WILMINGTON.— Landing  of  Terry's  command.— Movements  of  General  Hoke.— The 
assault  on  the  fort.— A  feu  cPenfer. — Desperate  fighting. — The  Confederates 
overpowered. — Surrender  of  Fort  Fisher. — Evacuation  of  Fort  Anderson. — Yankee 
occupation  of  Wilmington. — How  a  part  of  General  Sherman's  campaign  in  the 
Carolinas. — SHERMAN'S  SIXTY  DAYS  IN  THE  CAROLINAS. — Direction  of  his  march.  - 
Crossing  the  Savannah  River. — Mismanagement  of  the  Confederate  troops. — Shei- 
man  at  Branchville.— THE  FALL  OF  CHARLESTON.— Hardee  joins  BeauregarJ. — 
'Conflagration  in  Charleston. — Explosion  at  the  railroad  depot. — A  scarred  city. — 
Charleston  as  seen  through  Yankee  eyes. — CAPTURE  AND  BURNING  or  COLUMBIA. — 
Wild  and  savage  scenes  of  pillage. — The  city  on  fire. — Four  thousand  citizens 
homeless. — Sherman's  march  northward. — His  organization  of  "bummers." — 
The  column  of  smoke.— The  Yankees  at  Winnsboro'.  More  of  the  enemy's  atro 
cities. — Sherman's  feint  upon  Charlotte. — His  occupation  of  Fayetteville. — Hamp 
ton  attacks  Kilpatrick. — Sherman's  appointment  of  a  rendezvous  with  Schofield. 
— Hardee's  fight  near  Averysboro*. — What  he  did  with  half  a  corps  of  Confeder 
ates. — THE  BATTLE  OF  BENTONVILLE. — Success  of  the  Confederates.— No  decisive 
results.— Sherman's  move  towards  Goldsboro'.— Schofield's  movement.— Sher 
man's  success.— His  congratulatory  order. — A  military  conference  st  City  Point, 
Virginia PAOB  4ST 

CHAPTER  XXIIL 

The  date  of  distrust  in  the  Southern  mind.— Observation  of  General  Lee.— A  pecu 
liar  moral  condition  of  the  Confederacy.— Want  of  confidence  in  President  Davis' 
administration.— Impatience  of  the  prolongation  of  the  war.— Davis'  unpopularity. 
— Weak  attempts  in  Congress  at  a  counter-revolution. — General  Lee  made  com- 
mander-in  chief.— The  title  a  nominal  one.— The  Virginia  delegation  and  the  Pres 
ident. — Mr.  Sed  den's  resignation. — President  Davis'  defiance  to  Congress. — Th 


CONTENTS.  15 

Davia- Johnston  imbroglio. — Senator  Wig  fall's  speeches. — Johnston's  restoration. 
— President  Davis'  opinion  of  homoeopathy. — Sullen  and  indifferent  disposition  o< 
the  Southern  people. — How  they  might  have  accomplished  their  independence. — 
Review  of  the  military  situation. — Analysis  of  the  peace  feeling  in  the  North. — 
How  it  was  likely  to  be  developed  by  a  long  war. — The  Union  not  the  enemy's  tint 
qua  non. — Two  contingencies  that  limited  the  war. — The  worthless  title  of  Tanke* 
invasion. — "Cob-web"  occupation  of  the  Confederacy. — Note:  an  address  in.  the 
Richmond  newspapers. — The  two  fatal  facts  in  the  condition  of  the  Confederacy. — 
THE  FORTRESS  MONROE  COMMISSION. — How  it  was  brought  about. — The  Yankee 
ultimatum. — Official  narrative  of  the  Confederate  commissioners. — A  new  attempt 
to  rally  the  spirit  of  the  South. — The  meeting  at  the  African  church  in  Richmond. 
— President  Davis'  boasts. — His  noble  allusion  to  history. — How  the  cause  of  the 
Confederacy  was  in  danger. — PROPOSITION  TO  ARM  THE  SLAVES  OF  THE  SOUTH. — 
Indicative  of  a  desperate  condition  of  the  public  mind. — General  Lee's  opinion. — 
The  slaveholding  interest. — Its  selfishness  and  insolence. — A  weak  conclusion  of 
the  matter. — "Catching  at  straws"  in  the  Confederate  Congress. — Character  of 

this  body PACK  465 

' 

UH>. 

' 

CHAPTER  XX1T. 

The  last  address  and  appeal  of  the  Confederate  Congress. — The  war  in  a  geographical 
point  of  view.— THB  CONFEDERATE  CONGRESS  AND  PRESIDENT  DAVIS.— THE  EXECU 
TIVE  DEPARTMENTS. — A  sharp  recrimination.—  A  committee  of  the  Senate  reply  ta 
President  Davis. — Maladministration  in  the  War  Department — Two-thirds  of  th« 
Confederate  Army  absentees.— Lee  loses  nearly  half  his  army  by  desertions.— The 
Other  half  threatened  with  starvation. — Ample  supply  of  food  in  the  country. — 
The  fault  in  the  Commissary  Department. — Commissary  Northrop  a  "  pepper-doc 
tor"  as  the  favorite  of  Davis.— Analysis  of  President  Davis'  character  for  firmness. 
— How  Northrop  starved  Richmond.— HISTORY  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSA- 
BIAT. — Secret  testimony  in  Congress. — President  Davis'  refusal  to  trade  cotton  for 
meat.— Persistent  delusion  about  "king  cotton."— Venality  of  the  enemy.— Davia 
takes  no  advantage  of  it.-r-Reoord  of  the  rations  in  Lee's  army.— Startling  statis 
tics.— Attempts  to  get  meat  from  Europe.— General  Lee's  army  without  meat.-- 
His  telegram  to  President  Davis. — The  necessities  of  the  Commissary  Department 
summed  up  in  secret  session  of  Congress.— But  little  done  to  meet  them.— How  the 
cause  of  the  Confederacy  would  have  failed  without  a  catastrophe  of  arms.— The 
military  narrative  resumed.— MILITARY  EVENTS  IN  VIRGINIA  IN  THK  WINTER  o» 
1864-5. — SHERIDAN'S  RAID. — Thirteen  counties  traversed. — Amount  of  destruction 
accomplished  by  the  enemy. — THE  RICHMOND  LINES. — HATCHER'S  RUN. — Extension 
of  Grant's  line. — BATTLE  OF  HARES  HILL. — Gallantry  of  Gordon's  command. — Vigor 
and  brilliancy  of  the  fighting  of  the  Confederates.— No  decisive  results..  PAGK  474 


CHAPTER  XXY. 

THK  BATTLES  AROUND  PETERSBURG.— The  movement  of  Sheridan's  cavalry.— The  Five 
Forks.— General  Lee's  counter-movement.— Repulse  of  Sheridan.— Re-enforced  by 
Grant.— The  Confederates  flanked  at  the  Five  Forks.— The  situation  in  front  o. 
Petersburg.— Lee's  lines  broken  in  three  places.— Capture  of  Fort  Mahorie  by  the 
enemy.— General  Lee  loses  his  entire  line  of  defence,  and  the  Southside  Railroad. 
—THE  EVACUATION  OF  RICHMOND.— Great  surprise  in  the  Confederate  capital.— The 
news  in  the  churches.— Dr.  Hoge's  address.— Consternation  and  uproar  in  th* 


16  CONTENTS. 

•treets.— The  city  on  fire.  -A  reckless  military  order.— Scenes  of  horror.— Mobs  of 
plunderers. — The  scene  at  the  commissary  depot. — WeitzePs  entry  into  Richmond. 
—Suffering  of  the  people.— Scene  on  Capitol  Square.— Devastations  of  the  fire.— 
The  burnt  district. — Weitzel's  and  Shepley's  general  orders. — Yankee  rejoicings 
over  the  fall  of  Richmond. — Bell-ringings,  hymns,  and  dancing  in  the  streets  of 
New  York. — A  grand  illumination  in  Washington.-«-Yankee  mottoes. — A  memor 
able  speech .....  PAGK  487 

CHAPTEE  XXVI. 

I7hat  the  Confederates  anticipated  on  the  fall  of  Richmond.— Two  opinions.— Pro 
phetic  words  of  the  Richmond  Examiner.— Disintegration  of  Lee's  army.— The 
line  of  his  retreat.— Grant's  pursuit.— Sheridan  captures  prisoners,  guns,  and  wag 
ons. — Sheridan's  dispatch. — Change  in  the  movements  of  both  armies. — The  situa 
tion  at  Appomattox  Court-house. — How  Lee  was  surrounded. — SURRENDER  OF  THE 
ARMY  OF  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA. — A  frightful  demoralization  of  the  army. — More  than 
two-thirds  of  the  men  deserted. — Pickett's  division. — Reasons  to  suppose  that  Gen 
eral  Lee  had  predetermined  a  surrender  on  moving  from  Richmond  and  Peters 
burg. — Straggling  of  his  soldiers. — Official  correspondence  concerning  the  surren 
der. — Interview  between  General  Lee  and  General  Grant  at  McLean's  house. — How 
General  Lee  looked. — Grant's  generous  conduct. — Scenes  between  the  lines  of  the 
two  armies.- -An  informal  conference  of  officers.— How  the  news  of  surrender  was 
received  in  the  Yankee  army.— How  received  at  Washington. — Secretary  Stanton'a 
dispatch.— President  Lincoln's  speech.—"  Dixie"  in  Washington.— General  Lee's 
farewell  address  to  his  army. — His  return  to  Richmond.— Effect  of  Lee's  surrender. 
-—General  Johnston's  department. — MOVEMENTS  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. — FALL  OF  MO 
BILE. — Wilson's  cavalry  expedition  through  Alabama  and  Georgia. — SURRENDER 
OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY. — Sherman's  "  basis  of  negotiations"  repudiated  at  Wash 
ington. — The  policy  of  the  Northern  Government  unmasked. — Sherman's  reply. — 
SURRENDER  OF  TAYLOR'S  ARMY.— SURRENDER  OF  KIRBY'S  SMITH'S  ARMY.— "War 
meetings"  in  Texas. —  Want  of  public  resolution. — The  last  act  of  the  war. — A  sud 
den  peace,  and  what  it  implied PAGE  502 


i  . 

APPENDIX  No.   I. 
m  j 

I. 

'olitical  Iconoclasm  in  America. — The  two  idols  of  "  the  Constitution"  and  "  tLe 
Union." — Extravagant  praises  of  the  Constitution. — Its  true  value. — It  contained  a 
noble  principle  and  glaring  defects.— Character  of  the  founders  of  the  Constitution. 
— Hamilton. — Franklin. — His  cookery-book  philosophy. — His  absurdities  in  the 
Convention.— The  call  for  the  Convention  that  formed  the  Constitution.— Three 
parties  in  the  Convention. — The  idea  of  a  '*  national"  government. — Conflict  be 
tween  the  small  and  large  States.— The  result  of  this,  the  distinguishing  feature  of 
the  Constitution. — That  feature  an  accident,  and  not  an  a  priori  discovery.— Enu 
meration  of  defects  in  the  Constitution. — The  weakness  and  ignorance  of  ita  framer*. 
— IU  one  conspicuous  virtue  and  original  principle. — Combination  of  State-rig hta 


CONTENTS.  17 

with  a  common  authority. — How  involved  in  the  construction  of  the  Senate.—  How 
made  more  precise  in  the  Amendments. — Particulars  in  which  the  element  of  th* 
States  was  recognized. — A  new  rule  of  construction  applied  to  the  American  Union. 
— The  necessity  which  originated  it. — The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  not  a 
political  revolution. — The  creature  of  the  States. — True  interpretation  of  its  moral 
grandeur. — The  bond  of  the  Union  a  voluntary  one. — No  mission*  apart  from  the 
States. — Why  coercion  of  the  States  was  not  necessary. — How  the  Union  stood 
for  an  American  nationality. — Its  power  to  reach  individuals. — The  Union,  in 
practice,  rather  a  rough  companionship  than  a  national  identity. — Right  of  seces 
sion. — Not  necessary  to  discuss  it. — The  development  of  the  Union  a  North  and 
South,  and  not  disintegrated  States. — Profound  invention  of  Calhoun  of  South  Car 
olina. — How  it  was  a  Union  measure,  and  not  "  Nullification." 529 

II. 

What  the  American  colonies  contended  for.— Burke's  idea.— The  first  American  Con 
gress. — Its  demands. — How  the  question  of  independence  was  developed. — Vir 
ginia  the  first  to  move  for  independence. — The  Declaration  of  Independence. — The 
Articles  of  Confederation. — Diverse  character  and  circumstances  of  the  colonies.- 
The  gentry  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas. — Early  type  of  the  YanTcee. — Difference 
of  races. — Its  value  in  historical  inquiries. — Commercial  spirit  of  New  England 
in  the  revolution. — The  nature  and  the  value  of  "  the  Confederation." — John  Ad 
ams'  idea. — "  Perpetual  Union." — The  Confederation  a  makeshift  of  the  war. — 
"  State-rights"  in  the  treaty  qf  1783. — How  the  revolution  succeeded. — Its  illustra 
tion  of  the  value  of  endurance. — Liberty  invariably  the  fruit  of  rebellion. — Tha 
two  conditions  of  all  history 544 

III. 

The  times  of  Thomas  Jefferson. — Manners  and  appearance  of  the  man. — His  Demon- 
racy. — Its  application  to  the  relations  of  the  States  and  Federal  Government. — Ori 
gin  of  the  Republican  or  Democratic  party. — The  idea  of  consolidation. — Nevf 
York,  and  the  New  England  States. — Early  political  preaching  in  New  England. — 
The  Alien  and  Sedition  laws. — How  the  latter  infringed  the  rights  of  the  States. — • 
The  Kentucky  Resolutions. — A  fact  not  in  the  record.— Mr.  Jefferson  on  "  nullifi 
cation." — Why  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  were  modified. — The  Virginia  Resolutions, 
— The  replies  of  the  New  England  States,  and  of  New  York. — Jefferson's  triumph. 
— A  new  era  at  Washington -. 55$ 

IV. 

•Tie  slav.ery  question. — A  libel  on  political  nomenclature.— A  brief  moral  de 
fence  of  negro  servitude  in  the  South. — The  history  of  its  establishment. — 
Accommodation  of  the  slavery  question  in  the  Constitution. — Political  history  of 
the  question. — The  Hartford  Convention.-w-Two  blows  aimed  at  the  South. — Devel 
opment  of  the  slavery  controversy. — Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  as  to  slavery  in 
the  territories. — The  Missouri  restriction. — The  initial  point  of  the  war  of  sections. — 
Mr.  Jefferson's  alarm. — The  trace  of  disunion. — Real  causes  of  conflict  between 
the  North  and  the  South. — The  slavery  question  subordinate  and  yet  conspicu 
ous. — Why  so  ? — How  it  was  bound  up  in  the  conflict  between  State-rights  and 
consolidation. — Northern  civilization. — An  insolent  democracy. — Yankee  "  gentle 
men." — Plainness  of  the  South.— A  noble  type  of  civilization. — Effect  of  slavery 
on  the  political  and  social  character  of  the  South. — Yankee  vulgarity. — ^«hy  the 
South  was  the  nursery  of  American  statesmen 562 

a 


It  CONTENTS. 


Y. 

Contrast  between  the  North  and  South  in  material  progress. — The  times  of 
Jackson. — The  tariff  controversy. — Calhoun  and  Webster  as  representat.ve  men 
— The  latter  a  sophomore  in  American  politics. — Mr.  Webster's  private  correspon 
dence  and  pdfetry. — His  superficial  accomplishments. — "  Nullification,"  anothei 
libel  of  political  nomenclature. — A  true  explanation  and  analysis  of  Mr.  Calhoun's 
scheme  to  save  and  perpetuate  the  Onion. — Jefferson  Davis'  defence  of  Calhoun. 
New  England's  regard  for  the  Union. — The  veneration  of  the  Union  peculiarly  a 
Southern  sentiment. — Mr.  Calhoun's  Fort  Hill  speech. — The  ignorance  or  hypoc 
risy  of  Webster  and  his  party. — How  the  South  was  driven  to  "  disunion.". . .  570 

YI. 

A  Fourth  of  July  sentiment  in  1851.— Slavery  not  the  Cause  of  Disunion.— The  War 
of  1861.— What  it  has  decided.— The  incense  of  weak  minda  to  the  Yankee.— 
Last  sentiment  of  President  Davis.. ..  580 


SOUTHERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAR. 


THE   THIRD  YEAR. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Review  of  the  Battle  of  Chancellorsville.— Two  Defects  in  the  Victory  of  the  Con 
federates.—"  The  Finest  Army  on  the  Planet."— Analysis  of  the  Victory.— General- 
chip  of  Lee.— Services  and  Character  of  the  great  Confederate  Leader.— His  Com 
monplaces  and  his  Virtues.— The  Situation  in  Virginia.— Lee's  Preparations  for  the 
Summer  Campaign.— Hooker  to  be  Maneuvered  out  of  Virginia.— Reorganization  of 
Lee's  Army.— The  Affair  of  Brandy  Station.— THE  CAPTURE  OF  WINCHESTER.— The 
Affair  of  Aldie's  Station.— Lee's  Army  Crossing  the  Potomac.— Invasion  of  Pennsyl 
vania. — Alarm  in  the  North. — Hooker  Out-Generalled  and  Removed. — The  Mild 
Warfare  of  the  Confederate  Invaders.— Southern  "Chivalry."— General  Lee's  Error. 
—His  Splendid  March  from  Culpepper  Court  House  to  Gettysburg. — Feverish  Anti 
cipations  in  Richmond.— THE  BATTLE  OF  GETTYSBURG.— First  Day's  Engagement.— 
A  Regiment  of  Corpses.— Charge  of  Gordon's  Brigade.— The  Nine  Mississipp 
Heroes.— The  Yankees  Driven  through  Gettysburg.— A  Fatal  Mistake  of  the  Con 
federates. — General  Lee's  Embarrassments. — THE  SECOND  DAT. — Cemetery  Hill.— 
Early's  Attack  Almost  a  Success.— Adventure  of  Wright's  Brigade.— THE  THIRB 
DAY._Sublime  Terrors  of  the  Artillery.— Heroic  and  Ever-Memorable  Charge  of 
Pickett's  Division  on  the  Heights. — Half  a  Mile  of  Shot  and  Shell. — Pickett's  Sup 
ports  Fail. — The  Recoil.— General  Lee's  Behavior. — His  Greatness  in  Disaster. — Im 
mense  Carnage. — Death  of  General  Barksdale,  "  the  Haughty  Rebel." — General  Lee's 
Retreat.— The  Affair  of  Williamsport.— Lee  Recrosses  the  Potomac.— Success  of  his 
Retreat. — Yankee  Misrepresentation.— Review  of  the  Pennsylvania  Campaign. — Half 
of  Lee's  Plans  Disconcerted  at  Richmond. — Results  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg  Ne 
gative. — Lee's  Retreat  Across  the  Potomac  an  Inconsequence. — Disappointment  in 
Richmond.— The  Budget  of  a  Single  Day  in  the  Confederate  Capital. 

IN  the  close  of  a  former  volume,  we  proposed  to  open  the 
Third  Year  of  the  War  with  a  revised  and  extended  account 
of  the  battles  fought  between  Fredericksburg  and  Chancellors- 
vine,  on  the  1st,  2d,  3d  and  4th  of  May,  1863.  On  examina 
tion,  however,  of  what  has  already  been  written  of  these 
events,  we  find  so  little  of  authentic  detail  to  add  to  it,  that  we 
shall  content  ourselves  with  a  general  reference  to  this  impor 
tant  series  of  engagements  (known  collectively  as  the  battle  of 
Chancellorsville),  and  a  concise  statement  of  results. 

We  have  here  again  the  old  story  of  a  great  and  bloody 
battle,  defective  in  conclusion  and  barren  in  practical  results. 
The  Confederates  had  failed  to  capture  Sedgwick's  corps  by 


20  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR.       , 

not  seizing  Banks'  Ford.  The  capture  of  his  wlu  .e  corps 
would  then  have  been  inevitable,  for  we  held  the  access  to 
Fredericksburg  guarded.  As  it  was,  Hooker  was  able  to  cross 
the  river  under  cover  of  night  with  all  of  his  army  but  what 
had  been  lost  in  the  casualties  of  the  fight ;  and  the  Southern 
public  were  again  treated  to  the  old  excuse  that  we  had  neither 
the  men  nor  the  facilities  to  pursue  him. 

But,  notwithstanding  these  deficiencies  of  our  victory,  it  was 
a  great  and  brilliant  one,  and  it  gave  the  Confederacy  occasion 
of  pride  second  to  none  in  the  war.  The  Confederates  had 
whipped  what  Hooker  entitled  "  the  finest  army  on  the  planet." 
They  had  done  this  with  an  effective  fighting  force  which,  com 
pared  with  that  of  the  enemy,  was  as  three  to  ten.  They  had 
put  thirty  thousand  of  the  enemy  hors  du  coinbat^  while  our 
own  casualties  did  not  foot  up  more  than  one-third  of  that 
number.  This  battle,  more  than  anything  else,  confirmed  the 
fame  of  General  Lee  ;  for,  however  it  had  failed  in  accomplish 
ing  all  that  was  possible,  it  was  at  least  a  victory  won  against 
an  enemy  of  superior  numbers,  who  had  the  advantage  of  the 
initiative  and  naturally  secured  that  of  position. 

General  Hooker  had  come  with  eight  days'  rations  and  a  plan 
of  battle  combining  all  that  was  essential  on  paper  to  a  com 
plete  success.  General  Lee  had  to  watch  the  movements  of 
Hooker  until  they  were  developed  ;  to  arrest  his  progress  by 
attack  ;  to  engage  him  at  the  same  time  with  a  flank  movement 
with  a  portion  of  his  forces ;  and  then  to  transfer  his  blows  to 
Sedgwick.  All  this  was  done  with  a  readiness  of  combination 
that  showed  a  high  order  of  military  ability.  Hooker  was  de 
feated  by  two  critical  circumstances :  the  flank  movement  of 
Jackson,  executed  with  signal  rapidity  and  decision,  and  the 
failure  of  Sedgwick  to  effect  a  junction.  It  was  these  move 
ments  and  interpositions  directed  by  Lee  which  ranked  him 
among  the  greatest  of  modern  strategists.  He  was  now  recog 
nized  as  the  master  military  mind  of  the  Confederacy. 

General  Lee  had,  by  a  perceptible  progress,  risen  to  be  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  the  revolution.  His  military 
life  had  been  one  of  steady  advancement.  He  had  graduated 
at  West  Point  in  1829,  at  the  head  of  his  class  ;  and  it  is  said 
that,  in  that  severe  school  and  early  test  of  the  soldier,  he  had 
never  been  marked  with  a  demerit  or  had  received  a  repri- 


GEN.    S.  COOPE  R. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  21 

n  and.  He  had  twice  been  brevetted  in  the  Mexicar.  war.  For 
thirty  years  he  had  served  the  United  States,  and  the  period  of 
disunion  found  him  lieutenant-colonel  of  that  famous  regiment 
of  cavalry  of  which  Sydney  Johnson  was  colonel. 

Upon  the  secession  of  Virginia  he  was  appointed  commander 
in-chief  of  her  forces,  and  organized  an  army  with  a  system  and 
rapidity  that  at  once  surprised  and  gratified  the  public.  When 
President  Davis  made  his  appointments  of  generals,  he  was  the 
third  on  the  list :  General  Cooper  being  first,  and  General 
Sydney  Johnson  second.  The  appointments  were  made  with 
reference  to  the  rank  held  by  each  officer  in  the  old  army.  The 
unfortunate  campaign  of  General  Lee  in  Western  Virginia  in 
the  first  year  of  the  war  threw  a  shadow  on  his  fame  ;  it  disap 
pointed  his  admirers  and  occasioned  a  very  general  denuncia 
tion  of  his  ability.  The  battles  around  Richmond  secured  his 
fame.  There  was,  in  fact,  but  little  military  merit  in  them; 
but  there  was  a  great  success,  and  results  alone  are  the  stand 
ards  of  popular  appreciation.  It  was  when  General  Lee  moved 
out  to  the  line  of  the  Rappahannock  that  the  true  display  of 
his  abilities  commenced;  and  his  title  to  a  substantial  and 
abiding  fame  he  had  now  crowned  with  the  victory  of 
Chancellors  ville. 

No  one  had  ever  accused  General  Lee  of  "genius."  A 
eedate,  methodical  man,  putting  duty  before  everything  else, 
illustrating  the  unselfish  and  Christian  orders  of  virtue,  almost 
sublime  in  his  magnanimity,  and  uniting  with  these  qualities 
a  fair  intellectual  ability  and  an  excellent  practical  judgment, 
this  modern  copy  of  Washington  had  nothing  with  which  to 
dazzle  mankind,  but  much  with  which  to  win  its  sober  admira 
tion.  It  has  often  been  remarked  how  entirely  limited  by  pro 
fessional  routine  was  the  circle  of  intellectual  accomplishments 
in  the  old  army  of  the  United  States.  Thirty  years  in  this 
school  had  not  made  General  Lee  an  "Admirable  Crichton." 
Outside  of  his  profession,  his  conversation  was  limited  to  a  few 
commonplaces;  he  knew  nothing  of  literature,  and  never 
attempted  to  draw  an  illustration  from  history.  But  the 
stranger  who  was  at  first  shocked  at  such  poverty  of  accom 
plishments  in  one  so  famous  was  soon  won  to  admiration  by 
the  charming  simplicity  of  a  man  who  knew  but  little  out 
side  of  the  line  of  his  duty,  but  in  that  was  pre-eminently  able 


22  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAB. 

and  thoroughly  heroic.  It  may  be  said  of  him  that  he  was  one 
of  those  few  self-depreciating  men  whose  magnanimity  was  not 
sentimental,  and  whose  modesty  was  not  unmanly. 

In  taking  up  the  thread  of  our  story  after  the  battle  of  Chan 
cellorsville,  we  must  now  follow  this  great  commander  in  on 
of  the  most  extraordinary  movements  of  the  war,  and  to  on 
of  its  most  critical  and  imposing  fields. 

A  great  battle  had  now  been  twice  fought  on  the  line  of  the 
Bappahannock  with  no  other  effect  than  driving  the  enemy 
back  to  the  hills  of  Stafford.  The  position  was  one  in  which 
he  could  not  be  attacked  to  advantage.  It  was  on  this  reflec 
tion  that  General  Lee  resolved  to  maneuver  Hooker  out  of  Vir 
ginia,  to  clear  the  Shenandoah  Valley  of  the  troops  of  the 
enemy,  and  to  renew  the  experiment  of  the  transfer  of  hostili 
ties  north  of  the  Potomac.  It  was  a  blow  to  the  summer  cam 
paign  of  the  enemy,  calculated  to  disarrange  it  and  relieve 
other  parts  of  the  Confederacy,  but,  above  all,  aimed  at  the 
prize  of  a  great  victory  on  Northern  soil,  long  the  aspiration 
of  the  Southern  public. 

The  movement  commenced  on  the  3d  of  June.  The  army 
of  Northern  Virginia  had  been  thoroughly  reorganized,  and 
the  question  of  Stonewall  Jackson's  successor  had  been  deter 
mined  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  country.  About  the  20th  of 
May  the  President  commissioned  both  Major-generals  R.  S. 
Ewell  and  A.  P.  Hill  as  lieutenant-generals  in  the  army  of 
Northern  Virginia.  To  each  of  these  generals  a  corps  was 
assigned,  consisting  of  three  divisions,  General  Longstreet,  for 
this  purpose,  parting  with  one  of  his  divisions  (Anderson^), 
and  A.  P.  Hill's  old  division  being  reduced  by  two  brigades, 
was  assigned  to  Major-general  W.  D.  Pender.  The  two 
brigades  thus  taken  from  A.  P.  Hill's  division,  were  united 
with  Pettigrew's  and  another  North  Carolina  brigade,  and 
assigned  to  Major-general  Heth,  who,  with  Major-general 
Pender,  was  promoted  from  the  rank  of  brigadier-generals. 
General  A.  P.  Hill  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  this  corps, 
whilst  General  Ewell  retained  General  Jackson's  old  corps, 
consisting  of  Early's  division ;  Early  having  been  made  a 
Major-general  in  February,  and  receiving  command  of  Swell's 
old  division  ;  Kode's  division  and  Trimble's  division,  to  whici 
General  Edward  Johnson,  then  just  promoted  to  a  major-gen 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  23 

eralship,  was  assigned.  Five  of  the  six  major- generals  in  the 
infantry  department  of  this  army,  and  the  two  corps  generals, 
received  their  promotion  within  the  twelve  months  past. 

On  the  3d  of  June  McLaw's  division  of  Longstreet's  corps 
left  Fredericksburg  for  Culpepper  Court-house,  and  Hood's  di 
vision,  which  was  occupied  on  the  Rapidan,  marched  to  the 
same  place.  General  Ewell's  corps  took  up  the  line  of  march 
from  its  camps  near  Fredericksburg  on  the  morning  of  June 
4th,  moving  in  the  direction  of  Culpeper  Court-House.  On 
the  same  evening  Longstreet's  corps  moved  in  the  same  direc 
tion.  On  Friday,  June  5th,  the  enemy  crossed  a  force  below 
Fredericksburg,  near  the  Bernard  House,  as  if  they  intended  to 
move  once  more  upon  our  lines,  stretching  from  Hamilton's 
crossing  up  to  Fredericksburg.  Ewell  and  Longstreet  were 
halted  at  or  near  Locust  Grove,  in  Orange  county,  to  await  the 
issue  of  the  movement.  Hooker  having  made  this  diversion  in 
our  front,  set  himself  to  work  in  removing  his  stores  and  ia 
retiring  his  troops  from  the  Stafford  heights. 

The  forces  of  Longstreet  and  Ewell  reached  Culppeper  Court 
house  by  the  8th,  at  which  point  the  cavalry,  under  Genera! 
Stuart,  was  also  concentrated.  On  the  9th  a  large  force  of 
Federal  cavalry,  strongly  supported  by  infantry,  crossed  the 
Rappahannock  at  Beverly's  and  Kelly's  fords,  and  attacked 
General  Stuart.  A  severe  engagement  ensued,  continuing 
from  early  in  the  morning  until  late  in  the  afternoon,  when 
the  enemy  was  forced  to  recross  the  river  with  heavy  loss, 
leaving  four  hundred  prisoners,  three  pieces  of  artillery,  and 
several  colors  in  our  hands. 

This  affair,  popularly  known  as  that  of  Brandy  Station,  was 
distinguished  by  an  extraordinary  exploit  of  Confederate  troops. 
In  one  of  the  charges  the  Eleventh  Virginia  cavalry,  under  Col 
onel  Lomax,  captured,  the  third  and  last  time,  a  battery  of  three 
pieces,  the  Sixth  regiment  and  Thirty-fifth  battalion  having  done 
so  before  them.  Pushing  his  success,  he  divided  his  regiment, 
sending  a  squadron  after  the  fugitives  east  of  the  railroad, 
while,  with  the  remainder  of  his  regiment,  he  assailed  three 
regiments  of  cavalry,  awaiting  him  at  the  depot.  He  routed 
this  whole  force  completely. 


24  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


THE     CAPTURE     OF     WINCHESTER. 

General  Jenkins,  with  his  cavalry  brigade,  had  beer,  ordered 
to  advance  towards  Winchester  to  co-operate  with  the  infantry 
in  the  proposed  expedition  into  the  Lower  Valley,  and  at  the 
same  time  General  Imboden  was  directed,  with  his  command, 
to  make  a  demonstration  in  the  direction  of  Romney,  in  order 
to  cover  the  movement  against  Winchester,  and  prevent  the 
enemy  at  that  place  from  being  reinforced  by  the  troops  on  the 
line  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad.  Both  of  these  officers 
•were  in  position  when  General  Ewell  left  Culpepper  Court 
house,  on  the  16th.  Crossing  the  Shenandoah  near  Front 
Royal,  he  detached  Rodes'  division  to  Berry ville  with  instruc 
tions,  after  dislodging  the  forces  stationed  there,  to  cut  off  the 
communication  between  Winchester  and  the  Potomac.  With 
the  divisions  of  Early  and  Johnson,  General  Ewell  advanced 
directly  upon  Winchester,  driving  the  enemy  into  his  wrorks 
around  the  town  on  the  13th.  On  the  same  day  the  troops  at 
Berry  ville  fell  back  before  General  Rodes,  retreating  to  Win 
chester.  Lieutenant-general  Ewell,  after  consultation  with 
Major-general  Early,  determined  upon  a  flank  movement,  in 
order  to  reduce  the  town,  as  preferable  to  an  assault  in  front. 
General  Early  at  once  began  to  move  to  attack  a  work  of  the 
enemy  on  the  Pughtown  road,  on  a  hill  commanding  their  main 
fort. 

About  an  hour  before  sunset,  on  the  evening  of  the  14th  ot 
June,  General  Early,  without  encountering  scout  or  picket,  was 
in  easy  cannon  range  of  the  enemy's  work,  which  it  was  his 
purpose  to  assault.  He  at  once  set  to  work  making  disposition 
of  his  forces  preparatory  to  the  attack.  Twenty  pieces  of  ar 
tillery  were  placed  in  position.  Hay's  Louisiana  brigade  was 
now  ordered  to  prepare  for  the  charge.  Our  artillery  opened 
a  vigorous  and  well-directed  fire  on  the  enemy's  works  and 
guns.  They  responded  with  considerable  spirit.  Then  Hay's 
Lonsianians  moved  forward  to  the  music  of  our  cannon,  which 
were  still  playing  upon  the  works  of  the  enemy.  No  irankee 
dared  show  his  head  above  the  parapet.  When  our  men  got 
-within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  enemy's  works,  suddenly  our 
artillery  ceased.  And  now  Hay's  men  charge  over  an  abattis, 


LT    GEN.  R.  S.   EWELL 


C.B.  Richardson 
Publisher 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  25 


capturing  the  work  and  taking  six  pieces  of  artilk.y. 
enemy  vainly  attempted,  tinder  cover  of  the  guns  of  their  main 
to  form  in  the  bottom,  between  the  two  hills,  and  letako 
the  works,  but  Hay's  men  manned  and  turned  the  enemy's 
own  guns  upon  them.  A  few  well-directed  shots  quickly  broke 
them  in  confution,  and  they  retreated  to  the  inner  fort. 

General  Edward  Johnston  had  been  ordered  to  move  to  the 
Martinsburg  road,  arid  intercept  the  expected  retreat  of  the 
enemy.  His  dispositions  had  scarcely  been  made  when  the 
Yankees  charged,  with  loud  jelling,  hoping  to  break  through 
our  lines  and  escape.  The  battle  raged  for  nearly  an  hour,  our 
troops  (but  little  over  twelve  hundred  men)  being  greatly  out- 
n  umbered.  Just,  however,  as  the  last  of  our  cartridges  gave  out, 
General  "Walker  came  up.  The  enemy  had  by  this  time  divided 
into  two  columns,  for  the  purpose  of  endeavoring  to  turn  both 
of  our  flanks  simultaneously.  General  Walker  charged  the 
party  attempting  to  turn  our  right  flank,  and  they  surrendered. 
General  Johnson  moved  the  two  Louisiana  regiments,  held  iii 
reserve,  against  the  body  of  the  enemy  attempting  to  pass  our 
left  flank,  and  captured  the  greater  part  of  them.  Though 
Milroy  and  three  hundred  cavalry,  besides  some  straggling  in 
fantry,  made  their  escape,  our  captures  here  amounted  to  some 
twenty-five  hundred  men.  The  unfortunate  Yankee  com 
mander  fled  to  Harper's  Ferry  with  his  small  party  of  fugi 
tives. 

General  Kodes  marched  from  Berry  ville  to  Martinsburg, 
entering  the  latter  place  on  the  14th,  where  he  took  seven 
hundred  prisoners,  five  pieces  of  artillery  and  a  considerable 
quantity  of  stores.  These  operations  cleared  the  valley  of  the 
enemy,  those  at  Harper's  Ferry  withdrawing  to  Maryland 
Heights.  More  than  four  thousand,  prisoners,  twenty-nine 
pieces  of  artillery,  two  hundred  and  seventy  wagons  and  am 
bulances,  with  four  hundred  hcrses,  were  captured,  besides  a 
larjre  amount  of  military  stores.  Our  loss  was  small.  On  the 
night  that  Ewell  appeared  at  Winchester,  the  Federal  troops 
in  front  of  A.  P.  Hill,  at  Fredericksburg,  recrossed  the  Eap- 
pahannock,  and  the  next  day  disappeared  behind  the  hills  of 
Stafford. 

The  onward  movement  of  General  Lee  had  now  fairly  com 
menced.  The  success  of  Winchester  was  a  brilliant  *  '  - 


26  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    Or    THE    WAR. 

tion  to  the  campaign.  The  men  who  had  achieved  this  success 
and  who  had  been  trained  in  marching,  fighting  and  endurance, 
under  Stonewall  Jackson,  were  appropriately  placed  in  the  van 
of  the  imposing  movement  that  now  threatened  the  territory 
of  the  agitated  and  alarmed  North. 

The  whole  army  of  General  Hooker  withdrew  from  the  lin 
of  the  Rappahannock,  pursuing  the  roads  near  the  Potomac, 
and  no  favorable  opportunity  was  offered  for  attack.  It  seemed 
to  be  the  purpose  of  General  Hooker  to  take  a  position  which 
would  enable  him  to  cover  the  approaches  to  Washington 
City. 

With  this  view,  he  occupied  strong  positions  at  Centreville 
and  Manassas,  so  as  to  interpose  his  army  between  us  and 
Washington,  and  thus  prevent  a  sudden  descent  from  the  Blue 
Ridge  by  General  Lee  upon  the  Yankee  capital.  Meanwhile, 
Longstreet  and  Hill  were  following  fast  upon  Ewell's  track, 
the  former  reaching  Ashby's  and  Snicker's  gaps  in  time  to  pre 
vent  any  movement  upon  Ewell's  rear,  and  the  latter  (Hill) 
getting  to  Culpepper  in  good  season  to  protect  Longstreet's 
rear,  or  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the  event  of  an  attack  upon 
his  flank,  or  to  guard  against  any  demonstration  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Richmond. 

When  Longstreet  occupied  the  mountain  gaps,  the  cavalry, 
under  General  Stuart,  was  thrown  out  in  his  front  to  watch  the 
enemy,  now  reported  to  be  moving  into  London.  On  the 
17th,  his  cavalry  encountered  two  brigades  of  ours,  under 
General  Stuart,  near  Aldie,  and  was  driven  back  with  loss. 
The  next  day  the  engagement  was  renewed,  the  Federal  cavalry 
being  strongly  supported  by  infantry,  and  General  Stuart,  in 
turn,  was  compelled  to  retire. 

The  enemy  advanced  as  far  as  Upperville  and  then  fell  back. 
In  these  engagements  General  Stuart  took  about  four  hundred 
prisoners  and  a  considerable  number  of  horses  and  arms. 

In  the  meantime,  a  portion  of  Ewell's  corps  had  crossed  the 
Potomac  at  Williamsport.  No  report  had  been  received  that 
the  Federal  army  had  crossed  tl  e  Potomac,  and  the  absence 
of  the  cavalry  rendered  it  impossible  to  obtain  accurate  infor 
mation.  In  order,  however,  to  retain  it  on  the  east  side  of  the 
mountains  after  it  should  enter  Maryland,  and  thus  leave  open 
our  commun/ option  with  the  Potomac,  through  Hagerstown 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  27 

nnd  Wiliiamsport,  General  Ewell  had  been  .nstrueted  to  send 
a  division  eastwards  from  Chambersburg  to  cross  the  South 
Mountains.  Early 's  division  was  detached  for  this  purpose,  and 
proceeded  as  far  east  as  York,  while  the  remainder  of  the  corps 
proceded  to  Carlisle. 

On  the  24th,  the  whole  of  A.  P.  Hill's  corps  crossed  the  Po 
tomac  at  Shepherdstown,  that  of  Longstreet  having  previously 
reached  the  Maryland  shore  by  the  Williarnsport  ford — the 
corps  of  General  JLougstreet  being  composed  of  the  divisions  of 
McLaws,  Pickett  and  Hood,  whilst  that  of  Hill  consisted  of 
Pender,  Heth  and  Anderson.  The  columns  reunited  at  Hagers- 
town,  and  advanced  thence  into  Pennsylvania,  encamping  near 
Chambersburg  on  the  27th. 

The  invasion  of  Pennsylvania  had  now  progressed  to  a  crisis, 
which  was  the  signal  of  unbounded  excitement  in  the  North. 
On  the  29th,  Brigadier-general  Jenkins  and  command  went 
within  sight  and  artillery  range  of  Harrisburg,  with  a  view,  it 
was  thought,  of  attack.  The  light  horsemen  of  the  Confederates 
scoured  the  southern  region  of  Pennsylvania.  For  weeks  the 
dashing  and  adventurous  cavalry  of  Jenkins  and  Imboden  were 
persistently  busy  in  scouring  the  country  between  the  Susque- 
hannah  and  the  Alleghanies,  the  Monocacy  and  the  Potomac, 
and  from  the  lines  before  Harrisburg  their  trumpets  had 
sounded. 

At  the  first  news  of  the  invasion,  Lincoln  had  called  for  a 
hundred  thousand  men  to  defend  Washington.  Governor 
Andrews  offered  the  whole  military  strength  of  Massachusetts 
in  the  terrible  crisis.  Governor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  sum 
moned  McClellan  to  grave  consultations  respecting  the  de 
fences  of  Pennsylvania.  The  bells  were  set  to  ringing  in 
Brooklyn.  Kegiment  after  regiment  was  sent  off  from  New 
York  to  Philadelphia.  The  famous  Seventh  regiment  took  the 
field,  and  proceeded  to  Harrisburg.  The  Dutch  farmers  in  the 
valley  drove  their  cattle  to  the  mountains,  and  the  archives 
were  removed  from  Harrisburg. 

Hooker  had  declined  a  battle  in  Virginia.  This  hesitation 
was  to  cost  him  his  command  ;  it  was  the  theme  of  bitter 
reproach  in  the  North.  Lee  had  been  allowed  to  obtain  the 
important  advantage  of  the  military  initiative,  and  had  gained 
time  enough  to  firmly  establish  his  communications  in  the  real 


28  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

of  his  base  of  operations  on  the  other  side  of  the  Potomac, 
Having  brought  up  and  consolidated  his  forces  with  consum 
mate  address  he  was  in  a  position  to  hurl  them  wherever  he 
might  desire. 

On  crossing  the  Potomac,  Hooker  had  taken  up  a  line  ex 
tending  from  Washington  to  Baltimore,  expecting  General  Lee 
to  offer  him  battle  in  Maryland.  Finding  himself  disappointed 
in  this,  and  compelled  by  his  superiors  at  "Washington,  or 
smarting  under  'their  distrust,  he  relinquished  his  command  to 
George  C.  Meade,  who,  finding  that  Lee  had  deflected  in  his 
inarch  through  Pennsylvania,  moved  towards  Chambersburg 
to  meet  him. 

General  Lee  had  proposed  to  attack  Harrisburg.  On  the 
30th,  as  General  Ewell  was  preparing  to  march  to  Harrisburg, 
twenty  miles  distant,  an  order  came  to  him  to  unite  his  corps 
with  the  rest  of  the  army  near  Gettysburg.  Major-general 
Early,  of  this  corps,  who,  after  crossing  the  river,  had  moved 
to  York,  and  who  was  then  at  that  place,  was  at  once  notified, 
and  the  corps  immediately  took  up  the  line  of  march. 

Important  news  had  been  received.  On  the  night  of  the 
29th,  information  was  brought  to  General  Lee's  head-quarters 
that  the  Federal  army,  having  crossed  the  Potomac,  was  ad 
vancing  northwards,  and  that  the  head  of  the  column  had 
reached  the  South  Mountain.  As  our  communications  with 
the  Potomac  were  thus  menaced,  it  was  resolved  to  prevent  his 
further  progress  in  that  direction  by  concentrating  our  army 
on  the  east  side  of  the  mountains.  Accordingly,  Longstreef 
and  Hill  were  directed  to  proceed  from  Chambersburg  f,o 
Gettysburg,  to  which  point  General  Ewell  had  been  also  in 
structed  to  march. 

A  day  pregnant  with  a  momentous  issue  was  at  hand.  The 
two  armies  which  had  ceased  to  confront  each  other  since  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Fredericksburg  lines  found  themselves 
again  face  to  face  near  Gettysburg,  on  Wednesday,  July  1st. 

Before  turning  to  the  bloody  page  of  Gettysburg,  the  curi 
osity  of  the  reader  naturally  inquires  into  the  conduct  of  the 
Confederate  army  on  the  long  march  which  had  at  last  pene 
trated  the  fruitful  fields  of  Pennsylvania.  Considering  what 
the  country  and  homes  of  the  Confederacy  had  suffered  from 
the  ferocity  of  the  enemy,  it  might  have  been  supposed  that 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  29 

Lee's  army  would  have  improved  thejr  grand  opportunity  in 
Pennsylvania,  not  indeed  by  an  imitation  of  the  enemy's  out 
rages  in  the  South,  hut  by  that  eminently  justifiable  retaliation 
which,  \\hile  it  scorns  to  mete  out  in  kind  the  enemy's  crime, 
in  arson,  pillage  and  innocent  blood,  insists  upon  doing  him 
some  commensurate  injury  by  severe  acts  of  war,  done  with 
deliberation  and  under  the  authority  of  superiors.  Such  ex 
pectations  were  disappointed.  Every  just  and  intelligent 
reader  of  the  records  of  this  war  must  wonder  that  General 
Lee  gave  a  protection  to  the  citizens  of  Pennsylvania  which 
had  never  been  accorded  to  our  own  people ;  that,  with  an  ob- 
tuseness  that  is  inexplicable,  he  confounded  two  very  different 
classes  of  retaliation  ;  and  that,  while  forbidding  the  irregular 
pillage  of  the  country,  and  threatening  marauders  with  death 
(which  admirable  orders  were  heartily  approved  by  all  people 
in  the  South),  he  also  restrained  his  army  from  laying  waste 
the  country  in  line  of  battle,  or  destroying  the  enemy's  subsis 
tence.  Such  tenderness,  the  effect  of  a  weak  and  strained 
chivalry,  or  more  probably  that  of  deference  to  European 
opinion,  is  another  of  the  many  instances  which  the  war  has 
furnished  of  the  simplicity  and  sentimental  facility  of  the 
South. 

General  Lee  attempted  conciliation  of  a  people  who  were 
little  capable  of  it,  but  were  always  ready  to  take  counsel  of 
their  fears.  The  effect  of  his  moderate  warfare  on  such  a  people 
was  to  irritate  them  without  intimidating  them  ;  in  fact,  to  com 
pose  their  alarms  and  to  dissuade  them  from  what  had  been 
imagined  as.  the  horrors  of  invasion.  In  this  respect,  his  move 
ment  into  Pennsylvania  gave  to  the  enemy  a  certain  moral 
comfort,  and  encouraged  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

With  reference,  now,  to  the  military  features  of  the  move- 
ment,  it  must  rank  with  the  most  remarkable  marches  on  re 
cord.  Looking  back  to  the  Kappahannock,  we  now  see  what 
Lee  had  accomplished.  When  he  set  out  upon  the  northern 
expedition,  he  was  confronted  by  one  of  the  largest  and  best- 
appointed  armies  the  enemy  ever  had  in  the  field.  Winchester, 
Martinsburg,  Harper's  Ferry  and  Berryville  were  garrisoned 
oy  hostile  forces.  The  cavalry  of  the  enemy  were  in  splendid 
condition.  General  Lee  marched  over  the  Blue  Jtidge  and 
across  the  Shenandoah  and  Potomac  rivers.  The  mountain 


30  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAK. 

passes  and  the  fords  of  the  rivers  might  have  been  effectually 
blockaded.  The  whole  of  the  lower  valley  was  in  possession 
of  the  enemy.  And  yet,  starting  from  Culpepper  Court-house^ 
General  Lee  conducted  his  army  across  the  mountains,  along 
the  valley  and  over  the  rivers,  without  encountering  serious 
opposition.  Except  a  few  cavalry  engagements,  the  armj 
marched  from  Culpepper  Court-house  to  Gettysburg,  in  Penn 
sylvania,  without  resistance. 

The  conjuncture  which  had  been  reached  was  the  most  criti 
cal  of  the  war.  Meade's  army  was  the  only  real  obstacle  which 
could  impede  the  triumphant  march  of  the  army  of  Lee  into 
the  very  heart  of  the  Yankee  States,  and  in  whatever  direction 
he  might  choose  to  push  his  campaign.  The  press  attempted 
some  ridiculous  comfort  by  writing  vaguely  of  thousands  of 
militia  springing  to  arms.  But  the  history  of  modern  warfare 
afforded  better  instruction,  for  it  taught  clearly  enough  that  an 
invading  army  of  regular  and  victorious  troops  could  only  be 
effectively  checked  by  the  resistance  of  a  similar  army  in  the 
field,  or  of  fortified  places  strong  enough  to  compel  a  regular 
Biege.  In  Richmond,  the  garish  story  of  the  newspapers  pre 
pared  the  public  mind  for  a  great  victory.  There  was  the  re 
newed  and  feverish  anticipation  of  an  early  peace.  The  elated 
public  of  the  Confederate  capital  little  imagined  that,  in  a  few 
days,  events  were  to  occur  to  turn  back  the  war  for  years. 


THE   BATTLE    OF   GETTYSBURG. 

The  march  towards  Gettysburg  was  conducted  slowly.  At 
10  o'clock  A.  M.,  on  the  1st  instant,  Heth's  division,  of  Hill's 
corp,  being  ahead,  encountered  the  enemy's  advance  line,  the 
Eleventh  corps,  about  three  miles  west  of  Gettysburg.  Here  a 
gharp  engagement  ensued,  our  men  steadily  advancing  and 
driving  the  enemy  before  them  to  the  town,  and  to  a  range  of 
hills  or  low  mountains  running  out  a  little  east  of  south  from 
the  town. 

General  Reynolds,  who  commanded  the  enemy's  advance, 
rode  forward  to  inspect  the  ground  and  select  a  position  for  hia 
line  of  battle.  The  Confederates,  distinguishing  him  from  his 
uniform  to  be  an  officer  of  high  rank,  opened  upon  him  with 


THE    THIRD    TEAK.  31 

heavy  volleys  of  infantry  lire.  He  was  struck  by  several  oalls, 
and  died  instantly  without  uttering  a  word. 

About  an  hour  after  the  opening  of  the  engagement,  which 
was  principally  of  artillery,  General  Ewell,  who  was  moving 
from  the  direction  of  Carlisle,  came  up  and  took  a  position  on 
our  extreme  left.  Eodes  came  into  the  engagement  on  the 
flank  of  the  enemy,  who  were  confronting  A.  P.  Hill,  and  oc 
cupied  the  most  commanding  point  of  the  very  ridge  with 
artillery  which  the  enemy  were  upon.  This  ridge  runs  in  the 
shape  of  a  crescent  around  Gettysburg,  following  the  windings 
of  a  creek  which  is  between  it  and  the  town. 

After  our  artillery  had  been  engaged  for  some  half  an  hour, 
with  admirable  effect,  the  enemy  were  observed  to  be  moving 
rapidly  from  Hill's  front  to  that  of  Rodes,  and  to  be  advanc 
ing  their  new  columns  against  Rodes  from  the  town.  Rodes, 
his  dispositions  having  been  made,  advanced  his  whole  line. 
It  had  first  to  cross  a  field,  six  hundred  yards  wide,  and  enter 
woods — immediately  upon  entering  which  it  became  hotly 
engaged. 

The  Alabama  brigade  (Rodes'  old  command)  advanced  some 
what  confusedly,  owing,  it  is  said,  to  a  misconception  as  to  the 
direction  which  it  should  take,  and,  whilst  confused,  became 
engaged,  and  was  forced  back  with  its  lines  broken,  though  re 
inforced  by  the  Fifth  Alabama,  which  uncovered  Lawson's 
brigade.  This  brigade  was  thought  to  have  behaved  badly  ; 
it  was  reported  to  General  Rodes,  in  the  midst  of  the  fight,  that 
one  of  the  regiments  had  raised  the  white  flag,  and  gone  over 
in  a  body  to  the  enemy.  The  only  foundation  for  this  report 
was,  that  two  of  the  regiments  were  almost  entirely  surrounded, 
in  consequence  of  the  giving  way  of  the  Alabama  brigade  and 
the  concentration  of  the  enemy  at  that  point,  and  were  either 
killed  or  captured  almost  to  a  man.  The  gallant  resistance, 
however,  which  they  made  is  shown  by  a  statement  coming 
from  General  Rodes  himself :  that,  riding  along  behind  where 
their  line  had  been,  he  thought  he  Dbservcd  a  regiment  lying 
down,  as  if  to  escape  the  Yankee  fire.  On  going  up,  however, 
to  force  them  into  the  fight,  he  found  they  were  all  corpses. 

As  the  battle  wavered  General  Early  came  up,  and  got  his 
artillery  into  position  so  as  to  enfilade  and  silence  batteriea 
which  were  then  occupied  in  an  attempt  to  enfilade  Rodes' 


32  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

battery,  As  the  enemy  attempted  a  flank  movement,  Gordon's 
brigade  of  gallant  Georgians  was  ordered  to  make  a  charge. 
They  crossed  a  small  stream  arid  valley,  and  entered  a  long 
narrow  strip  of  an  opposite  slope,  at  the  top  of  which  the  enemy 
had  a  strong  force  posted.  For  live  minutes  nothing  could  be 
heard  or  seen  save  the  smoke,  and  roar  proceeding  from  the 
heavy  musketry,  and  indicating  a  desperate  contest ;  but  the 
contest  was  not  long  or  uncertain.  The  Yankees  were  put  to 
flight,  and  our  men  pressed  them,  pouring  a  deadly  fire  at  the 
flying  fugitives.  Seeing  a  second  and  larger  line  near  tho 
town,  General  Early  halted  General  Gordon  until  two  other 
brigades  (Hayes'  and  Hoke's)  could  come  up,  when  a  second 
charge  was  made,  and  three  pieces  of  artillery,  besides  several 
entire  regiments  of  the  enemy,  were  captured. 

There  should  not  be  lost  from  the  records  of  the  individual 
heroism  of  the  Confederacy  an  incident  of  this  battle.  During 
a  lull  in  the  engagement,  when  the  enemy  were  reforming  and 
awaiting  reinforcements,  Lieutenant  Koberts,  of  the'Second  Mis 
sissippi,  observing,  some  distance  off,  but  nearer  the  enemy's  than 
our  own  fires,  two  groups,  each  consisting  of  from  seven  to  ten 
men,  and  each  guarding  a  stand  of  colors,  called  for  volunteers 
to  take  them.  Four  gallant  spirits  from  his  own,  and  an  equal 
number  from  the  Forty-second  Mississippi  regiment,  readily  re 
sponded,  and  soon  a  dash  is  made  for  the  colors.  A  hand-to-hand 
fight  ensued,  in  which  all  on  both  sides  were  either  killed  or 
wounded,  except  Private  McPherson,  who  killed  the  last 
Yankee  color-bearer  and  brought  off  the  colors,  Lieutenant 
Roberts  being  killed  just  as  he  was  seizing  one  of  the  colors. 

The  result  of  the  day's  fight  may  be  summed  up  thus :  We 
had  attacked  a  considerable  force  ;  had  driven  it  over  three 
miles;  captured  five  thousand  prisoners,  and  killed  and 
wounded  many  thousands.  Our  own  loss  was  not  heavy, 
though  a  few  brigades  suffered  severely. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  enemy,  driven  through  Gettys- 
ourg,  got  possession  of  the  high  range  of  hills  south  and  east 
of  the  town.  Here  was  the  fatal  mistake  of  the  Confederates. 
In  the  engagement  of  the  1st  instant,  the  enemy  had  but  a 
small  portion  of  his  force  up,  and  if  the  attack  had  been  pressed 
in  the  afternoon  of  that  day  there  is  little  doubt  that  our  forces 
tould  have  got  the  heights  and  captured  this  entire  detach- 


THE    TH1ED    YEAR.  33 

ment  of  Meade's  army.  But  General  Lee  was  not  aware  of  the 
enemy's  weakness  on  this  day.  In  fact,  he  had  found  himself 
unexpectedly  confronted  by  the  Yankee  army.  He  had  never 
intended  to  fight  a  general  battle  so  far  from  his  base.  He  was 
forced  to  deliver  battle  where  prudence  would  have  avoided 
it ;  he. could  obtain  no  certain  information  of  the  disposition  of 
Meade's  forces  ;  and  the  inaction  of  an  evening — the  failure  to 
follow  up  for  a  few  hours  a  success — enabled  the  Yankee  com 
mander  to  bring  up  his  whole  army,  and  post  it  on  an  almost 
impregnable  line  which  we  had  permitted  a  routed  detachment 
of  a  few  thousand  men  to  occupy. 

During  the  night,  General  Meade  and  staff  came  up  to  the 
front.  Before  morning  all  his  troops  but  the  Sixth  corps,  com 
manded  by  General  Sedgwick,  arrived  on  the  field.  The  forces 
of  the  enemy  were  disposed  on  the  several  hills  or  ridges,  so  as 
to  construct  a  battle-line  in  the  form  of  a  crescent. 

The  town  of  Gettysburg  is  situated  upon  the  northern  slope 
of  this  ridge  of  hills  or  mountain  range,  and  about  one  and  a 
half  or  two  miles  from  its  summit.  The  western  slope  of  this 
range  was  in  cultivation,  except  small  "  patches,"  where  the 
mountain  side  is  so  precipitous  ac  to  defy  the  efforts  of  the 
farmer  to  bring  it  into  subjection  to  the  ploughshare.  At  the 
foot  of  the  mountain  is  a  narrow  valley,  from  a  mile  to  two 
miles  in  width,  broken  in  small  ridges  running  parallel  with 
the  mountain.  On  the  western  side  of  the  valley  rises  a  long, 
high  hill,  mostly  covered  with  heavy  timber,  but  greatly  in 
ferior  in  altitude  to  the  mountain  range  upon  which  the  enemy 
had  taken  position,  but  running  nearly  parallel  with  it.  The 
valley  between  this  ridge  and  the  mountain  was  in  cultivation, 
and  the  fields  were  yellow  with  the  golden  harvest.  About 
four  or  five  miles  south  from  Gettysburg,  the  mountain  rises 
abruptly  to  an  altitude  of  several  hundred  feet.  Upon  this  the 
enemy  rested  his  left  flank,  his  right  being  upon  the  crest  of 
the  range  about  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Gettytburg. 

Our  line  of  battle  was  formed  along  the  western  slope  of  the 
second  and  inferior  range  described  above,  and  in  the  follow 
ing  order :  Swell's  corps  on  the  left,  beginning  at  the  town 
with  Early's  division,  then  Rodes'  division;  on  the  right  01 
Rodes'  division  was  the  left  of  Hill's  corps,  commencing  with 
Heth's,  then  Fender's  and  Anderson's  divisions.  On  the  right 

3 


34  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  Anderson's  division  was  Longstreet's  left,  McLaw's  division 
being  next  to  Anderson's,  and  Hood  on  the  extreme  right  of 
our  line,  which  was  opposite  the  eminence  upon  which  the 
enemy's  left  rested. 

THE   SECOND  DAT. 

The  preparations  for  attack  were  not  completed  until  the 
afternoon  of  the  2d.  Late  in  the  afternoon  an  artillery  attack 
was  made  by  our  forces  on  the  left  and  centre  of  the  enemy, 
which  was  rapidly  followed  by  the  advance  of  our  infantry, 
Longstreet's  corps  on  our  side  being  principally  engaged.  A 
fearful  but  indecisive  contest  ensued,  and  for  four  hours  the 
sound  of  musketry  was  incessant.  The  main  object  of  the 
attack  of  the  Confederates  was  the  famous  Cemetery  Hill,  the 
key  of  the  enemy's  position.  The  enemy's  artillery  replied 
vigorously.  The  roar  and  thunder  and  flame  and  smoke  of 
artillery,  and  the  screech  of  shells,  so  completely  tilled  the 
heavens  that  all  else  seemed  forgotten. 

General  Ewell  had  been  ordered  to  attack  directly  the  high 
ground  on  the  enemy's  right,  which  had  already  been  partially 
fortified.  It  was  half  an  hour  of  sunset  when  Johnson's  infan 
try  were  ordered  forward  to  the  attack.  In  passing  down  the 
hill  on  which  they  had  been  posted,  arid  whilst  crossing  the 
creek,  they  were  much  annoyed  by  the  fire  to  which  they  were 
subjected  from  the  enemy's  artillery,  which,  from  Cemetery 
Hill  poured  nearly  an  enfilade  fire  upon  them.  The  creek  was 
wide,  and  its  banks  steep,  so  that  our  men  had  to  break  ranks 
in  order  to  cross  it.  Having  passed  the  creek,  General  Jones' 
brigade  was  thrown  into  disorder  and  retired  a  short  distance. 

On  the  extreme  left,  General  G.  H.  Stewart's  brigade  was  more 
successful.  Pushing  around  to  the  enemy's  left,  he  enfiladed 
and  drove  the  enemy  from  a  breastwork  they  had  built  in 
order  to  defend  their  right  flank,  and  which  ran  at  right  angles 
to  the  rest  of  their  lines  up  the  mountain  side.  The  enemy, 
however,  quickly  moved  forward  a  force  to  retake  it,  but  were 
repulsed,  our  troops  occupying  their  own  breastworks  in  order 
to  receive  their  attack.  General  Stewart  made  no  further 
effort  to  advance.  Night  had  nearly  fallen,  and  the  ground 
was  new  to  him. 


THE    THIRD    YEAK.  35 

General  Early,  upon  hearing  General  Johnson's  infantry  en 
gaged,  sent  forward  Hayes'  Louisiana  and  Hoke's  North  Caro 
lina  brigades.  The  troops,  advancing  as  a  storming  party, 
quickly  passed  over  a  ridge  and  down  a  hill.  In  a  valley  be 
low  they  met  two  lines  of  the  Federals  posted  behind  stone 
walls.  These  they  charged.  At  the  charge  the  Federals  broke 
and  fled  up  the  hill  closely  pursued  by  our  men.  It  was  now 
dark  ;  but  Hayes  and  Avery,  still  pursuing,  pushed  the  enemy 
up  the  hill  and  stormed  the  Cemetery  heights. 

The  contest  here  was  intensely  exciting  and  terrible.  Th6 
gloom  of  the  falling  night  was  lighted  up  by  the  flashes  of  the 
enemy's  guns.  Thirty  or  forty  pieces,  perhaps  more,  were 
firing  grape  and  canister  with  inconceivable  rapidity  at  Early's 
column.  It  must  have  been  that  they  imagined  it  to  have  been 
a  general  and  simultaneous  advance,  for  they  opened  on  our 
men  in  three  or  four  directions  besides  that  which  they  were 
attacking. 

Hayes'  and  Hoke's  brigades  pressed  on  and  captured  two  or 
three  lines  of  breastworks  and  three  or  four  of  their  batteries 
of  artillery.  For  a  few  moments  every  gun  of  the  enemy  on 
the  heights  was  silenced ;  but,  by  the  time  General  Hayes  could 
get  his  command  together,  a  dark  line  appeared  in  front  of 
them  and  on  either  flank  a  few  yards  off.  The  true  situation 
soon  became  clear.  The  Yankees  were  bringing  up  at  least  a 
division  to  retake  the  works.  General  Hayes,  being  unsup 
ported  by  the  troops  on  his  right  (which  were  from  Hill's 
corps),  was  compelled  to  fall  back. 

Major-general  Rodes  commenced  to  advance  simultaneously 
with  General  Early.  He  had,  however,  more  than  double  the 
distance  of  Early  to  go,  and  being  unsupported  by  the  troops 
on  his  right,  who  made  no  advance,  he  consequently  moved 
slower  than  he  would  have  done  had  he  been  supported. 
Before  reaching  the  enemy's  works  Early  had  been  repulsed, 
and  so  General  Rodes  halted,  thinking  it  useless  to  attack  since 
he  was  unsupported. 

When  the  second  day  closed  this  was  the  position  of  E  well's 
corps.  Johnson's  left  had  gained  important  ground,  part  of  it 
being  a  very  short  distance  from  the  top  of  the  mountain, 
which,  if  once  gained,  would  command  the  whole  of  the 
enemy's  position ;  but  his  right  had  made  no  progress.  Early'a 


36  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

attack,  almost  a  brilliant  success,  had  produced  DO  results,  a.id 
he  occupied  nearly  his  former  position.  Rodes,  having  ad 
vanced  nearly  half-way  to  the  enemy's  works,  and  finding 
there  good  cover  for  his  troops,  remained  in  his  advanced  po 
sition. 

But  we  must  take  the  reader's  attention  to  another  part  of 
the  field,  where  a  more  dramatic  circumstance  than  Early's 
momentary  grasp  of  victory  had  occurred. 

General  Hill  had  been  instructed  to  threaten  the  centre  of 
the  Yankee  line,  in  order  to  prevent  reinforcements  being  sent 
to  either  wing,  and  to  avail  himself  of  any  opportunity  that 
might  present  itself  to  attack. 

On  the  right  of  Hill's  corps  and  the  left  of  Longstreet,  be 
ing  joined  on  to  Barksd ale's  brigade  of  McLaw's  division,  was 
Wilcox's  brigade,  then  Perry's,  Wright's,  Posey's,  Mahone's. 
At  half-past  five  o'clock  Longstreet  commenced  the  attack,  and 
Wilcox  followed  it  up  by  promptly  moving  forward ;  Perry's 
brigade  quickly  followed,  and  Wright  moved  simultaneously 
with  him.  The  two  divisions  of  Lou gstreet's  corps  soon  en 
countered  the  enemy,  posted  a  little  in  rear  of  the  Emmets- 
burg  turnpike,  which  winds  along  the  slope  of  the  range  upon 
which  the  enemy's  main  force  was  concentrated.  After  a  short 
but  spirited  engagement,  the  enemy  was  driven  back  upon  the 
main  line  upon  the  crest  of  the  hill.  McLaw's  and  Hood's 
divisions  made  a  desperate  assault  upon  their  main  line ;  but, 
owing  to  the  precipitate  and  very  rugged  character  of  the 
slope,  were  unable  to  reach  the  summit. 

After  Barksdale's  brigade,  of  McLaw's  division,  had  been  en 
gaged  for  some  time,  Wilcox,  Wright,  and  Perry,  were  ordered 
forward,  encountering  a  line  of  the  enemy,  and  soon  putting 
them  to  rout.  Still  pressing  forward,  these  three  brigades  met 
with  another  and  stronger  line  of  the  enemy,  backed  by  twelve 
pieces  of  artillery.  No  pause  was  made.  The  line  moved 
rapidly  forward  and  captured  the  artillery. 

Another  fresh  line  of  battle  was  thrown  forward  by  the 
enemy.  Wright  had  swept  over  the  valley  under  a  terrific 
fire  from  the  batteries  posted  upon  the  heights,  had  encoun 
tered  the  enemy's  advance  line,  and  had  dri-ren  him  across  the 
Emmetsburg  pike,  to  a  position  behind  a  stone  wall,  or  fence, 
which  runs  parallel  with  the  pike,  and  about  sixty  or  eighty 


THE    THIKI)    YEAR.  37 

/ards  in  front  of  the  batteries  on  the  heights,  and  immediately 
under  them.  Here  the  enemy  made  a  desperate  attempt  to 
retrieve  his  fortunes.  The  engagement  lasted  for  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes.  Charging  up  the  steep  sides  of  the  moun 
tains,  the  Confederates  succeeded  in  driving  the  enemy  from 
behind  the  wall  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  Rushing  forward 
with  a  shout,  they  gained  the  summit  of  the  heights,  driving 
the  enemy's  infantry  in  disorder  and  confusion  into  the  woods 
beyond. 

The  key  of  the  enemy's  position  was  for  a  moment  in  our 
hands.  But  the  condition  of  the  brave  troops  who  had  wrested 
it  by  desperate  valor,  had  become  critical  in  the  extreme. 
Wilcox,  Perry,  and  "Wright,  had  charged  most  gallantly  over  a 
distance  of  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  breaking  two  or 
three  of  the  enemy's  lines  of  battle,  and. capturing  two  or  three 
batteries  of  artillery.  Of  course,  our  lines  were  greatly  thinned, 
and  our  troops  much  exhausted.  No  reinforcements  were  sent 
this  column  by  the  Lieutenant-general  commanding.  The  ex 
tent  of  their  success  was  not  instantly  appreciated.  A  de 
cisive  moment  was  lost. 

Wright's  little  brigade  of  Georgians  had  actually  got  in  the 
enemy's  entrenchments  upon  the  heights.  Perceiving,  after 
getting  possession  of  the  enemy's  works,  that  they  were  iso 
lated — more  than  a  mile  from  support — that  no  advance  had 
been  made  on  their  left,  and  just  then  seeing  the  enemy's 
flanking  column  on  their  right  and  left  flanks  rapidly  converg 
ing  in  their  rear,  these  noble  Georgians  faced  about,  abandon 
ing  all  the  guns  they  had  captured,  and  cut  their  way  back 
to  our  main  lines,  through  the  enemy,  who  had  now  almost  en 
tirely  surrounded  them. 

The  results  of  the  day  were  unfortunate  enough.  Our  troops 
had  been  repulsed  at  all  points  save  where  Brigadier-general 
Stewart  held  his  ground.  A  second  day  of  desperate  fighting 
and  correspondingly  frightful  carnage  was  ended.  But  Gen 
eral  Lee  still  believed  himself  and  his  brave  army  capable  of 
taking  these  commanding  heights,  and  thus  to  be  able  to  dic 
tate  a  peace  on  the  soil  of  the  free  States. 


38  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OP    THE    WAB. 


THE    THIRD    DAY. 

The  third  day's  battle  was  again  to  be  commenced  by  the 
Confederates.  At  midnight  a  council  of  war  had  been  held  by 
the  enemy,  at  which  it  was  determined  that  the  Confederates 
would  probably  renew  the  attack  at  daylight  on  the  following 
morning,  and  that  for  that  day  the  Yankees  had  better  act 
purely  on  the  defensive. 

The  enemy's  position  on  the  mountain  was  well-nigh  impreg 
nable,  for  there  was  no  conceivable  advance  or  approach  that 
could  not  be  raked  and  crossed  with  the  artillery.  All  the 
heights  and  every  advantageous  position  along  the  entire  line 
where  artillery  could  be  massed  or  a  battery  planted,  frowned 
down  on  the  Confederates  through  brows  of  brass  and  iron. 
On  the  slopes  of  the  mountain  was  to  occur  one  of  the  most 
terrific  combats  of  modern  times,  in  which  more  than  two  hun 
dred  cannon  were  belching  forth  their  thunders  at  one  time, 
and  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  muskets  were  being  dis 
charged  as  rapidly  as  men  hurried  with  excitement  and  passion 
could  load  them. 

Early  in  the  morning  preparations  were  made  for  a  genera] 
attack  along  the  enemy's  whole  line,  while  a  large  force  was  to 
be  concentrated  against  his  centre,  with  the  view  of  retaking 
the  heights  captured  and  abandoned  the  day  before.  Long- 
street  massed  a  large  number  of  long-range  guns  (fifty-five  in 
number)  upon  the  crest  of  a  slight  eminence  just  in  front  of 
Perry's  and  Wilcox's  brigades,  and  a  little  to  the  left  of  the 
heights,  upon  which  they  were  to  open.  Hill  massed  some 
sixty  guns  along  the  hill  in  front  of  Posey's  and  Mahone's 
brigades,  and  almost  immediately  in  front  of  the  heights.  At 
twelve  o'clock,  while  the  signal-flags  were  waving  swift  intel 
ligence  along  our  lines,  the  shrill  sound  of  a  "Whitworth  gur; 
broke  the  silence,  and  the  cannonading  commenced. 

The  enemy  replied  with  terrific  spirit,  from  their  batteries 
posted  along  the  heights.  Never  had  been  heard  such  tremend 
ous  artillery  firing  in  the  war.  The  warm  and  sultry  air  was 
hideous  with  discord.  Dense  columns  of  smoke  hung  over  the 
beautiful  valley.  The  lurid  flame  leaps  madly  from  the  can 
non's  mouth,  each  moment  the  roar  grows  more  intense  ;  now 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  39 

chime  in  volleys  of  small  arms.  For  one  hour  and  a  half  this 
most  terrific  fire  was  continued,  during  which  time  the  shriek 
ing  of  shells,  the  crashing  of  falling  timber,  the  fragments  of 
rock  flying  through  the  air,  shattered  from  the  cliffs  by  solid 
shot,  the  heavy  mutterings  from  the  valley  between  the  oppos 
ing  armies,  the  splash  of  bursting  shrapnel,  and  the  tierce 
neighing  of  wounded  artillery-horses  made  a  picture  terribly 
grand  and  sublime. 

But  there  was  now  to  occur  a  scene  of  moral  sublimity  and 
heroism  unequalled  in  the  war.  The  storming  party  was 
moved  up — Pickett's  division  in  advance,  supported  on  the 
right  by  Wilcox's  brigade,  and  on  the  left  by  Heth's  division, 
commanded  by  Pettigrew.  With  steady  measured  tread  the 
division  of  Pickett  advanced  upon  the  foe.  Never  did  troops 
enter  a  fight  in  such  splendid  order.  Their  banners  floated 
defiantly  in  the  breeze  as  they  pressed  across  the  plain.  The 
flags  which  had  waved  amid  the  wild  tempest  of  battle  at 
Games'  Mill,  Frazer's  Farm,  and  Manassas,  never  rose  more 
proudly.  Kemper,  with  his  gallant  men,  leads  the  right ; 
Garnett  brings  up  the  left ;  and  the  veteran  Armistead,  with 
his  brave  troops,  moves  forward  in  support.  The  distance  is 
more  than  half  a  mile.  As  they  advance  the  enemy  fire  with 
great  rapidity — shell  and  solid  shot  give  place  to  grape  and 
canister — the  very  earth  quivers  beneath  the  heavy  roar — wide 
gaps  are  made  in  this  regiment  and  that  brigade.  The  line 
moves  onward,  cannons  roaring,  grape  and  canister  plunging 
and  ploughing  through  the  ranks,  bullets  whizzing  as  thick  as 
hail-stones  in  winter,  and  men  falling  as  leaves  fall  in  the  blasts 
of  autumn. 

As  Pickett  got  well  under  the  enemy's  fire,  our  batteries 
ceased  firing,  for  want,  it  is  said,  of  ammunition.  It  was  a 
fearful  moment — one  in  which  was  to  be  tested  the  pride  and 
mettle  of  glorious  Virginia.  Into  the  sheets  of  artillery  fire 
advanced  the  unbroken  lines  of  Picketts'  brave  Virginians. . 
They  have  reached  the  Emmettsburg  road,  and  here  the  j  meet  a. 
severe  fire  from  heavy  masses  of  the  enemy's  infantry,  posted 
behind  the  stone  fence,  while  their  artillery,  ^now  free  from  the 
annoyance  of  our  artillery,  turn  their  whole  fire  upon  this 
devoted  band.  Still  they  remain  firm.  Now  again  they  ad 
vance.  They  reach  the  works — the  contest  rages  with  intense 


40  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

fury — men  fight  almost  hand  to  hand — the  red  cross  and  the 
"  stars  and  stripes"  wave  defiantly  in  close  proximity.  A  Fed 
eral  officer  dashes  forward  in  front  of  his  shrinking  columns, 
and  with  flashing  sword,  urges  them  to  stand.  General  Pick- 
ett,  seeing  the  splendid  valor  of  his  troops,  moves  among  them 
as  if  courting  death.  The  noble  Garnett  is  dead,  Armistead 
wounded,  and  the  brave  Kemper,  with  hat  in  hand,  still  cheer 
ing  on  his  men  falls  from  his  horse.  But  Kemper  and  Armis 
tead  have  already  planted  their  banners  in  the  enemy's  works. 
The  glad  shout  of  victory  is  already  heard.* 

But  where  is  Pettigrew's  division — where  are  the  supports  ? 
The  raw  troops  had  faltered  and  the  gallant  Pettigrew  himself 
had  been  wounded  in  vain  attempts  to  rally  them.  Alas,  the 
victory  was  to  be  relinquished  again.  Pickett  is  left  alone  to 
contend  with  the  masses  of  the  enemy  now  pouring  in  upon 
him  on  every  side.  Now  the  enemy  move  around  strong 
flanking  bodies  of  infantry,  and  are  rapidly  gaining  Pickett's 
rear.  The  order  is  given  to  fall  back,  and  our  men  commence 
the  movement,  doggedly  contesting  for  every  inch  of  ground. 
'The  enemy  press  heavily  our  retreating  line,  and  many  noble 
spirits  who  had  passed  safely  through  the  fiery  ordeal  of  the 
.advance  and  charge,  now  fall  on  the  right  and  on  the  left. 

This  division  of  Virginia  troops,  small  at  first,  with  ranks 
mow  torn  and  shattered,  most  of  the  officers  killed  or  wounded, 
mo  valor  able  to  rescue  victory  from  such  a  grasp,  annihilation 

•  or  capture  inevitable,  slowly,  reluctantly,  fell  back.     It  was 

*  A  correspondent  of  a  Yankee  paper  thus  alludes  to  the  traces  of  the  strug 
gle  at  the  Cemetry : 

"  Monuments  and  headstones  lie  here  and  there  overturned.  Graves,  once  carefully 
tended  by  some  loving  hand,  have  been  trampled  by  horses'  feet  until  the  vestiges  of 
verdure  have  disappeared.  The  neat  and  well-trained  shrubbery  has  vanished,  or  is 
but  a  broken  and  withered  mass  of  tangled  brushwood.  On  one  grave  lies  a  dead 

•  artillery  horse  fast  decomposing  under  a  July  sun.     On  another  lie  the  torn  garments 
.5f  some  wounded  soldier,  stained  and  saturated  with  his  blood.     Across  a  small  head 
stone,  bearing  the  words  "To  the  memory  of  our  beloved  child,  Mary,"  lie  the  frag 
ments  of  a  musket,  shattered  by  a  cannon  shot.    In  the  centre  of  the  space  enclosed 
by  an  iron  fence  and  containing  a  half-dozen  graves,  a  few  rails  are  still  standing 
where  they  were  erected  by  our  soldiers  and  served  to  support  the  shelter  tents  of  a 
bivouacking  -squad.      A  family  shaft  has  been  broken  to  fragments  by  a  shell,  and 
only  the  base  remains,  with  a  portion  of  the  inscription  thereon.     Stone  after  stone 
felt  the  effect  of  the  feu  cPenfer  that  was  poured  upon  the  crest  of  the  hill.     Cannon 
thundered,  and  foot  and  horse  soldiers  trampled  over  the  sleeping-places  of  the  dead. 
Other  dead  wereadded  to  those  who  are  resting  there,  and  many  a  wounded  soldiei 
•till  liven  to  reiaember  the  contest  above  those  silent  graves." 


THE     THIRD    YEAR.  41 

not  given  to  these  few  remaining  brave  men  to  accomplish 
human  impossibilities.  The  enemy  dared  not  follow  them  be 
yond  their  works.  But  the  day  was  already  lost. 

The  field  was  covered  with  Confederates  slowly  and  sulkily 
retiring  in  small  broken  parties  under  a  heavy  fire  of  artillery. 
There  was  no  panic.  Never  did  a  commanding  general  be 
have  better  in  such  trying  circumstances  than  did  Lee.  He 
was  truly  great  in  disaster.  An  English  colonel  who  witnessed 
the  tight,  says  :  "  I  joined  General  Lee,  who  had,  in  the  mean 
while,  come  to  the  front  on  becoming  aware  of  the  disaster. 
General  Lee  was  perfectly  sublime.  He  was  engaged  in  rally 
ing  and  encouraging  the  broken  troops,  and  was  riding  about 
a  little  in  front  of  the  wood  quite  alone — the  whole  of  his  staff 
being  engaged  in  a  similar  manner  further  to  the  rear.  His 
face,  which  is  always  placid  and  cheerful,  did  not  show  signs 
of  the  slightest  disappointment,  care,  or  annoyance,  and  he  was 
addressing  to  every  soldier  he  met  a  few  words  of  encourage 
ment,  such  as, <  All  this  will  come  right  in  the  end  ;  we'll  talk 
it  over  afterwards;  but,  in  the  meantime,  all  good  men  must 
rally.  We  want  all  good  and  true  men  just  now,'  &c.  He 
spoke  to  all  the  wounded  men  that  passed  him,  and  the  slightly 
wounded  he  exhorted  ;  to  bind  up  their  hurts  and  take  up  a 
musket'  in  this  emergency.  Very  few  failed  to  answer  his  ap 
peal,  and  I  saw  many  badly  wounded  men  take  off  their  hats 
and  cheer  him." 

u  It  is  difficult,"  says  the  same  intelligent  spectator,  "  to  ex 
aggerate  the  critical  state  of  affairs  as  they  appeared  about  this 
time.  If  the  enemy  or  their  general  had  shown  any  enterprise 
there  is  no  saying  what  might  have  happened.  General  Lee 
and  his  officers  were  evidently  fully  impressed  with  a  sense  of 
the  situation ;  yet  there  was  much  less  noise,  fuss,  or  confusion 
of  orders,  than  at  any  ordinary  field  day  ;  the  men,  as  they 
were  rallied  in  the  wood,  were  brought  up  in  detachments  and 
lay  down  quiet  and  coolly  in  the  positions  assigned  to  them." 

At  night  the  Confederate  army  held  the  same  position  from 
which  it  had  driven  the  enemy  two  days  previous.  The  starry 
eky  hrng  over  a  field  of  hideous  carnage.  In  the  series  of  en 
gagements  a  few  pieces  of  artillery  were  captured  by  the  Con- 
federates  and  nearly  seven  thousand  prisoners  taken,  two  thou- 
Band  of  whom  were  paroled  on  the  field.  Our  loss  in  killed, 


•C2  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

wounded,  and  prisoners,  was  quite  ten  thousand.  The  enemy's 
loss  probably  exceeded  our  own,  as  the  Yankees  were  closely 
crowded  on  the  hills,  and  devoured  by  our  artillery  fire.  The 
information  of  the  enemy's  loss  is  perhaps  most  accurately  ob 
tained  from  the  bulletin  furnished  by  his  Surgeon-general, 
which  stated  that  he  had  something  over  twelve  thousand 
Yankee  wounded  under  his  control.  Counting  one  killed  for 
four  wounded,  and  making  some  allowance  for  a  large  class  of 
wounded  men  who  had  not  come  under  the  control  of  the  offi 
cers  referred  to,  we  are  justified  in  stating  the  enemy's  loss  in 
casualties  at  Gettysburg  as  somewhere  between  fifteen  and 
eighteen  thousand.  Our  loss,  slighter  by  many  thousands  in 
comparison,  was  yet  frightful  enough.  On  our  side  Pickett's 
division  had  been  engaged  in  the  hottest  work  of  the  day,  and 
the  havoc  in  its  ranks  was  appaling.  Its  losses  on  this  day  are 
famous,  and  should  be  commemorated  in  detail.  Every  brig 
adier  in  the  division  was  killed  or  wounded.  Out  of  twenty- 
four  regimental  officers,  only  two  escaped  unhurt.  The  Ninth 
Virginia  went  in  two  hundred  and  fifty  strong  and  came  out 
with  only  thirty-eight  men. 

Conspicuous  in  our  list  of  casualties  was  the  death  of  Major- 
general  Fender.  He  had  borne  a  distinguished  part  in  every 
engagement  of  this  army,  and  was  wounded  on  several  occa 
sions  while  leading  his  command  with  admirable  gallantry  and 
ability.  Brigadier-generals  Barksdale  and  Garnett  were  killed, 
and  Brigadier-general  Semmes  mortally  wounded,  while  lead 
ing  their  troops  with  the  courage  that  had  always  distin 
guished  them.  The  brave  and  generous  spirit  of  Barksdale 
had  expired,  where  he  preferred  to  die,  on  the  ensanguined 
field  of  battle.  Of  this  "haughty  rebel,"  who  had  fallen 
within  their  lines,  the  Yankees  told  with  devilish  satisfaction 
the  story  that  his  end  was  that  of  extreme  agony,  and  his  last 
words  were  to  crave,  as  a  dying  boon,  a  cup  of  water,  and  a 
stretcher  from  an  ambulance  boy.  The  letter  of  a  Yankee 
officer  testifies  that  the  brave  and  suffering  hero  declared  with 
his  last  breath  that  he  was  proud  of  the  cause  he  died  fighting 
for ;  proud  of  the  manner  in  which  he  received  his  death  ;  and 
confident  that  his  countrymen  were  invincible. 

The  fearful  trial  of  a  retreat  from  a  position  far  in  the 
enemy's  country  was  now  reserved  for  General  Lee.  Happily 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  43 

he  had  an  army  with  zeal  unabated,  courage  intrepid,  devotion 
unclulled ;  with  unbounded  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of  that 
great  chieftian  who  had  so  often  led  them  to  victory.  The 
strength  of  the  enemy's  position  ;  the  reduction  of  our  ammu 
nition  ;  the  difficulty  of  procuring  supplies,  these  left  no  choice 
but  retreat. 

On  the  night  of  the  4th,  General  Lee's  army  began  to  retire 
by  the  road  to  Fairfield,  without  any  serious  interruption  on 
the  part  of  the  enemy.  In  passing  through  the  mountains,  in 
advance  of  the  column,  the  great  length  of  the  trains  exposed 
them  to  attack  by  the  enemy's  cavalry,  which  captured  a  num 
ber  of  wagons  and  ambulances  ;  but  they  succeeded  in  reach 
ing  Williamsport  without  serious  loss. 

They  were  attacked  at  that  place  on  the  6th,  by  the  enemy's 
cavalry,  which  was  gallantly  repulsed  by  General  Irnboden. 
The  attacking  force  was  subsequently  encountered  and  driven 
off  by  General  Stuart,  and  pursued  for  several  miles  in  the 
direction  of  Boonsboro'.  The  army,  after  an  arduous  march, 
rendered  more  difficult  by  the  rains,  reached  Hagerstown  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  6th  and  morning  of  the  7th  July.* 


*  The  following  official  communication  from  General  Lee  illustrates  the 
unreliability  of  despatches  emanating  from  Yankee  generals  : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA,  ) 
21st  July,  1863.  j 

GENERAL  S.  COOPER,  Adjutant  and  Inspector- General  G.  S.  A.,  Bichmond.  Va.  : 

General— I  have  seen  in  Northern  papers  what  purported  to  be  an  official  despatch 
from  General  Meade,  stating  that  he  had  captured  a  brigade  of  infantry,  two  pieces  of 
artillery,  two  caissons,  and  a  large  number  of  small  arms,  as  this  army  retired  to  the 
south  bank  of  the  Potomac,  on  the  13th  and  14th  infet. 

This  despatch  has  been  copied  into  the  Kichtnond  papers,  and  as  its  official  charac 
ter  may  cause  it  to  be  believed,  I  desire  to  state  that  it  is  incorrect.  The  enemy  did 
not  capture  any  organized  body  of  men  on  that  occasion,  but  only  stragglers  and  such 
as  were  left  asleep  on  the  road,  exhausted  by  the  fatigue  and  exposure  of  one  of  the 
most  inclement  nights  I  have  ever  known  at  this  season  of  the  year.  It  rained  with 
out  cessation,  rendering  the  road  by  which  our  troops  inarched  to  the  bridge  at 
Falling  Waters  very  difficult  to  pass,  and  causing  so  much  delay  that  the  last  of  the 
troops  did  not  cross  the  river  at  the  bridge  until  1  p.  M.  on  the  14th.  While  the  col 
umn  was  thus  detained  on  the  road,  a  number  of  men,  worn  down  with  fatigue,  lay 
down  in  barns  and  by  the  roadside,  and  though  officers  were  sent  buck  to  arouse 
them,  as  the  troops  moved  on,  the  darkness  and  rain  prevented  them  from  finding 
nil,  an  i  many  were  in  this  way  left  behind.  Two  guns  were  left  in  the  road.  The 
horses  that  drew  them  became  exhausted,  and  the  officers  went  forward  to  procure 
others.  When  they  returned,  the  rear  of  the  column  had  passed  the  guu8  so  far  thai 
it  was  deemed  unsafe  to  send  back  for  them,  and  they  were  thus  lost.  No  anna, 
cannon,  or  prisoners  were  taken  by  the  enemy  in  battle,  but  only  such  as  were  left 


4A  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

The  enemy  in  force  reached  our  front  on  the  12th.  A  posi 
tion  had  been  previously  selected  to  cover  the  Potomac  from 
Williarnsport  to  Falling  Waters,  and  an  attack  was  awaited 
during  that  and  the  succeeding  day.  This  did  not  take  place, 
though  the  two  armies  were  in  close  proximity,  the  enemy 
being  occupied  in  fortifying  his  own  lines.  Our  preparations 
being  completed,  and  the  river,  though  still  deep,  being  pro 
nounced  fordable,  the  army  commenced  to  withdraw  to  the 
south  side  on  the  night  of  the  13th.  The  enemy  offered  no 
serious  interruption,  and  the  movement  was  attended  with  no 
loss  of  material,  except  a  few  disabled  wagons  and  two  pieces 
of  artillery,  which  the  horses  were  unable  to  move  through  the 
deep  mud. 

The  following  day  the  army  marched  to  Bunker  Hill,  in  the 
vicinity  of  which  it  encamped  for  several  days.  It  subse 
quently  crossed  the  Blue  E-idge,  and  took  position  south  of  the 
Rappahannock. 

Any  comment  on  Gettysburg  must  necessarily  be  a  tantaliz 
ing  one  for  the  South.  The  Pennsylvania  campaign  had  been 
a  series  of  mishaps.  General  -Lee  was  disappointed  of  half  of 
his  plan,  in  the  first  instance,  on  account  of  the  inability  or 
unwillingness  of  the  Richmond  authorities  to  assemble  an 
army  at  Culpepper  Court-house  under  General  Beauregard,  so 
as  to  distract  the  enemy  and  divide  his  force  by  a  demonstra 
tion  upon  Washington.  Johnston  was  calling  for  reinforce 
ments  in  Mississippi ;  Bragg  was  threatened  with  attack  • 
Beauregard 's  whole  force  was  reported  to  be  necessary  tc 
cover  his  line  on  the  sea-coast ;  and  the  force  in  Richmond 
and  in  Norm  Carolina  was  very  small.  Yet  with  what  force 
Lee  had,  his  campaign  proposed  great  things — the  destruction 
of  his  adversary,  which  would  have  uncovered  the  Middle  and 
Eastern  States  of  the  North ;  for,  behind  Me*  Je's  array,  there 
was  nothing  but  militia  mobs  and  home-guards  incapable  of 
making  any  resistance  to  an  army  of  veterans.  It  was  in 


;,ohind  under  the  circumstances  I  have  described.  The  number  of  stragglers  thus 
t^st,  I  am  unable  to  state  with  accuracy,  but  it  is  greatly  exaggerated  in  the  despatch 
referred  to. 

I  am,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

K.  E.  LEE,  General, 


THH    THIRD    YEAR.  45 

anticipation  cf  this  great  stake  that  Richmond  was  on  the 
tiptoe  of  expectation.  For  once  in  the  Confederate  capital 
gold  found  no  purchasers,  prices  declined,  speculation  was  at 
its  wits'  end,  and  men  consulted  their  interests  as  if  on  the  eve 
of  peace.  * 

The  recoil  at  Gettysburg  was  fatal,  perhaps,  not  necessarily, 
but  by  the  course  of  events,  to  General  Lee's  campaign ;  and 
the  return  of  his  army  to  its  defensive  lines  in  Virginia  was 
justly  regarded  in  the  South  as  a  reverse  in  the  general  for 
tunes  of  the  contest.  Yet  the  immediate  results  of  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg  must  be  declared  to  have  been  to  a  great  extent 
negative.  The  Confederates  did  not  gain  a  victory,  neither  did 
the  enemy.  The  general  story  of  the  contest  is  simple.  Lee 
had  been  unable  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  taking  the  high 
lands,  many  of  them  with  very  steep  declivities,  and  nearly  a 
mile  in  slope.  The  battle  was  an  effort  of  the  Confederates  to 
take  those  heights.  The  right  flank,  the  left  flank,  the  centre, 
were  successively  the  aim  of  determined  and  concentrated 
assaults.  The  Yankee  lines  were  broken  and  driven  repeated 
ly.  But  inexhaustible  reserves  and  a  preponderant  artillery, 
advantageously  placed,  saved  him  from  rout. 

The  first  news  received  in  Richmond  of  General  Lee's 
retreat  was  from  Yankee  sources,  which  represented  his  army 
as  a  disorganized  mass  of  fugitives,  unable  to  cross  the  Poto 
mac  on  account  of  recent  floods,  and  at  the  mercy  of  an 
enemy  immensely  superior  in  numbers  and  flushed  with  vic 
tory.  A  day  served  to  dash  the  hope  of  an  early  peace,  and  to 
overcloud  the  horizon  of  the  war. 

A  few  days  brought  news  from  our  lines,  which  exploded 
the  falsehoods  of  the  Yankees,  and  assured  the  people  of  the 
South  that  the  engagements  of  Gettysburg  had  resulted  in 
worsting  the  enemy,  in  killing  and  wounding  a  number 
exceeding  our  own,  and  ic  capturing  a  large  number  of  pris 
oners  ;  and  that  the  falling  back  of  our  army,  at  least  as  far  as 
Hagerstown,  was  a  movement  dictated  by  general  considera 
tions  of  strategy  and  prudence. 

And  here  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  retreat  from  Hagers 
town  across  the  Potomac  wao  an  inconsequence  and  a  mystery 
to  the  intelligent  public.  Leo's  position  there  was  strong  ;  his 
force  was  certainly  adequate  for  another  battle ;  preparations 


4:6  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

were  apparently  inade  for  aggressive  movements ;  and  in  the 
midst  of  all  came  a  sudden  renouncement  of  the  campaign  and 
the  retreat  into  Virginia.  The  public  had  its  secondary  wish 
for  the  safety  of  the  army.  But  this  did  not  exclude  mortifi 
cation  on  the  part  of  those  who  bettered  that  General  Lee  had 
abandoned  the  enemy's  territory,  not  as  a  consequence  pf  de 
feat,  but  from  the  undue  timidity  or  arrogant  disposition  of  the 
authorities  who  controlled  him. 

But  news  of  an  overshadowing  calamity,  undoubtedly  the 
greatest  that  had  yet  befallen  the  South,  accompanied  that  of 
Lee's  retreat,  and  dated  a  second  period  of  disaster  more  fright 
ful  than  that  of  Donelson  and  New  Orleans.  The  same  day 
that  Lee's  repulse  was  known  in  Richmond,  came  the  astound 
ing  intelligence  of  the  fall  of  Vicksburg.  In  twenty-four  hours 
two  calamities  changed  all  the  aspects  of  the  war,  and  brought 
the  South  from  an  unequalled  exaltation  of  hope  to  the  very 
brink  of  despair. 


THE    THIRD    YKAB. 


CHAPTEK  IL 

Vieksburg,  "the  Heroic  City."— Its  Value  to  the  Confedsracy.— An  Opportunity 
Lost  by  Butler.  — Lieutenant-general  Pemberton.— A  Favorite  of  President  Da 
vis. — The  President's  Obstinacy. — Blindness  of  Pemberton  to  the  Enemy's  De 
signs.— His  Telegram  to  Johnston.— Plan  of  U.  S.  Grant.— Its  Daring.— THE  BATTLI 
OF  PORT  GIBSON. — Exposure  of  General  Bowen  by  Pemberton. — The  First  Mistake. — 
Pemberton' s  Disregard  of  Johnston's  Orders. — Grant's  advance  against  Jackson. — 
Johnston's  Evacuation  of  Jackson. — His  Appreciation  of  the  Situation. — Urgent  Or 
ders  to  Pemberton. — A  Brilliant  Opportunity. — Pemberton's  Contumacy  and  Stupid 
ity. — His  Irretrievable  Error. — Yankee  Outrages  in  Jackson. — THE  BATTLE  OF  BAKER'S 
CREEK,  &c. — Stevenson's  Heroic  Fight. — Alleged  Dereliction  of  General  Loring.-- 
His  Division  Cut  Off  in  the  Retreat. — Demoralization  of  Pemberton's  Troops. — The 
Enemy's  Assault  on  the  Big  Black. — Shameful  Behavi-or  of  the  Confederates. — A 
Georgia  Hero. — Pemberton  and  the  Fugitives. — His  Eeturn  to  Vicksburg. — Recrim 
inations  as  to  the  Disaster  of  the  Big  Black.— How  Pemberton  Was  in  the  Wrong.— 
Johnston  Orders  the  Evacuation  of  Vicksburg. — Pemberton's  Determination  to  Hold 
It. 

YICKSBURG  had  already  become  famous  in  the  history  of  the 
war,  from  the  cupidity  of  the  enemy  and  the  gallantry  of  its 
resistance.  The  habitual  phrase  in  the  Yankee  newspapers 
was — "  the  three  strongholds  of  the  rebellion,  Richmond, 
Vicksburg,  and  Charleston."  The  possession  of  Richmond 
would  have  given  an  important  eclat  to  the  enemy,  and  some 
strategic  advantages.  That  of  Charleston  would  have  given 
him  a  strip  of  sea-coast  and  an  additional  barrier  to  the  block 
ade.  Yicksburg  was  a  prize  almost  as  important  as  Richmond, 
and  much  more  so  than  Charleston.  It  was  the  key  of  the 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  point  of  union  between 
the  positions  of  the  Confederacy  on  the  different  sides  of  this 
river. 

At  the  time  of  the  fall  of  New  Orleans,  the  defence  of  Yicks 
burg  was  not  even  contemplated  by  the  authorities  at  Rich 
mond  ;  and  the  city  was  given  up  for  lost  by  President  Davis, 
as  appears  by  an  intercepted  letter  from  one  of  his  family.  It 
was  a  characteristic  want  of  appreciation  of  the  situation  by 
the  Confederate  Administration.  It  is  not  improbable,  that  il 
Butler  had  had  the  enterprise  and  genius  to  direct  a  land 
attack  against  Yicksburg,  it  might  have  readily  fallen,  on  ac- 


'48  SOUTHERN-    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

count  of  the  feebly  nature  of  its  defences  and  the  insufficiency 
of  its  garrison.  But  the  tyrant  of  New  Orleans  was  a  man 
utterly  destitute  of  military  ability,  whose  ferocious  genius 
was  expended  in  a  war  upon  non-combatants.  He  let  slip  the 
golden  opportunity  which  the  pre-occupatiori  of  Beauregard 
with  Halleck  gave  him  to  operate  upon  Yicksburg,  and  at  once 
complete  the  Yankee  victory,  which  had  been  gained  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  time  the  enemy  gave  for  strengthening  the  defences  of 
Yicksburg  was  improved ;  and  we  have  seen  in  another  volume 
how  it  passed  comparatively  unscathed  through  one  bombard 
ment  ;  how  it  resisted  Sherman's  expedition  of  1862  ;  and  how 
it  defied  the  gigantic  enterprises  of  the  enemy  to  encompass  it 
with  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi  turned  from  their  channel. 
But,  unfortunately,  the  battle  of  Corinth  had  placed  its  desti 
nies  in  the  hands  of  a  commander  who  had  not  the  confidence 
of  the  army ;  who  encountered  a  positive  hostility  among  the 
people  within  the  limits  of  his  command ;  and  whose  haughty 
manner  and  military  affectation  were  ill-calculated  to  win  the 
regard  of  the  soldier  or  reconcile  the  dislike  of  the  civilian. 

But  a  short  time  after  the  battle  referred  to,  Major-general 
Earl  Yan  Dorn  was  removed  from  command,  and  Major-gen 
eral  Pemberton  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Department  of 
Mississippi  and  East  Louisiana,  and,  in  consequence  of  his  be 
ing  outranked  by  both  General  Yan  Dorn  and  General  Lovell, 
was  soon  after  appointed  a  Lieutenant-general.  He  was  raised 
by  a  single  stroke  of  President  Davis's  patronage  from  the  ob 
scurity  of  a  major  to  the  position  of  a  lieutenant-general.  He 
had  never  been  on  a  battle-field  in  the  war,  and  his  reputation 
as  a  commander  was  simply  nothing.  He  was  entirely  the 
creature  of  the  private  and  personal  prejudices  of  President 
Davis.  Never  was  an  appointment  of  this  president  more  self- 
willed  in  its  temper  and  more  unfortunate  in  its  consequences 
It  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  fact  that  Pemberton  did 
not  command  the  confidence  of  his  troops  or  of  any  considera 
ble  portion  of  the  public  would,  of  itself,  have  suggested  to  the 
President  the  prudence  of  a  change  of  commanders,  and  dis 
suaded  him  from  his  obstinate  preference  of  a  favorite.  But 
it  had  none  of  this  effect.  The  Legislature  of  Mississippi 
elicited  the  removal  of  Pemberton.  Private  delegations  from 


TUB    THIKD    YEAR.  4:9 

Congress  entreated  the  President  to  forego  his  personal  preju 
dices  and  defer  to  the  public  wish.  But  Mr.  Davis  had  that 
conceit  of  opinion  which  opposition  readily  confirms ;  and  the 
effect  of  these  remonstrances  was  only  to  increase  his  obstinacy 
and  intensify  his  fondness-  for  his  favorite.  To  some  of  them 
he  replied  that  Pemberton  was  "  a  great  military  genius,"  not 
appreciated  by  the  public,  and  destined  on  proper  occasion  to 
astonish  it. 

General  Pemberton  took  command  amid  the  suppressed 
murmurs  of  a  people  to  whom  he  was  singularly  unwelcome. 
The  first  evidence  of  his  want  of  comprehension  was  his  ignor-. 
ance  and  bewilderment  as  to  the  enemy's  designs.  We  have 
referred  to  the  failure  of  the  canal  projects.  The  enemy,  after 
long-continued  and  streneous  efforts  to  reach  the  right  flank  of 
Vicksburg,  by  forcing  a  passage  through  the  upper  Yazoo 
river,  finally  relinquished  his  design,  and  on  the  nights  of  the 
4th  and  5th  of  April,  re-embarked  his  troops,  and  before  day 
light  was  in  rapid  retreat.  About  the  same  time  a  heavy  force 
of  the  enemy,  which  had  been  collected  at  Baton  .Rouge,  wa* 
mostly  withdrawn  and  transferred  to  western  Louisiana,  leav 
ing  but  one  division  to  occupy  that  place. 

So  blind  was  Pemberton  to  the  designs  of  the  enemy,  that 
for  many  weeks  he  continued  to  believe  that  the  object  of  the 
movements  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant — the  last  commander  sent  from 
Washington  to  contest  the  prize  of  the  Mississippi — was  not 
Vicksburg,  but  Bragg's  army  in  Tennessee.  In  this  delusion, 
and  the  self-complacent  humor  it  inspired,  he  telegraphed  to 
General  Johnston,  on  the  13th  of  April :  "  I  arn  satisfied  that 
Rosecrans  will  be  reinforced  from  Grant's  army.  Shall  I 
order  troops  to  Tullahoma?"  The  aberration  was  soon  dis 
pelled.  A  few  days  after  this  despatch,  information  obtained 
from  Memphis  indicated  that  Grant's  retrogade  movement 
was  a  ruse ;  and  thus  suddenly  Pemberton  was  called  upon  to 
prepare  for  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  and  audacious  games 
that  the  enemy  had  yet  attempted  in  this  war. 

We  know  that  it  is  customary  to  depreciate  an  adversary  in 
war,  by  naming  his  enterprise  as  desperation,  and  entitling  his 
B'iccess  as  luck.  We  shall  not  treat  with  such  injustice  the 
enemy's  campaign  in  Mississippi.  In  daring,  in  celerity  of 
movement,  and  in  the  vigor  and  decision  of  its  steps  it  was  the 


50  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

most  remarkable  of  the  war.  The  plan  of  Grant  was,  in  btief, 
nothing  else  than  to  gain  firm  ground  on  one  of  the  Confederate 
Hanks,  which,  to  be  done,  involved  a  march  of  about  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  miles,  through  a  hostile  country,  and  in  which 
communication  with  the  base  of  supplies  was  liable  at  any 
moment  to  be  permanently  interrupted.  In  addition,  a  resist 
ance  to  his  advance  could  be  anticipated,  of  whose  magnitude 
nothing  was  certainly  known,  and  which,  for  aught  he  knew, 
might  at  any  time  prove  great  enough  to  annihilate  his  entire 
army. 

The  plan  involved  the  enterprise  of  running  a  fleet  of  trans 
ports  past  the  batteries,  crossing  the  troops  from  the  Louisiana 
shore,  below  Yicksburg,  to  Mississippi,  and  then  marching  the 
army,  by  the  way  of  Jackson,  through  the  heart  of  the  Con 
federacy,  so  to  speak,  to  the  rear  of  Yicksburg.  On  the  night 
of  the  22d  of  April,  the  first  demonstration  was  made,  in  ac 
cordance  with  the  newly-formed  plan,  by  the  running  past  our 
batteries  of  three  gunboats  and  seven  transports. 

Grand  Gulf  is  situated  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  immediately  below  the  rnouth  of  the  Big  Black  river. 
It  was  not  selected  as  a  position  for  land-defence,  but  for  the 
protection  of  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Black,  and  also  as  a  pre 
cautionary  measure  against  the  passage  of  transports,  should 
ihe  canal  before  referred  to  prove  a  success,  which  then  seemed 
highly  probable.  The  necessary  works  were  constructed  under 
She  direction  of  Brigadier-general  Bowen,  to  defend  the  bat 
teries  against  an  assault  from  the  river  front,  and  against  a  di- 
ifect  attack  from  or  across  Big  Black. 


THE   BATTLE    OF    PORT    GIBSON. 

The  enemy  having  succeeded  in  getting  his  transports  past 
Vicksburg,  an  attack  on  Grand  Gulf  was  anticipated.  Twelve 
miles  below  this,  at  the  rnouth  of  the  Bayou  Pierre,  is  Brains- 
burg,  and  at  this  point  the  enemy  landed  in  heavy  force,  on 
the  30th  of  April,  and  prepared  for  an  advance  movement. 

As  soon  as  General  Bowen  received  information  of  the  land- 
iog  of  the  enemy,  he  crossed  Bayou  Pierre,  and  advanced 
towards  Port  Gibson,  situated  several  miles  south-east  of  Grand 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  61 

Gulf.  In  the  vicinity  of  this  place  General  Bowen  met  the 
enemy  advancing  in  full  force,  and  immediately  prepared  for 
battle,  having  previously  telegraphed  to  Yicksburg  for  rein 
forcements.  He  was  left  with  a  few  thousand  men  to  confront 
an  overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy,  as  Pemberton  had  in 
sisted  upon  putting  the  Big  Black  between  the  enemy  and  the 
bulk  of  his  own  forces,  which  he  declared  were  necessary  to 
cover  Vicksburg. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  May,  General  Green,  who 
had  been  sent  out  on  the  Brainsburg  road  with  about  a  thou 
sand  men,  encountered  the  enemy.  He  was  joined  by  General 
Tracy,  with  not  more  than  fifteen  hundred  men.  The  enemy's 
attack  was  sustained  with  great  bravery  until  between  nine 
and  ten  o'clock,  when,  overwhelmed  by  numbers  and  flanked 
on  the  right  and  left,  General  Green  had  to  fall  back.  Courier 
after  courier  had  been  sent  for  General  Baldwin,  who  was  on 
the  way  with  some  reinforcements,  but  his  troops  were  so  ut 
terly  exhausted  that  he  could  not  get  up  in  time  to  prevent 
this.  Just  as  the  retreat  was  taking  place  General  Baldwin 
arrived,  and  was  ordered  to  form  a  new  line  about  one  mile  in 
rear  of  General  Green's  first  position.  General  Baldwin  had 
no  artillery,  and  that  ordered  up  from  Grand  Gulf  had  not 
arrived.  Colonel  Cockrell,  with  three  Missouri  regiments  came 
up  soon  after.  General  Bowen  now  had  all  the  force  at  his 
command  on  the  field,  excepting  three  regiments  and  twc 
battalions,  which  occupied  positions  which  he  could  not  re 
move  them  from  until  the  last  moment.  'He  ordered  them  up 
about  one  o'clock,  but  only  one  of  them  arrived  in  time  to 
cover  the  retreat  and  burn  the  bridges.  Between  twelve  and 
one  o'clock  General  Bowen  attempted,  with  two  of  Colonel 
Cockrell's  regiments,  to  turn  the  enemy's  right  flank,  and 
nearly  succeeded.  The  enemy  formed  three  brigades  in  front 
of  a  battery,  to  receive  our  charge.  The  first  was  routed,  the 
second  wavered,  but  the  third  stood  firm,  and  after  a  long  and 
desperate  contest,  our  troops  had  to  give  up  the  attempt.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  this  attack  saved  the  right  from  being 
overwhelmed,  and  kept  the  enemy  back  until  nearly  sunset. 
All  day  long  the  fight  raged  fiercely,  our  men  everywhere 
maintaining  their  ground.  Just  before  sunset  a  desperate  at 
tack  was  made  by  the  enemy,  they  having  again  received  fresh 


52  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

troops.  Our  right  was  forced  to  give  ground,  and  General  Bowe/i 
was  reluctantly  compelled  to  fall  back.  The  order  was  given  and 
executed  without  confusion.  The  enemy  attempted  no  pursuit. 

Though  unsuccessful,  the  bloody  encounter  in  front  of  Port 
Gibson  nobly  illustrated  the  valor  and  constancy  of  our  troops, 
and  shed  additional  lustre  upon  the  Confederate  arms.  In  his 
official  report,  General  Bowen  declared  that  the  enemy's  force 
engaged  exceeded  twenty  thousand,  while  his  own  did  not 
number  over  fifty -five  hundred. 

It  was  the  first  mistake  with  which  Pembertori  had  opened 
his  chapter  of  disasters.  On  the  28th  of  April  he  ascertained 
that  the  enemy  was  landing  troops  at  Hard  Times,  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  river ;  he  became  satisfied  that  neither  the  front 
nor  right  (north)  of  Yicksburg  would  be  attacked,  and  he 
turned  his  attention  to  the  left  (south)  of  Yicksburg ;  but  un 
fortunately  he  did  not  concentrate  "all"  his  troops  on  that 
side  of  Yicksburg.  On  the  29th  of  April  he  telegraphed  Gen 
eral  Johnston  that  the  enemy  were  at  Hard  Times,  and  "  can 
cross  to  Brainsburg;"  and  on  the  1st  of  May  that  "  a  furious 
battle  has  been  going  on  all  day  below  Port  Gibson.""  On  the 
2d  of  May  General  Johnston  replied  :  "If  General  Grant 
crosses  nnite  all  your  troops  to  beat  him.  Success  will  give 
back  what  was  abandoned  to  win  it."  Unfortunately  it  was  not 
done.  His  explanation  why  it  was  not  done,  was,  that  to  havo 
marched  an  army  across  Big  Black  of  sufficient  strength  to 
warrant  a  reasonable  hope  of  successfully  encountering  his  very 
superior  forces,  would  have  stripped  Yicksburg  and  its  essen 
tially  flank  defences  of  their  garrisons,  and  the  city  itself  might 
have  fallen  an  easy  prey  into  the  eager  hands  of  the  enemy. 
His  apprehensions  for  the  safety  of  Yicksburg  were  morbid. 
While  he  was  gazing  at  Yicksburg,  Grant  was  turning  towards 
Jackson. 

The  battle  of  Port  Gibson  won,  Grant  pushed  his  columns 
directly  towards  Jackson.  Pemberton's  want  of  cavalry  did 
not  permit  the  interruption  of  GrantTs  communications,  arid 
he  moved  forward  unmolested  to  Clinton.  General  Petnber- 
ton  anticipated  u  a  raid  on  Jackson,"  and  ordered  the  removal 
of  "  the  staff  department  and  all  valuable  stores  to  the  east ;" 
but  he  regarded  Edwards'  Depot  and  the  Big  Black  Bridge  »a 
the  objects  of  Grant's  movement  to  the  eastward. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  53 

The  movement  of  the  enemy  was  one  of  extreme  peril  On 
one  flank  was  General  .Joseph  E.  Johnston  with  a  force  whose 
strength  was  unknown  to  General  Grant ;  and  on  the  other  was 
Lieutenant-general  Pemberton.  To  have  remained  at  Grand 
Gulf  would  have  ruined  the  Federal  army,  and,  with  this  know 
ledge,  Grant  determined  to  make  certain  movements  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Big  Black,  while  he  marched  rapidly  on  Jack- ' 
son,  Mississippi,  with  his  main  force.  The  object  of  the  Yankee 
commander  was  to  make  sure  of  no  enemy  being  in  his  rear 
when  he  marched  on  Yicksburg. 

By  glancing  at  a  map  it  will  be  seen  that  the  country  in 
cluded  between  Grand  Gulf,  Jackson  and  Big  Black  river,  at 
the  railroad  crossing,  forms  a  triangle.  In  moving  forward, 
Grant's  forces  kept  upon  the  line  which  leads  from  Grand  Gulf 
to  Jackson  ;  but,  instead  of  all  going  to  Jackson,  as  might  have 
been  expected,  the  advance  only  continued  toward  that  point, 
while  the  remainder  of  the  army  turned  off  to  the  left,  at  in 
tervals,  and  proceeded  along  lines  which  converged  until  they 
met  in  the  angle  of  the  triangle  located  at  the  Big  Black  rail 
road  crossing. 

Many  persons  have  doubtless  been  astonished  at  the  ease 
with  which  Grant's  forces  advanced  upon  and  took  possess ior. 
of  Jackson.  Its  importance  as  a  railroad  centre  and  a  depot 
for  Confederate  supplies  warranted  the  anticipation  that  the 
place  would  be  vigorously  defended  and  only  surrendered  in 
the  last  extremity. 

Unfortunately  such  a  resistance  could  not  be  made.  General 
Johnston  had  arrived  too  late  to  prepare  a  defence  of  the  capital 
of  Mississippi.  On  reaching  Jackson,  on  the  night  of  the  13th 
of  May,  he  found  there  but  two  brigades  numbering  not  more 
than  six  thousand  men  ;  and,  with  the  utmost  that  could  be 
relied  upon  from  the  reinforcements  on  the  way,  he  could  not 
expect  to  confront  the  enemy  with  more  than  eleven  thousand 
men.  But  he  comprehended  the  situation  with  instant  and 
decisive  sagacity.  He  ascertained  that  General  Pemberton's 
forces,  except  the  garrison  of  Port  Hudson  (five  thousand)  and 
of  Yicksburg,  were  at  Edwards'  Depot — the  general's  head- 
quarter's  at  Bovina;  and  that  four  divisions  of  the  enemy, 
under  Sherman,  occupied  Clinton,  ten  miles  west  of  Jackson, 
between  Edwards'  Depot  and  ourselves. 


54  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

Not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost.  A  despatch  was  hurried  t& 
Pemberton  on  the  same  night  (13th),  informing  him  of  John 
ston's  arrival,  and  of  the  occupation  of  Clinton  by  a  portion  of 
Grant's  army,  urging  the  importance  of  re-establishing  corn 
munications,  and  ordering  him  to  come, up,  if  practicable,  on 
Sherman's  rear  at  once,  and  adding,  "  to  beat  such  a  detach 
ment  would  be  of  immense  value."  "  The  troops  here,"  wrote 
Johnston,  "could  co-operate.  All  the  strength  you  can  quickly 
assemble  should  be  brought.  Time  is  all-important." 

It  appears  from  General  Pemberton's  official  report  that  he 
had  preconceived  a  plan  of  battle ;  that  he  expected  to  fight  at 
Edwards' Depot ;  and  that  he  was  unwilling  to  separate  him 
self  further  from  Yicksburg,  which  he  regarded  as  his  base. 
He  had  the  choice  of  disobeying  Johnston's  orders,  and  falling 
back  upon  his  own  matured  plan,  or  of  obeying  them,  and 
taking  the  brilliant  hazard  of  crushing  an  important  detach 
ment  of  the  enemy.  He  did  neither.  He  attempted  a  middle 
course — a  compromise  between  his  superior's  orders  and  his 
own  plans,  the  weak  shift  and  fatal  expedient  of  military  in- 
competency.  He  telegraphed  to  Johnston,  "  I  comply  at  once 
with  your  order."  Yet  he  did  not  move  for  twenty-eight  hours. 
A  council  of  war  had  been  called,  and  a  majority  of  officers 
approved  the  movement  indicated  by  General  Johnston.  Pem 
berton  opposed  it;  but  he  says,  "  I  did  not,  however,  see  n't  to 
put  my  own  judgment  and  opinion  so  far  in  opposition  as  to 
prevent  a  movement  altogether."  So  he  determined  upon  an 
advance,  not  to  risk  an  attack  on  Sherman,  but,  as  he  says,  to  cut 
the  enemy's  communications.  lie  abandoned  his  own  former 
plans;  he  disobeyed  Johnston's  order,  and  invented  a  compro 
mise  equally  reprehensible  for  the  vacillation  of  his  purpose 
and  the  equivocation  of  his  despatch.  He  moved,  not  on  Sher 
man's  resw  at  Clinton,  but  in  another  direction  toward  Ray 
mond.  The  purpose  of  General  Johnston's  order  was  to  uuiro 
the  two  armies  and  attack  a  detachment  of  the  enemy.  Thu 
result  of  General  Pemberton's  movement  towards  Raymond 
was  to  prevent  this  union,  and  to  widen  the  distance  between 
the  two  armies. 

In  a  moral  view,  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  term  but  that  of 
the  harshest  censure  for  this  trifling  compromise  of  General 
Pemberton  between  the  order?  of  his  superior  and  the  prefer 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  55 

ences  of  his  own  mind.  In  a  military  view  it  was  eq&allj  re 
prehensible.  When  the  several  corps  of  the  enemy  were 
separated  into  two  or  more  distinct  columns,  separated  by 
twelve  or  fifteen  miles,  it  would  be  naturally  supposed  that  the 
true  opportunity  of  (Pemberton  would  have  been  to  strike  at 
one  separately,  rather  than  to  wait  until  all  the  enemy's  forces 
concentrated,  and  attacked  him  on  his  uncertain  march. 

The  error  was  irretrievable.  While  General  Pemberton  was 
in  "  council  of  war,"  on  the  14th,  the  enemy,  from  Clinton  and 
Raymond,  marched  on  Jackson  and  compelled  its  evacuation. 
Had  General  Pemberton  promptly  obeyed  General  Johnston's 
order,  and  boldly  marched  on  Clinton,  the  enemy  could  not 
have  marched  to  Jackson,  as  that  would  have  been  to  facilitate 
the  union  of  Johnston  and  Pemberton  and  to  have  encountered 
their  concentrated  armies.  The  audacity  of  Johnston's  orde:r, 
if  executed,  might  have  reversed  the  fate  of  Yicksburg.  The 
vacillation  of  General  Pemberton,  and  his  loss  of  a  day  and  a 
half,  caused  the  evacuation  of  Jackson,  and  opened  the  waj> 
to  Yicksburg. 

The  occupation  of  Jackson  was  the  occasion  of  the  usual 
scenes  of  Yankee  outrage.  The  watchword  of  McPhersorrs 
corps,  which  first  entered  it,  was  plunder.  The  negroes  were 
invited  to  assist  and  share  in  the  pillage.  Supposing  that  the 
year  of  jubilqe  had  finally  come,  the  blacks  determined  to  en 
joy  it,  and,  with  this  end  in  view,  they  stole  everything  they 
could  carry  off.  "  Nothing,"  says  a  Yankee  spectator,  "  came 
amiss  to  these  rejoicing  Africans  ;  they  went  around  the  streets 
displaying  aggregate  miles  of  double-rowed  ivory,  and  bend 
ing  under  a  monstrous  load  of  French  mirrors,  boots,  shoes, 
pieces  of  calico,  wash-stands  and  towels,  hoop-skirts,  bags  of 
tobacco,  parasols,  umbrellas,  and  fifty  other  articles  equally 
incongruous." 

McPherson  left  Jackson  on  the  afternoon  of  the  15th,  and, 
in  the  morning  of  the  next  day,  Sherman's  corps  took  up  its 
line — the  whole  moving  westward  along  the  south  side  of  the 
railroad  to  Yicksburg.  As  the  e^etny  left  Jackson  it  resem 
bled  more  the  infernal  regions  than  the  abode  of  civilization. 
Vrast  volumes  of  smoke  lay  over  it,  through  which,  here  and 
there,  rolled  fiercely  up  great  mountains  of  flame,  that  made 
infernal  music  over  their  work  of  destruction.  The  Confederate 


36  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

State-house — a  large  new  wooden  building — the  Penitentiary, 
several  private  house  and  several  government  buildings  were 
all  in  flames.  It  was  the  first  step  of  that  catalogue  of  horrors 
of  invasion  in  which  Mississippi  was  to  rival  Virginia,  and  the 
Big  Black  was  to  be  associated  with  the  Potomac  in  the  ghastly 
romances  of  ruin  aud  desolation. 

We  return  to  Pernberton  and  his  ill-starred  march.  On  the 
15th,  at  the  head  of  a  column  of  seventeen  thousand  men,  he 
had  taken  the  direction  of  Raymond.  On  the  morning  of  the 
16th,  at  about  six  and  a  half  o'clock,  he  ascertained  that  his 
pickets  were  skirmishing  with  the  enemy  on  the  Raymond 
road,  some  distance  in  his  front.  At  the  same  moment  a  cour- 
rier  arrived  and  handed  him  a  despatch  from  General  Johnston 
announcing  the  evacuation  of  Jackson,  and  indicating  that  the 
only  means  by  which  a  union  could  now  be  effected  between 
the  two  forces  was  that  Pemberton  should  move  directly  to 
Clinton,  whither  Johnston  was  retiring.  The  order  of  counter 
march  was  given  by  Pemberton.  It  was  too  late.  Just  as 
this  reverse  movement  commenced,  the  enemy  drove  in  his 
cavalry  pickets,  and  opened  with  artillery,  at  long  range,  on 
the  head  of  his  column  on  the  Raymond  road.  The  demon 
strations  of  the  enemy  soon  becoming  more  serious,  orders 
were  sent  by  General  Pemberton  to  the  division  commanders 
to  form  in  line  of  battle  on  the  cross-road  from  the  Clinton  to 
the  Raymond  road — Loring  on  the  right,  Bowen  in  the  centre, 
and  Stevenson  on  the  left.  The  enemy  had  forced  the  Con 
federates  to  give  battle  on  the  ground  of  his  own  selection, 
under  the  disadvantages  of  inferior  numbers  and  in  circum 
stances  which  had  all  the  moral  effect  of  a  surprise. 


THE    BATTLE   OF    BAKEIi's    CREEK,  ETC. 

But  the  ground  itself  was  not  unfavorable  to  our  troops. 
The  line  of  battle  was  quickly  formed,  in  a  bend  of  what  is 
known  as  Baker^s  creek,  without  any  interference  on  the  part 
of  the  enemy  ;  the  position  selected  was  naturally  a  strong  one, 
and  all  approaches  from  the  front  well  covered.  The  enemy 
made  his  first  demonstration  on  our  right,  but,  after  a  lively 
artillery  duel  for  an  hour  or  more,  this  attack  was  relinquished 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  57 


and  a  large  force  was  thrown  against  our  left,  whore  el 

ing  became  heavy  about  ten  o'clock,  and  the  battle  began  in 

earnest  along  Stevenson's  entire  front  about  noon. 

At  this  time  Major-general  Loring  was  ordered  to  move  for 
ward,  and  crush  the  enemy  in  his  front,  and  General  Bowen 
was  directed  to  co-operate  with  him  in  the  movement.  The 
movement  was  not  made  by  Loring.  He  replied  that  the 
enemy  was  too  strongly  posted  to  be  attacked,  but  that  he 
would  avail  himself  of  the  first  opportunity  of  successful  as 
sault.  The  opportunity  never  came  to  him. 

Stevenson's  troops  sustained  the  heavy  and  repeated  attacks 
of  the  enemy.  Six  thousand,  five  hundred  men  held  in  check 
four  divisions  of  the  enemy,  numbering,  from  his  own  state 
ment,  twenty-five  thousand  men.  Such  endurance  has  its 
limits.  The  only  reinforcements  that  came  to  the  relief  of 
these  devoted  men  were  two  brigades  of  Bowen,  among  them 
Cockrell's  gallant  Missourians.  This  was  about  half-past  two 
o'clock.  The  combined  charge  of  these  forces  for  a  moment 
turned  the  tide  of  battle.  But  the  enemy  still  continued  to 
move  troops  from  his  left  to  his  right,  thus  increasing  his 
vastly  superior  forces  against  Stevenson's  and  Bowen's  divis 
ions.  Again  orders  -were  despatched  to  General  Loring  to 
move  to  the  left  as  rapidly  as  possible  leaving  force  enough 
only  to  cover  the  bridge  and  ford  at  Baker's  Creek.  He  d'id 
not  come.  He  seems  still  to  have  been  engaged  with  the 
movements  of  the  enemy  in  his  front,  and  to  have  supposed 
that  they  were  endeavoring  to  flank  him. 

In  the  mean  time  the  contest  raged  along  Stevenson's  lines, 
the  enemy  continuing  his  line  movement  to  our  left.  Here 
were  displays  of  gallantry,  which,  unable  to  retrieve  the  disas 
ter,  adorned  it  with  devotion.  Here  fell  the  gallant  Captain 
Eidley,  commanding  a  battery,  refusing  to  leave  his  guns, 
single-handed  and  alone  fighting  until  he  fell,  pierced  with  six 
shots,  receiving,  even  from  his  enemies,  the  highest  tribute  of 
admiration.  Nothing  could  protect  the  artillery  horses  from 
the  deadly  fire  of  the  enemy  ;  almost  all  were  killed,  and 
along  the  whole  line,  the  pieces,  though  fought  with  despera 
tion,  on  the  part  of  both  officers  and  men,  almost  all  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  In  this  manner  the  guns  of  Corput's 
and  Johnston's  batteries,  and  WaddelFs  section,  y  lost. 


58  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Doulle  shotted,  they  were  fired  until,  in  many  instances, 
swarms  of  the  enemy  were  in  amongst  them.  Officers  and 
men  stood  by  them  to  the  very  latest  moment  that  they  could 
be  served. 

About  5  o'clock  p.  M.,  a  portion  of  Stevenson's  division  broke 
and  fell  back  in  disorder.  General  Pemberton  rode  up  to 
Stevenson  and  told  him  that  he  had  repeatedly  ordered  two 
brigades  of  Loring  to  his  assistance.  The  brave  commander, 
who  had  fought  the  enemy  since  morning,  replied  that  the  re 
lief  would  be  too  late  and  that  he  could  no  longer  hold  the 
field.  "  Finding,"  says  General  Pemberton,  "  that  the  enemy's 
vastly  superior  numbers  were  pressing  all  my  forces  engaged 
steadily  back  into  old  fields,  where  all  advantages  of  position 
would  be  in  his  favor,  I  felt  it  too  late  to  save  the  day  even 
should  Brigadier-general  Featherstone's  brigade  of  General 
Loring's  division  come  up  immediately.  I  could,  however, 
learn  nothing  of  General  Loring's  whereabouts  ;  several  of  my 
staff  officers  were  in  search  of  him,  but  it  was  not  until  after 
General  Bowen  had  personally  informed  me  that  he  could  not 
hold  his  position,  arid  not  until  I  had  ordered  the  retreat,  that 
General  Loring,  with  Featherstone's  brigade,  moving,  as  I  sub 
sequently  learned,  by  a  country  road,  which  was  considerably 
longer  than  the  direct  route,  reached  the  position  on  the  left, 
known  as  Champion's  Hill,  where  he  was  forming  line  of  bat 
tle  when  he  received  my  order  to  cover  the  retreat.  Had  the 
movement  in  support  of  the  left  been  promptly  made,  when 
first  ordered,  it  is  not  improbable  that  I  might  have  main 
tained  my  position,  and  it  is  possible  the  enemy  might  have 
been  driven  back,  though  his  vastly  superior  and  constantly 
increasing  numbers  would  have  rendered  it  necessary  to  with 
draw  during  the  night  to  save  my  communications  with  Vicks- 
burg."* 

*  In  a  correspondence  wliicli  ensued  between  the  Richmond  authorities  and 
General  Pemberton  as  to  the  cause  of  the  defeat,  the  Secretary  of  War  wrote, 
in  a  letter  dated  October  1st,  1863 :  "  I  should  be  pleased  to  know  if  General 
Loring  had  been  ordered  to  attack  before  General  Cummings'  brigade  gave 
way ;  and  whether,  in  your  opinion,  had  Stevenson's  division  been  promptly 
sustained,  the  troops  with  him  would  have  fought  with  so  little  tenacity  and 
resolution  as  a  portion  of  them  exhibited?  Have  you  had  any  explanation  of 
the  extraordinary  failure  of  General  Loring  to  comply  with  your  reiterated  or 
ders  to  attack  ?  And  do  you  feel  assured  your  orders  were  received  by  him  V 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  59 

But  the  disaster  of  the  day  was  not  yet  complete.  The  re 
treat  of  the  Confederates  was  by  the  ford  and  bridge  of  Baker's 
Creek.  Bowen's  division  was  directed  to  take  position  on  the 
left  bank,  and  to  hold  the  crossing  until  Loring's  division, 
which  was  directed  to  bring  up  the  rear,  had  effected  the  pas 
sage*  The  intelligence  of  the  approach  of  Loring  was  awaited 
in  vain.  Probably  another  unfortunate  misapprehension  had 
occurred.  He  had  covered  the  retreat  with  great  spirit,  it 
was  in  this  part  of  the  contest  that  Brigadier-general  Lloyd 
Tilghman,  one  of  the  bravest  officers  in  the  Confederate  army, 
fell,  pierced  through  his  manly  breast  with  a  fragment  of  a 
shell.  He  was  serving  with  his  own  hands  a  twelve-pound 
howitzer,  trying  to  dislodge  a  piece  which  was  annoying  the 
retreat.  It  is  said  that  General  Loring  was  under  the  impres 
sion  that  a  force  of  the  enemy  had  got  in  the  rear  of  the 
bridge,  and  that  Stevenson  had  been  compelled  to  continue  his 
retreat  in  the  direction  of  Edwards'  Depot.  At  any  rale,  he 
resolved  to  make  his  retreat  through  the  east,  turn  Jackson, 
and  effect  a  junction  with  the  forces  of  General  Johnston,  then 
supposed  to  be  near  Canton.  He  succeeded,  but  with  the  loss 
of  his  artillery. 

Pemberton  had  retired  from  the  battle-field  with  a  demoral 
ized  army.  It  had  lost  nearly  all  of  its  artillery  ;  it  was  weak 
ened  by  the  absence  of  General  Loring's  division  ;  it  had 
already  shown  the  fatal  sign  of  straggling ;  and,  worse  than 
all,  it  had  conceived  a  distrust  of  its  commander,  who  had  car 
ried  his  troops  by  a  vague  and  wandering  march  on  the  very 
front  of  the  concentrated  forces  of  the  enemy. 

On  Sunday  morning,  the  17th  of  May,  the  enemy  advanced 
in  force  against  the  works  erected  on  the  Big  Black.  The 
river,  where  it  is  crossed  by  the  railroad  bridge,  makes  a  bend 
somewhat  in  the  shape  of  a  horse-shoe.  Across  this  horse-shoe, 

His  conduct,  unless  explained  by  some  misapprehension,  is  incomprehensible 
to  me." 

To  this  General  Pemberton  replied,  on  the  10th  of  November:  "General 
Loring  had  been  ordered  to  attack  before  General  Cummings'  brigade  gave  way 
and  the  order  had  been  again  and  again  repeated  ;  and,  in  iny  opinion,  '  had 
Stevenson's  division  been  promptly  sustained,'  his  troops  would  have  deported 
themselves  gallantly  and  creditably.  I  have  received  no  explanation  of  '  the 
extraordinary  failure  of  General  Lormg  to  comply  with  my  reiterated  orders  to 
attack ;'  and  I  do  feel  '  assured  that  my  orders  were  received  by  him.'  " 


60  SOUTHERN    H7STOBY    OF    THE    WAR. 

at  its  narrowest  part,  a  line  of  rifle-pits  had  been  constructed, 
making  an  excellent  cover  for  infantry,  and,  at  proper  inter 
vals,  dispositions  were  made  for  field  artillery.  The  line  of 
pits  ran  nearly  north  and  sooth,  and  was  about  a  mile  in  length. 
North  of,  and  for  a  considerable  distance  south  of  the  railroad, 
and  of  a  dirt-road  to  Edwards'  Depot,  nearly  parallel  with  it 
extended  a  bayou,  which,  in  itself,  opppsed  a  serious  obstacle 
to  an  assault  upon  the  pits.  This  line  abutted  north  on  the 
river,  and  south  upon  a  cypress  brake,  which  spread  itself 
nearly  to  the  bank  of  the  river.  In  addition  to  the  railroad 
bridge,  which  had  been  floored  for  the  passage  over  of  artillery 
and  wagons,  a  steamer,  from  which  the  machinery  had  been 
taken,  was  converted  into  a  bridge,  by  placing  her  fore-and- 
aft  across  the  river.  Between  the  works  and  the  bridge,  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile,  the  country  was  open,  being  eitRer 
clear  or  cultivated  fields,  affording  no  cover  should  the  troops 
be  drawn  from  the  trenches.  East  and  north  of  the  railroad, 
the  country  over  which  the  enemy  must  necessarily  pass  was 
similar  to  those  above  described  ;  but  north  of  the  railroad, 
and  about  three  hundred  yards  in  front  of  the  rifle-pits,*  a 
copse  of  wood  extended  from  the  road  to  the  river.  Our  line 
was  manned  on  the  right  by  the  gallant  Cockrell's  Missouri 
brigade,  the  extreme  left  by  Brigadier- general  Green's  Missouri 
and  Arkansas  men,  both  of  Bowen's  division,  and  the  centre 
by  Brigadier-general  Vaughan's  brigade  of  east  Tennesseeans, 
in  all  about  four  thousand  men,  as  many  as  could  be  advan 
tageously  employed  in  defending  the  line  with  about  twenty 
pieces  of  field  artillery. 

The  position  was  one  of  extraordinary  strength,  yet  this 
position  was  abandoned  by  our  troops,  almost  without  a  strug 
gle,  and  with  the  loss  of  nearly  all  that  remained  of  our  artil 
lery. 

It  would  be  well  if  this  page  could  be  omitted  from  our  mar 
tial  records,  and  its  dishonor  spared.  But  it  is  easily  told,  and 
the  charitable  reader  is  already  prepared  for  it.  Early  in  the 
morning  the  enemy  opened  his  artillery  at  long  range,  and 
very  soon  pressed  forward,  with  infantry,  into  the  copse  oi 
wood  north  of  the  railroad  ;  about  the  same  time  he  opened  on 
Colonel  Cockrell's  position  with  two  batteries,  and  advanced  a 
line  of  skirmishers,  throwing  forward  a  column  of  infantry, 


THE    THIKD    YEAE.  61 

which  was  quickly  driven  back  by  our  batteries.  Prettj 
heavy  skirmishing  was,  for  awhile,  kept  up  along  our  whole 
line,  but  presently  the  enemy,  who  had  massed  a  large  force 
in  the  woods  immediately  north  of  the  railroad,  advanced  at  a 
run  with  loud  cheers.  Our  troops  in  their  front  did  not 
remain  to  receive  them,  but  broke  and  fled  precipitately. 

The  retreat  was  disgraceful.  It  soon  became  a  matter  of 
sauve  qui  pent.  A  strong  position,  with  an  ample  force  of 
infantry  and  artillery  to  hold  it,  was  shamefully  abandoned, 
almost  without  resistance.  Between  the  troops  occupying  the 
centre  and  the  enemy  there  was  an  almost  impassable  bayou. 
They  fled  before  *the  enemy  had  reached  that  obstacle.  In 
this  precipitate  retreat  but  little  order  was  observed,  the  object 
with  all  being  to  reach  the  bridge  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
Many  were  unable  to  do  so,  but  effected  their  escape  by  swim 
ming  the  river ;  some  were  drowned  in  the  attempt.  A  con 
siderable  number,  unable  to  swim,  and  others  too  timid  to 
expose  themselves  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy  by  an  effort  to 
escape,  remained  in  the  trenches,  and  were  made  prisoners. 
A  captain,  who  disgraced  the  Confederate  uniform,  laid  down 
in  the  rifle-pits,  and  was  captured  by  the  enemy.  Another 
behaved  more  bravely.  Captain  Osborne,  of  the  Thirty-sixth 
Georgia,  took  his  place  just  behind  his  line,  and,  with  drawn 
revolver,  swore  he  would  shoot  the  first  unwourided  man  who 
turned  his  back.  The  consequence  was  that  his  company,  and 
the  fragment  of  another,  were  soon  left  alone  in  the  field  where 
the  steady  line  of  the  enemy  were  advancing  under  the  smoke 
of  their  own  murderous  tire.  Completely  flanked,  and  in  peril 
of  capture,  he  gave  the  order  to  "  march  a  retreat,"  but  still 
with  revolver  and  voice  checking  any  unwise  or  unbecoming 
haste.  When  satisfied  with  his  distance,  he  halted  his  com 
pany,  and  dressed  the  line  ;  just  then  General  Cumming  rode 
up,  and,  taking  off  his  hat,  said  :  "  Captain,  I  compliment 
you  upon  having  the  only  organized  body  of  men  on  the 
field." 

Lieutenant-general  Pemberton  rode  up  and  down  the  lines 
trying  to  rally  the  men ;  but-  his  courage  was  not  well  re 
warded.  One  of  his  staff  threatened  to  shoot  a  runaway  with 
his  pistol.  "  Bigger  guns  than  that,  back  there,"  said  the  sol 
dier,  and  went  on. 


62  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    1HE    WAR. 

General  Pemberton  told  a  fellow  to  stop  and  to  go  back, 
and,  to  give  force  to  the  order,  said  :  "  I  am  Lieutenant-general 
Pemberton,  commanding  this  department."  The  fellow  looked 
up  and  said,  "You  are!" — and  proceeded  the  same  way. 

Who  could  have  recognized  in  the  flying  mob  the  same  men 
whose  heroic  defence  of  Yicksburg  had  attracted  the  attention 
and  won  the  applause  of  the  world  ! 

About  ten  o'clock,  Sunday  night,  the  main  body  of  Pern 
berton's  army  entered  Yicksburg.  A  scene  of  terror  ensued. 
Many  planters  living  near  the  city  with  their  families,  aban 
doned  their  homes  and  entered  our  lines  with  the  Confederate 
forces.  The  stillness  of  the  Sabbath  night  was  broken  in  upon, 
and  an  uproar  in  which  the  blasphemous  oath  of  the  soldier 
and  the  cry  of  the  child  mingled,  heightened  the  effect  of  a 
scene  which  the  pen  cannot  depict.  There  were  many  gentle 
women  and  tender  children,  torn  from  their  homes  by  the  ad 
vance  of  a  ruthless  foe  and  compelled  to  fly  to  our  lines  for 
protection  ;  and  mixed  up  with  them,  in  one  vast  crowd,  were 
the  gallant  men  who  had  left  Vicksburg  three  short  weeks 
befoie  in  all  the  pride  and  confidence  of  a  just  cause,  and  return 
ing  to  it  under  the  shame  of  a  defeat,  and  with  the  panic  of  a 
mob. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  at  length  into  the  recrimination 
which  ensued  between  Pemberton  and  Johnston,  as  to  the 
memorable  disaster  of  the  Big  Black.  It  was  argued  on  Pem- 
berton's  side  that  had  it  riot  been  for  Johnston's  order  to  move 
on  the  enemy  at  Canton,  he  never  would  have  advanced  in 
any  direction  beyond  the  Big  Black.  To  this  the  reply  of 
General  Johnston  was  neat  and  conclusive.  "It  was,"  he 
said,  "a  new  military  principle  that  when  an  officer  disobeys 
a  positive  order  of  his  superior,  that  superior  becomes  respon 
sible  for  any  measure  his  subordinate  may  choose  to  substitute 
for  that  ordered." 

Pemberton  had  neither  obeyed  the  order  referred  to,  nor 
fallen  back  upon  his  original  plan  ;  he  had  supplanted  both  by 
a  new  movement  which  concluded  in  one  of  the  worst  disas 
ters  of  the  war.  The  order  of  the  13th  directed  truly  a  "  haz 
ardous  movement,"  but  it  was  nevertheless  a  great  conception 
— it  was  one  of  those  bold  and  audacious  moves  that  charac 
terize  military  genius,  and  is  a  practical  illustration  of  Napo- 


THE    THIED    TEAR.  63 

icon's  maxim,  that  "  a  great  captain  supplies  all  deficiencies  by 
his  courage,  and  marches  boldly  to  meet  the  attack."  It  was 
a  wise  order,  for  it  tended  to  concentration  and  the  union  01 
both  detachments  of  his  army ;  and,  if  promptly  and  boldly 
executed,  might  have  resulted  in  saving  Vicksburg.  For  if 
Sherman  had  been  defeated  between  Clinton  and  Jackson 
Grant  could  not  have  invested  Vicksburg. 

As  it  was,  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  had  become  but  a  question 
of  time.  General  Johnston  was  convinced  of  the  impossibility 
of  collecting  a  sufficient  force  to  break  the  investment  of  the 
city,  should  it  be  completed.  He  appreciated  the  difficulty  of 
extricating  the  garrison.  It  was  with  this  foresight  that,  on 
learning  that  Pemberton  had  been  driven  from  the  Big  Black, 
he  ordered  the  evacuation  of  Vicksburg.  He  wrote:  "If 
Hay  ties'  Bluff  be  untenable,  Vicksburg  is  of  no  value  and 
cannot  be  held.  If,  therefore,  you  are  invested  in  Vicksburg, 
you  must  ultimately  surrender.  Under  such  circumstances, 
instead  of  losing  both  troops  and  place,  you  must,  if  possible, 
save  the  troops.  If  it  is  not  too  late,  evacuate  Vicksburg  and 
its  dependencies,  and  march  to  the  northeast." 

It  was  a  grave  order.  It  commanded  the  surrender  of  valua 
ble  stores  and  munitions  of  war ;  the  surrender  of  the  Mississippi 
river;  and  the  severance  of  the  Confederacy.  But  Johnston 
had  presented  to  his  mind  a  given  alternative :  that  of  the  loss 
of  Vicksburg,  and  that  of  the  loss  of  Vicksburg  and  an  army 
of  twenty-five  thousand  men,  and  he  had  the  nerve  to  accept 
with  promptness  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  It  required  the  great 
est  moral  courage  to  come  to  such  a  conclusion  ;  for  so  de 
luded  were  the  Confederate  people  as  to  the  safety  of  Vicks 
burg,  and  so  firmly  persuaded  were  they  that  Grant  was  a 
desperate  fool  "  who  would  butt  his  brains  out  against  the 
stockades  of  Vicksbnrg,"  that  had  this  order  of  Johnston  been 
known  at  the  time  it  would  have  produced  from  one  end  of 
the  Confederacy  to  the  other  an  outbreak  of  indignation,  and 
have  probably  made  him  the  victim  of  an  incorrigible  popular 
passion  and  ignorance. 

Pemberton  received  the  order  with  dismay  ;  he  called  a  conn 
cil  of  war.  It  was  unanimous  for  its  rejection  ;  but  the  reas 
on  given  was  peculiar  and  but  little  creditable.  It  was  de 
cided  that  it  wts  impossible  to  withdraw  the  army  with  such 


04  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

morale  and  material  as  to  be  of  future  service  to  the  Confeder 
acj ;  and  this,  although  there  were  eight  thousand  fresh  troops 
in  Yicksburg.  Pemberton  replied  :  "  I  have  decided  to  hold 
Yicksburg  as  long  as  possible,  with  the  firm  hope  that  the 
Government  may  yet  be  able  to  assist  me  in  keeping  this  ob 
ctruction  to  the  enemy's  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
river.  I  still  conceive  it  to  be  the  most  important  point  in  the 
Confederacy."  While  the  council  of  war  was  assembled,  the 
guns  of  tlie  enemy  opened  on  the  works. 


THE    THIRD    YEAB  65 


CHAPTER  HI. 

The  Defences  of  Vicksburg. — Pemberton's  Force. — His  Troops  Reinspirited.  ~  A 
Memorable  Appeal. — Grant's  Assault  on  the  Works. — Confidence  of  the  Yankees.— 
Their  Repulse  and  Losses. — Commencement  of  Siege  Operations. — Confidence  in 
Richmond. — Johnston's  Secret  Anticipation  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — His  Alleged 
Inability  to  Avert  it. — Critical  Condition  of  the  Confederate  Annies  in  Numbers.— 
Secret  Correspondence  of  Richmond  Officials. — Mr.  Seddon's  Bait  of  Flattery. — Suf 
ferings  of  the  Garrison  of  Vicksburg. — Johnston's  Attempt  to  Extricate  them. — Pro 
posed  Diversion  in  the  Trans-Mississippi. — Its  Failure. — A  Message  from  Pembcrton. 
A  Gleam  of  Hope. — An  Important  Dispatch  Miscarries. — The  Garrison  Unable  to 
Fight  Their  Way  Out. — But  Their  Condition  not  Extreme. — Pemberton's  Surrender 
on  the  Fourth  of  July.— Surprise  in  Richmond — Mendacity  of  the  Telegraph. — Th« 
Story  of  the  Rats  and  Mules. — Pemberton's  Statement  as  to  his  Supplies. — His  Ex 
planation  as  to  the  Day  of  Surrender. — The  last  Incident  of  Huniiliation. — Behavior 
of  the  Vicksburg  Population. — A  Rival  of  "The  Beast." — Appearance  and  Manners 
of  the  City  under  Yankee  Rule. — Consequences  of  the  Fall  of  Vicksburg. — THE  YAN- 
ME  REOCCCPATION  OF  JACKSON. — Johnston's  Second  Evacuation. — The  Enemy's  Rav 
ages  in  Mississippi. — How  they  Compared  with  Lee's  Civilities  in  Pennsylvania.— 
THE  FALL  OF  PORT  HUDSON,  &c. — Enemy's  Capture  of  Yazoo  City. — THE  BATTLE 
OF  HELENA. — THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI.— Repulse  of  the  Confederates. — Abandonment 
of  Little  Rock. — The  Trials  and  Sufferings  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department. — 
Hindman's  Memorable  Rule.— Military  Autocracy. — The  Generous  and  Heroic  Spirit 
of  the  Trans-Mississippi. 

THE  line  of  defence  around  the  city  of  Yicksburg  consisted 
of  a  system  of  detached  works  (redans,  lunettes,  and  redoubts) 
on  the  prominent  and  commanding  points,  with  the  usual  pro 
file  of  raised  field  works,  connected,  in  most  cases,  by  rifle-pits. 
The  strength  of  the  city  towards  the  land  was  equally  as  strong 
as  on  the  river  side.  The  country  was  broken,  to  a  degree 
affording  excellent  defensive  positions.  In  addition  to  this, 
the  ravines  intervening  the  ridges  and  knolls,  which  the  Con 
federates  had  fortified,  were  covered  with  a  tangled  growth  ot 
cane,  wild  grape,  &c.,  making  it  impossible  for  the  enemy  to 
move  his  troops  in  well-dressed  lines. 

To  man  the  entire  line  of  fortifications,  General  Pernberton 
was  able  to  bring  into  the  trenches  about  eighteen  thousand 
five  hundred  muskets ;  but  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  keep 
a  reserve  always  ready  to  reinforce  any  point  heavily  threat 
ened.  It  became  indispensable,  therefore,  to  reduce  the  num 
ber  in  the  trenches  to  the  minimum  capable  of  holding  tb<sm 

5 


66  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

until  a  reserve  could  come  to  their  aid.  It  was  also  necessary 
that  the  reserve  should  be  composed  of  troops  among  the 
best  and  most  reliable.  Accordingly,  Bowen's  division  (about 
twenty-four  hundred)  and  some  other  forces  were  designated 
for  that  purpose,  reducing  the  forces  in  the  trenches  to  little 
over  fifteen  thousand  five  hundred  men. 

Fortunately,  the  army  of  Yicksburg  had  speedily  recovered 
from  its  demoralization,  reassured,  as  the  troops  were,  of  a 
prospect  of  Johnston's  co-operation,  and  inspired  by  a  remark 
able  appeal  from  Pemberton.  This  unfortunate  commander 
appeased  the  clamor  against  himself  by  an  apparently  noble 
candor  and  memorable  words  of  heroism.  He  said  that  it  had 
been  declared  that  he  would  sell  Vicksburg,  and  exhorted  his 
soldiers  to  witness  the  price  at  which  he  would  sell  it,  for  it 
would  not  be  less  than  his  own  life,  and  that  of  every  man  in 
his  command.  Those  words  deserve  to  be  commemorated  in 
relation  to  the  sequel. 

The  stirring  words  of  Pemberton  were  circulated  through 
the  Confederacy,  and  satisfied  the  public  that  either  Yicksburg 
was  safe,  or  that  the  catastrophe  would  be  glorious.  They 
called  to  mind  Le}7den  and  Genoa,  Londonderry  and  Saragossa, 
and  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  expected  that  a  name  no 
less  glorious  would  be  added  to  the  list  of  cities  made  immortal 
by  heroism,  endurance,  suffering,  and,  as  they  hoped,  triumph. 
Much  of  this  elation,  it  is  true,  was  from  ignorance  of  the  true 
situation  ;  but  even  the  intelligent  refused  to  entertain  a  sequel 
so  humiliating  and  disastrous  to  the  South  as  that  which  was 
to  ensue. 

The  troops  of  Grant  were  flushed  with  victory,  and  had  pro 
posed  to  finish  their  work  by  a  single  assault.  The  events  of 
the  19th,  20th,  and  21st  of  May,  wearied  those  who  imagined 
that  they  saw  in  their  grasp  the  palm  of  the  Mississippi.  So 
fully  assured  were  they  of  victory,  that  they  postponed  it  from 
day  to  day.  To  storm'  the  works  was  to  take  Vicksburg,  in 
their  opinion,  and  when  it  was  known  on  the  morning  of  the 
21st,  that  at  ten  o'clock  next  morning  the  whole  line  of  Con 
federate  works  would  be  assaulted,  the  credulous  and  vain 
enemy  accounted  success  so  certain,  that  it  was  already  given 
to  the  wings  of  the  telegraph. 

On  the  22d,  the  fire  from  the  enemy's  artillery  and  sharp- 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  .   67 

shooters  in  the  rear  was  heavy  and  incessant  until  noon,  when 
his  gnnboats  opened  upon  the  city,  while  a  determined  assault 
was  made  along  Moore's,  Hebert's,  and  Lee's  lines.  At  about 
one  o'clock  p.  M.,  a  heavy  force  moved  out  to  the  assault  on  the 
lines  of  General  Lee,  making  a  gallant  charge.  They  were 
allowed  to  approach  unmolested  to  within  good  musket  range, 
when  every  available  gun  was  opened  upon  them  with  grape 
and  canister,  arid  the  men,  rising  in  the  trenches,  poured  into 
their  ranks  volley  after  volley,  with  so  deadly  an  effect  that, 
leaving  the  ground  literally  covered  in  some  places  with  their 
dead  and  wounded,  they  precipitately  retreated.  The  angle 
of  one  of  our  redoubts  having  been  breached  by  their  artillery 
previous  to" the  assault,  when  the  repulse  occurred,  a  party  of 
about  sixty  of  the  enemy,  under  the  command  of  a  Lieutenant- 
colonel,  made  a  rush,  succeeded  in  effecting  a  lodgment  in  the 
ditch  at  the  foot  of  the  redoubt,  and  planted  two  colors  on  the 
parapet.  It  was  of  vital  importance  to  drive  them  out,  and, 
upon  a  call  for  volunteers  for  that  purpose,  two  companies  of 
Waul's  Texas  legion,  commanded  respectively  by  Captain 
Bradley  and  Lieutenant  Hogue,  accompanied  by  the  gallant 
and  chivalrous  Colonel  E.  "W.  Pettus,  of  the  Twentieth  Ala 
bama  regiment,  musket  in  hand,  promptly  presented  them 
selves  for  the  hazardous  service.  The  preparations  were  quiet 
ly  and  quickly  made,  but  the  enemy  seemed  at  once  to  divine 
the  purpose,  and  opened  upon  the  angle  a  terrific  fire  of  shot, 
shell,  and  musketry.  Undaunted,  this  little  band,  its  chival 
rous  commander  at  its  head,  rushed  upon  the  work,  and,  in 
less  time  than  it  requires  to  describe  it,  it  and  the  flags  were 
in  our  possession.  Preparations  were  then  quickly  made  for 
the  use  of  our  hand-grenades,  when  the  enemy  in  the  ditch, 
being  informed  of  the  purpose,  immediately  surrendered. 

On  other  parts  of  our  lines  the  enemy  was  repulsed,  although 
he  succeeded  in  getting  a  few  men  into  our  exterior  ditches  at 
each  point  of  attack,  from  which  they  were,  however,  driven 
before  night.     Our  entire  loss  in  this  successful  day  was  com 
paratively  very  small,  and  might  be  counted  in  a  few  hundreds 
So  accustomed  had  the  population  of  Yicksburg  become  to  the 
fire  and  rage  of  battle,  that  the  circumstance  is  no  less  true  thar 
curious  that  throughout  the  day  stores  in  the  city  were  open 
and  women  and  children  walked   *i£  streets,  as  if  no  missile,. 


68  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  death  were  filling  the  air  and  bursting  and  scattering  tLc 
fragments  around.  There  is  no  reliable  account  of  the  enemy's 
loss  this  day  ;  but,  in  killed  and  wounded,  it  was  several  thou 
sands.  Two  thousand  had  fallen  in  front  of  General  Forney's 
lines  alone,  according  to  the  report  of  that  commander.  The 
dead  lay  before  our  works,  while  thousands  of  wounded  men 
were  carried  off  as  soon  as  they  fell. 

The  result  of  this  engagement  was  a  lesson  to  the  temerity 
of  the  enemy.  After  this  decided  repulse,  the  enemy  seemed 
to  have  abandoned  the  idea  of  taking  Yicksburg  by  assault, 
and  went  vigorously  at  work  to  thoroughly  invest  and  attack 
by  regular  approaches.  The  weakness  of  our  garrison  pre 
vented  anything  like  a  system  of  sallies,  but,  from  time  to 
time,  as  opportunities  offered,  and  the  enemy  effected  lodg 
ments  too  close  to  our  works,  they  were  made  with  spirit  and 
success.  But  these  were  unimportant  incidents.  The  patience 
of  Southern  soldiers — a  virtue  for  which  they  are  riot  remark 
able — was  now  to  be  tried  by  the  experiences  of  a  siege  : 
exhausting  labors,  scant  rations,  a  melancholy  isolation,  and 
the  distress  of  being  entirely  cut  off  from  their  homes  and 
friends. 

The  siege  was  established  by  the  enemy  under  circumstances 
of  peculiar  and  extraordinary  advantage.  Although  Grant's 
attack  was  made  from  Grand  Gulf,  that  place  was  not  long  his 
base;  and,  when  he  gained  Haines'  Bluff  and  the  Yazoo,  all 
communication  with  it  was  abandoned.  He  was  enabled  to 
rely  on  Memphis  and  the  river  above  Yicksburg  for  food  and 
reinforcements  ;  his  communications  were  open  with  the  entire 
West ;  and  the  Northern  newspapers  urgently  demanded  that 
the  utmost  support  should  be  given  to  a  favorite  general,  and 
that  the  Trans-Mississippi  should  be  stripped  of  troops  to  supply 
him  with  reinforcements. 

But  the  South  still  entertained  hopes  of  the  safety  of  Yicks 
burg.  It  was  stated  in  Richmond,  by  those  who  should  have 
been  well  informed,  that  the  garrison  numbered  considerably 
more  than  twenty  thousand  men,  and  was  provisioned  for  a 
siege  of  six  months.  Nearly  every  day  the  telegraph  had  soma 
extravagance  to  tell  concerning  the  supreme  safety  of  Yicks 
burg  and  the  confidence  of  the  garrison.  The  heroic  promise 
of  Pemberton,  that  the  city  should  not  fall  until  the  last  man 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  69 

had  fallen  in  the  last  ditch,  was  called  to  the  jopula:  remem 
brance.  The  confidence  of  the  South  was  swollen  even  to  in 
solence  by  these  causes  ;  and,  although  a  few  of  the  intelligent 
doubted  the  extravagant  assurances  of  the  safety  of  Yicksburg, 
the  people  at  large  received  them  with  an  unhesitating  and 
exultant  faith. 

The  prospect  of  Johnston's  relief  to  Yicksburg  was  a  delu 
sion  of  its  unhappy  garrison  and  of  an  ignorant  public.  In 
deed,  on  learning  of  the  Baker  creek  disaster,  Johnston  had 
given  up  Yicksburg  for  lost,  and  considered  that  Pemberton 
had  made  a  fatal  mistake  in  determining  to  be  besieged  in 
Vicksburg,  rather  than  maneuvering,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
prevent  a  siege.  The  fact  is,  that  at  no  time  after  the  disaster 
referred  to  did  General  Johnston  have  at  his  disposal  half  the 
troops  necessary  to  risk  an  assault  on  Grant.  After  the  evac 
uation  of  Jackson  he  had  retired  to  Canton,  and  the  force  he 
had  collected  there,  including  reinforcements  to  the  amount  of 
eight  thousand  men  from  Bragg's  army  in  Tennessee,  and 
above  six  thousand  from  Charleston,  scarcely  exceeded  twenty- 
four  thousand  men.  Grant's  army  was  estimated  at  sixty 
thousand  or  eighty  thousand  men,  and  drawn,  as  they  were, 
principally  from  the  Northwestern  States,  they  were  of  the 
best  material.  His  great  excess  of  force  was  being  daily  en 
larged  by  reinforcements,  while  the  Richmond  authorities  re 
fused  to  give  or  to  promise  more  troops  to  Johnston.  On  the 
5th  of  June,  Mr.  Seddon,  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  "War, 
telegraphed  to  Johnston  :  "  You  must  rely  on  what  you  ,have, 
and  the  irregular  forces  Mississippi  can  afford." 

The  fact  is,  that  the  resources  of  the  Confederacy  were  at 
this  time  in  the  most  critical  condition.  In  Yirginia  we  were 
outnumbered  by  the  enemy  more  than  two  to  one ;  and  with 
reference  to  Bragg's  condition  in  Tennessee,  General  Johnston 
did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that,  to  take  from  him  a  force  suffi 
cient  to  oppose  Grant,  would  involve  the  yielding  of  that  State. 
He  advised  the  Richmond  authorities  that  it  was  for  them  to 
decide  between  Mississippi  and  Tennessee.  He  informed 
Pemberton  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  (Johnston)  with  the 
force  at  his  command  to  raise  the  siege  of  Yicksburg,  and  all 
that  he  could  attempt  was  to  extricate  the  garrison  by  a  simul 
taneous  attack  on  some  part  of  the  enemy's  lines. 


70  SOUTHEKtf    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE, 

On  the  15th  of  June,  General  Johnston  communicated  fo 
the  government  his  opinion  that,  without  some  great  blunder 
,of  the  enemy,  we  could  not  hold  both  Mississippi  and  Tennes 
see,  and  that  he  considered  saving  Vicksburg  hopeless.  In 
deed  such  an  attempt  had  now  become  utterly  desperate 
Grant  had  entrenched  his  position,  and  protected  it  by  power 
ful  artillery.  His  reinforcements'  alone  equalled  Johnston's 
whole  force.  The  Big  Black  covered  him  from  attack,  and 
would  cut  off  our  retreat,  if  Johnston  had  been  defeated  in  his 
niad  enterprise  of  attack. 

And  now  ensued  a  series  of  extraordinary  communications 
from  Richmond,  remarkable  even  among  the  curiosities  of  the 
.secret  correspondence  of  officials.  A  favorite  of  the  Richmond 
Administration  had  entangled  himself  in  a  hopeless  siege,  and 
the  proposition  was  to  be  recklessly  made  to  General  Johnston 
to  effect  the  relief  of  the  favorite,  or  to  cover  his  disaster  by 
,an  attempt,  which  he  (General  Johnston)  had  declared  would 
be  tantamount  to  the  sacrifice  of  himself  and  army,  and  which 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  situation  plainly  denounced  ag 
hopeless.  The  authorities  essayed  the  dictatorial  style,  and  de 
clared  that  the  aim  justified  "  any  risk  and  ^11  probable  con 
sequences."  General  Johnston  could  not  be  convinced.  They 
attempted  the  persuasions  of  flattery :  "  The  eyes  and  the 
hopes  of  the  whole  Confederacy  are  upon  you,"  wrote  Mr.  Sed- 
don  to  Johnston,  "  with  the  full  confidence  that  you  will  act." 
General  Johnston  could  not  be  cajoled.  The  Richmond  au 
thorities  were  left  to  await  the  development  of  that  for  which 
they  themselves  were  most  responsible. 

The  situation  revealed  in  this  correspondence  was  a  close 
secret  to  the  public.  It  was  known  to  Pemberton,  but  most 
studiously  kept  from  his  troops,  who,  whenever  a  courier 
reached  Vicksburg,  imagined  certain  tidings  of  Johnston's 
approach.  At  times,  the  unhappy  men  listened  for  the  sound 
of  his  guns.  The  hardships  of  the  siege  were  telling  upon 
them.  The  enemy  were  mining  at  different  points,  and  it  re 
quired  the  active  and  constant  attention  of  our  engineers  to 
repair  at  night  the  damage  inflicted  upon  our  works  during 
he  day,  and  to  meet  his  different  mines  by  countermining 
The  same  men  were  constantly  in  the  trenches.  The  enemy 
bombarded  day  and  night  from  seven  mortars  on  the  opposite 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  71 

of  the  peninsula.  He  also  kept  up  a  constant  fire  on  cur 
lines  by  artillery  and  sharpshooters.  Many  officers  and  men 
were  lost  by  this  fire.  Among  the  first,  was  the  brave  Briga 
dier-general  Green,  of  Missouri,  who  was  shot  in  the  neck  by 
a  minie  ball.  His  wish  was  gratified — uhe  lived  not  to  see 
Yicksburg  fall." 

But  although  General  Johnston  despaired  of  the  ability  or 
his  army  to  save  Yicksburg,  he  was  busy  with  efforts  to  extri 
cate  the  garrison  or  to  cut  the  enemy's  communications,  hop 
ing,  from  day  to  day,  there  might  possibly  be  some  new  de 
velopment  of  the  situation.  On  arriving  in  Mississippi  he  had 
informed  General  Kirby  Smith,  commanding  the  forces  west 
of  the  Mississippi  river,  of  the  condition  of  Yicksburg  and 
Port  Hudson,  and  requested  his  aid  and  co-operation.  Gen 
eral  Smith  did  send  troops  to  give  all  possible  aid  to  Yicks 
burg.  General  Taylor  was  sent  with  eight  thousand  men  to 
co-operate  from  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  to  throw  in 
supplies  and  to  cross  with  his  force  if  expedient  and  practi 
cable.  On  the  27th  of  June*  General  Johnston  telegraphed 
Pemberton  that  these  troops  "had  been  mismanaged,  and  had 
fallen  back  to  Delhi."  All  prospect  of  relief  from  this  quarter 
was  thus  terminated. 

A  few  days  before  this  disappointment  Pemberton  had  com 
municated  to  Johnston  the  suggestion,  that  he  (Johnston) 
should  make  to  Grant  propositions  to  pass  the  army  of  Yicks 
burg  out  with  all  its  arms  and  equipages.  He  renewed  the 
hope,  however,  of  his  being  able,  by  force  of  arms,  to  act  with 
Johnston,  and  expressed  the  opinion  that  he  could  hold  out  for 
fifteen  days  longer.  Johnston  was  reassured  by  this  spirit  of 
determination.  He  still  had  some  hopes  of  the  co-operation 
of  Kirby  Smith.  He  replied  to  Pemberton,  that  something 
might  yet  be  done  to  save  Vicksburg,  and  to  postpon*  the 
modes  suggested  of  merely  extricating  the  garrison. 

This  despatch  never  reached  Yicksburg.  "  Had  I  received," 
said  General  Pemberton,  "  General  Johnston's  despatch  of  the 
27th  of  June,  in  which  he  encouraged  the  hope  that  both 
Yicksburg  and  the  garrison  might  be  saved,  I  would  have 
lived  upon  an  ounce  a' day,  and  have  continued  to  meet  the 
assaults  of  all  Grant's  army,  rather  than  have  surrendered 
the  city  until  General  Johnston  had  realized  or  relinquished 


72  SOUTHERN    HISTOBY    OF    THE    W.LE. 

that  hope ;  but  I  did  not  receive  his  despatch  until  the 
20th  day  of  August,  in  Gainesville,  Alabama,  nor  had  I  the 
most  remote  idea  that  such  an  opinion  was  entertained  by 
General  Johnston  ;  he  had  for  some  weeks  ignored  its  possi 
bility." 

Whatever  may  be  the  merit  of  this  declaration,  Johnston's 
reassurance  was  too  late.  The  very  day  it  was  penned,  Pem- 
berton  had  proposed  a  capitulation. 

Forty-five  days  of  incessant  duty,  with  short  rations,  had  had 
a  marked  effect  upon  the  troops  of  Yicksburg.  The  trials  of  the 
siege  were  extraordinary.  The  men  had  been  exposed  to  burn 
ing  suns,  drenching  rains,  damp  fogs,  and  heavy  dews,  and  had 
never  had,  by  day  or  by  night,  the  slightest  relief.  The  extent 
of  our  works  required  every  available  man  in  the  trenches,  and 
even  then  they  were,  in  many  places,  insufficiently  manned. 
It  was  not  possible  to  relieve  any  portion  of  the  line  for  a  sin 
gle  hour.  Confined  to  the  narrow  limits  of  a  trench,  with 
their  limbs  cramped  and  swollen,  without  exercise,  constantly 
exposed  to  a  murderous  storm  of  shot  and  shell,  while  the 
enemy's  unerring  sharpshooters  stood  ready  to  pick  off  every 
man  visible  above  the  parapet,  the  troops  had  suffered  many 
combinations  of  hardship  which  had  told  upon  their  health  and 
spirits.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  in  the  condition  in  which 
the  troops  were,  they  would  not  have  been  able  to  cut  their 
way  through  the  enemy's  lines,  without  the  abandonment  of  a 
large  number  of  sick,  and  the  loss  of,  probably,  half  their  ef 
fective  strength.  Such  an  enterprise  was  discouraged  by  all 
the  division  commanders.  But  however  unequal  the  condition 
of  the  troops  to  an  enterprise  of  such  vigor  and  hardihood,  it 
is  certain  that  it  was  yet  equal  to  sustain  for  many  days  longer 
the  fatigues  and  hardships  of  a  siege.  The  condition  of  the 
garrison  was  certainly  not  as  extreme  as  that  which  Peinberton 
had  heroically  prefigured  as  the  alternative  of  surrender  ;  and 
it  must  be  said,  in  the  severe  interest  of  truth,  that  it  holds  no 
honorable  comparison  with  the  amount  of  privation  and  suffer 
ing  borne  in  other  sieges  recorded  in  history. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  Pemberton  proposed  terms  of  capitula 
tion  for  the  morrow,  to  "  save  the  further  effusion  of  blood,' 
"  feeling  himself  fully  able  to  maintain  his  position  for  a  yet 
indefinite  period."  There  was  but  little  dispute  about  terms : 


THE    THIRD    YEAK.  73 

the  parole  of  the  garrison.  Grant's  persistent  refusal  to  rnake 
any  stipulation  with  regard  to  the  treatment  of  citizens,  and 
the  surrender  of  this  latter  point  by  Peinberton. 

On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  the  Fourth  of  July,  the  anni 
versary  of  American  Independence,  the  troops  of  Yicksburc 
marched  from  the  lines  of  entrenchments  they  had  defended 
and  held  for  nearly  two  months,  and,  after  stacking  their  arms 
and  lowering  their  standards  which  had  proudly  floated  upon 
many  a  battle-field,  returned  inside  of  the  works,  prisoners  of 
war  to  a  detested  and  exultant  foe.  At  the  hour  of  noon  the 
Yankee  flag  was  raised  over  the  Court-house  amid  the  shouts 
and  cheers  of  Grant's  troops.  Demoralized  as  was  Pember- 
ton's  army,  there  were  yet  those  whose  hearts  throbbed  or  eyes 
filled  with  tears  as  they  saw  the  hated  ensign  floating  over  a 
city  which  the  Confederacy  had  boasted  to  be  impregnable, 
and  which  had  at  last  been  surrenderred  to  signalize  an  Amer 
ican  holiday. 

The  public  confidence  of  the  South  with  regard  to  the  safety 
of  Yicksburg  had  been  abused  by  the  silly  mendacities  of  the 
telegraph,  which,  to  the  last,  reported  the  garrison  in  supreme 
spirits  and  the  enemy  in  woful  plight.  Under  these  circum 
stances  the  surprise  and  consternation  of  the  people  of  the 
South  may  be  imagined,  when,  without  the  least  premonition, 
the  announcement  came  that  the  select  anniversary  of  the. 
Fourth  of  July  had  been  signalized  by  the  capitulation  of 
Vicksburg,  without  a  fight :  the  surrender  of  twenty  odd 
thousand  troops  as  prisoners;  and  the  abandonment  to  the 
Yankees  of  one  of  the  greatest  prizes  of  artillery  that  had  yet 
been  made  in  the  war.  The  news  fell  upon  Richmond  like  a 
thunder-clap  from  clear  skies.  It  was  at  first  denounced  as  an 
invention  of  speculators  in  sugar.  The  people  were  unwilling 
to  reconcile  themselves  to  a  misfortune  so  unexpected  in  its 
aLnoiincement,  and  so  monstrous  in  its  particulars. 

The  authorities  of  Richmond  maintained  a  sullen  silence. 
But  the  truth,  at  last,  came  out  stark  and  unwelcome.  We 
had  surrendered  to  the  enemy  a  force  of  more  than  twenty- 
three  thousand  men,  with  three  major-generals,  and  nine 
brigadiers ;  upwards  of  ninety  pieces  of  artillery,  and  abou 
forty  thousand  small  arms,  large  numbers  of  the  latter  having 
been  taken  from  the  enemy  during  the  siege. 


74:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  statement  that  the  garrison  of  Yicksburg  was  surren 
dered  on  account  of  an  inexorable  distress,  in  which  the  sol* 
diers  had  to  feed  on  mules,  with  the  occasional  luxury  of  rats, 
is  either  to  be  taken  as  a  designing  falsehood,  or  as  the  crudi 
ties  of  that  foolish  newspaper  romance  so  common  in  the  war 
In  neither  case  does  it  merit  refutation.  A  citizen  of  Yicks- 
burg  declares  that  the  only  foundation  for  the  rat  story  is  that 
a  pie  spiced  with  this  vermin  was  served  up  in  some  of  the 
officers'  messes  as  a  practical  joke,  and  that  for  days  after  the 
surrender  he  himself  had  dined  on  excellent  bacon  from  Pem- 
berton's  stores.  In  his  officia"!  report  Pemberton  declares  that 
he  had  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  of  Yicksburg  about 
40,000  pounds  of  pork  and  bacon,  which  had  been  reserved  for 
the  subsistance  of  his  troops  in  the  event  of  attempting  to  cut 
his  way  out  of  the  city.  Also  51,241  pounds  of  rice,  5,000 
bushels  of  peas,  112,234  pounds  of  sugar,  3^240  pounds  of 
soap,  527  pounds  of  tallow  candles,  27  pounds  of  star  candles, 
and  428,000  pounds  of  salt.* 

There  appears,  then,  to  have  been  no  immediate  general  oc 
casion  for  the  surrender  of  Yicksburg  other  than  Pemberton'a 
desire  "  to  save  the  further  effusion  of  blood."  The  explana 
tion  of  his  motives  for  selecting  the  Fourth  of  July  as  the  day 
of  surrender  implies  a  singular  humiliation  of  the  Confederacy  ; 
as  he  was  willing  to  give  this  dramatic  gratification  to  the 
vanity  of  the  enemy  in  the  hope  of  thus  conciliating  the  ambi 
tion  of  Grant,  and  soliciting  the  generosity  of  the  Yankees. 
He  says :  "  If  it  should  be  asked  why  the  Fourth  of  July  was 

*  But  it  must  be  stated  that  Pemberton's  supplies  of  Vicksburg,  which  he 
had  a  year  to  provide,  were  criminally  scant ;  and  that  as  the  failure  of  sup 
plies  would  in  all  probability  have  decided  the  fate  of  Vicksburg,  had  he  not 
anticipated  it  by  a  surrender,  he  cannot  be  acquitted  of  blame  in  this  particu 
lar.  He  declined  to  provision  Vicksburg  in  prospect  of  a  siege.  When  one  of 
the  Confederate  generals,  from  Mississippi,  pointed  out  to  him  vast  supplies  in 
certain  counties  of  the  State  accessible  to  his  garrison,  he  dismissed  the  advice 
with  a  haughtiness  that  almost  amounted  to  personal  insult. 

As  proof  of  the  abundance  of  the  country  around  Vicksburg,  we  have  Grant's 
official  report  of  his  Mississippi  campaign,  in  which  he  states  that,  with  a  view 
of  rapid  movement  and  surprise,  having  calculated  that  twenty  days  would 
place  him  before  Vicksburg,  he  permitted  his  troops  to  take  only  four  days' 
provisions,,  trusting  to  the  country  for  the  other  sixteen  days'  supply,  and,  in 
fact,  supplied  his  army  (50,000  men),  from  the  country  lying  about  the  line  oJ 
his  march. 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  75 

selected  as  tlie  day  for  the  surrender,  the  answer  is  olnious  ;  J 
believed  that,  upon  that  day,  I  should  obtain  better  terms. 
Well  aware  of  the  vanity  of  our  foes,  I  knew  they  would  attach 
vast  importance  to  the  entrance,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  into 
the  stronghold  of  the  great  river,  and  that,  to  gratify  their  na 
tional  vanity,  they  would  yield  then  what  could  not  be  ex 
torted  from  them  at  any  other  time."  Such  an  incident  of 
humiliation  was  alone  wanting  to  complete  the  disaster  and 
shame  of  Vicksburg. 

What  the  Confederacy  had  proudly  entitled  its  "heroic 
city,"  was  now  destined  to  the  experience  of  Yankee  despot 
ism,  and,  what  was  worse,  to  the  shame  of  those  exhibitions  of 
cowardly  submission  which  suited  the  interests  of  those  who 
were  left  to  herd  with  their  country's  destroyers.  The  citizens 
of  Vicksburg  had  suffered  little  more  than  mere  inconvenience 
from  the  siege.  There  had  been  but  little  loss  of  life  among 
them  in  the  bombardment.  The  city  was  filled  with  groups 
of  caves  on  every  hill-side.  In  these  caves  the  women  and 
children  were  sheltered  during  the  nights,  and  occasionally  in 
the  daytime  when  the  firing  was  very  severe.  The  excava 
tions  branched  out  in  various  directions  after  passing  the  en 
trance.  They  were  not  very  desirable  bed-chambers,  but  they 
seemed  to  have  answered  a  very  good  purpose.  In  one  or  two 
instances  shells  entered  them,  and  two  women  and  a  number 
of  children  were  thus  killed  during  the  siege. 

On  the  same  day  the  Yankees  entered  Vicksburg,  several 
places  of  business  were  opened.  Signs  were  hoisted  on  express 
offices,  book  and  fruit  stores,  informing  the  new  customers  that 
the  proprietors  were  in  and  ready  to  serve  them.  A  well- 
known  citizen  of  Vicksburg  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  and 
accommodated  General  Grant  with  headquarters  at  his  resi 
dence.  The  Jewish  portion  of  the  population,  composed  princi 
pally  of  Germans,  with  but  one  honorable  exception,  went  for 
ward  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States. 

These  tokens  of  submission  were  rewarded  in  the  enemy's 
usual  way.  At  first  the  citizens  were  placed  under  very  little 
restraint.  They  were  permitted  to  come  in  and  go  out  of  the 
lines  almost  at  pleasure.  In  a  few  days,  however,  the  reins 
were  tightened.  Vicksburg  found  a  second  edition  of  Beast 
Butler  in  General  Osterhaus,  a  tawny  Dutchman,  who  peremp 


76  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

torily  stopped  the  ingress  and  egress  of  the  people;  forbid 
citizens  from  purchasing  provisions  without  first  registering 
their  names;  re-enacted  much  of  the  ingenious  despotism  oi 
New  Orleans;  and  declared  that  the  height  of  his  ambition 
was  to  get  our  people  to  hate  and  abhor  him. 

A  Mississippi  paper  declared  that  it  had  no  word  of  excuse 
or  charity  for  the  men  who  had  remained  in  Yicksburg  under 
the  enemy's  flag.  To  quote  from  their  own  slang  dialect,  "  the 
Confederacy  was  about  gone  up,  and  there  was  no  use  in  fol 
lowing  its  fortunes  any  further."  But  it  repeated  the  charac 
teristic  story  of  the  conquered  cities  of  the  South.  The  spirit 
of  the  women  of  Yicksburg  was  unbroken ;  and  amid  all  its 
shameful  spectacles  of  subserviency,  female  courage  alone  re 
deemed  the  sad  story  of  a  conquered  and  emasculated  city. 
There  was  but  a  single  exception  to  the  compliment ;  and  she 
a  Northern  school-teacher  who  was  first  to  sing  "  the  Bonnie 
Blue  Flag"  in  Yicksburgj  at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  to 
raise  the  means  to  clothe  our  soldiers.  She  forgot  the  "  hope- 
crowned  past,"  and  attended  a  social  gathering  at  MacPher- 
son's  headquarters,  where  during  the  evening  a  sword  was 
presented  "in  honor  of  the  surrender  of  Yicksburg." 

The  city  had  been  accounted  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
South,  of  commanding  situation,  and  adorned  with  a  profusion 
of  shrubbery  ;  but  the  rain  of  shot  and  shell  had  sadly  marred 
its  beauty.  But  few  buildings  were  entirely  demolished  ;  yet 
there  was  scarcely  a  house  in  Yicksburg  that  remained  unscath 
ed  ;  in  all  of  them  were  frightful  looking  holes  in  the  walls  and 
floors.  The  streets  had  been  ploughed  up  by  shells.  In  walk 
ing  along  the  pavement  one  had  to  exercise  care  not  to  tumble 
into  a  pit  dug  by  a  projectile  from  a  thirteen-inch  mortar,  or  from 
a  Parrott  gun.  The  yards,  gardens,  and  open  lots  were  cut  up 
with  shot  holes.  Nearly  every  gate  in  the  city  was  crowned 
with  unexploded  thirteen-inch  shells  placed  a-top  of  each  post, 
and  the  porches  and  piazzas  were  adorned  with  curious  collec 
tions  of  shot  and  shell  that  had  fallen  within  the  inclosures. 
Everywhere  were  to  be  found  evidences  of  the  fiery  ordeal 
through  which  the  city  had  passed. 

It  is  impossible  to  recount  with  precision  the  various  inter 
ests  involved  in  the  fate  of  Yicksburg.  It  compelled,  as  its 
necessary  consequence,  the  surrender  of  other  posts  on  the 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  77 

Mississippi,  and  cut  the  Confederacy  in  twain.  It  neutralised 
successes  in  Lower  Louisiana,  to  which  we  shall  presently  re 
fer.  Its  defence  had  involved  exposure  and  weakness  in  other 
quarters.  It  had  about  stripped  Charleston  of  troops ;  it  had 
taken  many  thousand  men  from  Bragg's  army ;  and  it  had 
made  such  requisitions  on  his  force  for  the  newly  organized 
lines  in  Mississippi,  that  that  general  was  compelled  or  in 
duced,  wisely  or  unwisely,  to  fall  back  from  Tullahoma,  to 
give  up  the  country  on  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad, 
and  practically  to  abandon  the  defence  of  Middle  Tennessee. 

The  fall  of  Yicksburg  was  followed  by  the  enemy's  re-occupa 
tion  of  Jackson,  the  capitulation  of  Port  Hudson,  the  evacua 
tion  of  Yazoo  city,  and  important  events  in  Arkansas,  which 
resulted  in  the  retreat  of  our  army  from  Little  Rock  and  the 
surrender  to  the  enemy  of  the  important  valley  in  which  it  is 
situated.  To  these  events  we  must  now  direct  the  attention  of 
the  reader. 


THE    YANKEE    RE-OCCUPATION    OF   JACKSON. 

General  Grant  advanced  his  forces  on  Jackson,  to  which 
point  Johnston  retreated  so  soon  as  he  learned  the  Yicksburg 
disaster.  His  policy  was  to  march  rapidly  to  the  capture  or 
discomfiture  of  General  Johnston's  army.  On  the  evening  of 
the  9th  of  July,  his  advance  drove  in  our  outer  line  of  pickets. 
The  troops  employed  in  this  expedition  were  Sherman's  army 
corps,  the  Fifteenth,  commanded  by  General  Steele ;  the  Thir 
teenth  army  corps,  General  Ord,  commanding,  with  Lauman's 
division  of  Sixteenth  army  corps  attached,  a  portion  of  the 
Sixteenth  and  Ninth  army  corps,  commanded  by  General  Par 
ker,  and  McArthur's  division  of  General  MePherson's  corps — 
in  all  about  four  army  corps. 

The  works  thrown  up  for  the  defence  of  Jackson  consisted 
of  a  line  of  rifle-pits,  prepared  at  intervals  for  artillery.  These 
extended  from  a  point  north  of  the  town,  a  little  east  of  the 
Canton  road,  to  a  point  south  of  the  town,  within  a  short  dis 
tance  of  Pearl  river,  and  covered  most  of  the  approaches  west 
of  the  river;  but  were  badly  located  and  constructed,  pre 
senting  but  a  slight  obstacle  to  a  vigorous  assault. 

The  troops  promptly  took  their  assigned  positions  in  the 


78  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

intrencliments  on  the  appearance  of  the  enemy,  in  expectation 
of  immediate  assault :  Major-general  Loring  occupying  the* 
right;  Major-general  Walker  the  right  of  the  centre;  Major- 
general  French  the  left  of  the  centre,  and  Major-general  Breck- 
inridge  the  left.  The  cavalry,  under  Brigadier-general  Jackson, 
was  ordered  to  observe  and  guard  the  fords  of  Pearl  river, 
above  and  below  the  town. 

But  the  enemy,  instead  of  attacking,  as  soon  as  he  ar 
rived,  commenced  intrenching  and  constructing  batteries.  On 
the  10th,  there  was  spirited  skirmishing  with  slight  cannonad 
ing,  continuing  throughout  the  day.  This  was  kept  up  with 
varying  intensity.  Hills  commanding  and  encircling  the 
town,  within  easy  cannon  range,  offered  favorable  sites  for 
batteries.  A  cross-fire  of  shot  and  shell  reached  all  parts  of 
the  town,  showing  the  position  to  be  entirely  untenable  against 
a  powerful  artillery. 

On  the  12th,  besides  the  usual  skirmishing,  there  was  a 
heavy  cannonade  from  the  batteries  near  the  Canton  and 
sonth  of  the  Clinton  roads.  The  missiles  reached  all  parts  of 
the  town.  An  assault,  though  not  a  vigorous  one,  was  also 
made  on  Major-general  Breckinridge's  line.  It  was  quickly 
repelled,  however,  principally  by  the  direct  fire  of  Cobb's  and 
Slocumb's  batteries,  and  a  flank  attack  of  the  skirmishers  of  the 
First,  Third  and  Fourth  Florida  and  Forty-seventh  Georgia 
regiments.  The  enemy's  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prison 
ers,  was  at  least  five  hundred.* 

On  the  16th,  General  Johnston, obtained  information  that  a 
large  train  from  Yicksburg,  loaded  with  ammunition,  was  near 
the  enemy's  camp.  This,  and  the  condition  of  the  enemy's 
batteries,  made  it  probable  that  Sherman  would  the  next  day 
concentrate  upon  Jackson  the  fire  of  near  two  hundred  guns. 

*  During  the  heavy  bombardment  Colonel  Withers  was  killed  by  the  ex 
plosion  of  a  shell  near  his  own  residence.  He  had  just  returned  from  the  front 
when  he  was  killed.  He  was  buried  at  night  by  his  faithful  slave,  who  was 
fired  upon  by  the  enemy  during  the  interment.  This  boy's  conduct  to  his  de 
ceased  master  was  a  rebuke  to  the  enemy.  In  the  face  of  the  enemy's  position, 
at  night,  within  easy  range  of  the  enemy's  sharpshooters,  he,  with  the  assist 
ance  of  two  Confederate  officers,  and  by  the  flickering  light  of  a  lamp — which 
was  shot  out  of  his  hand  while  he  was  performing  his  sacred  duty — carried 
the  body  of  his  dead  master  and  interred  it  with  as  much  affection  and  tende 
care  as  if  it  were  his  own  child. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  79 

The  evacuation  of  Jackson  was  determined  on  and  effected  on 
the  night  of  the  16th.  The  evacuation  was  not  discovered  by  the 
enemy  until  the  next  day ;  and  Johnston  retired  by  easy  march 
es  to  Morton,  distant  about  thirty-five  miles  from  Jackson. 

When  Sherman's  troops  entered  Jackson,  exasperated  ^y  the 
losses  which  their  ranks  had  sustained,  they  commenced  a  de 
struction  of  the  houses  by  fire,  which  was  kept  Tip  until  there 
was  but  little  left  of  the  town  but  ashes.  Jackson  has  been  an 
ill-fated  place.  When  it  was  captured  before  there  was  a 
great  destruction.  Now,  where  was  but  lately  a  thriving  and 
pretentious  town  of  between  four  and  five  thousand  inhabitants, 
with  a  State-house,  lunatic  asylum,  and  many  other  public 
buildings,  there  was  a  heap  of  ruins. 

The  country  between  Yicksburg  and  Jackson  was  com 
pletely  devastated.  A  letter  from  our  lines  in  Mississippi  thus 
described  the  outrages  there  : 

"  I  thought  the  condition  of  northern  Mississippi  and  the 
country  around  my  own  home  in  Memphis  deplorable.  There 
robberies  were  committed,  houses  were  burned,  and  occasion 
ally  a  helpless  man  or  woman  was  murdered ;  but  here, 
around  Jackson  and  Yicksburg,  there  are  no  terms  used  in  all 
the  calendar  of  crimes  which  could  convey  any  adequate  con 
ception  of  the  revolting  enormities  perpetrated  by  our  foes. 
Women  have  been  robbed  of  their  jewelry  and  wearing 
apparel — stripped  almost  to  nakedness  in  the  presence  of  jeer 
ing  Dutch  ;  ear-rings  have  been  torn  from  their  ears,  and  rings 
from  bleeding  fingers.  Every  house  has  been  pillaged,  and 
thousands  burned.  The  whole  country  between  the  Big  Black 
and  the  Mississippi,  and  all  that  district  through  which  Grant*3 
army  passed,  is  one  endless  scene  of  desolation.  This  is  not 
the  worst ;  robbery  and  murder  are  surely  bad  enough,  but 
worse  than  all  this,  women  have  been  subjected  to  enormities 
worse  than  death. 

"  Negroes,  men  and  women,  who  can  leave  their  homes,  are 
forced  or  enticed  away.  The  children  alone  are  left.  Barn  a 
and  all  descriptions  of  farm-houses  have  been  burned.  All 
supplies,  bacon  and  flour,  are  seized  for  the  use  of  the  invad 
ing  army,  and  the  wretched  inhabitants  left  to  starve.  The 
roads,  along  which  Grant's  army  has  moved,  are  strewn  with 
all  descriptions  of  furniture,  wearing  apparel,  and  private 


80  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

property.  In  many  instances  husbands  have  been  arrested, 
and  threatened  with  instant  death  by  the  hangman's  rope,  in 
order  to  make  their  wives  reveal  the  place  of  concealment  of 
their  valuable  effects.  The  poor  women  are  made  to  ransom 
their  sons,  daughters,  and  husbands.  The  worst  slaves  are 
selected  to  insult,  taunt,  and  revile  their  masters,  and  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  their  masters." 

"We  must  remember  that  these  enormities  were  contemporary 
with  Lee's  civilities  in  Pennsylvania.  It  was  bad  enough  for 
that  commander  to  make  such  return  for  what  he  had  experi 
enced  in  Virginia ;  but  the  enemy's  warfare  in  distant  and 
remote  parts  of  the  Confederacy  exceeded  in  atrocity  what  had 
been  known  on  the  lines  of  the  Potomac.  It  appears  to  have 
been  aggravated  in  proportion  to  its  distance  from  the  centres 
of  intelligence.  In  the  Southwest  it  was  not  denied  that  the 
policy  of  the  enemy  was  the  destruction  of  all  resources  of  live 
lihood,  but  on  the  border  (in  Missouri,  for  instance),  the  enemy 
was  bold  enough  to  announce  the  policy  of  the  extermination 
of  the  inhabitants.*  But  to  this  subject  we  shall  have  occa 
sion  to  refer  again. 

THE    FALL    OF   PORT    HUDSON,    ETC. 

The  fate  of  Port  Hudson  was  necessarily  involved  in  that  of 
Yicksburg.  But  it  did  not  fall  until  after  a  prolonged  and 
gallant  resistance,  the  facts  of  which  may  be  briefly  commemo 
rated.  On  the  morning  of  the  22d  of  May,  the  enemy,  under 

*  For  instance,  a  Missouri  paper,  speaking  of  the  policy  of  General  Ewing 
(the  Yankee  general  in  command  of  that  department),  towards  the  secession. 
ists  of  that  country,  says  : 

"  General  E wing's  policy  towards  these  wretches  from  the  very  start  hag 
been  simply  extermination — nothing  less.  His  orders  have  been  to  take  no 
prisoners  from  them,  and  the  orders  have  been  strictly  obeyed." 

Again,  the  St.  Louis  Democrat,  an  abolition  sheet,  says,  in  referring  to  the 
troubles  on  the  Missouri  border  : 

"  The  Seventh  Missouri  State  militia  are  burning  all  the  houses  of  rebel 
sympathizers  all  along  the  border.  A  fearful  state  of  things  exists  in  all  the 
border  counties,  and  general  Devastation  is  observable." 

One  of  these  ruffians,  a  Yankee  colonel,  declared  that  he  would  hang  every 
man  without  "  protection  papers."  He  said  that  "  the  whole  duty"  of  his  regi 
ment  (the  Fifteenth)  would  be  "  to  kill  rebels  ;"  and  closed  with  the  following 
atrocious  boast :  "  We  carry  the  flag  ;  kill  with  the  sabre  ;  and  hang  with  the 
gailows." 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  81 

comn  and  of  General  Banks,  pushed  his  infantry  forward 
within  a  mile  of  our  breastworks.  Having  taken  his  position 
for  the  investment  of  our  works,  he  advanced  with  his  whole 
force  against  the  breastworks,  directing  his  main  attack  against 
the  left,  commanded  by  Colonel  Stead  man.  Vigorous  assault? 
were  also  made  against  the  extreme  left  of  Colonel  Miles  and 
General  Beale,  the  former  of  whom  commanded  on  the  centre, 
the  latter  on  the  right.  On  the  left  the  attack  was  made  by  a 
brigade  of  negroes,  composing  about  three  regiments,  together 
with  the  same  force  of  white  Yankees,  across  a  bridge  which 
had  been  built  over  Sandy  creek.  About  five  hundred,  negroes 
in  front  advanced  at  double-quick  within  one  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  of  the  works,  when  the  artillery  on  the  river  bluff,  and 
two  light  pieces  on  our  left,  opened  upon  them,  and  at  the 
same  time  they  were  received  with  volleys  of  musketry.  The 
negroes  fled  every  way  in  perfect  confusion,  and,  according  to 
the  enemy's  report,  six  hundred  of  them  perished.  The  repulse 
on  Miles'  left  was  decisive. 

On  the  13th  of  June  a  communication  was  received  from 
General  Banks,  demanding  the  unconditional  surrender  of  the 
post.  He  complimented  the  garrison  in  high  terms  for  their 
endurance.  He  stated  that  his  artillery  was  equal  to  any  in 
extent  and  efficiency ;  that  his  men  outnumbered  ours  five  to 
one;  and  that  he  demanded  the  surrender  in  the  name  of 
humanity,  to  prevent  a  useless  sacrifice  of  life.  General  Gard 
ner  replied  that  his  duty  required  him  to  defend  the  post,  and 
he  must  refuse  to  entertain  any  such  proposition. 

On  the  morning  of  the  14th,  just  before  day,  the  fleet  and 
all  the  land  batteries,  which  the  enemy  had  succeeded  in 
erecting  at  one  hundred  to  three  hundred  yards  from  our 
breastworks,  opened  fire  at  the  same  time.  About  daylight, 
under  cover  of  the  smoke,  the  enemy  advanced  along  the 
whole  line,  and  in  many  places  approached  within  ten  feet  of 
our  works.  Our  brave  soldiers  were  wide-awake,  and,  opening 
upon  them,  drove  them  back  in  confusion,  a  great  number  of 
them  being  left  dead  in  the  ditches.  One  entire  division  and 
a  brigade  were  ordered  to  charge  the  position  of  the  First  Mis 
sissippi  and  the  Ninth  Alabama,  and  by  the  mere  physical 
pressure  of  numbers  some  of  them  got  within  the  works,  but 
all  these  were  immediately  killed.  After  a  sharp  contest  of  two 


82  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

hours,  the  enemy  were  everywhere  repulsed,  and  withdrawn  to 
their  old  lines. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  month  of  June  there  was  heavy 
skirmishing  daily,  with  constant  firing  night  and  day  from  the 
gun  and  mortar  boats.  During  the  siege  of  six  weeks,  from 
May  27th  to  July  7th,  inclusive,  the  enemy  must  have  fired 
from  fifty  to  seventy-five  thousand  shot  and  shell,  yet  not  more 
than  twenty-five  men  were  killed  by  these  projectiles.  They 
had  worse  dangers  than  these  to  contend  against.  About  the 
29th  or  30th  of  June,  the  garrison's  supply  of  meat  gave  out, 
when  General  Gardner  ordered  the  mules  to  be  butchered 
after  ascertaining  that  the  men  were  willing  to  eat  them.  At 
the  same  time  the  supply  of  ammunition  was  becoming  ex 
hausted,  and  at  the  time  of  the  surrender  there  were  only 
twenty  rounds  of  cartridges  left,  with  a  small  supply  for 
artillery. 

On  Tuesday,  July  7th,  salutes  were  fired  from  the  enemy's 
batteries  and  gunboats,  and  loud  cheering  was  heard  along  the 
entire  line,  and  Yankees,  who  were  in  conversing  distance  of 
our  men,  told  them  that  Yicksburg  had  fallen.  That  night 
about  ten  o'clock,  General  Gardner  summoned  a  council  of 
war,  who,  without  exception,  decided  that  it  was  impossible  to 
hold  out  longer,  considering  that  the  provisions  of  the  garrison 
were  exhausted,  the  ammunition  almost  expended,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  men  sick  or  so  exhausted  as  to  be  unfit  for 
duty.  The  surrender  was  accomplished  on  the  morning  of  the 
9th.  The  number  of  the  garrison  which  surrendered,  was  be 
tween  five  and  six  thousand,  of  whom  riot  more  than  half  were 
effective  men  for  duty. 

A  few  days  later,  and  another  disaster  is  to  be  noticed  in 
Mississippi :  the  enemy's  capture  of  Yazoo  city.  He  advanced 
against  Yazoo  city,  both  by  land  and  water,  on  the  13th  of 
July.  The  attack  of  the  gunboats  was  handsomely  repulsed 
by  our  heavy  battery,  under  the  command  of  Commander 
Isaac  IS".  Brown  of  the  navy.  The  De  Kalb,  the  flag-ship  of 
the  hostile  squadron,  an  iron-clad,  mounting  thirteen  guns, 
was  sunk  by  a  torpedo.  To  the  'force  advancing  by  land  no 
resistance  was  made  by  the  garrison,  commanded  by  Colonel 
Creasman,  of  the  29th  North  Carolina  regiment. 

The  greatest  misfortune  of  this  event  was  our  loss  in  boats 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  83 

and  material  of  a  crraracter  much  needed.  Some  twenty  vessels 
were  scuttled  and  destroyed ;  and  of  the  fine  fleet  of  boats 
that  had  sought  refuge  in  the  Yazoo  river,  not  more  than  four 
or  five  were  saved,  which  were  up  the?  Tall^hatchie  and  Yello- 
busha. 

THE   BATTLE   OF   HELENA. THE   TKANS-MTSSISSIPPI. 

The  Yicksburg  disaster  was  attended  with  a  grave  mis 
fortune  on  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi :  the  repulse  of  the 
Confederates  at  Helena.  Our  army  arrived  within  five  miles 
of  Helena  on  the  evening  of  the  3d  of  July,  when  General 
Holmes  assumed  immediate  command,  detached  Marmaduke'f 
division  and  left  Price  but  two  brigades — McRae's  Arkansians 
and  Parsons'  Missourians — with  which  he  was  ordered  to  as 
sume  position,  assault  and  take  what  was  known  as  the  Grave 
yard  Hill  the  next  morning. 

The  route  lay  for  the  greater  part  of  the  way  across  abrupt 
hills  and  deep  ravines,  over  which  it  was  utterly  impossible  to 
move  artillery  during  the  darkness.  General  Price  ordered 
his  artillery  to  be  left  behind  until  daybreak,  and  moved  for 
ward  with  details  from  each  battery  accompanying  the  in 
fantry,  in  order  to  command  the  guns  which  he  expected  to 
capture. 

Within  half  a  mile  of  the  enemy's  works,  Price's  troops 
were  formed  into  two  columns  of  divisions,  Parsons'  brigade 
occupying  the  right,  moving  in  front.  Both  brigades  moved 
forward  rapidly,  steadily,  unflinching,  and  in  perfect  order 
under  a  storm  of  grape,  canister,  and  minie  balls',  which  were 
poured  upon  them  not  only  from  the  Graveyard  Hill  in  their 
front,  but  from  the  fortified  hills  upon  the  right  and  left,  both 
of  wrhich  were  in  easy  range.  The  enemy  gave  way  before  the 
impetuous  assault  of  the  attacking  columns,  which  entering  the 
works  almost  simultaneously,  planted  the  Confederate  flag  on 
the  summit  of  the  Graveyard  Hill. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  attack  of  the  enemy's  works 
on  Price's  left,  which  was  to  have  been  made  by  General 
Fagan,  had  been  repeatedly  repulsed  ;  although  the  men 
fought  gallantry,  and  more  than  once  drove  the  enemy  from 
his  rifle  pits,  under  a  heavy  enfilading  fire  from  one  of  the 


84  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

enemy's  strongest  forts  and  a  gunboat  in  front  of  the  town 
General  Price  had  ordered  McRae's  brigade  to  reinforce  Fa 
gan ;  but  it  soon  became  obvious  that  it  had  been  so  mucL 
weakened  by  losses,  and  by  the  straggling  of  men  overcome 
by  thirst  and  the  intense  heat  of  the  day,  or  disheartened  by 
the  failrfre  of  the  other  assaulting  column,  that  it  could  not  be 
detached  without  too  greatly  endangering  General  Price's  own 
position.  Under  these  circumstances,  an  order  came  from 
General  Holmes  to  Price  to  withdraw  his  division.  The  at 
tack  was  abandoned  after  a  loss  to  the  Confederates  of  about 
five  or  six  hundred  killed  and  wounded,  and  probably  twice 
that  number  of  prisoners. 

But  the  result  was  important  in  other  respects  than  that  of 
the  casualties  of  the  fight.  It,  in  connection  with  the  fall  oi 
Yicksburg,  terminated  all  hope  of  the  connection  of  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  with  the  eastern  portions  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
was  the  first  step  of  the  retreat  which,  at  last  abandoning 
Little  Rock,  was  to  surrender  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  the 
most  valuable  portion  of  Arkansas. 

It  was  supposed  that  the  worst  consequences  of  these  events 
would  be  to  estrange  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and  easily  subject  it 
to  the  arms  or  to  the  persuasions  of  the  enemy.  Never  were 
fears  of  Confederate  statesmen  so  little  realized.  They  found 
in  this  distant  section  of  the  Confederacy  a  virtue  which  had 
been  maintained  under  all  disasters,  and  which  should  be  com 
memorated  here  in  a  brief  review  of  the  history  of  this  section. 

The  spirit  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  was  most  conspicuous  and 
noble  in  view  of  the  peculiar  sufferings  it  had  endured.  It 
had  made  a  proud  record  of  patriotic  integrity.  In  another 
volume  we  have  seen  how  the  Confederate  forces,  in  anticipa 
tion  of  a  grand  contest  near  Corinth,  were  moved  east  of  the 
Mississippi  by  order  of  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  then 
commanding  the  Western  Department.  We  may  look  back 
to  that  dark  poriod.  The  Confederates  took  with  them  from 
Arkansas  all  material  of  war  and  public  property,  of  every 
description.  Immediately  afterwards,  Brigadier-general  Pike 
retreated  southward,  to  the  vicinity  of  Red  river.  Thus  Mis 
souri  was  left  hopeless  of  early  succor,  Arkansas  without  a 
soldier,  and  the  Indian  country  undefended,  except  by  its  own 
inhabitants.  A  Federal  force,  five  thousand  strong,  was  organ- 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  85 

ized  at  Fort  Scott,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Indian  expedition," 
and  with  the  avowed  intention  to  invade  the  Indian  country 
and  wrest  it  from  our  control.  Hostile  Indians  began  collect 
ing  on  the  border,  and  Federal  emissaries  were  busy  among 
the  Cherokees  and  Creeks,  inciting  disaffection.  Detachments 
of  Federal  cavalry  penetrated,  at  will,  into  various  parts  of  the 
upper  half  of  Arkansas,  plundering  and  burning  houses,  steal-  ' 
ing  horses  and  slaves,  destroying  farming  utensils,  murdering 
loyal  men  or  carrying  them  into  captivity,  forcing  the  oath  of 
allegiance  on  the  timid,  and  disseminating  disloyal  sentiments 
among  the  ignorant.  Tory  bands  were  organized  in  many 
counties,  not  only  in  the  upper,  but  in  the  lower  half  of  the 
State  likewise,  and  depredations  and  outrages  upon  loyal  citi 
zens  were  of  constant  occurrence.  Straggling  soldiers,  belong 
ing  to  distant  commands,  traversed  the  country,  armed  and 
lawless,  robbing  the  people  of  their  property,  under  the  pre 
tence  of  "impressing"  it  for  the  Confederate  service.  The 
governor  and  other  executive  officers  fled  from  the  capital, 
taking  the  archives  with  them.  The  courts  were  suspended, 
and  civil  magistrates  almost  universally  ceased  to  exercise 
their  functions.  Confederate  money  was  openly  refused,  or 
so  depreciated  as  to  be  nearly  worthless.  This,  with  the  short 
crop  of  the  preceding  year,  and  the  failure,  on  all  the  uplands, 
of  the  one  then  growing,  gave  rise  to  the  cruelest  extortion  in 
the  necessaries  of  life,  and  menaced  the  poor  with  actual 
starvation. 

But  it  was  not  only  the  omissions  of  the  Richmond  Admin 
istration  of  wThich  the  Trans-Mississippi  had  to  complain. 
There  were  perpetrated  upon  it  such  positive  outrages  of  the 
Confederate  authority  as  had  never  been  ventured  or  imagined 
in  other  portions  of  the  country.  The  excesses  of  Major-gen 
eral  Hindman,  who  assumed,  by  a  certain  color  of  authority 
from  Richmond,  to  be  commanding-general  of  the  Trans-Mis 
sissippi,  had  been  severely  censured  by  members  of  the  Con 
federate  Congress,  and  were  the  subject  of  an  investigation  in 
that  body.  They  were  such  as  might  have  moved  any  people 
from  their  allegiance,  whose  patriotism  was  not  paramount  tc 
all  other  considerations.  He  suspended  the  civil  authority, 
and  instituted  what  he  called  "  a  government  ad  interim"  In 
the  summer  of  1863.  he  had  proclaimed  martial  law.  To  make 


86  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE     WAR. 

this  declaration  effective,  a  provost  martial  was  appointed  in 
each  count}T,  and  all  the  independent  companies  therein  were 
placed  under  his  control.  Over  these  were  appointed  provost 
marshals  of  districts  which  included  several  counties.  The 
provost  marshal  general,  at  General  Hind  man's  headquarters 
had  command  over  all. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  good  intentions  or  the  pallia 
live  circumstances  of  this  singular  usurpation,  it  certainly 
could  not  be  agreeable  to  a  people  accustomed  to  civil  liberty ; 
and  it  was  an  excrescence  of  the  war,  after  the  fashion  of  Yan 
kee  "  vigor,"  which  did  serious  dishonor  to  the  Confederacy. 
"We  have  referred  to  it  here  to  illustrate  the  virtues  of  a  people, 
whose  steadfast  patriotism  could  survive  such  trials. 

As  we  have  elsewhere  seen,  General  Holmes  assumed  com 
xnand  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  Department  in  the  latter  part 
of  1862.  His  operations  had  been  feeble  and  unsuccessful. 
The  fall  of  Yicksburg  and  the  defeat  at  Helena,  were  irrepara 
ble  disasters.  Communication  was  interrupted  between  the 
two  sections  of  the  Confederacy,  and  each  thrown  on  its  own 
resources.  It  was  supposed  that  this  division  of  the  efforts  of 
the  Confederacy  would  tend  to  weakness  and  jealousies.  But 
these  fears  were  dismissed,  when  it  was  known  that  the  gov 
ernors  of  the  States  of  the  Trans  Mississippi  had  made  the 
recent  disasters  an  occasion  of  official  conference,  in  which 
they  had  taken  the  noble  resolution  to  do  their  respective  parts 
in  the  war,  and  to  take  care  that  the  common  cause  of  our 
independence  should  not  suffer  by  a  division  of  the  efforts  to 
obtain  it.  They  declared  that,  instead  of  such  division  of  effort 
being  occasion  of  jealousy,  it  should  be  that  of  noble  and 
patriotic  rivalry. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  it  was  unfortunate  that  the  East 
ern  States  and  those  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  had  been  con 
strained  to  separate  efforts  in  the  war.  But  it  was  an  especial 
subject  of  congratulation  and  pride  that  the  spirit  and  unan 
imity  of  the  South  were  unaffected  by  such  an  event,  and  that 
the  most  distant  people  of  the  Confederacy,  not  only  faithfully 
kept,  but  fondly  cherished  their  attachment  to  the  vital  prin 
iple  of  our  struggle  and  the  common  cause  of  our  arms. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  87 


CHAPTER  IY. 

Elasticity  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Confederacy.— What  it  Taught.— Decay  of  Con& 
dence  in  President  Davis's  Administration. — His  Aifection  forPemberton. — A  Season 
of  Encouraging  Events. — THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  LOWER  LOUISIANA. — Capture  of  Brasheat 
City. — The  Affair  of  Donaldson. — THE  SIEGE  OF  CHARLESTON. — Operations  of  the 
Enemy  on  Folly  Island. — General  Beauregard's  Embarrassments. — Assault  of  the 
Enemy  of  Fort  Wagner. — His  Foothold  on  Morris  Island. — Beauregard's  Designs.-- 
Bombardment  of  Fort  Wagner. — Second  Repulse  of  the  Enemy's  Assault. — Gilmore's 
Insolent  Demand. — His  Attempt  to  Fire  Charleston. — A  Noble  Reply  from  Beaure- 
gard. — Bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter. — The  Fort  in  Ruins.— Evacuation  of  Morris 
Island  by  the  Confederates. — The  Yankee  Congratulations. — Devilish  Penalties  for 
"the  Secession  City." — Dahlgren's  Part  of  the  Programme. — His  Night  Attack  on 
Sumter. — His  Failure. — Safety  of  Charleston. — Bitterness  of  Yankee  Disappointment. 
—MORGAN'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  INDIANA  AND  OHIO. — His  Capture  of  Lebanon. — An 
Unnatural  Encounter. — Murder  of  Captain  Magennis. — The  Incursion  Through  Indi 
ana. — The  Yankee  Pursuit. — A  Chaplain's  Trick. — Operations  in  Ohio. — The  Affair 
of  Buffington  Island. — Morgan's  Attempt  to  Escape. — His  Capture  and  Imprison 
ment.— Results  of  his  Expedition,  Strategic  and  Material.— The  Value  of  Military 
Adventure. 

THE  most  remarkable  quality  displayed  by  the  Southern 
mind  in  this  war  has  been  its  elasticity  under  reverse,  its 
quick  recovery  from  every  impression  of  misfortune.  This, 
more  than  any  thing  else,  has  attested  the  strength  of  our  res 
olution  to  be  free,  and  shown  the  utter  insignificance  of  any 
"  peace  party,"  or  element  of  submission  or  compromise  in  the 
Confederacy.  Great  as  were  the  disasters  of  Vicksburg  and 
Gettysburg  they  were  the  occasions  of  no  permanent  depres 
sion  of  the  public  mind  ;  and  as  the  force  of  misfortune  could 
scarcely,  at  any  one  time,  be  expected  to  exceed  these  events, 
it  may  be  said  they  taught  the  lesson  that  the  spirit  of  the 
Confederacy  could  not  be  conquered  unless  by  some  extremity 
close  to  annihilation.  A  few  days  after  the  events  referred  to 
President  Davis  took  occasion,  in  a  proclamation  of  pardon  to 
deserters,  to  declare  that  a  victorious  peace,  with  proper  exer 
tions,  was  yet  immediately  within  our  grasp.  Nor  was  he  ex 
travagant  in  this.  The  loss  of  territory  which  we  had  sustained, 
unaccompanied  as  it  was  by  any  considerable  adhesion  of  its 
population  to  the  enemy,  though  deplorable  indeed,  was  not  a 


88  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

vital  incident  of  the  war  :  it  had  reduced  the  resources  of  sub 
sistence,  but  it  had  multiplied  the  spirit  of  resistance,  and  it 
was  yet  very  far  from  the  centre  of  our  defence.  TVlrile  Mr. 
Seward  was  making  to  Europe  material  calculations  of  Yan 
kee  success  in  the  square  miles  of  military  occupation  and  in 
the  comparative  arithmetic  of  the  military  power  of  the  bellig 
erents,  the  Confederacy  had  merely  postponed  its  prospect  of 
a  victorious  peace,  and  was  even  more  seriously  confident  of 
the  ultimate  issue  than  when  it  first  declared  its  independence. 
But  it  must  not  be  disguised  that  one,  and  perhaps  the  most 
important  of  the  disasters  referred  to— the  fall  of  Yicksburg — 
while  no  occasion  of  despair  to  the  Confederacy,  was  yet  that 
of  another  great  decline  of  popular  confidence  in  the  Adminis 
tration  of  President  Davis.  Happily,  every  page  of  the  his 
tory  of  this  war  attests  *hat  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Confed 
erate  people  with  the  Richmond  Administration  was  compa 
tible  with  steady  attachment  to  that  cause  for  which  they 
fought  and  which  was  impersonal  and  sublime.  It  is  the  fact 
of  these  two  existing  conditions  in  the  Confederacy,  a  puzzle 
to  many,  that  gives  the  sublimest  quality  to  this  war,  and  con 
tains  its  most  valuable  lesson. 

v  Never  had  the  obstinate  adhesion  of  President  Davis  to  his 
favorites  been  more  forcibly  illustrated  than  in  the  case  of 
Pemberton.  The  criticism  of  the  public  had  no  charity  for 
this  commander,  and  his  recent  campaign,  culminating  in  the 
surrender  of  Yicksburg,  was  denounced  by  the  intelligent  as  a 
series  of  blunders,  and  by  others  less  just  and  more  passionate 
as  the  device  of  treason.  President  Davis  had  retained  him  in 
command  in  spite  of  the  most  powerful  remonstrance  ever 
made  by  a  people  against  the  gratification  of  a  personal  con 
ceit  in  their  ruler.  Indeed,  the  President  went  further  than 
mere  opposition  to  the  public  sentiment.  He  defied  and  al 
most  insulted  it ;  for  after  the  disaster  of  Yicksburg,  Pember 
ton,  with  the  public  reproaches  clinging  to  him,  and  public 
sentiment  clamoring  in  vain  for  an  inquiry  into  his  conduct, 
was  ostentatiously  entertained  as  the  President's  guest  in  Eich 
mond,  and  given  the  distinction  of  one  of  his  suite  in  the  sub 
sequent  official  visit  of  the  President  to  our  armies  in  the 
West !  It  was  said  by  Mr.  Foote,  in  public  session  of  Con 
gress,  that  when  the  President,  with  a  peculiar  hardihood,  e&- 


THE    THIRD    YEAK.  89 

sayed  to  ride  down  tlie  lines  of  our  troops,  with  Pcni  barton  at 
liis  side,  angry  exclamations  assailed  them,  and  passed  from 
lip  to  lip  of  the  soldiers. 

There  were  certain  events  which  aided  in  relieving  the  ini 
pression  of  the  Yicksburg  disaster,  or,  at  least,  served  to  divert 
the  public  mind.  Of  these  were  the  operations  of  the  Con 
federate  general,  Taylor,  in  Lower  Louisiana,  some  of  which 
had  preceded  the  fall  of  Yicksburg,  and,  at  one  time,  had  kin 
dled  in  the  South  the  hope  of  the  recapture  of  New  Orleans. 


HEE   CAMPAIGN    IN   LOWER   LOUISIANA. 

Information  received  from  Southwest  Louisiana  had  deter 
mined  General  Taylor  to  organize  an  attack  upon  Brashear 
City  and  its  forts.  Colonel  Majors,  who  commanded  a  brigade 
of  cavalry  on  the  Atchafalaya,  was  to  push  boldly  through  the 
GroBse  Tete,  Marangoin  and  Lafourche  country,  to  Donaldson- 
ville,  thence  to  Thibodeaux,  cut  off  the  railroad  and  telegraph 
communication,  then  push  rapidly  to  Bceuf  river,  in  the  rear 
of  Brashear  City,  while  a  force  under  Generals  Mouton  and 
Green  was  to  co-operate  in  front  of  the  enemy's  position,  on 
Berwick's  Bay. 

On  the  22d  of  June  General  Mouton  had  succeeded  in  col 
lecting  some  thirty-seven  skiffs  and  other  row-boats,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Teche,  with  a  view  to  co-operate,  fronj  the  west 
side  of  the  Atchafalaya,  with  Colonel  Majors'  command,  then 
on  the  Lafourche.  An  expedition,  numbering  three  hundred^ 
and  twenty-five  gallant  volunteers,  under  Major  Sherod  Hun 
ter,  started  at  6  o'clock  p.  M.,  to  turn  the  enemy's  stronghold 
at  Brashear  City.  It  was  a  hazardous  mission  to  cross  the  lake 
(twelve  miles)  in  these  frail  barks,  to  land  at  midnight  on  the 
enemy's  side,  in  an  almost  impenetrable  swamp,  and  await  the 
dawn  of  day,  to  make  the  desperate  attempt  which  would  in 
sure  victory  or  a  soldier's  death. 

The  boat-expedition  having  got  off,  General  Thomas  Green, 
with  the  Fifth  Texas  mounted  volunteers,  the  Second  Louisi 
ana  cavalry,  Waller's  Texas  battalion,  and  the  Yalverde  and 
Nicholls'  batteries,  advanced,  under  cover  of  night,  to  opposite 
the  enemy's  camp.  The  Seventh  and  Fourth  Texas  r" 


90  SOUTHERN    HISTORY     OF    THE    WAR. 

were  thrown  across  the  Atchafalaya,  to  Gibbons'  Island,  durir.g 
the  night.  General  Green  was  to  attract  the  enemy's  atten 
tion  and  fire,  while  the  troops  on  Gibbons'  Island  were  to  bo 
thrown  across  to  the  support  of  Major  Hunter,  as  soon  as  the 
boats  returned  from  the  latter's  landing-point,  in  rear  of  the 
enemy's  position. 

Immediately  after  daylight,  General  Green  fired  the  first 
gun  from  the  Valverde  battery,  at  a  gunboat  of  the  enemy, 
which  was  steaming  up  the  bay  in  the  direction  of  the  upper 
fort  (Buchanan).  Instantly  the  whole  bay  was  in  a  blaze,  our 
guns  playing  upon  the  long  lines  of  the  enemy's  tents.  The 
Yankees  were  completely  surprised.  Their  heavy  guns,  from 
three  forts,  opened  on  Green.  There  was  a  keen  anxiety  on 
our  side  for  the  sound  of  Colonel  Majors'  guns,  for  it  only  re 
mained  for  him  to  occupy  the  Bceuf  crossing,  to  cut  off  com 
pletely  the  enemy's  communication.  At  last  the  long-distant 
sound  of  artillery  told  that  Majors  was  there;  and  at  the  same 
moment  the  storming  party  of  Major  Hunter  made  its  appear 
ance  on  the  edge  of  a  piece  of  woods.  -  With  a  real  Texas 
yell  the  latter  dashed  at  once,  with  bayonets  fixed  and  pistols 
drawn,  full  at  the  threatening  walls  of  the  proud  fort — in 
twenty  minutes  they  had  climbed  its  walls,  dispersed  its  gar 
rison,  torn  down  the  stars  and  stripes,  and  hoisted  the  Con 
federate  flag  over  its  ramparts.  This  heroic  charge  was  made 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  with  unloaded  muskets.  In  half 
an  hour  Generals  Taylor,  Mouton,  and  Green,  with  their  re 
spective  staffs,  had  their  headquarters  in  the  city  of  Brashear. 

The  immediate  fruits  of  the  capture  were  one  thousand 
prisoners,  ten  heavy  guns,  and  a  large  amount  of  stores  of  all 
descriptions.  The  position  obtained  by  General  Taylor,  with 
that  of  Thibodeaux,  gave  him  command  of  the  Mississippi 
river  above  New  Orleans ;  enabled  him,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  cut  off  Banks'  supplies,  and,  it  was  hoped,  might  eventually 
force  Banks  to  the  choice  of  losing  New  Orleans  or  abandon 
ing  his  operations  against  Port  Hudson. 

But  the  plan  which  General  Taylor  had  arranged  for  an  at 
tack  on  New  Orleans  unfortunately  fell  through,  in  conse 
quence  of  his  disappointment  of  reinforcements.  His  active 
force,  not  including  the  garrison  at  Berwick's  Bay,  was  less 
than  four  thousand.  He  had  obtained  from  New  Orleans  in- 


THE    THIRD    YEAH.  91 

telligence  of  the  fall  of  Yieksburg,  and  this,  with  the'  conse 
quent  fate  of  Port  Hudson,  rendered  his  position  in  the  La 
fourche  extremely  hazardous,  and  not  to  be  justified  on  military 
grounds. 

On  the  28th  of  June  General  Green  had  been  repulsed  in 
an  attack  on  Donaldson ville,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  with 
two  hundred  and  sixty  casualties.  On  the  12th  of  July,  after 
the  fall  of  Port  Hudson,  the  enemy,  over  four  thousand  strong, 
advanced  six  miles  from  Donaldsonville,  where  he  was  met  by 
General  Green,  with  his  own  and  a  part  of  Majors'  brigade 
(in  all  twelve  hundred  men),  and  driven  from  the  field,  with  a 
loss  of  about  five  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded,  some  three 
hundred  prisoners,  three  pieces  of  artillery,  many  small  arms, 
and  the  flag  of  a  New  York  regiment.  The  gallant  Green 
dismounted  from  his  horse,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
old  regiment,  captured  the  enemy's  guns,  and  drove  his  forces 
into  the  fort,  and  under  the  guns  of  the  fleet. 

These  operations  in  Lower  Louisiana  were  not  followed  by 
the  important  consequences  which  were  at  one  time  anticipa 
ted  :  for,  as  wre  have  seen,  Taylor's  force  was  not  competent  to 
hold  the  Lafourche  country  against  the  overwhelming  forces 
of  the  enemy  released  from  the  siege  of  Port  Hudson.  Yet 
the  events  we  have  briefly  narrated,  had  afforded  a  certain  en 
couragement  to  the  South  ;  for  they  were,  at  least,  some  relief 
from  the  unwelcome  news  we  had  hitherto  had  from  an  ill- 
starred  portion  of  the  Confederacy. 

But  one  must  look  in  another  direction  for  the  first  impor 
tant  wave  of  the  returning  tide  of  victory  that  was  to  cover 
the  popular  recollection  of  Yicksburg,  and  again  exalt  the 
hopes  and  confidence  of  the  Confederacy. 


THE   SIEGE    OF   CHAELI  8TON. 

The  enemy  had  prepared  to  follow  up  the  achievements  of 
the  summer  campaign,  by  a  vigorous  attempt  upon  Charleston. 
It  had  been  determined  by  General  Gilmore,  in  command  of 
the  Yankee  forces,  to  take  Folly  Island,  as  the  base  of  siege 
operations  against  Charleston,  and  to  possess,  if  possible,  Mor 
ris  Island,  under  the  belief  that  it  was  the  key  to  Charleston. 


92  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

This  Utter  island  is  an  outer  strip  of  land,  lying  directly  on  the 
ocean.  It  is  some  three  and  a  half  miles  in  length,  and  the 
northern  end,  crowned  by  Cummings'  Point  Battery,  was  the 
goal  aimed  at  by  the  enemy,  as  it  bore  directly  on  Fort  Sum- 
ter  and  the  channel  leading  by  it  to  the  city.  At  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  island  was  another  battery,  pointing  out 
towards  the  north  end  of  Folly  Island,  where  the  Yankees  had 
been  encamped  for  many  months,  and  constructing  heavy 
works.  It  was  known  and  reported  to  the  Confederate  gov 
ernment,  that  Folly  Island  was  occupied  in  force  since  the  7th 
of  April,  and,  as  a  consequence,  that  Morris  Island  was  threat 
ened.  The  changes  of  land  and  naval  commanders  of  the  en 
emy  were  reported  as  presages  of  impending  hostilities.  But 
in  vain.  All  ideas  of  attack  were  scouted  at  Richmond,  as 
late  even  as  the  first  week  in  July. 

General  Beauregard's  force  at  Charleston  had  been  greatly 
reduced  by  the  authorities,  under  the  persistent  belief  that  the 
city  and  adjoining  coast  were  safe  from  any  serious  military 
operations  of  the  enemy.  He  was  left  to  provide  against  at 
tacks  upon  Charleston  in  no  less  than  five  different  directions. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  he  had  been  seriously  embarrassed  in 
his  attempts  to  put  Morris  Island  in  condition  to  meet  the  at 
tack  of  the  enemy,  by  the  want  of  labor  to  carry  out  the  plans 
for  its  defence  ;  want  of  armament  for  the  works  necessary  to 
that  end  ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  want  of  men  to  hold  and 
fight  any  works  which  might  have  been  thrown  up  at  the  south 
end  of  Morris  Island,  without  stripping  other  important  po 
sitions  of  the  feeble  supports  left  them. 

But  although  General  Beauregard  must  have  had  a  general 
expectation  of  attack  in  this  direction,  it  is  not  to  be  disguised, 
that  he  was  surprised  in  the  time  and  manner  of  its  develop 
ment.  It  is  said,  that  he  had  not  force  enough,  left  to  venture 
upon  a  thorough  reconnoissance  of  the  enemy's  outposts  on 
Folly  Island.  For  a  number  of  weeks  the  enemy  had  been 
busily  engaged  on  this  point  of  land,  in  building  sand  batteries 
and  mounting  heavy  guns  within  eight  hundred  yards  of  our 
works  on  Morris  Island.  The  work  was  all  performed  under 
cover  of  the  night.  Screened  from  observation  by  the  nature 
of  the  ground,  hundreds  of  men  were  engaged  night  after 
night,  silently  and  industriously  throwing  up  earthworks,  and 


THE    THIRD    YEAK.  93 

mounting  heavy  guns  so  near  to  the  Confederates  that  a  loud 
word  might  have  revealed  the  work.  Shortly  before  daylight 
brush  would  be  so  disposed  as  to  conceal  the  work  of  the  pre 
vious  night,  without  exciting  the  suspicions  of  the  Confederates. 
The  morning  light  would  dawn  upon  a  quiet  and  deserted 
scene — not  a  soul  to  be  seen — not  a  sound  to  be  heard — not  a 
thing  to  indicate  offensive  operations  that  the  night  had  con 
cealed.  In  this  manner  batteries  were  thrown  up,  and  guns 
and  mortars  put  in  position. 

On  the  evening  of  the  9th,  a  division  of  the  enemy"  was  sent 
up  Stono  river  to  effect  a  landing  on  James  Island,  near  a 
place  called  Stevens'  Point.  This  movement  was  partially 
intended  to  occupy  the  attention  of  our  forces,  and  conceal 
from  them  the  real  object  of  the  large  fleet  of  vessels  hovering 
about  Stono  Inlet,  and  movements  of  the  enemy  on  Folly 
Island.  At  nightfall  small  boats,  loaded  with  armed  men, 
began  to  dash  out  from  either  shore.  These  men  were  to 
make  their  way  up  the  narrow  creek,  which  makes  into  Morris 
Island,  and  there  wait  till  morning,  when  on  a  given  signal 
they  would  assault  the  battery.  This  force  was  under  General 
Strong. 

At  daybreak  on  the  following  morning,  the  brush  and 
boughs,  which  had  served  to  conceal  the  battery  on  Folly 
Island  from  observation,  were  hastily  removed,  and  the  guns 
exposed  to  the  Confederates.  At  five  o'clock  the  first  gun 
was  heard  from  the  enemy's  battery.  The  battery  was  some 
what  screened  from  view  by  a  grove  of  trees,  but  the  incessant 
cannonade,  and  the  dense  white  smoke,  which  rose  above  the 
tall  pines,  told  how  fearfully  the  contest  raged. 

In  the  meantime  the  assaulting  column  of  the  enemy,  con 
sisting  of  three  regiments,  moved  on  slowly  and  silently  up 
the  beach,  until  they  arrived  within  two  hundred  yards  of 
Fort  Wagner,  when  the  Confederate  pickets  were  encountered. 
The  order  to  charge  was  given.  The  fort  opened  with  three 
eight-inch  howitzers,  hefavily  charged  with  grape  and  canister. 
The  Seventh  Connecticut,  which  was  in  the  advance,  pressed 
through  the  fort,  but  the  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  regi 
ments,  which  were  to  support  them,  staggered  back  and  lost 
their  distance,  when  all  three  regiments  broke  into  a  shamefui 
run,  scattering  down  the  beach. 


94  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAK. 

The  assault  of  the  enemy  was  a  shameful  failure.  The  loss 
of  life  was  inconsiderable,  as  two  of  the  regiments  kept  out  of 
the  fire,  and  we  may  imagine  how  many  were  "  missing" 
when  the  casualties  in  the  storming  party  were  officially 
enumerated  by  the  enemy  as  three  hundred  and  thirty-four. 
But  as  our  lower  battery  had  been  abandoned,  the  Yankees 
had  succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  the  lower  end  of  the 
island.  They  had  gained  a  foothold,  and  were  now  to  direct 
all  their  energies  to  get  possession  of  Fort  Wagner.  This 
strong  earthwork  was  near  midway  of  the  island,  and  had  to 
be  reduced  before  the  enemy  could  reach  Cummings'  Point, 
and  operate  from  there  on  Fort  Sumter. 

The  enemy  having  once  obtained  a  foothold  on  Morris 
Island,  it  might  have  been  easily  foreseen  that  he  would 
eventually  compel  an  evacuation  by  the  operations  of  siege, 
and  the  impossibility  of  defending  forever  a  small  island  cut 
off  from  communication  by  an  enormous  fleetv  But  it  was  not 
to  be  given  up  without  a  brilliant  incident  of  arms  ;  for  Gen 
eral  Beauregard  had  determined  to  hold  it,  while  works  were 
elsewhere  erected,  and  until  the  door  of  honorable  retreat  was 
open. 

In  about  a  week  the  Yankees  had  occupied  Black  Island — a 
small  spot  between  James  and  Morris  Islands — and  thrown  up 
a  battery  ;  they  had  erected  two  or  three  additional  batteries 
on  Morris  Island,  about  one  and  three-quarter  miles  from  Fort 
"Wagner,  and  they  had  concentrated  their  fleet,  consisting  of 
four  monitors,  the  Ironsides,  a  frigate,  and  four  gunboats, 
some  of  which  threw  shell  from  mortars.  Altogether,  the 
circle  of  fire  embraced  not  far  from  seventy  guns.  At  day 
light,  of  the  18th  August,  these  opened,  first  deliberately  ;  but 
as  the  morning  wore  on  the  fire  increased.  Two  monitors,  two 
mortar  boats,  and  the  Ironsides,  had  by  ten  o'clock  formed  a 
line  nearly  in  front  of  Battery  Wagner,  and  about  noon  these 
were  joined  by  two  additional  monitors.  Until  six  o'clock  in 
the  evening  the  firing  was  incessant.  There  was  scarcely  an 
interval  that  did  not  contain  a  reverberation  of  the  heavy 
'guns,  and  the  shock  of  the  rapid  discharges  trembling  through 
the  city  called  hundreds  of  citizens  to  the  battery,  wharves, 
steeples,  and  various  look-outs,  where,  with  an  interest  never 
felt  before,  they  looked  on  a  contest  that  might  decide  the  fate 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  95 

of  their  fair  city.  Above  Battery  Wagner,  bursting  high  in 
air,  striking  the  sides  of  the  work  or  plunging  into  the  beach, 
and  throwing  up  pillars  of  earth,  were  to  be  seen  the  quickly* 
succeeding  shells  and  round  shot  of  the  enemy's  guns.  Bat 
tery  Gregg  at  Cummings'  Point  and  Fort  Sumter  took  part  in 
the  thundering  chorus.  As  the  shades  of  evening  fell  upon 
the  scene  the  entire  horizon  appeared  to  be  lighted  up  with 
the  fitful  flashings  of  the  lurid  flames  that  shot  out  from  mon 
ster  guns  on,  land  and  sea. 

As  night  began  to  fall  the  bombardment  relaxed.  But  it 
was  known  to  our  officers  commanding  that  such  a  demon 
stration  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  was  not  without  its  object ; 
and  every  man  was  ordered,  by  General  Taliaferro,  who  com 
manded  our  side,  to  the  parapet  to  prepare  for  the  expected 
assault  of  the  enemy. 

At  dusk  two  brigades  of  the  enemy  were  formed  in  line  on 
the  beach.  The  regiments  were  disposed  in  columns,  except  a 
Massachusetts  regiment  of  blacks,  which,  for  peculiar  reasons, 
was  given  the  post  of  extreme  honor  and  extreme  danger  in 
the  advance,  and  was  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle,  exposing  its 
full  front  to  our  fire. 

The  enemy  moved  forward  at  quick  time  and  in  deep  silence. 
As  they  reached  the  vicinity  of  our  rifle-pits,  our  batteries 
opened,  and  grape  and  canister  was  thrown  into  their  ranks 
with  fearful  precision  and  execution.  Checked  for  an  instant 
only,  they  closed  up  the  ragged  gaps  in  their  lines  and  moved 
steadily  on  until  within  less  than  eighty  yards.  . 

Barely  waiting  for  the  Yankees  to  get  within  a  destructive 
range  our  infantry  opened  their  fusilade,  and  from  a  fringe  of 
fire  that  lined  the  parapet  leaped  forth  a  thousand  messengers 
of  death.  Staggering  under  the  shock,  the  first  line  seemed 
for  a  moment  checked,  but,  pushed  on  by  those  in  the  rear, 
the  whole  now  commenced  a  charge  at  a  "  double-quick."  Our 
men  could  not  charge  back ;  but  they  gave  a  Southern  yell  in 
response  to  the  Yankee  cheer,  a.nd  awaited  the  attack.  On 
they  came  over  the  sawd-hills,  tripping  and  stumbling  in  the 
huge  pits  their  own  shells  had  dug,  until  they  reached  the 
ditch  of  the  battery ;  then  it  was  but  a  moment's  work  lor 
those  who  survived  our  terrible  fire  of  musketry  to  clamber  up 
the  sloping  sides  of  the  fortification  and  attempt  to  effect  a 


%  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

lodgment.  But  the  men  who  met  them  on  the  parapet  were  aa 
desperate  as  themselves,  and  the  contest  that  ensued  was  biief 
ind  bloody.  The  antagonists  were  breast  to  breast,  and  South 
ern  rifles  and  Southern  bayonets  made  short  work  of  human 
life.  We  could  stop  to  take  no  prisoners  then.  The  parapet 
was  lined  with  dead  bodies,  white  and  black,  and  every  second 
was  adding  to  the  number.  It  was  one  of  those  rencounters  in 
which  one  side  or  the  other  must  quickly  yield  or  fly.  The 
enemy  took  their  choice.  . 

In  less  than  five  minutes  probably,  the  first  line  had  been 
shot,  bayoneted,  or  were  in  full  retreat — rolling  into  the  ditch 
or  dragging  their  bloody  bodies  through  the  sand-hills  on  theii 
hands  and  knees.  But  another  line  came,  and  another  and 
another,  each  reinforcing  its  predecessor,  until  the  battle  waxed 
hot,  fierce,  and  bloody.  Finally,  however,  the  whole  wero 
driven  back,  either  into  the  broad  trench  at  the  base  of  the 
battery,  out  of  reach  of  our  guns,  or  scampering  out  of  view  in 
the  darkness  of  the  night. 

There  was  now  a  comparative  lull  in  the  firing,  but  in  fifteen 
or  twenty  minutes  a  second  column  of  Yankees  filed  down  on 
the  beach  towards  the  left  of  the  fort  in  much  the  same  manner 
as  that  pursued  by  the  first.  These  repeated  the  experiment 
that  had  just  before  terminated  so  disastrously  to  their  com 
panions,  and,  with  a  bravery  that  was  worthy  of  a  better 
cause,  dashed  upon  the  work.  The  first  assault  failed  utterly, 
but  with  the  reinforcements  that  joined  the  defeated  party, 
they  came  again  with  such  strength  and  impetuosity  that 
between  the  extreme  darkness  of  the  night,  which  had  now 
enveloped  the  entire  scene,  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing 
friend  and  foe,  and  the  confusion  incident  to  such  an  occasion, 
some  two  or  three  hundred,  as  is  estimated,  effected  a  lodg 
ment  in  the  vicinity  of  the  chambers  occupied  by  two  of  our 
guns.  Most  of  these  were  taken  prisoners. 

About  midnight  the  enemy  gave  the  order  to  retire.  His 
repulse  had  been  terribly  disastrous  in  loss  of  life.  His  killed 
and  wounded,  according  to  his  own  accounts,  was  fifteen 
hundred  and  fifty  ;  and  the  next  day  we  buried  six  hundred  of 
his  dead  left  on  the  field.  Our  own  loss  was  comparatively 
light,  not  more  than  one  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded. 

While  the  enemy  was  constrained  to  fall  back  upon  siege 


THE    TIIIBD    YEAR.  97 

operations  against  Fort  Wagner,  it  was  determined  by  Gi.more 
to  employ  liis  batteries  in  the  reduction  of  Fort  Sumter,  over 
the  heads  of  both  Wagner  and  Gregg. 

But  there  was  an  episode,  which  was  an  introduction  to 
these  operations  against  Sumter,  and  which  must"  not  bo 
omitted  here.  On  the  21st  of  August,  Gilmore  addressed  to 
General  Beauregard  a  demand,  which  was  curiously  without 
signature,  for  the  evacuation  of  Morris  Island  and  Fort  Sumter ; 
stating  that  Surater  was  already  doomed  to  swift  and  complete 
demolition,  and  that,  if  the  Confederate  commander  did  not 
comply  with  his  demand  within  four  hours,  a  fire  would  bo 
opened  on  the  city  of  Charleston  from  batteries  already  estab 
lished  within  easy  and  effective  reach  of  the  heart  of  the  city. 
In  the  following  night  and  without  further  notice  fire  was 
opened  on  the  city  from  Morris  Island  batteries.  Twelve 
eight-inch  shells  fell  in  the  city  ;  several  flew  in  the  direction  of 
St.  Michael's  steeple;  but  fortunately  no  one  was  injured. 

Of  this  atrocious  and  cowardly  episode  General  Beauregard 
said  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Gilmore  :  "  It  would  appear,  Sir, 
that,  despairing  of  reducing  these  works,  you  now  resort  to  tho 
novel  means  of  turning  your  guns  against  the  old  men,  the 
women  and  children,  and  the  hospitals  of  a  sleeping  city ;  an 
act  of  inexcusable  barbarity  from  your  own  confessed  point  of 
sight,  inasmuch  as  you  allege  that  the  complete  demolition  of 
Fort  Sumter  within  a  few  hours  by  your  guns  seems  to  you  a 
matter  of  certainty  ;  and  your  omission  to  attach  your  signature 
to  such  a  grave  paper  must  show  the  recklessness  of  the  course 
upon  which  you  have  adventured,  while  the  fact  that  you 
knowingly  fixed  a  limit  for  receiving  an  answer  to  your  de 
mand,  which  made  it  almost  beyond  the  possibility  of  receiving 
any  reply  within  that  time,  and  that  you  actually  did  open  fire 
and  threw  a  number  of  the  most  destructive  missiles  ever  used 
in  war  into  the  midst  of  a  city  taken  unawares,  and  filled  with 
sleeping  women  and  children,  will  give  you  a  bad  eminence  in 
history — even  in  the  history  of  this  war." 

The  same  day  that  Gilmore  made  his  feeble  attempt  to 
execute  the  threat  he  had  so  fiercely  and  confidently  breathed 
against  Charleston,  he  opened  heavily  against  the  east  face  of 
Fort  Sumter  from  his  land  batteries  enfilading  it.  The  can 
nonade  was  continued  throughout  the  day,  nine  hundred  arid 

7 


98  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

forty- three  shots  being  fired.  The  effect  was  to  batter  the 
eastern  face  heavily,  doing  considerable  damage,  and  to  disable 
one  ten-inch  gun  and  a  rifled  forty-two  pounder.  On  the  22d 
the  enemy  threw  six  hundred  and  four  shots  at  the  fort,  dis 
abling  some  of  the  barbette  guns,  demolishing  the  arches  of  the 
north-west  face,  and  scaling  the  eastern  face  severely.  The  next 
day  the  fire  from  the  enemy's  land  batteries  was  kept  up  on 
Sumter,  disabling  the  only  ten-inch  columbiad  that  remained, 
and  the  three  rifled  forty-two-pounders  in  the  northern  salient 
of  the  second  tier.  The  eastern  face  was  badly  scaled,  and  the 
parapet  seriously  injured.  The  flag-staff  was  twice  shot  away, 
but  the  flag  each  time  immediately  replaced. 

On  the  24th  of  August  General  Gilmore  announced  in  des 
patches  to  Washington  that  "  Fort  Sumter  w'as  a  shapeless  and 
harmless  mass  of  ruins."  His  chief  of  artillery  reported  its 
destruction  so  far  complete  that  it  was  no  longer  of  any  avail 
in  the  defence  of  Charleston.  But  in  this  there  was  some 
mistake.  Fort  Sumter  was  in  one  respect  stronger  than  ever ; 
for  the  battering  down  of  the  upper  walls  had  rendered  the 
casemated  base  impregnable,  and  the  immense  volume  of  stone 
and  debris  which  protected  it  was  not  at  all  affected  by  the 
enemy's  artillery.  It  had  been  held  through  the  siege  and 
cannonade  by  the  First  South  Carolina  artillery,  under  Colonel 
Alfred  Rhett,  until  its  armament  had  been  disabled ;  and  the 
services  of  the  artillerymen  being  elsewhere  required,  General 
Beauregard  determined  that  it  should  be  held  by  infantry.  On 
the  night  of  the  4th  of  September,  the  Charleston  battalion, 
under  Major  Blake,  relieved  the  garrison ;  Major  Stephen 
Elliot  relieving  Colonel  Rhett  in  command  of  the  post. 

In  the  mean  time  the  enemy's  operations  on  Morris  Island 
had  fearfully  progressed.  His  sappers  had  advanced  up  to  the 
very  moat  of  Wagner.  On  the  night  of  the  4th  September  the 
enemy  kept  up  a  continual  fire,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  5th 
the  Ironsides  combined  her  fire  with  the  enemy's  land  bat 
teries,  all  concentrated  on  Wagner.  The  effect  was  to  severely 
injure  the  traverses  and  communications,  and  to  disable  the 
guns  and  equipments  still  more  effectually.  But  Wagner  was 
not  the  only  object  of  this  bombardment.  During  the  night 
of  the  5th  the  enemy  displayed  from  the  deck  of  a  monitor  otf 
Morris  Island  an  immense  calcium  light,  and  several  monitors 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  99 

after  moved  up  find  opened  on  battery  Giegg.  Monltrie 
and  Gregg  replied  with  spirit.  At  a  quarter  to  two  a  rocket 
was  thrown  up,  and  ere  many  minutes  elapsed,  the  enemy 
were  discerned  approaching  Morris  Island  at  a  point  between 
Gregg  and  Wagner.  They  had  come  down  in  barges  through 
a  creek  west  of  Morris  Island,  obviously  with  the  design  of  as 
saulting  Gregg  in  the  rear.  Advancing  in  line  of  battle  they 
were  permitted  to  come  very  near,  when  a  nine  inch  Dahlgren 
opened  upon  them  at  short  range,  with  double  canister.  Our 
howitzers  then  commenced  a  fire  of  shrapnel  and  canister, 
while  our  infantry,  admirably  posted,  poured  into  them  a  fire 
of  musketry.  This  the  Yankees  could  not  withstand,  and 
though  for  a  very  short  while  they  maintained  a  fire  of  mus 
ketry  and  grape  shot  from  their  barges,  they  were  soon  forced 
to  withdraw. 

For  three  days  and  nights  battery  Wagner  had  been  sub 
jected  to  the  most  terrific  fire  that  any  earthwork  had  under 
gone  in  all  the  annals  of  warfare.  In  these  nights  the  whole  of 
Charleston  harbor  had  been  lighted  up  in  a  scene  of  terrible 
beauty.  From  Moultrie  almost  to  Secessionville  a  whole  semi 
circle  of  the  horizon  was  lit  up  by  incessant  flashes  from 
cannon  and  shell.  As  peal  on  peal  of  artillery  rolled  across 
the  waters,  one  could  scarcely  resist  the  belief  that  not  less 
than  a  thousand  great  guns  were  in  action.  All  this  went  on 
beneath  a  waning  September  moon,  which,  with  its  warm 
Southern  light,  mellowed  by  a  somewhat  misty  atmosphere, 
brought  out  softly,  yet  distinctly,  the  most  distant  outlines  of 
the  harbor. 

The  effect  of  the  fire  on  Wagner  had  been  terrible.  The 
immense  descending  force  of  the  enormous  Parrott  antf  mortar 
shells  of  the  enemy  had  nearly  laid  the  wood  work  of  the 
bombproofs  entirely  bare,  and  had  displaced  the  sand  to  so 
great  a  degree  that  the  sally-ports  were  almost  entirely  blocked 
up.  Wagner  and  battery  Gregg  had  now  been  held  under  a  con 
tinued  and  furious  cannonade,  by  land  and  sea,  for  fifty-seven 
days  ;  two  assaults  had  been  signally  and  gloriously  repulsed  ; 
the  enemy  had  been  forced  to  expend  time,  men  and  material, 
most  lavishly  in  approaching  the  first ;  but  at  this  time  he  was 
within  a  few  yards  of  the  salient ;  most  of  the  guns  of  the  fort 
were  injured,  transportation  and  supply  had  become  most 


1QO  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

difficult  with  the  inefficient  means  at  our  disposal,  the  possi 
bility  of  throwing  heavy  reinforcements  in  time  to  resist  an 
assault  by  the  enemy's  overwhelming  forces,  issuing  from  his 
trenches  only  a  few  yards  distant,  out  of  the  question,  and  the 
practicability  of  keeping  a  sufficient  force  on  the  island  for  the 
purpose,  under  the  furious  cannonade  from  land  and  sea,  with 
out  protecting  shelter,  scarcely  less  so.  This  matter  had  been 
some  time  under  consideration  by  General  Beauregard,  and 
after  receiving  reports  concerning  the  state  of  the  works,  and 
our  capabilities  for  reinforcing  the  garrison,  it  was  determined 
not  to  subject  those  brave  men,  the  flower  of  our  force,  to  the 
desperate  chances  of  assault.  Orders  were  accordingly  given, 
on  the  morning  of  the  6th,  to  prepare  for  evacuation. 

It  commenced  about  9  p.  M.,  and  was  concluded  at  about 
twelve.  The  guns  of  the  batteries  were  spiked  and  implements 
generally  destroyed.  Matches  were  fixed  to  explode  the  maga 
zines,  but,  from  some  unfortunate  cause,  both  those  at  Wagner 
and  Gregg  failed  to  explode.  The  enemy  threw  his  calcium 
light  on  Wagner  during  the  whole  night,  and  one  of  the  most 
furious  bombardments  on  record,  even  during  this  war,  was 
continuously  kept  up  while  the  movements  were  progressing ; 
but  he  did  not  ascertain  the  evacuation  until  the  last  of  the 
boats  were  leaving.  Then  his  guard-boats  discovered  the 
movement  of  our  boats  engaged  in  the  embarkation,  and 
creeping  up  upon  the  rear  succeeded  in  cutting  off  and  cap 
turing  three  barges. 

Thus  ended  the  defence  of  Morris  Island — one  relieved  by 
much  of  glory  to  Confederate  arms,  and  its  conclusion,  as  we 
shall  soon  see,  an  empty  advantage  to  the  enemy.  The  de 
fence  had  been  prolonged  far  beyond  what  was  deemed  possi 
ble  at  first,  and  the  brave  garrisons  who  had  held  it  deserved 
the  admiration  of  their  countrymen.  The  aggregate  of  casual 
ties  in  the  struggle  for  the  Island  have  been  on  our  side  about 
seven  hundred — killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  The  enemy's 
loss  was  estimated  at  several  thousand. 

The  occupation  of  Morris  Island  was  the  signal  to  the  enemy 
of  great  but  temporary  exultation.  The  Yankee  newspapers 
flattered  their  readers  that  it  was  the  key  of  Charleston.  But 
the  fact  was  that  no  one  point  in  its  fortification  could  be  so 
called.  In  the  system  of  Vaughan  there  was  always  such  a 


THE    THIRD    YEAR,  101 

point; — once  taken,  it  commanded  the  rest.  But  the  excel 
lence  of  the  new  system  of  defence,  illustrated  at  Cornorn  and 
Sebastopol,  and  repeated  at  Charleston,  was  the  necessity  of  a 
siege  for  every  battery,  in  which  the  besiegers  were  always 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  others.  It  was  easily  seen  by  the  Con 
federates  that  such  a  defence,  if  conducted  with  courage,  by  an 
army  which  could  not  be  surrounded  and  starved,  might  be 
easily  rendered  interminable. 

But  such  was  not  the  opinion  of  Gilmore.  On  his  occupa 
tion  of  the  island  he  announced  to  the  exultant  authorities  at 
Washington:  "The  city  and  harbor  of  Charleston  are  now 
completely  covered  by  my  guns."  Now  was  the  time,  de 
clared  the  newspapers,  for  the  famous  Greek  fire  to  pour  de 
struction  upon  "  the  secession  city,"  "  General  Gilmore,'' 
said  the  Baltimore  American,  "  may  be  expected  to  roll  his 
fire-shells  through  the  streets  of  Charleston,"  That  com 
mander  had  already  been  experimenting  in  liquid  fire,  and  in 
a  new  style  of  bombs  filled  with  fuses.  During  the  bombard 
ment  of  Sumter,  in  one  of  his  official  despatches  he  had  de 
clared  with  devilish  complacency :  "  the  projectiles  from  my 
batteries  entered  the  city  of  Charleston,  and  General  Beaure- 
gard  himself  designates  them  as  the  most  destructive  missiles 
used  in  war." 

But  the  enemy's  fleet  was  now  to  appear  upon  the  scene  to 
accomplish  the  reduction  of  Charleston.  General  Gilmore  had 
proposed — firstly,  the  occupation  of  the  southern  portion  of 
Morris  Island  ;  secondly,  the  capture  of  Wagner  and  Gregg ; 
thirdly,  the  reduction  of  Sumter.  At  that  point  Admiral 
Dahlgren  was  to  take  up  the  wotk,  for  it  was  calculated  that 
if  Gilmore  succeeded  in  his  designs,  the  navy  would  find  it  a 
comparatively  easy  task  to  ascend  the  harbor  of  Charleston. 

But  had  the  condition  as  to  Sumter  been  fulfilled  ?  On  the 
7th  of  September  Admiral  Dahlgren  sent  in  a  flag  of  truce  de 
manding  a  surrender  of  the  fort.  General  Beauregard  tele 
graphed  to  Major  Elliot  to  reply  that  the  Yankees  could  have 
Fort  Sumter  when  they  took  it  and  held  it,  and  that,  in  the 
mean  time,  such  demands  were  puerile  arid  unbecoming. 

Dahlgren  was  left  to  complete  the  programme  in  Charleston 
Harbor,  and  the  North  waited  to  hear  that  the  possession  of 
*  the  shapeless  mass  of  ruins"  that  had  once  been  Fort  Suui 


102  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

ter  was  readily  accomplished,  and  that  Charleston,  the  CT  no- 
sure  of  Yankee  hatred,  was  at  last  the  prize  of  the  costly  and 
protracted  operations.  It  remained  for  the  Yankee  admiral  to 
accept  the  invitation  to  assault  Sumter,  and  he  proposed  to  do 
so  by  an  elaborate  surprise.  A  special  force  of  picked  men 
from  all  the  fleet  was  organized  for  a  night  attack. 

It  was  midnight  of  the  8th  of  September,  when  the  expedi 
tion,  consisting  of  over  twenty  boats,  and  with  thirty-four 
officers  and  four  hundred  and  thirteen  men,  of  which  one 
hundred  and  twenty  were  marines,  all  under  the  command  oi 
Commander  Stevens,  polled  its  way  silently  and  cautiously 
towards  Fort  Sumter.  The  plan  was  to  assail  the  fort  on  three 
sides — one  party  landing  on  the  gorge- wall,  and  attempting  to 
ascend  the  debris  and  gain  the  parapet ;  a  second  was  to  at 
tempt  to  gain  entrance  through  the  lower  embrasures,  and  a 
third  was  to  act  as  a  reserve. 

At  half-past  one  in  the  morning  the  first  line  of  boats  was 
close  upon  the  fort.  The  enemy  had  supposed  it  to  be  feebly 
garrisoned,  and  had  hoped  to  find  an  unguarded  moment. 
The  garrison  consisted  of  the  Charleston  Battalion,  command 
by  Major  Stephen  Elliot.  They  were  not  asleep.  As  the 
Yankee  boats  crept  up  to  the  huge  and  shapeless  mass  of 
shivered  walls,  all  was  dark  and  still ;  the  great  black  rifted 
mound  seemed  some  long-deserted  ruin,  where  the  lizards  had 
crept  into  their  holes  for  the  night,  and  the  very  bats  and  owta 
had  gone  to  bed.  They  approached  with  beating  hearts.  IE 
appeared,  indeed,  that  the  hour  of  doom  for  Sumter  and  for 
Charleston  was  come. 

Suddenly  a  "fire  of  hell*  streamed  from  out  of  the  night 
The  stilly  ruin  becomes  as  a  throat  of  the  bottomless  pit ;  the 
bay  is  lighted  with  signals;  and  on  the  instant,  from  Fort 
Moultrie  and  from  a  gunboat  in  the  harbor,  hail  of  shot  and 
shell  comes  crashing  around  the  barges. 

Major  Elliot  had  caused  his  fire  to  be  reserved  until  the 
enemy  was  within  a  few  yards  of  the  southern  and  eastern 
faces  upon  which  the  landing  was  attempted.  A  close  fire  oi 
musketry  devoured  those  who  had  landed  ;  while  three  of  the 
boats  were  torn  to  pieces  by  hand  grenades  or  shells  from  the 
distant  batteries.  The  garrison  lined  the  walls  of  Sumter,  and 
as  the  Yankees  landed  on  the  rocks,  received  them  with  sharp 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  l(/3 

volleys  of  musketry,  which  added  confusion  to  their  already 
bewildered  movements.  A  strong  party  of  the  enemy  now 
hastily  gathered  and  made  an  attempt  to  climb  over  the  ruin 
of  the  sally-port,  which  had  been  torn  down  by  the  tremen 
dous  fire  of  their  land  batteries.  Our  men  received  them 
breast  to  breast,  pelting  them  with  brickbats  and  pouring  in  a 
spattering  shower  of  balls.  Some  bolder  than  the  others,  dashed 
forward,  and  seizing  Yankees,  one  in  each  hand,  dragged  them 
by  main  force  inside.  Thus  the  fight  raged  for  twenty  or 
thirty  minutes,  when  the  Yankees,  finding  themselves  over 
powered,  and  likely  to  be  cut  to  pieces,  threw  down  their 
arms,  retreated  to  the  shelter  of  the  walls  and  surrendered. 
Those  who  remained  in  the  boats,  not  already  lauded,  made 
their  escape  under  the  cover  of  the  night,  followed,  however, 
by  the  spiteful  balls  of  the  batteries  of  Moultrie  and  of  the 
gunboat  Chicora. 

Not  a  life  was  lost  on  our  side.  Major  Elliot  succeeded  in 
securing  five  boats,  five  stand  of  colors,  twelve  officers,  and 
one  hundred  and  nine  men,  including  two  officers  and  seven 
teen  men  wounded.  Amongst  the  captured  colors  was  a  worn 
and  torn  garrison-flag,  reported  by  some  of  the  prisoners  as 
being  that  which  Major  Anderson  was  permitted  to  take  from 
the  fort,  on  the  occasion  of  his  being  compelled  to  surrender, 
in  April,  1861.  This  had  been  brought  to  hoist  on  the  fort, 
and  to  be  made  the  subject  of  boast  and  Yankee  "sensation," 
had  the  assault  succeeded.  "  It  was,"  says  a  Charleston  paper, 
"  the  identical  'gridiron'  carried  from  Fort  Sumter  in  1861  ; 
exhibited  to  a  monster  mass  meeting  in  New  York  shortly 
after  ;  talked,  cheered,  and  prayed  over  until  almost  sanctified  ; 
wrapped  around  the  gouty  limbs  of  General  Scott,  and  finally 
brought  back  under  oath  that  it  should  be  victoriously 
replanted  on  the  walls  where  it  was  first  lowered  in  recogni 
tion  of  the  Southern  Confederacy." 

This  unsuccessful  attempt  to  open  the  way  to  Charleston, 
leaves  but  little  to  record  of  the  operations  of  the  enemy 
against  this  famous  city.  Those  operations  were  to  be  nomi 
nally  continued  for  many  long  and  weary  months  ;  there  were 
daily  bulletins  of  bombardments ;  but  the  more  intelligent 
persons  of  the  North  were  not  to  be  deceived  by  the  noisy  and 
expensive  display,  and  readily  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 


104  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

siege  of  Charleston  was  a  failure,  and  that,  despite  Dahlgreu  a 
noisy  protest,  it  was  virtually  abandoned.  Months  were  to 
pass,  and  the  Yankee  admiral  was  to  make  no  attempt  to 
move  up  the  harbor  and  complete  not  only  the  remaining  part 
of  the  expedition,  but  that  which  he  had  promised  to  do  when 
he  assumed  command  of  the  fleet. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  here  the  desultory  record  of  a 
fruitless  bombardment.  The  Yankee  public  had  had  such  a 
series  of  emotions,  surprises,  and  disappointments  about 
Charleston,  that  it  sickened  of  the  name,  and  seemed  to  be 
fast  progressing  to  the  opinion  that  the  monitors  were  a  fail 
ure,  that  their  Parrott  guns  and  monster  artillery  had  been 
greatly  overrated,  and  that  sand-bank  fortifications  were  sub 
stantially  impregnable  to  their  vaunted  artillery.  "  How 
many  times,"  asked  an  indignant  Philadelphia  paper,  "  has 
Fort  Sumter  been  taken  ?  How  many  times  has  Charleston 
been  burned  ?  How  often  have  the  people  been  on  the  eve  of 
starvation  and  surrender  ?  How  many  times  has  the  famous 
Greek  fire  poured  the  rain  of  Sodom  and  the  flames  of  hell 
upon  the  secession  city  ?  We  cannot  keep  the  count — though 
those  can  who  rang  the  bells  and  put  out  the  flags,  and 
invoked  the  imprecations,  and  rejoiced  at  the  story  of  confla 
gration  and  ruin." 

We  must  leave  here  the  story  of  Charleston :  the  city  safe 
beneath  the  pale  autumn  sky,  with  the  waters  of  its  beautiful 
bay  unvexed  by  the  busy  keel  of  commerce,  yet  sleeping 
quietly ;  while  across  them  might  be  seen  the  Yankee  flag 
floating  from  the  parapet  of  Wagner,  then  the  enemy's  bat 
teries,  still  beyond  these  the  white  tents  of  the  enemy,  and 
further  yet,  over  the  woods  of  James  Island,  the  masts  of  the 
fleet.  A  large  besieging  force  was  in  sight  of  the  spires  oi 
Charleston,  and  yet  the  city  was  safe,  and  proclaimed  to  the 
Confederacy  new  lessons  of  brilliant  courage  and  hope. 

We  have  referred  to  the  period  which  this  chapter  traverses 
as  one  of  encouraging  events  for  the  South.  The  reader's 
attention  must  be  turned  back  from  the  coast  to  the  fields  of 
the  West,  for  another  in  the  list  of  successes  which  made  this 
period  fortunate. 


C.  B    £ 


THE    TIIIKD    YEAR.  105 


MORGAN'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  INDIANA  AND  OHIO. 

The  command  of  General  Morgan,  consisting  of  detachments 
from  two  brigades,  numbering  two  thousand  and  twenty-eight 
effective  men,  with  four  pieces  of  artillery — two  Parrotts  and 
two  howitzers — left  Sparta,  Tennessee,  on  the  27th  of  June, 
and  crossed  the  Cumberland  near  Burkesville  on  the  2d  July. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  the  expedition  took  up  the  line  of  march 
for  Green  river  bridge.  An  attack  was  here  made  upon  the 
enemy,  who  were  found  to  be  posted  in  a  strong  position,  pro 
tected  by  well  constructed  stockades.  On  account  of  the 
superior  strength  of  the  works  our  forces  failed  to  carry  the 
position. 

From  Green  river  bridge  Morgan  next  directed  his  atten 
tion  to  the  town  of  Lebanon.  He  encamped  within  five  miles 
of  the  place  on  the  night  of  the  4th.  He  at  once  demanded 
the  surrender  of  the  place,  which  was  refused  by  the  Yankee 
officer  in  command  of  the  post.  A  heavy  engagement  ensued 
next  day,  which  lasted,  with  considerable  spirit,  for  some 
hours,  the  Yankees  stubbornly  resisting,  firing  from  the 
houses.  Finally  a  charge  was  ordered,  and  the  town  was 
captured,  together  with  the  whole  Yankee  force,  consisting  of 
about  six  hundred  effective  men,  together  with  a  large  amount 
of  stores,  arms,  &c.  In  the  charge  was  killed  Lieutenant  Thos. 
Morgan,  a  brother  of  the  general,  who  was  shot  through  the 
heart.  He  fell  at  the  very  first  volley.  His  only  words  were, 
"  Brother  Gaily,  they  have  killed  me"" 

The  commandant  of  the  post  was  Colonel  Hanson,  a  brother 
of  General  Hanson,  who  had  fallen  on  our  side  at  Murfrees- 
boro'.  He  had  behaved  with  extraordinary  gallantry.  When 
a  surrender  was  demanded  by  Morgan,  at  his  first  approach, 
Colonel  Hanson  quietly  remarked,  "  If  it  was  any  other  dav 
he  might  consider  the  demand,  but  the  4th  of  July  was  a  bad 
day  to  talk  about  surrender,  and  lie  must,  therefore,  decline." 
His  command  had  been  raised  in  the  heart  of  the  Blue  Grass 
region,  and  among  them  were  brothers  and  other  near  relatives 
of  Morgan's  own  men.  This  unnatural  encounter  between 
men  of  the  same  blood  and  same  family — a  painful  incident 
of  all  the  Kentucky  campaigns — was  heightened  ir  •'  ^ 


106  SOUTR^SKK    HISTORY    0F    THE    WAB. 

ble  ferocity  by  the  death  of  General  Morgan's  brother,  a  favor 
ite  of  his  comrades,  who  undertook  to  revenge  his  death,  and 
who  were  with  difficulty  restrained  by  their  officers  from  the 
indiscriminate  slaughter  of  the  enemy  and  pillage  of  the  town. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that,  in  all  his  expeditions,  General 
Morgan  restrained  his  men  from  all  outrages,  and  was  very 
severe  upon  those  bad  men  inseparable  from  adventures  of  his 
sort,  and  who  accompanied  them  simply  for  plunder.  But  the 
day  before  the  Lebanon  fight,  a  terrible  incident  had  occurred 
in  his  little  army.  An  officer  of- the  expedition,  whose  journal 
lies  before  us,  writes  of  this  occurrence :  "  About  three  o'clock, 
as  I  rode  on  about  forty  yards  in  advance,  I  heard  the  general 
exclaim  something  in  a  very  excited  tone  which  I  could  not 
understand  ;  and  heard  at  the  same  time  the  report  of  a  pistol. 
I  turned,  and,  great  God !  to  my  horror,  I  saw  Captain  Ma- 
gennis  falling  from  his  horse,  with  the  blood  rushing  out  of  his 
mouth  and  breast.  His  only  remark  was,  c  Let  me  down  easy.J 
In  another  moment  his  spirit  had  fled.  He  was  killed  by 
Captain  Murphy,  because  Magennis,  by  the  direction'  of  Gen 
eral  Morgan,  had  ordered  Murphy  to  restore  a  watch  taken 
from  a  prisoner." 

Leaving  Lebanon,  Morgan  proceeded  to  Bardstown,  where 
lie  captured  some  cavalry,  advanced  then  upon  the  Louisville 
and  Nashville  railrood,  and  next  reached  Garnettsville,  when 
a  feint  was  made  upon  the  city  of  Louisville,  whilst  prepara 
tions  were  on  foot  to  effect  a  crossing  of  the  Ohio  river.  A 
scouting  party  was  sent  to  the  river  at  Brandensburg,  at  which 
point  two  steamers  were  captured.  Here  the  command  effected 
a  crossing  of  the  river,  after  a  severe  fight  with  the  enemy. 
They  captured  about  one  hundred  Home  Guards,  one  rifled 
twelve-pounder  piece,  and  successfully  repulsed  two  gunboats. 

On  the  8th  of  July,  Morgan's  little  command  stood  on  the 
goil  of  Indiana.  He  immediately  took  up  the  line  of  march 
for  the  town  of  Cory  don,  where  he  captured  about  600  militia 
and  some  few  regular  soldiers.  Salem  was  the  next  point 
which  invited  his  attention,  where  an  immense  amount  of 
damage  was  inflicted  upon  the  enemy  by  the  destruction  of 
railroad  property,  bridges,  depots,  stores,  &e. 

The  expedition  from  this  point  visited  the  interior  of  the 
State,  and  was  enabled  to  find  any  quantity  of  work  to  per- 


THE  'nrifii?   04  a.  107 


form,  which  embraced  the  destruction  of  vast  amounts  o-f  pub 
lic  property,  such  as  railroads,  bridges,  depots,  and  govern 
ment  stores  generally. 

At  Salem,  Morgan  first  learned  from  the  telegraph  wires" 
of  the  tremendous  excitement  his  unexampled  invasion  had 
created,  and  the  station  and  numbers  of  the  enemy  around  for 
the  hunt.  He  discovered  that  Indianapolis  was  running  over 
with  them—  that  New  Albany  contained  10,000—  that  3,OOC 
had  just  arrived  at  Mitchell  —  and,  in  fact,  25,000  men  were 
armed  and  ready  to  meet  the  "  bloody  invader." 

Morgan  moved  rapidly  forward  to  Lexington,  thence  to  Yer- 
non,  and  frdin  Yernon  to  Yersailles,  scattering  destruction  and 
dismay  along  the  route.  Near  the  latter  place,  an  amusing 
and  characteristic  incident  occurred.  A  Presbyterian  chap 
lain,  in  Morgan's  command,  captured  an  entire  company  of 
militia.  He  was  moving  ahead,  when  he  found  that  he  had 
flanked  the  advance,  and  run  upon  a  full  company  of  State 
militia.  Imitating  his  commander's  demeanor,  he  boldly  rode 
up  to  the  company  and  inquired  for  the  captain.  Being  in 
formed  that  there  was  a  dispute  as  to  who  should  lead  them, 
he  volunteered  his  services,  expatiating  largely  upon  the  part 
he  had  played  as  an  Indiana  captain  at  Shiloh,  and  was  soon 
elected  to  lead  the  valiant  Hoosiers  against  "  the  invading 
rebs."  Twenty  minutes  spent  in  drilling,  inspired  complete 
confidence;  and  when  the  advance  guard  of  Morgan's  com 
mand  had  passed  without  Captain  P.  permitting  the  Hoosiers 
to  fire,  he  ordered  them  into  the  road,  and  surrendered  them 
to  our  command.  Crest-fallen,  indeed,  were  the  Yankees  ;  but 
General  Morgan  treated  them  kindly,  and,  returning  to  them 
their  guns,  advised  them  to  go  home  and  not  come  hunting 
such  game  again,  as  they  had  every  thing  to  lose  and  nothing 
to  gain  by  it. 

Leaving  the  State  of  Indiana,  General  Morgan  struck  the 
Ohio  line  at  a  place  called  Harrison.  Here  he  completely 
destroyed  a  very  long  bridge  of  great  strength  and  value.  A 
feint  was^  here  made  upon  Cincinnati.  The  whole  Ohio  coun 
try,  in  this  direction,  is  chequered  over  with  railroads,  and  the 
attention  of  the  expedition  was  particularly  directed  to  these, 
Immense  damage  was  thus  inflicted  upon  the  enemy.  The 
Mississippi  and  Ohio  railroad  was  greatly  injured.  The  com- 


108  SOUTHERN    HISTCRY    OF    THE    WAR. 

niand  approached  within  eight  miles  of  the  city  of  Cincinnati, 
and  it  is  said  that  some  of  Morgan's  scouts  were  within  the 
suburbs  of  the  city. 

On  the  march,  the  command  bore  to  the  left  of  the  city, 
striking  the  little  Miami  railroad,  capturing  a  valuable  train 
of  cars  soon  after  reaching  the  road,  together  with  about  200 
Federal  soldiers.  The  train  was,  of  course,  destroyed,  which 
was  the  usual  disposition  made  of  such  captures. 

After  passing  Cincinnati,  Morgan  next  went  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Camp  Denison,  upon  which  point  he  made  another 
feint  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  enemy,  who  were  at  this 
time  harassing  him  as  he  proceeded.  Leaving  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Camp  Denison,  he  proceeded  through  the  interior  of 
the  State,  operating  upon  an  extensive  scale,  in  destroying  the 
railroads  in  which  that  section  abounds. 

Upon  arriving  near  the  town  of  Pomeroy,  another  feint  was 
here  resorted  to.  The  numerous  roads  in  this  section  were 
generally  very  effectively  blockaded,  and  much  difficulty  was 
experienced  in  overcoming  these  obstacles.  Near  Pomeroy 
General  Morgan  encountered  a  force  of  the  enemy  of  several 
thousand  men,  consisting  of  infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery. 
Whilst  the  skirmishers  were  engaged  at  this  point,  the  main 
fcfody  of  the  command  moved  around  the  town  to  the  left,  with 
the  view  of  reaching  the  river,  which  they  accomplished  about 
daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  18th  of  July,  at  Buffington 
Island.  Here  the  enemy  came  up  with  them,  with  a  strong 
force,  assisted  by  gunboats  in  the  river,  which  prevented  a 
crossing  at  this  point. 

The  rear  guard  of  the  expedition  held  the  enemy  in  check, 
whilst  the  main  body  was  enabled  to  move  off  from  the  river, 
to  a  point  further  up,  called  Belleville.  Here  another  effort 
was  made  to  cross.  About  two  hundred  of  the  command  had 
succeeded  in  crossing  the  river  when  the  gunboats  again  made 
their  appearance,  and  also  a  force  of  cavalry  and  infantry, 
evidently  the  same  which  had  opposed  them  at  Buffington. 
Only  two  men  were  drowned  of  the  number  which  attempted 
to  cross  the  river.  Morgan  being  thus  prevented  from  crossing 
his  whole  command,  those  who  effected  a  crossing  succeeded 
in  keeping  the  gunboats  at  bay  until  he  could  remove  his  force 
to  f  point  higher  up  the  river.  The  enemy  claimed  to  have 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  10,* 

taken  seventeen  hundred  prisoners  in  the  running  fight.  At 
any  rate,  the  few  hundred  who  had  crossed  the  Ohio,  thus 
cut  off  from  the  main  hody,  had  no  other  alternative  left  them 
but  to  make  their  way  as  they  best  could  to  the  Confederate 
lines,  which  they  succeeded  in  doing — passing  through  the 
mountains  of  West  Virginia  to  Lewisburg,  near  which  place 
they  encamped. 

Morgan  and  about  two  hundred  of  his  men  had  broken 
through  the  enemy's  lines,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio.  He 
had  by  some  means  got  into  a  carriage.  A  Yankee  major  saw 
him,  and,  galloping  up,  reached  for  him.  Morgan  jumped  out 
at  the  other  side  of  the  carriage,  leaped  over  a  fence,  seized 
a  horse,  and  galloped  off  as  fast  as  horse-flesh  could  carry 
him. 

The  fugitive  commander,  with  the  remainder  of  his  scat 
tered  forces,  pressed  three  citizens  of  Salineville  into  their 
service  as  guides,  and  continued  their  flight  on  the  New  Lisbon 
road.  One  of  the  impressed  guides  made  his  escape  and  rode 
back,  conveying  intelligence  of  the  route  taken,  which  it  was 
believed  was  with  the  ultimate  design  of  reaching  the  Ohio 
river  higher  up.  Forces  were  immediately  despatched  from 
Wellesville  to  head  him  off,  whilst  another  force  followed  hotly 
in  his  rear,  and  a^trong  militia  force  from  New  Lisbon  came 
down  to  meet  him. 

About  two  o'clock,  in  the  afternoon,  these  various  detach 
ments  closed  in  around  Morgan  in  the  vicinity  of  West  Point, 
about  midway  between  New  Lisbon  and  Wellesville.  The 
Confederates  were  driven  to  a  bluff  from  which  there  was  no 
escape,  except  by  fighting  their  way  through  or  leaping  from 
a  lofty  and  almost  perpendicular  precipice.  Finding  them 
selves  thus  cooped,  Morgan  surrendered  himself  and  the  rem 
nant  of  his  command. 

We  shall  have  occasion  elsewhere  to  refer  to  the  enemy's 
treatment  of  this  distinguished  captive.  It  is  sufficient  to  con 
clude  for  the  present  our  narrative  of  this  remarkable  expedition 
to  say,  that  its  brave  and  generous  leader  and  his  officers  were 
confined  in  felons'  cells  in  the  Ohio  Penitentiary ;  were  sub 
jected  to  cruelties  at  which  the  blood  runs  cold  ;  and  that  on 
the  20th  day  of  November,  Morgan  and  six  of  his  officers 
escaped  from  the  confinement  and  torture  of  their  infamous 


110  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

prison.  They  had  dug  out  of  their  cells  with  small  knives, 
after  weeks  of  constant  toil.  Morgan  left  behind  to  his  enemj 
an  account  of  his  toil  and  escape,  "with  two  small  knives," 
with  this  legend  :  "  La  patience  Jest  amere,  mais  son  fruit  e^ 
loux"  "  Patience  is  bitter,  but  its  fruit  is  sweet." 

So  far  from  Morgan's  expedition  being  accounted  a  failure, 
on  account  of  its  termination  in  a  surrender,  it  is  to  be  taken 
as  one  of  the  most  fruitful  and  brilliant  of  Confederate  suc 
cesses.  There  were  persons  who  accused  him  of  rashness  in 
crossing  the  Ohio.  But  those  who  preferred  this  flippant 
accusation  probably  did  not  know  that  although  the  passage 
of  the  Ohio  was  not,  at  the  outset,  a  part  of  General  Morgan's 
programme,  it  created  an  important  diversion  of  Burnside's 
army,  large  detachments  of  which  were  drawn  after  Morgan 
into  and  through  Kentucky;  prevented  the  Yankee  general 
from  marching  on  Knoxville  and  getting  in  rear  of  Bragg's 
army,  then  menaced  in  front  by  Kosecrans,  at  Shelby  ville ; 
thus  disconcerted  the  Yankee  campaign  in  the  West,  and  de 
layed  its  operations  for  many  valuable  weeks. 

It  is  true  that  Morgan  lost  about  two  thousand  prisoners. 
But  for  this  number  added  to  the  Yankee  exchange  list,  he  had 
exacted  an  immense  and  brilliant  compensation.  With  twenty- 
five  hundred  men  he  traversed  two  enormous  States  from 
end  to  end — occupied  their  towns  almost  at  pleasure — cut 
their  principal  arteries  of  communication,  burnt  depots,  de 
stroyed  engines,  sunk  steamboats  innumerable.  He  threw 
several  millions  of  people  into  frantic  consternation  for  the 
safety  of  their  property,  turned  entire  populations  into  fugi 
tives,  and  compelled  several  thousand  men  to  leave  their  occu 
pations  for  weeks  and  go  under  arms— only  as  an  equivalent 
to  him  and  his  twenty-five  hundred  troops.  He  paroled  near 
six  thousand  Yankees,  they  obligating  themselves  not  to  take 
up  arms  during  the  war.  He  destroyed  thirty-four  important 
bridges,  destroying  the  track  in  sixty  places.  His  loss  was  by 
no  means  slight:  twenty-eight  commissioned  officers  killed, 
thirty-five  wounded,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  killed  and 
wounded.  By  the  Yankee  accounts  he  killed  more  than  two 
hundred,  wounded  at  least  three  hundred  and  fifty,  and  cap 
tured,  as  before  stated,  near  six  thousand.  The  damage  to 
railroads,  steamboats,  and  bridges,  added  to  the  destruction 


THE    THIRD    YEAK.  Ill 

of  public  stores  and  depots,  was  not  less  than  ten  millions  of 
dollars. 

This  brilliant  expedition  taught  Confederates  the  value  of  ad 
venture.  Want  of  enterprise  had  been  the  curse  of  the  South 
in  war  as  in  peace ;  and  the  counsels  of  the  war  in  the  Confed 
eracy  had  been  too  much  to  the  effect  that  it  must  do  nothing 
but  parry — that  it  must  never  presume  to  thrust.  However 
unwelcome  the  ultimate  misfortune  of  General  Morgan,  it 
did  not  rob  his  expedition  of  its  glory,  or  its  profit  to  the 
Confederacy. 


112  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Contrast  between  our  Military  Fortunes  in  the  East  and  in  the  West. — S5m« 
Reasons  for  our  Success  in  Virginia. — Her  Hearty  Co-operation  with  the  Confederate 
Authorities. — Her  Contributions  to  the  War. — General  Bragg's  Situation  in  Tennes 
see. — Confederate  criticisms  on  General  Rosecrans. — Opinion  of  the  "  Chattanooga 
Rebel." — An  Extensive  Movement  Contemplated  by  Rosecrans. — Bragg's  Retreat  to 
Chattanooga. — The  Yankees  on  a  Double  Line  of  Operations. — Buckner's  Evacuation 
of  Knoxville.  THE  SURRENDER  OF  CUMBERLAND  GAP. — President  Davis'  Comment 
on  the  Surrender. — THE  BATTLES  OF  CHICKAMAUGA. — Braggs'  Evacuation  of  Chatta 
nooga. — Topography  of  the  Battle-field. — Thomas's  Column  of  Yankees  in  McLeniorc'a 
Cove. — Disobedience  of  Orders  by  Lieutenant-general  Hill  of  the  Confederates. — 
Bragg's  Orders  to  Lieutenant-general  Polk. — Two  Opportunities  Lost.  Note: 
Bragg's  Secret  and  Official  Report  of  the  Miscarriage  of  His  Plans.— The  First  Day's 
Engagement  on  the  Chickamauga. — Second  Day. — General  Polk's  Fight  on  our 
Right. — Loncrstreet's  Successful  Attack  on  the  Left. — The  Grand  Charge. — Rout  of 
the  Enemy. — Longstreet's  Message  to  Bragg. — Forrest  Up  a  Tree. — Bragg  Declines  to 
Pursue. — His  Hesitation  and  Error. — His  Movement  upon  Chattanooga. — Boast  of 
Rosecrans. — An  Empty  Victory  for  the  Confederate*. — Bragg's  Awkward  Pause. — 
Discussions  of  the  Campaign. — His  Supposed  Investment  of  Chattanooga. — Two 
Blunders  of  the  Confederate  Commander. — Chickamauga  a  Second  Edition  of  Bull 
Rnn.  Note  :  Observations  of  a  General  Officer  of  the  Confederate  States  Army  OB 
the  Campaign  in  the  West. 

TENNESSSEE  was  a  conspicuous  theatre  of  the  war,  but  one  of 
strange  misfortune  to  the  Confederates.  We  have  in  preceding 
volumes  of  this  work,  and  at  different  periods  in  the  history  of 
the  war,  referred  to  the  marked  and  striking  contrast  between 
our  military  fortunes  in  the  East  and  in  the  West.  True,  the 
picture  was  not  entirely  free  from  lights  and  shadows  on  either 
side.  Roanoke  Island  somewhat  marred  the  one,  while  the  first 
day  of  Shiloh,  the  brilliant  forays  of  Morgan,  Wheeler,  and 
Forrest,  and  the  unexpected  success  with  which,  for  more  than 
a  year,  Vicksburg  defied  three  successive  expeditions,  until  an 
evil  star  shed  its  malignant  influence  over  her,  lighted  up  the 
sombre  tints  of  the  other.  The  steady  tendency  and  actual  re 
sult  on  each  side  was,  however,  clear  and  unmistakable.  Two 
years  ago  our  army  was  encamped  at  Bowling  Green,  and  our 
batteries,  on  the  beetling  cliff  of  Columbus,  scowled  defiance 
to  Cairo.  From  the  time  General  Johnston  fell  back  from 


THE    THIKD    YEAK.  113 

Bowling  Green,  a  dark  and  bloody  struggle  ensued,  which  cul 
minated  in  the  disasters  of  Bragg's  Kentucky  campaign.  The 
battle  of  Murfreesboro',  in  which  we  won  a  brilliant  victory,  on 
the  31st  of  December,  1862,  afterwards  proved  but  a  drawn 
battle,  and  on  the  night  of  the  2d  of  January  following,  th 
Confederates  had  retreated  to  Tullahoma. 

The  remarkable  and  persistent  contrast  between  our  military 
affairs  in  the  West  and  those  east  of  the  Alleghanies,  especially 
on  the  grand  theatre  of  Virginia,  affords  a  curious  study  for 
the  future  and  elaborate  historian  of  the  war.  But  some  par 
tial  explanation  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  obvious  circumstances. 
The  army  of  Virginia  was  undoubtedly  superior  in  composition 
to  that  of  the  West.  The  Virginia  troops — it  may  be  said  with 
out  invidiousness,  where  there  is  so  much  of  common  glory  for 
every  member  of  the  Confederate  army — were  especially  com 
plimented  by  General  Lee  for  a  remarkable  union  of  spirit  and 
tractability,  which  made  them  the  best  soldiery  in  the  world. 
And  it  may  be  said  emphatically,  that  no  other  State,  whose 
soil  was  the  theatre  of  war,  had  exhibited  such  happy  accord, 
and  such  thorough  and  generous  co-operation  with  the  Confed 
erate  authority  as  had  Virginia.  It  is  in  the  circumstance  of 
this  zealous  and  devoted  co-operation  of  Virginia  with  the  Con 
federate  authority — in  contrast  with  the  conduct  of  certain 
other  States,  in  whose  borders  was  pitched  the  theatre  of  war — 
that  we  shall  especially  find  an  explanation  for  those  triumphs 
of  the  common  arms  of  the  South,  which  so  frequently  and  so 
uniformly  graced  her  soil. 

No  embarrassments  of  party  politics,  no  indecent  bickerings 
of  demagogues,  chilled  the  zeal  of  Virginia,  or  divided  her  ef 
forts  in  the  war.  From  the  beginning  of  the  contest  she  had 
poured  out  a  lavish  stream  of  contributions  to  every  necessity 
of  the  general  government.  In  the  fall  of  1863,  it  was  officially 
reported  in  her  legislature,  that  she  had  already  furnished 
102,915*  soldiers  to  the  Confederate  service,  and  that,  in  ad 
dition,  thirty  thousand  conscripts  had  just  passed  through  the 
camp  of  instruction,  and  that  she  had  issued  in  this  time, 
103,840  muskets,  399  pieces  of  cannon,  and  other  arms  in  pro 
portion. 

*  Statement  of  the  Number  of  Troops  Furnished  the  Confederate  States  tytlt, 

8 


114  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

In  adverting  to  the  fortunes  involved  by  the  fall  of  Ticks- 
burgh,  we  have  already  said,  that  General  Bragg's  army  in 
Tennessee  had  been  considerably  weakened  by  drafts  upon  it 
to  reinforce  the  lines  in  the  Southwest.  He  was  in  a  critical 
condition  at  Tullahoma.  Eosecrans  had  nearly  double  his  num 
bers  in  his  front,  and  Burnside,  who  commanded  what  the 
Yankees  called  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  was  in  a  position, 
by  an  advance  towards  Knoxville,  to  threaten  his  rear. 

Kosecrans,  whose  name  is  coupled  with  so  much  of  the  mil 
itary  history  of  the  West,  enjoyed  a  divided  reputation  in  the 
Confederacy,  being  esteemed  by  many  as  the  most  skilful  and 
formidable  of  Yankee  generals,  and  by  others,  as  a  lucky  mil 
itary  adventurer,  who  would  soon  run  his  career  of  good 
fortune.  In  the  early  stages  of  the  war,  he  had  made  great 
reputation  by  his  successes  over  Lee  in  Western  Virginia,  the 
latter  being  taken  quite  out  of  his  element,  in  a  contracted 
mountain  warfare,  and  being  easily  bewildered  by  a  man  who, 
as  an  itinerary  speculator,  a  peddler  in  "  oil  springs,"  had  made 
himself  minutely  familiar  with  these  mountains.  He  was  now 
at  the  head  of  the  class  in  President  Lincoln's  academy,  for  the 
graduation  of  young  and  sudden  h'eld-marshals.  In  the  De 
partment  of  Tennessee  his  star  had  been  in  the  ascendant ;  h 
had  yet  to  sustain  a  defeat ;  but  such  fortune,  said  those  who 
disputed  his  generalship,  was  simply  that  likely  to  attend  the 
march  of  a  much  superior  army  of  well-disciplined  western 
troops,  against  a  small  army  of  brave  ,and  patient,  but  badly 
handled  Confederates.  The  Chattanooga  Rebel  quoted  against 


State  of  Virginia,  as  taken  from  the  first  Rolls  on  file  in  the  Adjutant  and 
Inspector-general's  Office. 

Sixty-four  regiments  infantry 52,496 

Twenty  regiments  cavalry 14,175 

Two  regiments  artillery 1,779 

Twenty -eight  battalions,  cavalry,  infantry  and  artillery . .  11 ,717 

Nine  battalions  artillery,  Army  Northern  Virginia 4,500 

Two  hundred  and  fourteen  unattached  companies,  artil 
lery,  infantry  and  cavalry 18,248 

Total  number  of  men 102,915 

The  above  statement  does  not  embrace  the  recruits  or  conscripts  furnished 
v  the  State  of  Virginia. 

October,  1S68.  » 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  115 

him  a  vulgar,  but  trite  axiom,  among  the  backwoodsmsn  of 
Tennessee :  "  There  is  no  telling  the  luck  of  a  lousy  calf— he 
lives  all  the  winter,  and  dies  in  the  spring." 

Rosecrans  was  now  to  test  his  generalship  by  one  of  the 
most  extensive  movements  in  the  West:  the  occupation  of 
East  Tennessee,  and  a  movement  thence  into  the  heart  of  the 
cotton  States.  This  military  Hercules,  said  a  Northern  paper, 
had,  of  all  others,  been  selected  to  "  drive  a  wedge  into  the 
centre  of  the  Confederacy." 

Since  his  retreat  to  Tullahoma  General  Bragg  had  advanced 
to  Wartrace  and  Shelby  ville,  and  was  apparently  ready  to  give 
the  enemy  battle.  A  portion  of  his  forces  having  been  with 
drawn  to  Mississippi,  he  considered  that  he  was  left  as  a  mere 
army  of  observation.  The  enemy  at  last  succeeded  in  surprising 
our  forces  at  Liberty  and  Hoover's  Gaps  by  a  flank  movement, 
and  General  Bragg,  to  save  his  army,  fell  back,  on  the  27th  of 
June,  to  Chattanooga.  The  enemy  followed  at  leisure  to  the 
banks  of  the  Tennessee. 

The  enemy's  advance  on  Chattanooga  was  in  two  columns, 
on  axiouble  line  of  operations — Rosecrans  moving  on  Chatta 
nooga,  and  Burnside  moving  on  Knoxville.  It  was  thought  to 
be  necessary  that  the  exposed  left  flank  of  Rosecrans'  army 
should  be  covered  while  he  made  a  right  swinging  movement 
on  Chattanooga,  and  this  appeared  to  be  the  whole  purpose  of 
the  co-operation  of  Burnside's  column.  The  possession  of 
Knoxville,  under  the  circumstances,  was  not  supposed  to  be  of 
vital  moment,  for,  Chattanooga  in  the  enemy's  possession, 
Knoxville  and  the  whole  line  was  turned  and  fell  of  its  weight. 

On  the  20th  of  August,  it  was  ascertained  certainly  that 
Rosecrans  had  crossed  the  mountains  to  Stevenson  and  Bridge 
port.  His  force  of  effective  infantry  and  artillery  amounted 
to  fully  70,000,  divided  into  four  corps.  About  the  same  time 
General  Burnside  advanced  from  Kentucky  towards  Knoxville, 
East  Tennessee,  with  a  force  estimated  by  the  General  com 
manding  that  department  at  over  25,000.  In  view  of  the  great 
superiority  of  numbers  brought  against  him,  General  Buckner 
concluded  to  evacuate  Knoxville,  and  with  a  force  of  about 
5000  infantry  and  artillery,  and  his  cavalry,  took  position  in 
the  vicinity  of  London.  Two  brigades  of  his  command,  Frazier'a 
at  Cumberland  Gap  and  Jackson's  in  Northeast  Tennessee, 


116  SOFTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAK. 

were  thus  severed  from  us.  The  enemy  having  already  ol> 
tained  a  lodgment  in  East  Tennessee  by  another  route,  the 
continued  occupation  of  Cumberland  Gap  became  very  hazard 
ous  to  the  garrison  and  comparatively  unimportant  to  us.  Its 
evacuation  was  accordingly  ordered,  but  on  the  appeal  of  its 
commander,  stating  his  resources  and  ability  for  defence,  favor 
ably  endorsed  by  Major-Gen eral  Buckner,  the  orders  were 
suspended  on  the  31st  of  August.  The  main  body  of  our  army 
was  encamped  near  Chattanooga,  whilst  the  cavalry  force, 
much  reduced  and  enfeebled  by  long  service  on  short  rations, 
was  recruiting  in  the  vicinity  of  Home,  Georgia. 


THE  SURRENDER  OF  CUMBERLAND  GAP. 

We  may  anticipate  our  narrative  to  say  here  that  Cumber 
land  Gap  was  surrendered  on  the  9th  of  September  by  General 
Frazier;  a  garrison,  consisting  of  four  regiments,  about  two 
thousand  men,  and  fourteen  pieces  of  artillery  being  uncon 
ditionally  surrendered  to  the  enemy  without  firing  a  gun. 

The  first  demand  for  a  surrender  was  made  on  the  5th  by 
the  Yankee  General  Shackelford;  and  Colonel  De  Courcy 
having  come  up  with  a  brigade  on  the  Kentucky  side,  renewed 
the  demand  on  the  evening  of  the  9th  September.  General 
Frazier  replied  under  flag  of  truce,  asking  De  Courcy  the 
number  of  forces  to  which  he  was  ordered  to  surrender.  De 
Courcy  replied  nearly  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  refusing  to  give 
the  number  of  forces  under  his  command,  stating  that  it  was 
from  motives  entirely  disconnected  with  the  attack  upon  the 
gap  that  he  did  so.  General  Frazier  then  refused  to  surrender, 
and  it  was  understood  that  the  fight  would  open  at  twelve 
o'clock  the  next  day.  A  council  of  the  commanding  officers  of 
regiments  was  called,  which  resulted  in  the  refusal  of  all  to  be 
surrendered.  A  majority  preferred  the  risk  of  cutting  their 
way  throngh  the  Yankee  lines  to  being  surrendered  on  any 
terms.  A  fight  was  therefore  confidently  expected.  Near 
twelve  o'clock  on  Wednesday,  the  9th,  when  all  was  in  anxious 
expectation  for  the  fight  to  open,  General  Frazier  received  from 
Burnside,  under  flag  of  truce,  a  demand  for  the  unconditional 
surrender  of  himself  and  his  command.  Yery  soon  after  its 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  117 

reception,  one  of  General  Frazier's  aid-de-camps  came  in  great 
haste  down  the  mountain  and  ordered  the  battle-flag  down, 
and  a  white  one  to  be  hoisted  in  its  stead.* 

This  surrender  was  declared  bj  the  Richmond  Dispatch  to 
be  "  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  occurrences  of  the  war."  In 
a  message  to  Congress  President  Davis  said  of  it :  "  The  coun 
try  was  painfully  surprised  by  the  intelligence  that  the  officei 
in  command  of  Cumberland  Gap  had  surrendered  that  import 
ant  and  easily  defensible  pass  without  firing  a  shot,  upon  the 
summons  of  a  force  still  believed  to  have  been  inadequate  to 
its  reduction,  and  when  reinforcements  were  within  supporting 
distance,  and  had  been  ordered  to  his  aid.  The  entire  garri 
son,  including  the  commander,  being  still  held  prisoners  by  the 
enemy,  I  am  unable  to  suggest  any  explanation  of  this  disas 
ter,  which  laid  open  eastern  Tennessee  and  south-western  Vir 
ginia  to  hostile  operations,  and  broke  the  line  of  communica 
tion  between  the  seat  of  government  and  middle  Tennes- 


*  The  following  communication  with  respect  to  this  surrender  was  published 
in  the  Richmond  newspapers  from  Major  McDowell,  one  of  the  officers  of  the 
garrison. 

"  Various  statements  have  been  made  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  troops 
composing  the  command  at  Cumberland  Gap.  I  assert  most  positively  that  1 
have  yet  to  see  troops  in  finer  spirits,  or  more  determined  to  hold  their  ground 
than  the  troops  in  the  gap.  I  have  learned  that  an  attempt  is  being  made  to 
justify  the  surrender  of  the  gap  upon  the  ground  that  the  troops  in  the  gap 
would  not  fight,  and  that  some  of  them  shouted  when,  the  flag  was  ordered 
down.  The  last  charge  was  made  against  the  Sixty-second  North  Carolina  regi 
ment.  The  first  is  false,  and  the  second  not  only  false,  but  is  a  base  and  cowardly 
effort  to  protect  those  that  may  be  guilty  at  the  expense  of  the  innocent,  brave, 
patriotic  and  true.  We  were  surrendered,  then,  to  General  Burnside  on 
Wednesday,  the  9th,  at  4  o'clock  p.  M.  Many  made  their  escape  after  the 
surrender.  We  had  when  we  were  surrendered  provisions  upon  which  we 
could  have  subsisted  thirty  days.  We  had  all  the  ammunition  on  hand  that 
we  had  when  the  gap  was  first  invested.  My  regiment  had  150  rounds  to  the 
man,  and  I  presume  other  regiments  had  the  same.  If  the  surrender  was  a 
matter  of  necessity,  it  was  from  causes  other  than  a  want  of  provisions, 
ammunition,  or  a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  men  to  do  their  duty." 


118  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


THE   BATTLES    OF   CHICKAMAUGA. 

Before  proceeding  to  discuss  those  movements,  by  whicli  the 
forces  of  Rosecrans  and  of  Bragg  at  last  joined  in  decisive  bat 
tie,  a  topographical  coup  d'ceil  is  necessary. 

The  Cumberland  range  is  a  lofty  mass  of  rocks,  separating 
the  waters  which  flow  into  the  Cumberland  from  those  which 
flow  into  the  Tennessee,  and  extending  from  beyond  the  Ken 
tucky  line  in  a  south- westerly  direction  nearly  to  Athens, 
Alabama.  The  Sequatchie  Valley  is  along  the  river  of  that 
name,  and  is  a  canon  or  deep  cut  splitting  the  Cumberland 
range  parallel  to  its  length. 

Chattanooga  commands  the  southern  entrance  into  Tennes 
see,  and  is  one  of  the  great  gateways  through  mountains  to 
the  champaign  counties  of  Georgia  and  Alabama.  It  is  situ 
ated  on  the  Tennessee  river,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chattanooga 
Valley — a  valley  following  the  course  of  the  Chattanooga 
creek,  and  formed  by  Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary 
Ridge.  The  former  is  a  vast  palisade  of  rocks,  rising  twenty- 
four  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  in  abrupt  rocky 
cliffs,  from  a  steep,  wooded  base.  East  of  Missionary  Ridge, 
and  running  parallel  with  it,  is  another  valley — Chickamauga 
Valley — following  the  course  of  Chickamauga  creek,  which, 
with  the  Chattanooga  creek,  discharges  its  waters  into  the 
Tennessee  river — the  first  above,  and  the  last  below  the  town 
of  Chattanooga,  and  has  with  it  a  common  source  in  McLe- 
more's  Cove — the  common  head  of  both  valleys,  and  formed 
by  Lookout  Mountain  on  the  west,  and  Pigeon  Mountain  to 
the  east.  Wills'  Valley  is  a  narrow  valley  lying  to  the  west 
of  Chattanooga,  formed  by  Lookout  Mountain  and  Sand 
Mountain,  and  traversed  by  a  railroad,  which  takes  its  name 
from  the  valley,  and  which,  branching  from  the  Nashville  and 
Chattanooga  Railroad,  where  the  latter  crosses  the  valley,  has 
its  present  terminus  at  Trenton,  and  future  at  Tuscaloosa, 
Alabama.  The  wagon-road  from  Chattanooga  to  Rome, 
known  as  the  Lafayette  road,  crosses  Missionary  Ridge  into 
Chickamauga  Valley  at  Boss v ill e,  and,  proceeding  in  a  south 
westerly  direction,  crosses  Chickamauga  creek,  eleven  miles 
from  Chattanooga,  at  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  and,  passing  to 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  119 

the  east  of  Pigeon  Mountain,  goes  through  Lafayette,  distant 
some  twenty-two  miles  from  Chattanooga,  and  "Summerville 
within  twenty-five  miles  of  Rome. 

Immediately  after  crossing  the  mountains  to  the  Tennessee 
the  enemy  threw  a  corps  by  the  way  of  Sequatehie  Yalley  tc 
strike  the  rear  of  General  Buckner's  command,  whilst  Burn- 
side  occupied  him  in  front.  One  division,  already  ordered  to 
his  assistance,  proving  insufficient  to  meet  the  force  concen 
trating  on  him,  Buckner  was  directed  to  withdraw  to  the 
Hiawassee  with  his  infantry,  artillery,  and  supplies,  and  to 
hold  his  cavalry  in  front,  to  check  the  enemy's  advance.  As 
soon  as  this  change  was  made,  the  corps  threatening  his  rear 
was  withdrawn,  and  the  enemy  commenced  a  movement  in 
force  against  our  left  and  rear.  On  the  last  of  August  it  be 
came  known  that  he  had  crossed  his  main  force  over  the  Ten 
nessee  river  at  or  near  Caperton's  Ferry,  the  most  accessible 
point  from  Stevenson.  By  a  direct  route,  he  was  now  as  near 
our  main  depot  of  supplies  as  we  were,  and  our  whole  line  of 
communication  was  exposed,  while  his  own  was  partially 
secured  by  mountains  and  the  river.  By  the  timely  arrival  of 
two  small  divisions  from  Mississippi,  our  effective  force, 
exclusive  of  cavalry,  was  now  a  little  over  thirty-live  thousand, 
with  which  it  was  determined  to  strike  on  the  first  favorable 
opportunity.  Closely  watched  by  our  cavalry,  which  had 
been  brought  forward,  it  was  soon  ascertained  that  the 
enemy's  general  movements  were  towards  our  left  and  rear,  in 
the  direction  of  Dalton  and  Rome,  keeping  Lookout  Mountain 
between  us.  The  nature  of  the  country,  and  the  want  of  sup 
plies  in  it,  with  the  presence  of  Burnside's  force  on  our  riglit, 
rendered  a  movement  on  the  enemy's  rear,  with  our  inferior 
force,  extremely  hazardous,  if  not  impracticable.  It  was  now, 
therefore,  determined  to  meet  him  in  front  whenever  he  should 
emerge  from  the  mountain  gorges.  To  do  this  and  hold  Chat 
tanooga  was  impossible,  without  such  a  division  of  our  small 
force  as  to  endanger  both  parts.  Accordingly,  our  troops 
were  put  in  motion  on  the  Tth  and  8th  of  September,  and  took 
position  from  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills  to  Lafayette,  on  the  road 
leading  south  from  Chattanooga,  and  fronting  the  east  slope  of 
Lookout  Mountain. 

On  Monday,  September  Tth,  Lieutenant-general  D.  H.  Hill 


120  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

was  ordered  to  move  with  his  corps  to  Lafayette,  and  General 
Polk  to  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  and  Major-general  Buckner, 
with  the  army  of  East  Tennessee,  and  Major- general  Walker, 
with  his  division  from  the  army  of  Mississippi,  to  concentrate 
at  Lafayette,  and  Brigadier-general  Pegram  to  cover  the  rail 
road  with  his  cavalry.  These  dispositions  having  been  made 
of  the  Confederate  forces,  Major-general  Crittenden  command 
ing  the  left  wing  of  Rosecrans'  army,  which  had  not  moved 
with  the  right  and  centre,  but  had  been  left  in  the  Sequatchie 
Valley,  crossed  the  Tennessee  river  at  the  mouth  of  Battle 
creek,  and  moved  upon  Chattanooga.  Major-general  McCook, 
commanding  the  right  wing,  was  thrown  forward  to  threaten 
Rome,  and  the  corps  of  Major-general  Thomas  was  put  ID 
motion  over  Lookout  Mountain,  in  the  direction  of  Lafay 
ette. 

During  the  9th  of  September  it  was  ascertained  that  a  col 
umn  of  the  enemy  had  crossed  Lookout  Mountain  into  the 
cove  by  the  way  of  Stevens'  and  Cooper's.  Thrown  off  his 
guard  by  our  rapid  movement  apparently  in  retreat,  when  in 
reality  we  had  concentrated  opposite  his  centre,  and  deceived 
by  information  from  deserters  and  others  sent  into  his  lines, 
the  enemy  pressed  on  his  columns  to  intercept  us,  and  thus 
exposed  himself  in  detail. 

A  splendid  opportunity  was  now  presented  to  Bragg.  The 
detached  force  in  McLemore's  cove  was  Thomas's  corps.  Be 
ing  immediately  opposite  Lafayette,  at  and  near  which  General 
Bragg  had  all  his  forces  concentrated,  it  was  completely  at  the 
mercy  of  the  latter.  It  was  only  necessary  that  General  Bragg 
should  fall  upon  it  with  such  a  mass  as  would  have  crushed  it ; 
then  turned  down  Chattanooga  Yalley,  thrown  himself  in  be 
tween  the  town  and  Crittenden,  and  crushed  him  ;  then  passed 
back  between  Lookout  Mountain  and  the  Tennessee  river  into 
Wills'  Yalley,  and  cut  off  McCook's  retreat  to  Bridgeport ; 
thence  moved  along  the  Cumberland  range  into  the  rear  of 
Burnside,  and  disposed  of  him. 

No  time  was  to  be  lost  in  taking  advantage  of  a  blunder  of 
the  enemy,  into  which  he  had  fallen  in  his  stupid  conceit  that 
the  Confederates  were  retreating.  Instant  orders  were  given 
to  Major-general  Hindman  to  prepare  his  division  to  move 
against  Thomas,  and  he  was  informed  that  another  division 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  121 

from  Lieutenant- general  D.  II.  Hill's  command,  at  Lafayette, 
would  move  np  to  him  and  co-operate  in  the  attack. 

General  Hill  received  his  orders  on  the  night  of  the  9th 
He  replied  that  he  conld  not  undertake  the  movement;  that 
the  orders  were  impracticable;  that  Clebnrne,  who  commanded 
one  of  his  divisions,  was  sick  ;  and  that  both  the  gaps,  Dug 
and  Catlett's,  through  which  he  was  required  to  move,  were 
impassable,  having  been  blocked  by  felled  timber. 

Early  the  next  morning,  Hindman  was  promptly  in  position 
to  execute  his  part  of  the  critical  movement.  Disappointed  at 
Hill's  refusal  to  move,  General  Bragg,  with  desperate  haste, 
despatched  an  order  to  Major-general  Buckner  to  move  from 
his  present  position  at  Anderson,  and  execute,  without  delay, 
the  orders  issued  to  Hill. 

It  was  not  until  the  afternoon'  of  the  10th,  that  Buckner 
joined  Hindman,  the  two  commands  being  united  near  Davis's 
Cross-roads  in  the  cove.  The  enemy  was  still  in  flagrant 
error  moving  his  three  columns,  with  an  apparent  disposition 
to  form  a  junction  at  or  near  Lafayette.  To  strike  in  detail 
these  isolated  commands,  and  to  fall  upon  Thomas,  who  had 
got  the  enemy's  centre  into  McLemore's  Cove,  such  rapidity 
was  necessary  as  to  surprise  the  enemy  before  he  discovered 
his  mistake. 

Lieutenant-general  Polk  was  ordered  to  Anderson's,  to  cover 
Hindman's  rear,  who,  at  midnight  of  the  10th  of  September, 
again  received  orders,  at  all  hazards  to  crush  the  enemy's 
centre,  and  cut  his  way  through  to  Lafayette.  The  indomita 
ble  Cleburne,  despite  the  obstructions  in  the  road,  had  moved 
up  to  Dug  Gap  ;  was  jn  position  at  daylight ;  and  only  waited 
the  sound  of  Hindman's  guns  to  move  on  the  enemy's  flank 
and  rear. 

Courier  after  courier  sped  from  Dug  Gap  to  urge  Hindman 
on.  But  it  was  too  late.  The  enemy  had  discovered  the  mis 
take  that  had  well-nigh  proved  his  ruin.  He  had  taken  advan 
tage  of  our  delay,  retreated  to  the  mountain  passes  ;  and  so  the 
movement  upon  Thomas,  which  promised  such  brilliant 'results, 
was  lost  by  an  anachronism  by  which  the  best  laid  military 
schemes  are  so  frequently  defeated. 

But  it  was  not  easy  for  Rosecrans  to  repair  his  error  wholly, 
and  extricate  himself  from  the  meshes  of  a  bad  militfw  move- 


122  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

merit.     The  movement  upon  Thomas  in  McLemore's  Cove  hav 
ing  failed,  he  having  effected  his  escape  up  the  mountain, 
Rosecrans,  who,  by  this  time,  had  discovered  Bragg 's  where 
abouts,  recalled  McCook  into  Wills'  Valley,  and  ordered  him 
to  follow  Thomas,  who  was  again  put  in  motion  over  the  moan 
tain  into  the  cove.     But  the  third  corps,  under  Crittenden, 
moving  from  the  direction  of  Chattanooga,  was  yet  in  position 
to  be  attacked ;  and  dispositions  were  rapidly  made  by  Gen 
eral  Bragg  to  fall  upon  it,  and  thus  retrieve  in  some  measure 
the  miscarriage  of  his  other  plans. 

Crittenden  had  moved  on  towards  Ringgold,  with  the  hope 
of  cutting  off  Buckner.  On  reaching  the  point  on  the  Georgia 
railroad  at  which  Buckner  crossed,  he  discovered  he  was  too 
late,  and  turned  towards  Lafayette  to  follow  him.  He  moved 
up  the  Chickamauga,  on  its  east  side,  in  the  direction  of  La 
fayette,  and  was  confronted  by  the  cavalry  under  Generals 
Pegram  and  Armstrong.  After  skirmishes  with  them,  in 
which  there  were  some  brilliant  dashes  on  the  part  of  our 
cavalry,  the  latter  retired  slowly  before  the  enemy,  falling 
back  towards  Lafayette.  To  meet  this  movement,  General 
Bragg  ordered  a  force  of  two  divisions,  under  Lieutenant-gen 
eral  Polk,  to  move  to  the  front.  These  divisions,  Cheatham's 
and  Walker's,  were  put  in  motion,  and  were  in  line  of  battle 
before  daylight,  covering  the  three  roads  on  which  the  enemy's 
three  divisions  were  marching.  Hindman  came  up  after  day 
light,  and  Buckner  was  thrown  forward  as  a  supporting  force 
to  guard  Polk's  left  against  Thomas  and  McCook  in  the  cove. 
Crittenden,  finding  himself  confronted,  declined  battle,  and  re 
tired  during  the  night,  falling  back  on  the  Chickamauga,  which 
he  crossed  at  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  This  placed  the  whole 
of  Eosecrans'  three  corps  on  the  east  side  of  the  Chickamauga, 
and  in  easy  supporting  distance. 

Thus  had  failed  the  preliminary  plans  to  take  the  enemy  in 
a  flagrant  error  of  generalship,  and  at  vital  disadvantage;  and 
nothing  remained  but  to  fight  out  the  issue  against  his  concen 
trated  forces  on  the  banks  of  the  Chickamauga.* 


*  To  avoid  recriminations,  which  resulted  in  Generals  Hill  and  Polk  being 
deprived  of  their  commands  in  Bragg's  army,  we  annex  here  what  has  never 
been  published  in  the  Confederacy:  General  Bragg's  official  letters  and  orders 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  l23 

On  Saturday,  the  19th  September,  General  Bragg  had 
moved  his  army  by  divisions  and  crossed  it  at  several  fords  of 
the  Chickamauga  and  bridges  north  of  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills. 
Reinforcements  had  reached  him.  Johnston  had  arrived  with 


with  respect  to  the  alleged  dereliction  of  these  officers.  General  Polk  was  also 
blamed  in  subsequent  operations,  as  we  shall  see. 

Major-general  Hindman  received  verbal  instructions  on  the  9th 

to  prepare  his  division  to  move  against  this  force  [Thomas's  corps],  and  was 
informed  that  another  division  from  Lieutenant-general  Hill's  command,  at 
Lafayette,  would  join  him.  That  evening,  the  following  written  orders  were 
issued  to  Generals  Hindman  and  Hill : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  11|  P.  M.,  Sept.  9th,  1863.  j" 

GENERAL  : — You  will  move  your  division  immediately  to  Davis's  X  roads 
on  the  road  from  Lafayette  to  Stevens'  Gap.  At  this  point  you  will  put  your 
self  in  communication  with  the  column  of  General  Hill,  ordered  to  move  to  the 
same  point,  and  take  command  of  the  joint  forces,  or  report  to  the  officer  com 
manding  Hill's  column,  according  to  rank.  If  in  command  you  will  move 
upon  the  enemy,  reported  to  be  4,000  or  5,000  strong,  encamped  at  the  foot  of 
Lookout  Mountain,  at  Stevens'  Gap.  Another  column  of  the  enemy  is  reported 
to  be  at  Cooper's  Gap,  number  not  known. 
I  am,  General,  &c., 

Signed,  KINLOCK  FALCONER,  A.  A.  General. 

To  MAJOR-GENERAL  HINDMAN, 

Commanding  Livision. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  11  f  P.  M.,  Sept.  Uth,  1863.  j 

GENERAL: — I  enclose  orders  given  to  General  Hindman.  General  Bragg 
directs  that  you  send  or  take,  as  your  judgment  dictates,  Cleburne's  division 
to  unite  with  General  Hindman  at  Davis's  X  roads  to-morrow  morning.  Hind- 
man  starts  at  12  o'clock  to-night  and  he  has  thirteen  miles  to  make.  The 
commander  of  the  column  thus  united  will  move  upon  the  enemy  encamped  at 
the  foot  of  Stevens'  Gap,  said  to  be  4,000  or  5,000.  If  unforeseen  circumstances 
should  prevent  your  movement,  notify  Hindman.  A  cavalry  force  should  ac 
company  yotir  column.  Hindman  has  none.  Open  communications  with 
Hindman  with  your  cavalry,  in  advance  of  the  junction  He  marches  on  the 
road  from  Dr.  Anderson's  to  Davis's  X  roads. 

I  am,  General,  &c.,  &c., 

KINLOCK  FALCONER,  A.  A.  General. 

LIE  DTEN ANT-GENERAL  HlLL, 

Commanding. 

On  the  receipt  of  his  order,  during  the  night,  General  Hill  replied  that  th« 
movement  required  by  him  was  impracticable;,  as  General  Cluburne  was  sick, 
and  Uoth  the  gaps— Dug  and  Catlett's— had  been  blocked  by  felling  timber, 
which  would  require  twenty-four  hours  for  its  removal.  Not  to  lose  this  favor 
able  opportunity,  Hin  Iman,  by  prompt  movement,  being  ready  in  position,  the 


124  SOUTHEEN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    T\  \E. 

two  brigades  from  Mississippi,  and  reinforcements  from  Gen 
eral  Lee's  lines  in  Virginia  were  hurrying  tip  to  what  was  to 
be  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most  critical  and  magnificent  actions 
of  the  war.  The  latter  reinforcements  consisted  of  five  brig- 
following  orders  were,  issued  at  8  o'clock,  A.  M.,  on  the  10th,  for  Major-general 
Buckner  to  move  with  his  two  divisions,  and  report  to  Hindman. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  8  o'clock  A.  M.,  Sept.  10th,  1863. ) 
GENERAL  : — I  enclose  '«rders  issued  last  night  to  Generals  Hill  and  Hind 
man.     General  Hill  has  found  it  impossible  to  carry  out  the  part  assigned  to 
Cleburne's  division.     The  general  commanding  desires  that  you  will  execute 
without  delay  the  order  issued  to  General  Hill.    You  can  move  to  Davis's  X 
roads  by  the  direct  road  from  your  present  position  at  Anderson's,  along  which 
General  Hindman  has  passed. 

I  am,  General,  &c.,  &c., 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  General. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  BUCKNER, 

Anderson's. 

And  both  Hindman  and  Hill  were  notified.  Hindman  had  halted  his  divis. 
ion  at  Morgan's,  some  three  or  four  miles  from  Davis's  X  roads,  in  the  cove, 
and  at  this  point  Buckner  joined  him  during  the  afternoon  of  the  10th.  Re 
ports  fully  confirming  previous  information  in  regard  to  the  position  of  tha 
enemy's  forces,  were  received  during  the  10th,  and  it  became  certain  that  h* 
was  moving  his  three  columns  to  form  a  junction  upon  us  at  or  near  Lafayette. 

The  corps  near  Colonel  Winston's  moved  on  the  mountain  towards  Alpine,  * 
point  twenty  miles  south  of  us.  The  one  opposiV")  the  cove  continued  its  move 
ment  and  threw  forward  its  advance  to  Davis's  X  roads,  and  Crittenden  moved 
from  Chattanooga  on  the  roads  to  Ringgold  and  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mill.  To 
strike  these  isolated  commands  in  succession  was  our  obvious  policy.  To  se 
cure  more  prompt  and  decided  action  in  the  movement  ordered  against  the 
enemy's  centre,  my  Headquarters  were  removed  to  Lafayette,  where  I  arrived 
about  Hi  on  the  10th, — and  Lieutenant-general  Polk  was  ordered  forward 
with  his  remaining  division  to  Anderson's,  so  as  to  cover  Hindman's  rear  dur 
ing  the  operations  in  the  cove.  At  Lafayette  I  met  Major  Nocquet,  engineer 
officer  on  General  Buckner's  staff,  sent  by  General  Hindman  after  a  junction  of 
their  commands,  to  confer  with  me  and  suggest  a  change  in  the  plan  of  opera 
tions.  After  hearing  the  report  of  this  officer,  and  obtaining  from  the  active 
and  energetic  cavalry  commander  in  front  of  our  position,  Brigadier  general 
Martin,  the  latest  information  of  the  enemy's  movements  and  position,  I  ver 
bally  directed  the  major  to  return  to  General  Hindman,  and  say  that  my  plans 
could  not  be  changed,  and  that  he  would  carry  out  his  orders.  At  the  same 
time  the  following  written  orders  were  sent  to  the  general  by  a  courier: 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE, 
Lafayette,  Ga.,  12  P.  M.,  Sept.  10th,  1863. 
GENERAL  : — Headquarters  are  here  and  the  following  is  the  information  : 
Crittenden's  corps  is  advancing  on  us  from  Chattanooga.     A  large  force  from 
the  South  has  advanced  to  within  seven  miles  of  this  point.     Polk  is  left  at 


THE    TRIED    YEAR.  125 

ades  of  Longstreet's  corps ;  and  these  were  without  artillery 
and  transportation.     The  Virginia  troops  landed  from  the  rail 
road  at  Kinggold,  and  were  moved  rapidly  forward  to   the 
Chickamauga. 
Eosecrans'  army  was  distributed  from  the  head  of  McLe- 


Anderson's  to  cover  your  rear.  General  Bragg  orders  you  to  attack  and  force 
your  way  through  the  enemy  to  this  point,  at  the  earliest  hour  you  can  see 
him  in  the  morning. 

Cleburne  will  attack  in  front  the  moment  your  guns  are  heard. 

I  am,  General,  &c., 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  General 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HINDMAN, 

Commanding,  &c. 

Orders  were  also  given  for  Walker's  reserve  corps  to  move  promptly  and 
join  Cleburne  division  at  Dug  Gap  to  unite  in  the  attack.  At  the  same  time 
Cleburne  was  directed  to  remove  all  obstructions  in  the  road  in  his  front, 
ivhich  was  promptly  done,  and  by  daylight  he  was  ready  to  move.  The  ob- 
Ptructions  in  Catlett's  Gap  were  also  ordered  to  be  removed  to  clear  the  road 
in  Hindman's  rear.  Breckinridge's  division,  Hill's  corps,  was  kept  in  position 
south  of  Lafayette  to  check  any  movement  the  enemy  might  make  from  thai 
direction. 

At  daylight  I  proceeded  to  join  Cleburne  at  Dug  Gap,  and  found  him  wait 
ing  the  opening  of  Hindman's  guns  to  move  on  the  enemy's  flank  and  rear. 
Most  of  the  day  was  spent  in  this  position,  waiting,  in  great  anxiety,  for  the 
attack  by  Hindman's  column.  Several  couriers  and  two  staff  officers  were  des 
patched  at  different  times,  urging  him  to  move  with  promptness  and  vigor. 
About  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  the  first  gun  was  heard,  when  the  advance 
of  Cleburue's  division  discovered  the  enemy  had  taken  advantage  of  our  delay 
and  retreated  to  the  mountain  passes.  The  enemy  now  discovered  his  error 
and  commenced  to  repair  it  by  withdrawing  his  corps  from  the  direction  of 
Alpine  to  unite  with  the  one  near  McLemore's  Cove,  while  that  was  gradually 
extended  towards  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  Our  movement  having  thus  failed 
in  its  justly  anticipated  results,  it  was  determined  to  turn  upon  the  third  corps 
of  the  enemy  approaching  us  from  the  direction  of  Chattanooga.  The  forces 
were  accordingly  withdrawn  to  Lafayette,  and  Folk's  and  Walker's  corps  were 
moved  immediately  in  the  direction  of  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  The  one  corps 
of  the  enemy  in  this  direction  was  known  to  be  divided — one  division  having 
been  sent  to  Ringgold.  Upon  learning  the  dispositions  of  the  enemy  from  our 
cavalry  commander  in  that  direction  on  the  afternoon  of  the  12th,  Lieutenant 
general  Polk,  commanding  the  advance  forces,  was  directed  in  the  following 
note. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lafayette,  Ga.,  6  P.  M.,  12th  Sept. ) 

GENERAL: — I  enclose  you  a  despatch  from  General  Pegram.  This  presents 
you  a  fine  opportunity  of  striking  Crittenden  in  detail,  and  I  hope  you  wxl] 
avail  yourself  of  it  at  daylight  to-morrow.  This  division  crushed  and  flia 


126  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

more's  Cove,  along  and  down  the  west  side  of  the  Chicka- 
iriauga  Valley,  as  far  as  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  Chickamauga 
creek  separating  it  from  the  army  of  the  Confederates. 

The  enemy  commenced  the  affair  of  the  19th  by  a  vigorous 
attack  on  Major-general  "Walker's  corps.  Our  line  was  formed 
with  Buckner's  left  resting  on  the  Chickamauga  about  one 

others  are  yours.    We  can  then  turn  again  on  the  force  in  the  cove.    Whee 
ler's  cavalry  will  move  on  Wilden  so  as  to  cover  your  right. 
I  shall  be  delighted  to  hear  of  your  success. 

Very  truly,  Yours, 

Signed,  BRAXTON  BRAGG. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  POLK. 

Upon  further  information  the  order  to  attack  at  daylight  on  the  13th,  was  re 
newed  in  two  notes,  at  later  hours  of  the  same  day,  as  follows : 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lafayette,  8  P.  M.,  Sept.  12th,  1863. ) 

GENERAL  : — I  enclose  you  a  despatch  marked  "  A  "  and  I  now  give  you  the 
orders  of  the  commanding  general,  viz. :  to  attack  at  day-dawn  to-morrow  the 
infantry  column  reported  in  said  despatch  at  |  of  a  mile  beyond  Pea-vine 
church,  on  the  road  to  Qraysville  from  Lafayette. 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  General 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  POLK, 

Commanding  Corps 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  TENNESSEE,     ) 
Lafayette,  Georgia,  Sept.  12th,  1863. ) 

GENERAL: — The  enemy  is  approaching  from  the  South,  and  it  is  highly 
Important  that  your  attack  in  the  morning  should  be  quick  and  decided.  Let 

no  time  be  lost. 

I  am,  General,  &c., 

Signed,  GEO.  W.  BRENT,  A.  A.  General. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  POLK, 

Commanding  Corps. 

At  11  P.  M.  a  despatch  was  received  from  the  general  stating  that  he  had 
taken  a  strong  position  for  defence,  and  requesting  that  he  should  be  heavily 
reinforced.  He  was  promptly  ordered  not  to  defer  his  attack,  his  force  being 
already  superior  to  the  enemy,  and  was  reminded  that  his  success  depended 
upon  the  promptness  and  rapidity  of  his  movements.  He  was  further  in 
formed  that  Buckner's  corps  would  be  moved  within  supporting  distance  the 
next  morning.  Early  on  the  13th  I  proceeded  to  the  front,  ahe*»d  of  Buckner's 
command,  to  find  that  no  advance  had  been  made  on  the  enemy,  and  that  hii 
forces  had  formed  a  junction  and  recrossed  the  Chickamauga. 

BRAXTON  BRAGG,  General. 
To  GENERAL  S.  COOPER, 

Adjutant  and  Inspector  General,  Richmond,  Va. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  127 

mile  below  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills.  On  his  right  camo 
Wood  with  his  own  and  Johnston's  divisions,  with  Walker  on 
the  extreme  right, — Cheatham's  division  being  in  reserve. 
General  Walker  found  a  largely  superior  force  of  the  enemj 
opposed  to  him.  He  drove  them  handsomely,  however,  and 
captured  several  batteries  of  artillery  in  most  gallant  charges 
Before  Cheatham's  division,  ordered  to  his  support,  could 
reach  him,  he  had  been  pressed  back  to  his  first  position 
by  the  extended  lines  of  the  enemy  assailing  him  on  both 
flanks. 

The  two  commands  united  were  soon  enabled  to  force  the 
enemy  back  again,  and  recover  our  advantage,  though  we 
were  yet  greatly  outnumbered. 

These  movements  on  our  right  were  in  a  direction  to  leave 
an  opening  in  our  line  between  Cheatham  and  Hood.  Stew 
art's  division  forming  Buckner's  second  line  was  thrown  to  the 
right  to  fill  this,  and  it  soon  became  hotly  engaged,  as  did 
Hood's  whole  front. 

The  enemy,  whose  left  was  at  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills  when 
our  movement  commenced,  had  rapidly  transferred  forces  from 
his  extreme  right,  changing  his  entire  line,  and  seemed  dis 
posed  to  dispute  with  all  his  ability  our  effort  to  gain  the  main 
-oad  to  Chattanooga  in  his  rear. 

Lieutenant-general  Polk  was  ordered  to  move  his  remaining 
division  across  at  the  nearest  ford  and  to  assume  the  command 
in  person  on  our  right.  Hill's  corps  was  also  ordered  to  cross 
below  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills  and  join  the  line  on  the  right. 
Whilst  these  movements  were  being  made  our  right  and  cen 
tre  were  heavily  and  almost  constantly  engaged. 

Stewart  by  a  vigorous  assault  broke  the  enemy's  centre  and 
penetrated  far  into  his  lines,  but  was  obliged  to  retire  for 
want  of  sufficient  force  to  meet  the  heavy  enfilade  fire  which 
he  encountered  from  the  right. 

Hood,  later  engaged,  advanced  from  the  first  fire  and  con 
tinued  to  drive  the  force  in  his  front  until  night. 

Cleburne's  division  of  Hill's  corps,  which  first  reached  the 

ight,  was  ordered  to  attack  immediately  in  conjunction  with 

the  force  already  engaged.     This  veteran  command,  under  its 

gallant  chief,  moved  to  its  work  after  sunset,  taking  the  enemy 

completely  by  surprise,  driving  him  in  great  disorder  for  nearly 


128  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

a  mile,  and  inflicting  a  very  heavy  loss.  Night  found  us  ma* 
ters  of  the  ground,  after  a  series  of  very  obstinate  contests  witi 
largely  superior  numbers. 

For  the  grand  and  decisive  work  of  the  next  day,  the  forces 
of  Bragg's  army  were  divided  into  two  wings. 

The  right  wing  was  placed  under  Lieutenant-general  Polk, 
and  the  left  under  Lieutenant-general  Longstreet.  The  former 
was  composed  of  Lieutenant-general  Hill's  corps,  of  two  divis 
ions,  Major-general  Cleburne's  and  Major-general  Breckin- 
ridge's;  of  the  division  of  Major-general  Cheathaai,  of  Lieu 
tenant-general  Folk's  corps,  and  the  division  of  Major-general 
W.  H.  T.  Walker. 

The  left  was  composed  of  the  divisions  of  Major-genera-? 
Stewart,  and  Brigadier-general  Freston  and  Bushrod  Johnson, 
of  Major-general  Buckner's  corps;  Major-general  Hindman, 
of  Lieutenant-general  Folk's  corps,  and  Benning's,  Lane's  and 
Robertson's  brigades,  of  Hood's  division,  and  Kershaw's  and 
Humphrie's  brigades,  of  McLaw's  division,  of  his  own  (Lieu 
tenant-general  Longstreet's)  corps. 

The  front  line  of  the  right  wing  consisted  of  three  divisions 
— Breckinridge  and  Cleburne,  of  Hill's  corps,  and  Cheatham, 
of  Folk's  corps — which  were  posted  from  right  to  left  in 
the  order  named.  Major-general  Walker  was  held  in  re 
serve. 

The  left  wing  was  composed  of  Major-general  Stewart's  di 
vision  on  the  right  with  Hood's  on  the  left.  On  Hood's  left 
was  Hind  man's  division  of  Lieutenant-general  Folk's  corps, 
with  Preston's  division  of  Buckner's  corps  on  the  extreme 
left. 

Orders  were  given  to  Lieutenant-general  Polk  to  commence 
the  attack  at  daylight.  The  left  wing  was  to  await  the  attack 
by  the  right,  take  it  up  promptly  when  made,  and  the  whole 
line  was  then  to  be  pushed  vigorously  and  persistently  against 
the  enemy  throughout  its  extent. 

"Before  the  dawn  of  day,"  writes  General  Bragg  in  his  offi 
cial  report,  u  myself  and  staff  were  ready  for  the  saddle,  occu 
pying  a  position  immediately  in  rear  of  and  accessible  to  all 
parts  of  the  line.  With  increasing  anxiety  and  disappoint 
ment  I  waited  until  after  sunrise  without  hearing  a  gun  ;  and 
at  length  despatched  a  staff  officer  to  Lieutenant-general  Polk 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  129 

to  ascertain  the  cause  of  the  delay,  and  urge  him  to  a  prompt 
and  speedy  movement.  This  officer  not  finding  the  general 
with  his  troops,  and  learning  where  he  had  spent  the  night, 
proceeded  across  Alexander's  Bridge,  to  the  east  side  of  the 
Chickamauga,  and  there  delivered  my  message.  Proceeding  in 
person  to  the  right  wing,  I  found  the  troops  not  even  prepared 
for  the  movement.  Messengers  were  immediately  despatched 
for  Lieutenant-general  Polk,  and  he  shortly  after  joined  me. 
My  orders  were  renewed  and  the  general  was  urged  to  their 
prompt  execution,  the  more  important  as  the  ear  was  saluted 
throughout  the  night  with  the  sounds  of  the  axe  and  falling 
timber  as  the  enemy  industriously  labored  to  strengthen  his 
position  by  hastily  constructed  barricades  and  breastworks. 
A  reconnoissance  made  in  the  front  of  our  extreme  right  dur 
ing  this  delay  crossed  the  main  road  to  Chattanooga,  and 
proved  the  important  fact  that  this  greatly  desired  position 
was  open  to  our  possession.  The  reasons  assigned  for  this  un 
fortunate  delay  by  the  wing  commander,  appear  in  part  in  the 
reports  of  his  subordinates.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  they  are 
entirely  unsatisfactory." 

But  it  was  said,  on  the  other  side  of  the  story,  that  Polk's 
delay  was  due  to  circumstances  beyond  his  control ;  that,  prior 
to  giving  the  order  to  move  forward  to  the  Attack,  General 
Polk  discovered  that  owing  to  the  want  of  precaution  on  the 
part  of  the  proper  authority  in  the  formation  of  the  general 
line  of  battle,  a  portion  of  the  line  of  the  left  wing  had  been 
formed  in  front  of  his  line — a  portion  amounting  to  a  whole 
division — and  that  had  the  order  to  make  the  attack  at,  daylight 
been  obeyed,  this  division,  from  its  position,  must  inevitably 
have  been  slaughtered.  It  was  saved  by  an  order  to  halt 
Cheatharn's  division,  and  by  orders  to  the  left  of  Cleburne  ad 
vising  it  of  its  whereabouts. 

The  action  was  opened  upon  the  right  of  the  Confederates 
about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  by  a  forward  movement  oi 
Breckiriridge,  followed  and  accompanied  by  Cleburne.  The 
enemy  had  during  the  night  thrown  up  breastworks  of  heavy 
timber,  cut  down  from  the  forest,  behind  which  he  had  en 
trenched  himself.  These  lay  chiefly  in  Cleburne's  front.  He 
moved  direct  upon  them,  while  Breckiriridge  swung  round  tc 
flank  them.  The  assault  was  a  desperate  one.  General  Poli 


130  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 


informed  by  General  Hill  that  the  enemy  was  threaten 
ing  his  right  flank,  Polk  ordered  Walker  immediately  to  move 
to  the  right  and  form  an  echelon  upon  Breckinridge,  over 
lapping  his  right.  It  was  then  ascertained  that  no  enemy  was 
there.  But  the  forward  movement  of  the  front  line  had  resulted 
in  a  severe  conflict,  desperately  contested,  which  drove  the 
enemy  around  on  the  extreme  left  a  mile  or  more  across  the 
Chattanooga  road. 

For  two  hours  the  fight  raged  with  sublime  fury.  Again 
and  again,  as  we  struck  the  enemy,  did  his  stately  lines  of 
soldiers  crumble  into  masses  of  terror-stricken  fugitives. 
Thomas  commanded  the  Yankee's  left.  Heavy  reinforcements 
being  sent  from  the  enemy's  right  to  him,  he  was  enabled  to 
regain  a  portion  of  the  ground  he  had  lost.  Xever  did  Yankees 
fight  better  than  just  here.  They  drove  back  Cleburne's  magni 
ficent  division,  and  it  appeared  at  one  time  as  if  our  right 
and  centre  were  giving  way  before  Thomas's  extraordinary 
attack. 

But  while  such  were  the  operations  on  our  right  wing,  the 
tide  of  battle  running  from  right  to  left  had  reached  Long- 
street'a  extreme  left  about  eleven  o'clock.  Hood  and  others 
were  ordered  to  make  a  vigorous  assault  in  front  ;  Buckne 
was  made  to  execute  a  successful  flank  movement  ;  and  under 
the  vigor  of  the  combined  attack  Rosecrans  found  his  lines 
steadily  giving  way,  and  McCook  and  Crittenden  forced  far  to 
the  right.  He  had  moved  most  of  his  strength  to  the  left 
where  Thomas  had  fought  so  brilliantly,  but  with  the  advantage 
of  superior  numbers.  Negley,  hard  pressed  on  the  left,  reported 
to  Rosecrans.  "  Tell  General  Negley  I  can't  help  him,"  was 
the  reply. 

The  Yankees  in  Longstreet's  front  had  sought  a  position  on 
a  high  ridge.  From  this  position  they  were  driven,  with  heavy 
loss  in  killed,  wounded,  prisoners,  artillery,  small-arms  and 
colors,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  by  the  brigades  of  Kershaw 
and  Humphries,  under  the  command  of  Brigadier-general 
Kershaw,  in  the  absence  of  Major-general  McLaws,  reinforced 
by  Gracise's,  Kelley's,  and  Trigg's  brigades,  of  Major-general 
Preston's  division,  Major-general  Hind  man  completing  the 
general  work  of  the  line  to  the  left  by  driving  the  enemy  on 
his  front  before  him  along  with  those  driven  from  the  ridge  by 


THE    THIRD    YEAE.  131 

Preston  and  Kershaw.  Kosecrans,  perceiving  what  was  taking 
place  on  his  right,  ordered  up  reinforcements  from  his  left  to 
support  his  retiring  or  rather  frightened  battalions,  which, 
finding  a  good  position,  awaited  their  arrival,  turning  upon 
their  pursuers  with  the  fierceness  of  a  temporary  and  desperate 
energy.  Brigadier-general  Law,  commanding  Hood's  division, 
perceiving  this  movement,  ordered  a  battery  of  ten  guns  to  a 
position  from  which  he  could  enfilade  the  reinforcing  column 
as  it  advanced.  The  battery  opened  just  as  it  was  about 
wheeling  into  position,  and,  at  the  same  time,  Stewart's  divi 
sion,  posted  on  the  extreme  right,  was  thrown  forward  on  its 
flank.  The  shock  was  terrible.  The  enemy  halted,  staggered 
backwards,  and  fell  into  confusion.  % 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  when  the  whole  Confederate  line 
was  revised  and  posted,  and  a  forward  movement  in  all  its 
length  ordered.  The  right  swung  round  with  an  extended 
sweep,  with  its  firm  supports,  and  the  left  rallied  once  more  to 
the  charge  of  the  works,  before  which  it  had  suffered  so 
severely  in  the  morning.  Never  did  troops  move  up  to  their 
work  with  more  resolution  ;  the  daring  Breckinridge  with  his 
Kentuckians  and  Louisianians,  and  Cleburne  with  his  Arkan- 
eians  and  Alabarnians,  and  Walker  with  his  South  Carolinians, 
Mississippians,  and  Georgians,  and  Cheatham  with  his  Tennes- 
seeans — all  moved  forward  in  one  mighty  tide  amidst  the 
thunders  of  some  twenty  batteries,  and  the  roar  of  thousands 
of  muskets  and  rifles.  The  scene  was  one  of  surpassing  sublim 
ity  and  grandeur.  Sweeping  forward  as  the  flood  of  a  mighty 
river,  it  carried  every  thing  before  it,  nothing  being  able  to 
stand  in  the  resistless  line  of  its  path.  The  enemy's  works, 
which  opposed  such  a  stubborn  resistance  in  the  morning,  suc 
cumbed  before  the  torrent,  and  the  brave  men  of  Cleburne's 
division,  which  had  been  repulsed  in  the  morning,  had,  by 
their  extraordinary  gallantry  in  the  evening,  the  opportunity 
of  avenging  the  experiences  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  day.  The 
whole  field  was  carried  triumphantly,  and  the  enemy  driven  as 
chaff  before  the  wind.  He  withstood  as  long  as  human  powers 
of  endurance  could  bear  up  against  such  a  pressure,  then 
yielded,  and  fell  back  partly  upon  and  into  the  hands  of  the 
right  wing,  where  several  hundred  were  captured,  the  residue 
crossing  the  Chattanooga  road  and  retreating  in  the  direction 


132  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  Missionary  Eidge.  Night  interposed,  and  though  it  brought 
with  it  a  magnificent  moon,  no  orders  were  received  to  pursue, 
and  the  troops  were  halted,  giving  expression  to  their  sense  of 
the  glorious  victory  won,  and  unconquerable  desire  to  pursue 
it  to  an  absolute  success  in  the  enemy's  utter  annihilation,  in 
such  long,  loud  and  triumphant  cheering,  as  would  almost 
seem  to  rend  the  heavens. 

Never  was  a  more  disorderly  retreat  of  an  enemy.  Long- 
street,  who  had  contributed  so  much  to  the  fortunes  of  the  day, 
now  saw  that  by  a  forward  movement  of  the  whole  army, 
Hosecrans'  whole  force  might  be  captured  in  twenty-four 
hours,  and  that  no  obstacle  was  between  us  and  the  Ohio,  and 
perhaps  peace.  He  sent  word  to  Wheeler,  who  was  on  his  left, 
to  dash  forward  between  Chattanooga  and  the  enemy  and  cut 
him  to  pieces;  but  just  as  Wheeler  was  about  to  execute  this 
movement,  he  received  an  order  from  Bragg  directing  him  to 
pick  up  arms  and  stragglers.  It  was  said  that  Longstreet  had 
not  heard  from  Bragg  but  once  during  the  day,  and  then  it 
was  to  say  that  he  was  beaten  on  the  right.  He  now  sent  to 
beg  him  to  advance;  but  the  General-in-chief  declined  to 
do  so. 

General  Forrest  had  climbed  a  tree  and  from  his  lofty  perch 
watched  the  retreating  enemy.  He  saw  the  blue  uniforms 
swarming  over  the  fields,  and  the  disorganized  masses  of  the 
enemy  choked  with  flight,  and  struggling  in  mortal  panic  as 
sounds  of  feeble  pursuit  followed  on  their  heels.  He  shouted 
to  a  staff  officer :  "  Tell  General  Bragg  to  advance  the  whole 
army  ;  the  enemy  is  ours." 

Bragg  did  not  catch  the  inspiration.  He  tells  us  in  his  official 
report :  "  The  darkness  of  the  night  and  the  density  of  die  forest 
rendered  further  movements  uncertain  and  dangerous,  and 
the  army  bivouacked  on  the  ground  it  had  so  gallantly 
won." 

But  granting  that  reasons,  substantive  reasons,  existed  for  not 
pursuing  on  Sunday  night,  what  hindered  General  Bragg  from 
pursuing  on  Monday  morning  at  daylight  ?  Chattanooga  was 
only  ten  miles  from  the  battle-field,  and  unfortified ;  our  pursu 
ing  cavalry  could  see  their  head  of  column,  and  urged  General 
Bragg  by  repeated  messages  to  pursue,  that  every  hour's  delay 
would  be  equal  to  the  loss  :>f  a  thousand  men.  Citizens  along 


THE    THIRD    YE^E.  133 

the  road  reported  that  many  of  the  Yankee  commands  passed 
their  dwellings  in  the  utmost  disorder,  without  arms  or  accoutre 
ments,  and  many  without  hats,  as  a  confused  and  routed  mob, 
not  as  troops  in  column,  everything  in 'Chattanooga  arid  on  the 
road  inviting  rather  than  forbidding  attack.  Even  if  they  had 
had  good  defensive  works,  with  the  condition  as  reported  ^ 
above,  by  a  prompt  pursuit  our  army  would  have  gone  into 
Chattanooga  with  theirs,  and  thus  broken  the  effect  of  their 
fire  ;  and  if  such  could  have  been  the  result  with  good  defen 
sive  works,  what  might  not  the  result  have  been  without  them, 
and  the  enemy  panic-stricken  because  of  the  knowledge  that 
none  such  existed  ?  What  hindered  General  Bragg  from  pur 
suing  is  not  known,  but  it  is  known  that,  while  pursuit  seems 
to  have  been  invited,  he  did  not  pursue.  He  simply  sent  out 
detachments  to  the  battle-field  to  gather  up  the  fruits  of  vic 
tory,  in  arms  large  arid  small,  to  be  secured  and  sent  to  the 
rear,  and  caused  the  captured  banners  to  be  collected  to  be 
sent  to  Richmond,  and  prisoners  to  be  counted  and  sent  to 
the  rear. 

The  enemy's  immediate  losses  in  the  battle  of  Chickamauga 
were  immense.  It  was  officially  stated  that  we  captured  over 
eight  thousand  prisoners,  fifty-one  pieces  of  artillery,  fifteen 
thousand  stand  of  small  arms,  and  quantities  of  ammunition,  with 
wagons,  ambulances,  teams,  medicines,  hospital  stores,  &c.,  in 
large  quantities. 

The  enemy's  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  have  been  by  many 
thousands  greater  than  ours  ;  and  General  Bragg,  in  his  official 
report,  makes  the  appalling  confession  that,  on  this  "  River  of 
Death,"  he  lost  "  two-fifths  "  of  his  troops.  Our  loss  in  general 
officers  was  conspicuous.  Brigadier-general  B.  H.  Helm,* 
Preston  Smith,  and  James  Deshler,  had  died  on  the  field.  The 


*  Brigadier-general  Helm  was  a  grandson  of  Ben  Hardin,  well  known  to  the 
oldest  inhabitants  of  Kentucky,  as  a  leading  public-spirited  gentleman  of  high 
moral  worth  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Warrior  State.  General  Helm  wae 
born  in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  in  1831 — graduated  at  West  Point,  and 
afterwards  retired  from  the  army  of  the  United  States  to  take  up  the  study  of 
law.  He  entered  the  Southern  army  without  a  commission,  but  from  the  rank 
of  private  he  was  soon  made  colonel,  and  commanded  the  first  Kentucky 
cavalry  in  the  Confederate  service.  He  was  made  brigadier-general  in  March, 
1862.  The  Kentucky  brigade,  which  he  commanded  in  the  battle  of  Chicks 


134:  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAB: 

lion-hearted  Hood,  the  luminary  of  Texas  chivalry  and  couragGj 
was  so  severely  wounded  that  he  had  to  suffer  amputation  ol 
the  thigh.  The  notice  of  his  extraordinary  gallantry  hy  Long- 
street,  who  with  generous  ardor  communicated  it  in  a  special 
letter  to  his  government,  obtained  for  him  the  commission  of  a 
Lieutenant-general,  and  ranged  him  with  the  popular  heroes 
of  the  war. 

The  day  following  this  terrible  conflict,  General  Bragg 
ordered  the  troops  under  arms,  and  marched  them  down  the 
Chattanooga  road  until  they  came  near  to  Rossville,  where 
Forest  and  Pegram  were  thundering  away  with  their  batteries 
at  the  retreating  enemy,  there  had  them  filed  to  the  right,  and 
thrown  down  the  Chickamauga  creek,  that  they  might  rest  from 
their  fatigues  and  be  in  a  good  position  to  move  upon  Burn- 
side  or  flank  Roseerans,  as  future  contingences  might  dictate. 
On  Wednesday,  the  23d  of  September,  an  order  was  issued  for 
the  whole  army  to  move  upon  Chattanooga.  It  moved  up  to 
and  over  Missionary  Ridge,  where  it  was  halted.  And  there 
it  was  to  remain  halted  for  many  long  weeks. 

Chickamauga  had  conferred  a  brilliant  glory  upon  our  arms, 
but  little  else.  Rosecrans  still  held  the  prize  of  Chattanooga, 
and  with  it  the  possession  of  East  Tennessee.  Two-thirds  ot 
our  nitre  beds  were  in  that  region,  and  a  large  proportion  of 
the  coal  which  supplied  our  foundries.  It  abounded  in  the 
necessaries  of  life.  It  was  one  of  the  strongest  countries  in  the 
world,  so  full  of  lofty  mountains,  that  it  had  been  called,  not 
unaptly,  the  Switzerland  of  America.  As  the  possession  of 
Switzerland  opened  the  door  to  the  invasion  of  Italy,  Germany 
and  France,  so  the  possession  of  East  Tennessee  gave  easy 
access  to  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Alabama. 

manga,  went  into  the  fight  with  seventeen  hundred  and  sixty-three  men,  and 
came  out  with  only  four  hundred  and  thirty-two. 

General  Helm's  wife  was  a  half-sister  of  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Immediately  after 
the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter,  in  1861,  President  Lincoln  sent  him  a  commission  aa 
major  in  the  regular  army  of  the  United  States  ;  and  apprehending  that  he 
might  not  be  willing  to  be  employed  to  murder  his  own  people,  the  Yankee 
Secretary  of  War  proposed,  as  a  salve  for  any  scruples,  to  send  him  as  pay 
master  to  New  Mexico.  The  gallant  Kentuckian  spurned  the  bribe,  gave  his 
services,  and  at  last  his  life,  to  the  Confederacy,  and  fell  in  the  numerous 
throng  of  brave  defenders  of  truth,  justice  and  liberty.  His  wife  lives,  known 
as  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  and  devoted  patriot  women  of  the  South 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  135 

Kosecrans  found  occasion  after  the  battle  to  congratulate 
his  army  on  their  retention  of  Chattanooga.  He  said,  "  You 
have  accomplished  the  great  work  of  the  campaign  ;  you  hold 
the  key  of  East  Tennessee,  of  Northern  Georgia,  and  of  the 
enemy's  mines  of  coal  and  nitre."  He  claimed  that  he  held  in 
his  hands  the  substantial  fruits  of  victory,  and  sought  to  per 
suade  his  government  that  the  battle  of  Chickamauga  was 
merely  an  incident  to  the  concentration  of  his  forces  and  his 
cover  of  Chattanooga.  He  lost  no  time  in  reorganizing  his 
army  at  Chattanooga.  He  assumed  a  fortified  line  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  in  length,  covering  the  pontoons,  stores  and 
hospitals,  and  commanding  all  the  south-east  and  eastern  ap 
proaches  to  the  place,  leaving  Bragg  no  chance  to  dislodge  him 
by  direct  attack,  only  by  long  and  toilsome  maneuvers  and 
narches  threatening  his  communications. 

Bragg's  awkward  pause  before  Chattanooga  was  the  occa 
sion  of  new  propositions  of  the  campaign  on  our  side.  Of  one 
of  these  General  Bragg  communicated  as  follows  to  the  War 
Department  at  Richmond. 

"  The  suggestion  of  a  movement  by  our  right  immediately 
after  the  battle,  to  the  north  of  the  Tennessee,  and  thence  upon 
Nashville,  requires  notice  only  because  it  will  find  a  place  in 
the  files  of  the  Department.  Such  a  movement  was  utterly 
impossible  for  want  of  transportation.  Nearly  half  our  army 
consisted  of  reinforcements  just  before  the  battle,  without  a 
wagon  or  an  artillery  horse,  and  nearly,  if  not  quite,  a  third  of 
the  artillery  horses  on  the  field  had  been  lost.  The  railroad 
bridges  too  had  been  destroyed  to  a  point  south  of  Einggold, 
and  on  all  the  roads  from  Cleveland  to  Knoxville.  To  these 
insurmountable  difficulties  were  added  the  entire  absence  of 
means  to  cross  the  river,  except  by  fording  at  a  few  precarious 
points  too  deep  for  artillery,  and  the  well  known  danger  of 
sudden  rises  by  which  all  communication  would  be  cut,  a  con 
tingency  which  did  actually  happen  a  few  days  after  the 
visionary  scheme  was  proposed.  But  the  most  serious  objec 
tion  to  the  proposition  was  its  entire  want  of  military  propri 
ety.  It  abandoned  to  the  enemy  our  entire  line  of  communi 
cation,  and  laid  open  to  him  our  depots  of  supplies,  while  it 
placed  us  with  a  greatly  inferior  force  beyond  a  difficult,  and 
at  times  impassable  river,  in  a  country  affording  no  subsist- 


136  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

ence  to  men  or  animals.  It  also  left  open  to  the  enemy,  at  a 
distance  of  only  ten  miles,  our  battle-field,  with  thousands  of 
our  wounded,  and  his  own,  and  all  the  trophies  and  supplies 
we  had  won.  All  this  was  t-9  be  risked  and  given  up,  for 
what?  to  gain  the  enemy's  rear  and  cut  him  off  from  his  depot 
of  supplies,  by  the  route  over  the  mountains,  when  the  very 
movement  abandoned  to  his  unmolested  use  the  better  and 
more  practicable  route  half  the  length,  on  the  south  side  of  tho 
river. 

"It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  the  proposition  was  not  even 
entertained,  whatever  may  have  been  the  inferences  drawn 
from  subsequent  movements." 

The  plan  preferred  by  General  Bragg  was  to  invest  Chatta 
nooga,  and  starve  the  enemy  out.  Rosecrans'  shortest  and 
most  important  road  to  his  depot  at  Bridgeport  lay  along  the 
south  bank  of  the  Tennessee ;  and,  as  Bragg  held  this,  the 
enemy  was  forced  to  a  road  double  the  length,  over  two  ranges 
of  mountains,  by  wagon  transportation,  upon  which  long  and 
difficult  route  our  cavalry  might  operate  with  advantage. 
Looking  to  a  speedy  evacuation  of  Chattanooga,  for  want  of 
wood  and  forage,  General  Bragg  declared  that  he  "  held  the 
enemy  at  his  mercy,  and  that  his  destruction  was  only  a  ques 
tion  of  time."  Alas,  we  shall  see  hereafter  how  vain  were  the 
Banguine  expectations  and  the  swollen  boast  of  this  ill-starred 
and  unfortunate  commander ! 

General  Bragg  has  burdened  the  story  of  Chickamauga  with 
recriminations  of  his  officers  :  a  resource  to  which  he  showed, 
on  all  occasions,  a  characteristic  and  ungenerous  tendency. 
His  course,  in  this  respect,  invites  and  justifies  severe  criticism 
of  himself.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  faults  of  his  subor 
dinate  officers  in  the  action  of  Chickamauga,  it  is  certain  that 
the  military  opinion  of  the  Confederacy  indicated  two  import 
ant  errors  of  his  own  in  the  conduct  of  this  famous  battle. 

1.  That  he  failed  to  cut  off  the  enemy's  exit  to  Chattanooga, 
which  it  is  considered  he  might  have  done,  if  he  had  marched 
his  army  by  the  right  flank,  and  crossed  lower  down  on  the 
Chickamauga ;  at  such  point  throwing  his  army  across  the 
creek  and  valley,  forming  it  at  right  angles  to  the  Lafayette 
and  Chattanooga  road,  and  so  covering  the  exit  from  the  valley 
in  the  direction  of  Chattanooga.  As  it  was,  he  crossed  his 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  137 

army  north  of  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills,  ordered  a  d  em  "list  ra 
tion  there,  which  might  have  been  well  used  as  a  cover  for  the 
proper  movement,  and  utterly  failed,  as  his  critics  say,  to  grasp 
the  situation. 

2.  That  he  failed  to  pursue  a  routed  and  disorganized 
enemy,  threw  away  the  opportunity  of  completing  his  victory, 
realized  no  substantial  fruit  from  it,  and,  after  one  of  the  most 
splendid  successes  in  the  record  of  Confederate  arms,  left  his 
enemy  in  statu  quo,  reorganizing  at  leisure. 

In  this  latter  respect,  Chickamauga  must  indeed  be  con 
fessed  to  be  a  second  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  famous  Bull 
Run.  It  will  stand  conspicuous  among  the  various  fruitless 
victories  gained  by  the  Confederates — among  the  least  pardon 
able  blunders  and  shortcomings  of  history.* 

*  We  may  place  here,  in  conjunction  with  CMckamauga,  some  interesting 
passages  from  a  private  letter  of  a  distinguished  general  officer  in  the  West, 
reviewing  the  campaign  there,  and  criticising  with  great  intelligence,  the  gen 
eral  military  policy  of  the  Confederacy : 

....  It  would  be  a  laborious  task  to  review  the  campaigns  even  of  tho 
Army  of  Tennessee.  Yet  what  profound  lessons  do  they  teach  ?  What  errors 
have  been  committed  ?  What  opportunities  have  been  lost  ?  The  man  who 
does  not  see  these,  and  who  has  not  learned  from  them  powerful  lessons  for 
the  future,  is  totally  unfit  for  any  responsible  military  position  in  the  pregnant 
future,  on  which  the  destiny  of  untold  millions  now  trembles. 

We  lost  Donelson,  and  as  a  consequence  Middle  Tennessee,  from  the  want  of 
rapid  combination  and  concentration.  We  lost  Shiloh  first  by  delay,  then  by 
want  of  persistence  in  the  first  day's  fight,  then  for  the  want  of  the  proper  dis 
tribution  of  troops  at  the  close  of  that  day.  We  threw  away  the  golden  mo 
ments  at  Mumfordsville,  in  Kentucky,  and  further  neglected  to  make  security 
doubly  sure  by  concentrating  the  two  armies,  Smith's  and  Bragg's ;  and  vet 
again  these  two  armies,  for  the  want  of  proper  generalship  and  energy  together, 
precipitately  and  inglorlously  abandoned  the  broad  territory  between  the  Ohio 
and  the  Cumberland  rivers.  It  is  remarkable,  that  this  campaign  in  Kentucky 
presented  more  glorious  opportunities  for  great  results,  than  any  other  in  this, 
or,  perhaps,  any  other  war,  and  all  was  lost  for  the  want  of  the  simplest  com 
binations.  Again,  Nashville,  garrisoned  by  a  few  thousand  Federals,  was  not 
taken,  simply  because  the  attack  was  prohibited.  God  knows  how  often  this 
city  might  have  been  taken  before  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro',  while  the  two 
armies  wer*  lying  idle  or  being  slowly  moved,  without  any  decided  plan  or 
purpose.  How  often  before  ano!  subsequent  to  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro',  did 
the  dispersed  condition  of  the  Yankee  forces  offer  the  opportunity  for  a  good 
general  to  make  a  vigorous  find  rapid  movement,  such  as  would  have  destroyed 
its  fragments  in  detail  ?  Murfreesboro'  was  lost  by  want,  first,  of  proper  com 
bination  on  the  field,  and  then  by  want  of  persistence  in  the  fight,  especially  on 
the  left.  In  six  weeks  after  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro',  our  army  in  Tennessee 


138  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

was  as  strong  as  when  it  fought  that  battle,  and  could  have  driven  Rosecrans 
from  Tennessee  with  ordinary  generalship.  From  March  till  June,  in  1863, 
we  remained  idly  stretching  from  Shelbyville  to  the  right,  while  the  Yankees, 
holding  a  line  from  Franklin  to  Woodbury,  again  and  again  afforded  us  an  op 
portunity  to  fall,  by  rapid  combinations,  upon  detached  masses,  and  thus  de 
stroy  their  army.  In  July  we  occupied  a  strong  ridge,  stretching  from  Bell- 
Buckle  towards  Bradyville,  very  strong  by  nature  on  the  right,  and  made  strong 
by  fortifications  on  the  left,  in  front  of  Shelbyville.  An  injudicious  disposition 
of  forces  left  Hoover's  Gap  undefended  by  our  army.  Rosecrans  advanced  upon 
Hoover's  Gap.  Three  brigades  of  Confederates  moved  rapidly  up  and  held 
them  in  the  gap  for  over  forty  hours.  A  rapid  concentration  of  our  forces  at 
Hoover's  Gap,  or  one  half  of  them,  by  moving  on  the  enemy's  flank  and  rear, 
to  a  commanding  position,  which  lay  invitingly  before  us,  would  have  routed 
the  enemy,  and  planted  us  still  more  firmly  in  Tennessee.  But  we  were  or 
dered  to  retreat,  and  we  retired  before  the  scattered  forces  of  the  enemy,  when 
a  rapid  combination  and  a  vigorous  attack,  with  a  sudden  change  from  a  retro- 
grade  to  an  advance  movement  on  some  one  of  the  enemy's  masses  in  motion, 
might  have  insured  victory.  In  that  retrograde  movement  we  also  abandoned 
some  remarkably  strong  positions  without  taking  advantage  of  them,  or  making 
an  effort  to  repulse  the  enemy,  even  when  we  could  have  done  so  without  dan 
ger  to  our  army. 

At  Chickamauga,  the  world  knows,  we  lost  the  fruits  of  the  victory  for  want 
of  vigorous  pursuit.  On  the  night  of  the  20th  of  September  there  should  have 
been  no  sleep  and  no  repose.  A  vigorous,  persistent,  onward  movement  would 
have  destroyed  Rosecrans'  army.  How  deplorable  has  been  the  consequences 
of  our  want  of  energy,  want  of  activity,  and  want  of  persistence !  The  army 
of  Tennessee  being  tied  to  no  special  line  of  operations,  and  embarrassed  by  no 
important  point,  such  as  Richmond,  requiring  to  be  defended,  had  greatly  the 
advantage  over  the  army  of  Virginia,  yet  the  former  has  constantly  yielded  up 
territory  to  a  conquering  foe,  and  the  latter  has  overthrown  every  army  that 
came  against  it. 

I  have  meant  merely  to  allude  to  the  errors  on  our  line  of  operations.  Thec*> 
are  greater  errors  than  these,  greater  because  they  pertain  to  the  management 
of  all  the  Confederate  forces.  They  are  errors  in  what  is  usually  denominated 
grand  strategy. 

We  now  have,  I  may  say,  numerous  independent  armies  in  the  field,  each 
fecting  almost  without  reference  to  all  the  others,  and  rarely  co-operating  with 
any  other  army. 

The  Allied  Armies,  in  1814,  entered  France  with  400,000  men,  and  had  a 
numerous  force  hovering  on  the  borders  of  that  empire.  Napoleon  had  but 
120,000  in  the  field,  exclusive  of  the  forces  shut  up  in  fortifications  and  ope 
rating  beyond  the  boundaries  of  France.  We  know  how  nearly  he  came  to 
vanquishing  the  Allied  Powers,  and  even  his  enemies  have  demonstrated  how 
he  could  have  completely  overthrown  the  armies  against  which  he  contended 
A  rapid  concentration  of  forces  upon  detafched  armies,  is  a  well-established 
means  by  which  inferior  forces  must  conquer  superior  numbers.  •  Superior  mo 
bility  in  strategy,  and  the  concentrated,  swift,  lightning  stroke  in  the  hour  of 
battle,  must  compensate  for  inferiority  of  numbers.  Napoleon,  Frederick  the 
Great,  and  Charles  the  XII.,  have  illustrated  these  facts,  and  they  have  become 
the  most  familiar  Lessons  of  the  soldier.  But,  with  proper  strategy,  in  my 


THE    THIBD    YEAR.  139 

opinion,  we  need  seldom  fight  superior  forces.  Look  at  the  position  of  all  our 
armies  now.  We  are  remaining  listlessly  waiting  for  the  enemy  to  mass  his 
forces  and  men  upon  us.  Can  any  one  contemplate  this  attitude  of  our  armies, 
and  not  feel  utterly  astonished  at  our  policy,  and  the  repose  into  which  we  have 
sunk  on  every  hand?  Where  is  that  activity  which  should  belong  to  inferior 
forces  ?  It  is  rather  to  be  found  among  our  enemies,  whose  superior  numbers 
would  entitle  them  to  the  repose  which  we  have  quietly  assumed. 


UO  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


CHAPTEK  VL 

Political  Movements  in  the  Fall  of  1863.—  The  "  Peace  Party"  in  tl  e  North.—  The 
Yankee  Fall  Elections.—  The  War  Democrats  in  the  North.—  The  South's  Worst 
Enemies.  —  Yankee  Self-Glorification.  —  Farragut's  Dinner-Party.  —  The  Russian  Ban 
quet.  —  Russia  and  Yankeedom.  —  The  Poles  and  the  Confederates.  —  THE  POLITICAL 
TROUBLES  IN  KENTUCKY.  —  Brarnlette  and  Wickcliffe.  —  The  Democratic  Platform  in 
Kentucky.  —  Political  Ambidexterity.  —  Burnside's  Despotic  Orders.  —  The  Kentucky 
"Board  of  Trade."—  An  Election  by  Bayonets.  —  The  Fate  of  Kentucky  Sealed.  —  OUR 
EUROPEAN  RELATIONS.  —  Dismissal  of  the  Foreign  Consuls  in  the  Confederacy.  — 
Seizure  of  the  Confederate  "Rams"  in  England.  —  The  Confederate  Privateers.  — 
Their  Achievements.  —  British  Interests  in  Privateering.  —  The  Profits  of  So-called 
"Neutrality."  —  NAVAL  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  —  Embarrassments  of  Our 
Naval  Enterprise.  —  The  Naval  Structures  of  the  Confederates.  —  LEE'S  FLANK  MOVE 
MENT  IN  VIRGINIA.  —  Afiair  of  Bristoe  Station.  —  Failure  of  Lee's  Plans.  —  Meade's 
Escape  to  Centreville.—  imboden's  Operations  in  the  Valley.—  Capture  of  Charlestown. 
—  OPERATIONS  AT  RAPPAHANNOCK  BRIDGE.  —  Kelley's  Ford.  —  Surprise  and  Capture  of 
Hayes'  and  Hoke's  Brigades.—  Gallantry  of  Colonel  Godwin.—  Lee's  Army  on  the 
Rapidan.—  THE  AFFAIR  OF  GERMANIA  FORD.—  Meade  Foiled.—  The  "On-to-Rich- 
inond"  Delayed. 


must  take  the  reader's  attention  from  military  campaigns 
to  certain  political  movements,  which,  in  the  fall  of  1863,  ap 
parently  involved  more  or  less  distinctly  the  fortunes  of  the 
war. 

The  long-continued  delusion,  indulged  by  Southern  men,  of 
u  a  peace  party"  in  the  North,  which  would  eventually  compel 
peace  on  the  terms  of  the  Confederacy,  is  to  be  compared  to 
that  similar  delusion  of  Northern  politicians,  which  insisted 
that  "  a  Union  party"  existed  in  the.  South,  and  that  it  was 
only  temporarily  suppressed  by  a  faction.  There  was  not  the 
least  foundation  in  fact  for  either  of  these  opinions  ;  and  the 
agreeable  confidence  of  the  South,  in  .'ts  supposed  friends  in  the 
North,  was  to  be  rudely  dispelled  by  events  that  admitted  of 
but  one  construction.  The  South  had  mistaken  for  substantial 
tokens  of  public  sentiment  the  clamors  and  exaggerations  of 
party  elections.  The  Democratic  party  in  the  North  went  into 
the  fall  elections  of  1863,  on  the  issue  of  a  general  opposition 
to  the  Lincoln  Administration  ;  at  the  same  time,  promising  a 
vigorous  "  constitutional"  prosecution  of  the  war,  while  their 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  141 

vag'ie  allusions  to  an  impossible  peace  and  platitudes  of  fra 
ternal  sentiment  were  merely  intended  to  catch  favor  in  the 
South,  and  really  meant  nothing.  Even  Mr.  Seymour,  of  New 
York,  managed,  while  cozening  the  South,  to  maintain,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  cordial  understanding  with  the  authorities  at 
Washington ;  and  lie  found  it  necessary  to  conclude  one  of  his 
finest  speeches  by  saying,  "  never  have  I  embarrassed  the  Ad 
ministration,  and  I  never  will." 

But  even  on  its  moderate  issues,  with  reference  to  the  war, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  proposed  only  certain  constitutional 
limitations,  the  Democratic  party  in  the  North  was  badly  beaten 
in  the  fall  elections.  From  Minnesota  to  Maine,  the  Democrats 
were  defeated.  In  the  latter,  which  was  supposed  to  be  the 
least  fanatical  of  the  New  England  States,  the  Republicans 
carried  the  election  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  In  Ohio, 
Vallandigharn  was  defeated.  He  was  still  in  exile.  Voorhies, 
who  had  proclaimed  doctrines  somewhat  similar  to  his,  in  a 
neighboring  State,  narrowly  escaped  being  lynched  by  the 
soldiers.  The  elections  were  followed  by  a  remarkable  period 
of  political  quiet  in  the  North.  Those  who  had  the  courage  to 
confront  the  administration  of  Lincoln,  had  either  been  sup 
pressed  by  the  strong  hand  of  lawless  power,  or  had  supinely 
sought  safety  in  silence.  The  overthrow  of  free  government  in 
the  North  was  complete. 

The  South  was  not  easily  imposed  upon  by  that  organized 
hypocrisy,  the  War  Democracy  of  the  North.  While  it  pro 
fessed  constitutional  moderation  in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  it 
aimed  at  the  reconstruction  of  the  Union,  which  was  only  a 
different  phrase  for  the  military  conquest  of  the  South.  It 
must  be  observed  that  so  far  as  questions  of  the  constitutional 
conduct  of  the  authorities  at  Washington  were  made  in  the 
North,  they  were  questions  entirely  between  their  domestic 
parties,  which  did  not  properly  interest  the  people  of  the  Con 
federacy,  inasmuch  as  their  demand  for  independence,  simple 
and  absolute,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  modifications  of  the 
different  parties  which  opposed  it.  Indeed,  with  regard  to  this 
demand,  the  War  Democrat  at  the  North  was  a  far  more 
dangerous  enemy  to  the  Confederacy  than  the  open  and  avowed 
Abolitionist.  The  former  was  more  plausible;  his  programme 
of  reconstruction  carried  an  appearance  of  possibility  to  entice 


142  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  popular  faith  which  that  of  naked  conquest  did  not  possess 
But  both  programmes — that  of  the  War  Democrat  and  that  of 
the  Abolitionist — were  equally  fatal  to  the  Confederacy :  as  it 
mattered  not  what  was  the  formula  of  subjugation,  if  the 
people  of  the  South  once  placed  themselves  within  the  power 
of  their  treacherous  enemies,  and  submitted  to  any  form  of  their 
authority. 

The  North  had  yet  shown  no  real  disposition  to  abandon  the 
war.  The  Yankees  were  still  busy  with  the  game  of  self-glori 
fication.  Their  conceit,  their  love  of  display,  their  sensations 
amused  the  world.  Their  favorite  generals  were  all  Napoleons; 
in  the  cities  mobs  of  admirers  chased  them  from  hotel  to  hotel ; 
in  the  New  England  towns  deputations  of  school-girls  kissed 
them  in  public.  Farragut,  their  successful  admiral,  was  enter 
tained  in  New  York  with  feasts,  where  a  plaster  of  ice-cream 
represented  the  American  Eagle,  and  miniature  ships,  built  of 
sticks  of  candy,  loaded  the  table.  These  childish  displays  and 
vain  glory  had  culminated  in  an  immense  banquet  given  to  a 
Russian  fleet  in  the  harbor  of  New  York,  at  which  distinguished 
Yankee  orators  declared  that  the  time  had  come  when  Russia 
and  the  United  States  were  to  be  taken  as  twins  in  civilization 
and  power,  to  hold  in  subjection  all  others  of  Christendom,  and 
to  accomplish  the  "'destiny"  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

And  really  this  festive  fervor  but  gave  insolent  expression 
to  an  idea  that  had  long  occupied  thoughtful  minds  in  distant 
quarters  of  the  world.  Christendom  was  called  upon  to  wit 
ness  two  political  murders.  While  twenty  millions  of  Yankees 
sought  to  strangle  the  Southern  Confederacy,  fifty  millions  of 
Muscovites  combined  to  keep  ten  or  twelve  millions  of  Poles 
under  a  detested  yoke.  In  their  infamous  attempt  upon  Poland, 
Russians  tried  to  pass  themselves  off  as  the  defenders  of  liberal 
ideas  against  Polish  aristocracy ;  and  it  was  declared  that  the 
Polish  nobility  was  in  rebellion  in  order  not  to  be  forced  to 
emancipate  the  serfs.  "  Russia  and  the  United  States,"  said  a 
French  writer  of  the  time,  "  proclaim  the  liberty  of  the  serf 
and  the  emancipation  of  the  slave,  but  in  return  both  seek  to 
reduce  to  slavery  all  who  defend  liberty  and  independence." 

Liberty  of  the  press,  of  speech,  of  public  meetings,  even  the 
venerable  privilege  of  habeas  corpus,  inherited  from  England 
had  already  been  put  under  the  feet  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


THE    THIRD    TEAR.  143 

While  the  Democratic  party  was  timidly  protesting  in  tie 
Northern  States,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  prefaced  the  farce  of  the 
fall  elections  in  the  North  by  an  outrage  upon  the  ballot  in 
Kentucky,  which  Yankee  Democrats  were  too  weak  or  too  dis 
honest  to  resent. 

A  history  of  the  Kentucky  troubles,  in  some  details,  is  the 
best  commentary  we  can  choose  from  events,  upon  the  condi 
tion  to  which  the  whole  system  of  political  liberty  had  fallen 
*n  the  North. 

THE   POLITICAL   TROUBLES    IN   KENTUCKY. 

In  the  last  days  of  August,  1862,  the  Hon.  Beriah  Magoffin 
resigned  his  office  as  Governor  of  the  State  of  Kentucky.  From 
causes  into  which  it  is  not  necessary  now  to  enter,  he  had  in 
curred  the  suspicion  of  a  great  majority  of  the  Union  party, 
and  through  the  Legislature  they  had  succeeded  in  divesting 
him  of  all  real  power  in  the  government.  The  executive  con 
trol  of  the  State  had  rapidly  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  mili 
tary  officers  of  the  United  States,  and  for  months  the  people 
had  been  subject  to  martial  law  in  all  its  oppressiveness,  with 
out  its  declaration  in  form.  Under  these  circumstances,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  relieving  the  people,  and  especially  that  por 
tion  of  them  known  as  "Southern-rights  Men,"  who  had  been 
the  peculiar  objects  of  persecution,  Mr.  Magoffin,  in  a  pub 
lished  letter,  declared  his  willingness  to  resign  whenever  he 
could  be  assured  of  the  election  of  a  successor  of  conservative 
views,  who,  commanding  the  confidence  at  the  same  time  of 
the  Administration  at  AVashington  and  of  the  people  of  Ken 
tucky,  would  be  able  and  willing  to  secure  every  peaceful 
citizen  in  the  exercise  of  the  rights  guaranteed  to  him  by  the 
Constitution  and  laws.  James  F.  Hobinson,  then  a  member  of 
the  Senate,  was  indicated  to  him,  and  he  consented  to  resign 
in  his  favor. 

For  the  August  election  of  1863,  Thomas  E.  Bramlette  was 

O  t 

offered  as  a  candidate  for  governor.  Mr.  Bramlette  main 
tained  general^  the  rightfulness  of  the  suspension  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus,  and  the  extension  of  martial  law  over  Statoa 
where  war  did  not  exist,  and  gave  in  a  quasi  adhesion  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  policy. 


14.4  SOUTHERN    IIISTOBT    OF    THE    WAR. 

A  number  of  Kentucky  Democrats  presented  a  ticket  in 
opposition,  headed  by  C.  A.  "Wickcliffe  for  governor,  and  pub 
lished  the  following  expressions  of  their  views,  as  comprising 
the  issues  of  the  approaching  election. 

"We  cannot  consent  to  the  doctrine  that  the  Constitution  and  laws  are 
inadequate  to  the  present  emergency ;  that  the  constitutional  guarantees  of 
liberty  and  property  can  be  suspended  by  war. 

"  Our  fathers  certainly  did  not  intend  that  our  Constitution  should  be  a  fair- 
weather  document,  to  be  laid  away  in  a  storm,  or  a  fancy  garment  to  be  worn 
only  in  dry  weather.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  in  times  like  the  present  that  con 
stitutional  restraints  on  the  power  of  those  in  authority  are  needed. 

"  We  hold  the  Federal  government  to  be  one  of  limited  powers,  that  cannot 
be  enlarged  by  the  existence  of  civil  commotion. 

"  We  hold  the  rights  reserved  to  the  States  equally  sacred  with  those  granted 
to  the  United  States.  The  government  has  no  more  right  to  disregard  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  States  than  the  States  have  to  disregard  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States. 

"  We  hold  that  the  Administration  has  committed  grave  errors  in  confisca 
tion  bills,  lawless  proclamations,  and  military  orders  setting  aside  constitutions 
and  laws,  and  making  arrests  outside  of  military  lines  where  there  is  no  pub 
lic  danger  to  excuse  it. 

"  It  is  now  obvious  that  the  fixed  purpose  of  the  Administration  is  to  arm 
the  negroes  of  the  South  to  make  war  upon  the  whites,  and  we  hold  it  to  be 
the  duty  of  the  people  of  Kentucky  to  enter  against  such  a  policy  a  solemn 
and  most  emphatic  protest. 

"  We  hold  as  sacred  and  inalienable  the  right  of  free  speech  and  a  free 
press — that  the  government  belongs  to  the  people  and  not  the  people  to  the 
government. 

"We  hold  this  rebellion  utterly  unjustifiable  in  its  inception',  and  a  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union  the  greatest  of  calamities.  We  would  use  all  just  and  con- 
stitutional  means  adapted  to  tho  suppression  of  the  one  and  the  restoration  oi 
the  other." 

Notwithstanding  these  resolutions,  which  so  carefully  sound 
ed  in  "loyalty,"  and  exhibited  the  usual  ambidexterity  of  the 
War  Democracy,  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  authorities 
at  Washington  were  determined'  to  interfere  in  the  Kentucky 
election,  and  force  it  exactly  to  their  purpose.  Messrs.  Wolfe 
and  Trimble,' candidates  for  Congress  in  the  First  and  Fifth 
districts,  and  Mr.  Martin,  candidate  for  the  Legislature  in  Lyon 
and  Livingston  counties,  were  arrested  by  the  provost-mar- 
bhals. 

On  the  31st  of  July,  Burnside  declared  martial  law  in  Ken 
lucky.     The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  most  outrageous  of 
the  despotic  orders  which  followed  in  quick  succession  the  dec 
laration  of  imirtial  law. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  145 

1.  By  way  of  precaution,  the  people  are  informed  that  when 
ever  any  property  is  needed  for  the  use  of  the  United  States 
army,  it  will  be  taken  from  rebel  sympathizers,  and  receipts 
given  for  the  same  marked  "  disloyal,"  and  to  be  paid  at  the 
end  of  the  war,  on  proof  that  the  holder  is  a  loyal  man. 

2.  Rebel  sympathizers  are  defined  to  be  riot  only  those  who 
are  ill  favor  of  secession,  but  also  those  who  are  not  in  favor  ot 
a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  and  of  furnishing  men  and 
money  unconditionally  for  that  purpose.     "  Loyalty"  is  to  be 
proved  by  the  vote  given  at  the  election. 

3.  County  judges  are  required  to  appoint  none  but  "loyal" 
men  as  judges  of  election,  notwithstanding  the  provisions  of 
our  laws,  which  require  the  officers  of  election  to  be  taken 
equally  from  each  political  party. 

4:.  Persons  offering  to  vote,  whose  votes  may  be  rejected  by 
the  judges,  are  notified  that  they  will  be  immediately  arrested 
by  the  military. 

5.  The  judges  of  election  are  notified  that  they  will  be  ar 
rested  and  held  responsible  by  the  military,  should  they  permit 
any  disloyal  men  to  vote. 

In  addition  to  all  this  there  was  at  work  beneath  the  surface 
a  potent  machinery,  whose  labors  could  be  traced  only  by 
results,  for  the  work  was  done  in  darkness  and  in  secret. 

In  every  city,  town,  and  considerable  village  in  the  common 
wealth,  there  had  long  been  organized,  under  the  authority  of 
.the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  a  body  of  men  known  as  a 
"  Board  of  Trade,"  an  innocent  title,  little  expressive  of  their 
true  functions.  Under  the  same  regulations  of  the  Secretary, 
no  shipments  of  goods  to  the  interior  of  the  State  could  be 
made  without  the  permit  of  the  United  States  custom-house 
officers  at  Cincinnati  or  Louisville.  In  order  to  obtain  such  a 
permit,  the  individual  applying  must  have  procured  the  recom 
mendation  of  the  "  Board  of  Trade"  located  nearest  to  his  place 
of  business,  arid  the  recommendation  was  given  to  none  but 
"  loyal"  men,  each  Board  establishing  its  own  test  of  "  loyalty." 
Without  such  recommendation  no  merchant  could  hope  to  add 
to  his  stock  by  importation — no  mechanic  to  replenish  the  ma 
terials  necessary  in  his  calling.  These  inquisitorial  bodies, 
therefore,  held  in  their  hands  the  absolute  fate  of  every  trades 
man  and  mechanic  in  the  State.  The  prosperous  merchant 

10 


116  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  needy  shopkeeper  were  alike  at  their  mercy.  The  trades 
man  and  mechanic  were  thus  left  to  choose  between  a  vote  for 
Bramlette  and  the  utter  ruin  of  their  business. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  the  election  of 
August  3d  was  begun.  In  twelve  counties  not  a  single  vote 
was  permitted  to  be  cast  for  Wickliffe.  In  eight  others  he  re 
ceived  less  than  ten  votes  to  the  county.  In  fifteen  others  he 
received  less  than  fifty  votes  to  the  county.  In  sixteen  others 
he  received  less  than  one  hundred  votes  to  the  county.  These 
fifty-one  counties  embraced  many  of  the  strongest  Democratic 
counties  in  the  State.  In  only  twenty-eight  counties  of  the 
State  did  Bramlette  receive  a  majority  of  the  population  en 
titled  to  vote.  Less  than  two-fifths  of  the  population  entitled 
to  vote  made  him  Governor  of  Kentucky.  Thus  was  the  fate 
of  Kentucky  sealed,  and,  on  the  1st  of  September,  Bramlette 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  office  into  which  he  had  been 
foisted  by  bayonets. 

We  have  briefly  seen  what  little  comfort  there  was  for  the 
Confederates  in  the  fall  elections  of  1863,  and  the  contemporary 
political  movements  in  the  North.  We  naturally  glance  from 
this  part  of  the  situation,  external  to  the  military  campaigns, 
to  the  European  relations  of  the  Confederacy.  Here  there  wa 
quite  as  little  encouragement  for  the  South  as  in  that  othe) 
alternative  of  hope  outside  the  war — Yankee  politics. 

OUE   EUROPEAN    RELATIONS. 

Some  feeble  attempt  was  made  by  the  Confederacy  in  the 
fall  of  1863  to  reassert  its  dignity  by  the  dismissal  of  the 
foreign  consuls,  who  had  been,  oddly  enough,  allowed  for 
nearly  three  years  to  reside  in  the  Confederate  States,  and  exer 
cise  super-consular  powers  under  authority  granted  by  the 
government  with  which  we  were  at  war.  The  force  of  this  pro 
ceeding  was,  however,  much  impaired  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
attributed  to  certain  objectionable  action  of  the  British  consuls 
in  the  Confederacy,  and  not  based,  as  it  should  have  been,  upon 
the  conduct  and  bearing  towards  us  of  the  British  Government 
itself.  Put  upon  that  ground,  the  dismissal  would  have  marked 
distinctly  our  sense  of  British  injustice. 

We  have  referred  in  former  pages  to  the  prejudicial  effect 


THE    THIRD    YEAR. 

of  so-called  British  "  neutrality  "  with  respect  to  the  Confede 
rate  States.  Another  instance  was  now  to  be  afforded  of  its 
unequal  and  unjust  disposition  in  the  seizure  by  the  British 
Government  of  two  two-thousand-ton  iron-clads,  combining  the 
ram  and  monitor  principles,  which  were  being  built  for  the 
Confederacy  by  the  Messrs.  Laird,  at  Birkenhead.  The  seizure 
was  made  without  any  evidence  to  justify  it.  The  Messrs. 
Laird  were  forbidden  to  allow  these  vessels  to  leave  their  yard 
"  without  an  ample  explanation  of  their  destination  and  a  sus 
tainable  reference  to  the  owner  or  owners  for  whom  they  are 
constructed."  It  was  curiously  held  by  Lord  Russell  that 
"  Messrs.  Laird  were  bound  to  declare — and  sustain  on  unim 
peachable  testimony  such  declaration — the  government  for 
whom  the  steam  rams  have  been  built."  In  other  words,  with 
out  an  affidavit  or  other  legal  foundation  for  proceedings 
against  them,  these  gentlemen  were  required  to  come  forward 
and  prove  their  innocence. 

The  animus  displayed  in  this  proceeding  was  in  keeping  with 
the  whole  conduct  of  the  British  ministry  towards  this  country. 
They  suspended,  to  our  great  detriment,  the  law  of  nations 
which  allowed  captures  at  sea  to  be  taken  into  neutral  ports  for 
condemnation.  They  ignored  and  violated  their  own  solemn 
engagement  in  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  requiring  that  a  blockade, 
to  be  acknowledged  and  binding,  should  be  such  as  actually  to 
exclude  ships  from  ingress  or  egress.  They  allowed  their 
Foreign  Enlistment  Act  to  be  inoperative  against  our  enemy, 
permitting  them  not  only  to  supply  themselves  with  vast  quan 
tities  of  arms  and  ammunition,  but  even  to  recruit  their  armies 
from  British  dominions.  But  they  had  revived  against  us  a 
law  practically  obsolete,  and,  in  order  to  give  it  force  and 
make  it  applicable,  they  had  reversed  a  principle  of  law  to  be 
found  in  the  codes  of  all  free  countries. 

But,  notwithstanding  the  invidiousness  of  foreign  powers, 
especially  against  the  naval  efforts  of  the  Confederacy,  it  was 
a  matter  of  surprise  how  much  we  had  accomplished  upon  the 
sea  against  an  enemy  whose  navy  was  his  particular  boast.  A 
few  solitary  ships,  hunted  by  vast  navies,  had  maintained  in 
foreign  seas  a  warfare  that  required  not  only  the  loftiest  cour 
age,  but  the  most  consummate  skill,  the  most  sleepless  vigilance, 
and  the  most  perfect  self-reliance. 


148  SOUTHEEN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAB. 

Two  years  had  passed  since  Semmes  commenced  his  cruise 
in  the  Sumter,  since  which  time  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
Yankee  vessels,  valued,  with  their  cargoes,  at  ten  million 
dollars,  had  been  captured  by  vessels  under  the  Confederate 
flag.  From  the  first  appearance  of  the  little  schooner,  Jeff 
Davis,  the  Confederate  navy  had  been  the  terror  of  the  entire 
Yankee  mercantile  marine.* 

The  effect  of  our  privateering  on  Yankee  commerce  and  ton 
nage  was  already  immense.  Since  the  commencement  of  the 
war,  three  hundred  and  eighty-five  vessels,  with  an  aggregate 
tonnage  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  thousand  tons, 
had  been  transferred  to  foreigners  at  the  port  of  New  York 
alone,  most  of  which  were  sailing  under  the  flag  of  Great 
Britain,  the  most  prominent  commercial  rival  of  the  Yankee. 
At  other  ports  the  same  practice  had  prevailed,  and  it  would 
be  fair  to  estimate  the  loss  of  Yankee  tonnage  under  it,  during 
the  past  two  years,  at  three  hundred  thousand  tons.  This  loss 
to  the  North,  as  a  matter  of  course,  involved  a  consequent  in 
crease  of  the  tonnage  and  power  of  its  rivals. 

In  the  first  six  months  of  the  year  1860  the  number  of  ves 
sels  cleared  at  New  York  for  foreign  ports  was  seventeen  hun 
dred  and  ninety-five,  of  which  eleven  hundred  and  thirty-three 
were  American  and  six  hundred  and  sixty-two  foreign — a  dif 
ference  of  nearly  one  hundred  per  cent,  in  favor  of  American 
vessels ;  while,  during  the  same  period  of  the  present  year, 
there  had  been  twenty-one  hundred  and  ninety-seven  clear 
ances,  of  which  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty  were  foreign  and 
only  seven  hundred  and  forty-seven  American — showing  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  foreign  vessels,  and  a  difference  in 
their  favor,  as  compared  with  the  first  named  period,  of  about 
two  hundred  per  cent. 

The  Yankees  had  a  navy  which  was  daily  increasing,  and 
one  which,  in  war-making  power,  already  exceeded  vastly  any 
navy  in  the  world.  Yet  it  was  impotent  against  a  few  Con- 


*  A  report  was  made  to  the  Yankee  Congress  of  captures  by  Confederate 
cruisers  up  to  the  30th  of  January,  1864.  The  list,  which  was  not  complete, 
foots  up  193,  with  a  tonnage  of  89,704.  At  fifty  dollars  a  ton,  the  vessels  are 
valued  at  $4,485,200  ;  the  cargoes,  at  one  hundred  dollars  a  ton,  are  estimated 
at  $8,970,400.  Total  value,  $13,455,500.  Sixty-two  were  captured  by  the  Ala 
bama,  twenty-six  by  the  Sumter,  and  twenty-two  by  the  Florida. 


THE    THIRD    YEAH.  149 

federate  cruisers  which  defied  its  power,  and  burnt  Yankee 
Teasels  even  within  sight  of  their  commercial  marts. 


NAVAL    AFFAIRS    OF   THE   CONFEDERACY. 

We  take  occasion  here  to  make  a  brief  summary  of  what 
had  been  accomplished  in  the  naval  affairs  of  the  Confederacy 
since  the  commencement  of  the  war.  At  that  time,  but  seven 
steam  war  vessels  had  been  built  in  the  States  now  forming 
the  Confederacy  since  the  war  of  1812,  and  the  engines  of 
only  two  of  these  had  been  contracted  for  in  these  States.  All 
the  labor  or  materials  requisite  to  complete  and  equip  a  war 
vessel  could  not  be  commanded  at  any  one  point  of  the  Con 
federacy. 

To  these  disadvantages  was  to  be  added  the  notorious  incom- 
petency  of  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  His  con 
tracts  were  injudicious;  and  there  was  traced  more  or  less 
directly  to  his  mismanagement,  the  destruction  of  the  Yir- 
ginia-Merrimac,  the  Louisiana,  the  Mississippi,  the  vessels  in 
Lake  Ponchartrain,  bayou  St.  John,  the  Yazoo  and  Mississippi 
rivers,  and  elsewhere. 

Yet  the  department,  with  all  its  drawbacks,  could  now 
exhibit  results  of  no  mean  order.  It  had  erected  a  powder- 
mill,  which  supplied  all  the  powder  required  by  our  navy ; 
two  engine-boilers  and  machine-shops,  and  five  ordnance  work 
shops.  It  had  established  eighteen  yards  for  building  war 
vessels,  and  a  rope-walk,  making  all  cordage,  from  a  rope-yarn 
to  a  nine-inch  cable,  and  capable  of  turning  out  eight  thousand 
per  month. 

Of  vessels  not  iron-clad,  the  department  had  purchased  and 
otherwise  acquired  and  converted  to  war  vessels,  forty -four. 

Had  built  and  completed  as  war  vessels,  twelve. 

Had  partially  constructed  and  destroyed  to  save  from  the 
enemy,  ten. 

And  had  now  under  construction,  nine. 

Of  iron-clad  vessels,  it  had  completed  and  ha  1  now  in  com 
mission,  fourteen. 

Had  completed  and  destroyed,  or  lost  by  capture,  four. 


150  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Had  in  progress  of  construction  and  in  various  stages  of  for 
wardness,  twenty. 

It  had,  also,  one  iron-clad  floating  battery,  presented  to  th 
Confederate  States  by  the  ladies  of  Georgia  ;  and  one  iron-clad 
ram  partially  completed  and  turned  over  to  the  Confederacy 
by  the  State  of  Alabama. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  poverty  of  our  means,  and 
the  formidable  naval  power  and  boundless  resources  of  our 
enemy,  at  the  beginning  of  this  war,  our  people  had  no 
sufficient  cause  for  shame  or  discouragement  in  the  operations 
,of  our  navy. 


We  must  return  from  the  discussion  of  these  general  subjects* 
to  -the  military  campaign  of  the  later  months  of  1863,  and  take 
up  the  long-suspended  story  of  Lee's  army  in  Yirginia. 

Since  its  campaign  into  Pennsylvania,  it  had  rested  on  the 
Rapidan.  In  October  General  Lee  was  prepared  to  put  into 
execution  a  campaign  which  promised  the  most  brilliant  re 
suits,  as  its  ultimate  object  appears  to  have  been  to  get  between 
Meade  and  Washington. 

With  the  design  of  bringing  on  an  engagement  with  the 
Yankee  army,  which  was  encamped  around  Culpepper  Court 
house,  and  extending  thence  to  the  Rapidan,  Lee's  army 
crossed  that  river  on  the  9th  instant,  and  advanced  by  way  oi 
Madison  Court-house.  Our  progress  was  necessarily  slow,  as 
the  march  was  by  circuitous  and  concealed  roads,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  observation  of  the  enemy. 

General  Fitz  Lee,  with  his  cavalry  division  and  a  detachment 
of  infantry,  remained  to  hold  our  lines  south  of  the  Rapidan ; 
General  Stuart,  with  Hampton's  division,  moved  on  the  right 
of  the  column.  With  a  portion  of  his  command  he  attacked 
the  advance  of  the  enemy  near  James  City,  on  the  10th,  and 
drove  them  back  towards  Culpepper.  Our  main  body  arrived 
near  that  place  on  the  llth  instant,  and  discovered  that  the 
enemy  had  retreated  towards  the  Rappahannock,  removing  or 
destroying  his  stores.  We  were  compelled  to  halt  during  the 
rest  of  the  day  to  provision  the  troops,  but  the  cavalry,  under 


THE    THIRD    YEAR,  151 

General  Stuart,  continued  to  press  the  enemy's  rear  guard 
towards  the  Rappahannock.  A  large  force  of  Federal  cavalry, 
in  the  mean  time,  had  crossed  the  Rapidan,  after  our  move 
ment  begun,  but  was  repulsed  by  General  Fitz  Lee,  and  pur 
sued  towards  Brandy  Station. 

Near  that  place  the  commands  of  Stuart  and  Lee  united,  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  llth,  and,  after  a  severe  engagement, 
drove  the  enemy's  cavalry  across  the  Rappahanuock,  with 
heavy  loss. 

On  the  morning  of  the  12th,  the  army  marched  in  two 
columns,  with  the  design  of  reaching  the  Orange  and  Alexan 
dria  railroad,  north  of  the  river,  and  interrupting  the  retreat  of 
the  enemy. 

After  a  skirmish  with  some  of  the  Federal  cavalry  at  Jeffer- 
sonton,  we  reached  the  Rappahannock  at  Warrenton  Springs, 
in  the  afternoon,  where  the  passage  of  the  river  was  disputed 
by  cavalry  and  artillery.  The  enemy  was  quickly  driven  off 
by  a  detachment  of  our  cavalry,  aided  by  a  small  force  of  in 
fantry  and  a  battery.  Early  next  morning,  13th,  the  march 
was  resumed,  and  the  two  columns  united  at  Warrenton  in  the 
afternoon,  when  another  Halt  was  made  to  supply  the  troops 
with  provisions.  The  enemy  fell  back  rapidly  along  the  line 
of  the  railroad,  and  early  on  the  14th  the  pursuit  was  con 
tinued,  a  portion  of  the  army  moying  by  way  of  New  Balti 
more  towards  Bristoe  Station,  and  the  rest,  accompanied  by 
the  main  body  of  the  cavalry,  proceeded  to  the  same  point  by 
Auburn  Mills  and  Greenwich.  Near  the  former  place  a 
skirmish  took  place  between  General  Ewell's  advance  and  the 
rear  guard  of  the  enemy,  which  was  forced  back  and  rapidly 
pursued. 

The  retreat  of  the  enemy  was  conducted  by  several  direct 
parallel  roads,  while  our  troops  were  compelled  to  march  by 
difficult  and  circuitous  routes.  We  were  consequently  unable 
to  intercept  him.  General  Hill  arrived  first  at  Bristoe  Station, 
where  his  advance,  consisting  of  two  brigades,  became  engaged 
with  a  force  largely  superior  in  numbers,  posted  behind  the 
railr<!  ad  embankment. 

The  action  of  Bristoe  Station  was  a  disastrous  affair  for  the 
Confederates.  Hill's  brigades  were  repulsed  with  considerable 
loss  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  the  loss  of  five  pieces  of 


152  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

i 

artillery.  The  Yankees  reported  their  loss  at  fifty-one  killed 
and  three  hundred  twenty-nine  wounded,  and  claimed  to  have 
captured  four  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners. 

The  repulse  at  Bristoe  proved  the  end  of  General  Lee's 
plans,  so  far  as  they  embraced  the  view  of  getting  on  Meade'a 
communications,  or  reaching  Centreville  before  him.  Before 
the  rest  of  the  troops  could  be  brought  up  to  Hill's  assistance 
and  the  position  of  the  enemy  ascertained,  Meade  retreated 
across  Broad  Run.  The  next  morning  he  was  reported  to  be 
fortifying  beyond  Bull  Eun,  extending  his  line  towards  the 
Little  River  Turnpike. 

The  vicinity  of  the  entrenchments  around  Washington  and 
Alexandria  rendered  it  useless  to  turn  his  new  position,  as  it 
was  apparent  that  he  could  readily  retire  to  them,  and  would 
decline  an  engagement  unless  attacked  in  his  fortifications.  A 
further  advance  was  therefore  deemed  unnecessary,  and  after 
destroying  the  railroad  from  Cub  Run  southwardly  to  the 
Rappahannock,  the  army  returned  on  the  18th  to  the  line  of 
that  river,  leaving  the  cavalry  in  the  enemy's  front. 

The  fall  campaign  in  Virginia  must  be  confessed  a  failure. 
It  was  an  attempt  by  Lee  to  flank  Meade  and  get  between  him 
and  "Washington.  Unfortunately  the  enemy  appears  to  have 
become  cognizant  of  the  plan  at  the  moment  of  its  execution, 
and  to  have  retreated  with  sufficient  deliberation  to  destroy  all 
their  stores  that  they  did  not  carry  off  to  the  fortifications  of 
Centreville.  It  was  impossible  to  follow  them,  for  the  country 
was  a  desert  in  which  our  army  could  not  live,  while  the  enemy 
would  be  at  the  door  of  the  magazines  in  Washington. 

But  while  General  Lee's  flank  movement  had  thus  terminated 
in  disappointment,  a  contemporary  and  accompanying  opera 
tion  in  the  Valley  district  had  been  most  fortunate.  When 
the  movement  of  the  army  from  the  Rapidan  commenced, 
General  Imboden  was  instructed  to  advance  down  the  Valley 
and  guard  the  gaps  of  the  mountains  on  General  Lee's  left. 
This  duty  was  well  performed  by  that  officer,  and  on  the  18th 
October  he  marched  upon  Charlestown,  and  succeeded  by  a 
well- concerted  plan  in  surrounding  the  place.  Imboden  found 
the  epemy  occupying  the  court-house,  jail,  and  some  con 
tiguous  buildings,  in  the  heart  of  the  town,  all  loop-holed  for 
musketry,  and  the  court-house  yard  enclosed  by  a  heavy  wall 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  153 

of  oak  timber.  To  his  demand  for  a  surrender,  Colonel  Simp 
son,  the  Yankee  commander,  requested  an  hour  for  consider 
ation.  Imboden  offered  him  five  minutes,  to  which  he  replied 
"Take  me,  if  you  can."  Imboden  immediately  opened  on  the 
building  with  artillery  at  less  than  two  hundred  yards,  and 
with  half  a  dozen  shells  drove  out  the  enemy  into  the  streets, 
where  he  formed  and  fled  towards  Harper's  Ferry.  At  the 
edge  of  the  town  he  was  met  by  the  Eighteenth  cavalry  and 
Gilmore's  battalions. 

One  volley  was  exchanged,  when  the  enemy  threw  down  his 
arms  and  surrendered  unconditionally.  The  Colonel,  Lieuteri- 
ant-colonel,  and  five  others  who  were  mounted,  fled  at  the  first 
fire,  and  ran  the  gauntlet,  and  escaped  towards  Harper's  Ferry. 
The 'force  captured  was  the  Ninth  Maryland  regiment  and 
three  companies  of  cavalry,  numbering  between  four  and  five 
hundred,  men  and  officers. 

As  was  expected,  the  Harper's  Ferry  forces,  infantry,  artil 
lery,  and  cavalry,  appeared  at  Charlestown  in  a  few  hours 
after  Imboden  had  fired  the  first  gun.  The  brave  Confederate 
retired,  fighting  back  this  largely  superior  force,  bringing  off 
his  prisoners  and  captured  property,  and  inflicting  considerable 
damage  upon  the  pursuing  column. 

In  the  course  of  these  operations  in  Virginia,  in  the  month 
of  October,  two  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-six  prisoners 
were  captured,  including  forty-one  commissioned  officers ;  of 
the  above  number,  four  hundred  and  thirty-four  were  taken  by 
General  Imboden. 


OPERATIONS  AT  RAPPAHANNOCK  BRIDGE. 

After  the  return  of  General  Lee's  army  to  the  Rappahan- 
nock,  it  was  disposed  on  both  sides  of  the  Orange  and  Alexan 
dria  railroad,  General  E well's  corps  on  the  right  and  General 
Hill's  on  the  left,  with  the  cavalry  on  each  flank.  To  hold  the 
line  of  the  Rappahannoek  at  this  part  of  its  course,  it  was 
deemed  advantageous  to  maintain  our- communication  with  the 
north  bank,  to  threaten  any  flank  movement  the  enemy  might 
make  above  or  below,  and  thus  compel  him  to  divide  hia 
forces,  when  it  was  hoped  that  an  opportunity  would  "he  pre- 


154:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

sented  to  concentrate  on  one  or  the  other  part.  Fur  thi# 
purpose  a  point  was  selected  a  short  distance  above  the  site  01 
the  railroad  bridge,  where  the  hills  on  each  side  of  the  river 
afforded  protection  to  oar  pontoon  bridge  and  increased  the 
means  of  defence.  The  hill  on  the  north  side  was  converted 
into  a  tete-de-pont,  and  a  line  of  rifle  trenches  extended  along 
the  crest  on  the  right  and  left,  to  the  river  bank.  The  works 
on  the  south  side  were  remodelled,  and  sunken  batteries  for 
additional  guns  constructed  on  an  adjacent  hill  to  the  left. 
Higher  up,  on  the  same  side  and  east  of  the  railroad,  near  the 
river  bank,  sunken  batteries  for  two  guns,  and  rifle-pits,  were 
arranged  to  command  the  railroad  embankment,  under  cover 
of  which  the  enemy  might  advance. 

Four  pieces  of  artillery  were  placed  in  the  tete-de-pont,  and 
eight  others  in  the  works  opposite. 

The  defence  of  this  position  was  intrusted  to  Lieutenant- 
general  Ewell's  corps,  and  the  troops  of  Johnson's  and  Early 's 
divisions  guarded  them  alternately,  Rodes'  division  being 
stationed  near  Kelley's  ford. 

The  enemy  began  to  rebuild  the  railroad  as  soon  as  we  with 
drew  from  Bristoe's  Station,  his  army  advancing  as  the  work 
progressed.  His  movements  were  regularly  reported  by  our 
scouts,  and  it  was  known  that  he  had  advanced  from  Warren- 
ton  Junction  a  few  days  before  the  attack. 

His  approach  towards  the  Rappahannock  was  announced  on 
the  6th  of  November,  and  about  noon  next  day  his  infantry 
was  discovered  advancing  to  the  bridge,  while  a  large  force 
moved  in  the  direction 'of  Kelley's  ford,  where  the  first  attack 
was  made. 

General  Rodes  had  the  Second  and  Thirtieth  North  Carolina 
regiments,  of  Ramsenr's  brigade,  on  outpost  duty  at  the  river. 
As  soon  as  he  perceived  that  the  enemy  was  in  force,  he  ordered 
his  division  to  take  position  in  rear  of  the  ford.  While  it  was 
getting  into  line,  the  enemy's  artillery  opened  upon  the  Second 
North  Carolina,  and  soon  drove  it  to  shelter.  The  Thirtieth 
North  Carolina  was  advanced  to  the  assistance  of  the  Second, 
but  in  moving  across  the  open  ground,  was  broken  by  the  con 
centrated  fire  of  the  enemy's  artillery,  and  took  refuge  behind 
some  buildings,  at  the  river.  The  enemy,  being  unopposed 
except  by  the  party  in  the  rifle- pits,  crossed  at  the  rapids 


THE    THIRD    YEAR*  155 

above  the  ford,  and  captured  the  troops  defending  it,  together 
with  a  large  number  of  the  Thirtieth  North  Carolina,  who  re 
fused  to  leave  the  shelter  of  the  houses. 

It  was  not  intended  by  General  Lee  to  attack  the  enemy  un 
til  he  should  have  advanced  from  the  river,  where  it  was  hoped, 
that  by  holding  in  check  the  force  at  the  bridge,  we  would  be 
able  to  concentrate  upon  the  other.  "With  this  view,  General 
Johnson's  division  was  ordered  to  reinforce  General  Kodes. 

In  the  mean  time  a  large  force  was  displayed  in  our  front,  at 
the  bridge,  upon  receiving  information  of  which,  General  A. 
P.  Hill  was  ordered  to  get  his  corps  in  readiness,  and  Ander 
son's  division  was  advanced  to  the  river,  on  the  left  of  the  rail 
road.  The  artillery  was  also  ordered  to  move  to  the  front. 
General  Early  put  his  division  in  motion  towards  the  bridge, 
and  hastened  thither  in  person.  The  enemy's  skirmishers  ad 
vanced  in  strong  force,  with  heavy  supports,  and  ours  were 
slowly  withdrawn  into  the  trenches. 

Hoke's  brigade,  of  Early's  division,  under  Colonel  Godwin 
(General  Hoke  being  absent  with  one  regiment  on  detached 
service),  reinforced  General  Hayes,  whose  brigade  occupied  the 
north  bank.  No  other  troops  were  sent  over,  the  two  brigades 
mentioned  being  -considered  sufficient  to  man  the  works,  and 
though  inferior  to  the  enemy  in  numbers,  the  nature  of  the  po 
sition  was  such,  that  he  could  not  attack  with  a  front  more  ex 
tended  than  our  own. 

It  was  not  known  whether  the  demonstration  of  the  enemy 
was  intended  as  a  serious  attack,  or  only  to  cover  the  move 
ment  of  the  force  that  had  crossed  at  Kelley's  ford,  but  the  late 
ness  of  the  hour  and  the  increasing  darkness  induced  the  belief 
that  nothing  would  be  attempted  until  morning.  It  was  be 
lieved  that  our  troops  on  the  north  side  would  be  able  to  main 
tain  their  position  if  attacked,  and  that,  in  any  case,  they  could 
withdraw  under  cover  of  the  guns  on  the  north,  the  location 
of  the  pontoon  bridge  being  beyond  the  reach  of  a  direct  fire 
from  any  position  occupied  by  the  enemy. 

As  soon,  however,  as  it  became  dark  enough  to  conceal  hia 
movements,  the  enemy  advanced  in  overwhelming  numbers 
against  our  rifle-trenches.  It  was  a  simultaneous  advance,  un 
der  cover  of  the  darkness,  of  the  entire  force  of  the  enemy. 
The  first  line  of  the  enemy  was  broken  and  shattered  by  our 


156  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

fire,  but  the  second  and  third  lines  continued  to  advance  at  a 
double-quick,  arms  at  a  trail,  and  a  column  formed  by  compa- 
panies,  moving  down  the  railroad,  was  hurled  upon  our  right, 
which,  after  a  severe  struggle,  was  forced  back,  leaving  the 
battery  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  General  Hayes  ordered  a 
charge  of  the  Ninth  Louisiana  regiment,'  for  the  purpose  of  jjp- 
taking  the  guns  ;  but  his  centre  having  been  broken,  and  the 
two  forces  opposed  to  his  right  and  centre  having  joined,  ren 
dered  the  execution  of  his  purpose  impracticable.  Forming  a 
new  line  after  this  junction,  facing  up  the  river,  the  enemy  ad 
vanced,  moving  behind  our  works,  towards  our  left,  while  a 
line  which  he  had  formed  in  a  ravine,  above  our  extreme  left, 
moved  down  the  stream,  thus  enclosing  Hoke's  brigade,  and 
the  Seventh  and  Fifth  Louisiana  regiments,  in  a  manner  that 
rendered  escape  impossible.  Nothing  remained  but  surrender. 
Many  of  our  men  effected  their  escape  in  the  confusion — some 
by  swimming  the  river,  and  others  by  making  their  way  to  the 
bridge,  amidst  the  enemy,  and  passing  over  under  a  shower  of 
balls.  General  Hayes  owed  his  escape  to  the  fact,  that  after  he 
was  completely  surrounded,  and  was  a  prisoner,  his  horse  took 
fright  and  ran  off,  and  as  the  enemy  commenced  firing  on  him, 
he  concluded  to  make  the  effort  to  escape  across  the  bridge, 
and  was  successful. 

Unfortunately  no  information  of  this  attack  was  received  on 
the  south  side  of  the  river  until  too  late  for  the  artillery,  there 
stationed,  to  aid  in  repelling  it.  Indeed,  the  darkness  of  the 
night,  and  the  fear  of  injuring  our  own  men  who  had  surren 
dered,  prevented  General  Early  from  using  artillery. 

Colonel  Godwin's  efforts  to  extricate  his  command,  were 
made  with  a  gallant  desperation,  that  has  adorned  with  glory 
this  disaster.  He  continued  to  struggle,  forming  successive 
lines  as  he  was  pushed  back,  and  did  not  for  a  moment  dream 
of  surrendering ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  when  his  men  had 
dwindled  to  sixty  or  seventy,  the  rest  having  been  captured, 
killed,  wounded,  or  lost  in  the  darkness,  and  he  was  completely 
surrounded  by  the  enemy,  who  were,  in  fact,  mixed  up  with 
his  men,  some  one  cried  out  that  Colonel  Godwin's  order  was 
for  them  to  surrender.  He  immediately  called  for  the  man 
who  made  the  declaration,  and  threatened  to  blow  his  braina 
out  if  he  could  find  him,  declaring  his  purpose  to  fight  to  the 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  157 

last  moment,  and  calling  upon  his  men  to  stand  by  him.  He 
was  literally  overpowered,  by  mere  force  of  numbers,  and  was 
taken  witb  his  arms  in  his  bands. 

Of  this  unfortunate  surprise,  which  cost  us  the  greater  por 
tion  of  two  brigades,  there  is  to  be  found  some  excuse  in  the 
circumstances  that  the  enemy  was  aided  by  a  valley  in  our 
front  in  concealing  his  advance  from  view,  and  that  a  very 
high  wind  effectually  prevented  his  movements  from  being 
heard.  General  Lee  declared,  with  characteristic  generosity, 
that  "  the  courage  and  good  conduct  of  the  troops  engaged  had 
been  too  often  tried  to  admit  of  question."  Our  loss  in  pri 
soners  was  very  considerable.  General  Rodes  reported  three 
hundred  of  his  men  missing.  General  Early's  loss  in  prisoners 
was  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty-nine. 

The  loss  of  the  pobition  at  Rappahannock  Bridge  made  it 
necessary  for  General  Lee  to  abandon  the  design  of  attacking 
the  force  that  had  crossed  at  Kelley's  ford ;  and  his  army 
was  withdrawn  to  the  only  tenable  line  between  Culpep- 
per  Court-house  and  the  Rappahannock,  where  it  remained 
during  the  succeeding  day.  The  position  not  being  regarded 
as  favorable,  it  returned  the  night  following  to  the  south  side 
of  the  Rapidan. 

THE   AFFAIR    OF   GERMANIA  FORD. 

We  shall  complete  here  the  record  of  General  Lee's  army 
for  1863  with  a  brief  account  of  another  affair  which  occurred 
at  Germania  ford,  on  the  Rapidan,  on  the  27th  of  November. 

This  affair  appears  to  have  been  an  attempt  by  Meade  of  a 
flank  movement  on  General  Lee's  position,  his  immediate  ob- 
••ect  being  to  get  in  the  rear  of  Major-general  Johnson's  divi 
sion.  This  division  was  composed  of  the  Stonewall  brigade, 
under  Brigadier-general  J.  A.  Walker,  and  Stuart's,  J.  M. 
Jones's,  and  Stafford's  brigades,  with  four  pieces  of  Anderson's 
artillery.  These  were  the  only  troops  engaged  in  the  affair  on 
our  side.  Opposed  to  them  were  Major-general  French's  corps 
(the  Third),  and  one  division  of  the  Fifth  corps.  The  enemy 
were  in  position,  and  opened  the  attack  before  our  forces  knew 
of  their  presence.  Their  object  was  to  make  a  sudden  attack 
from  their  concealed  position  upon  our  flank,  disperse  the 


15S  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

troops  and  capture  our  wagon  train.  They  not  only  failed  of 
their  object,  but  were  driven  from  the  field  with  considerable 
slaughter.  Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty  ;  that  of  the  enemy  was  certainly  double. 

If  Meade  had  designed  a  general  battle — and  the  fact  that, 
before  this  movement,  his  army  had  supplied  itself  with  eight- 
days'  rations  argues  such  design — this  repulse  and  the  heavy 
rains  appear  to  have  damped  his  ardor ;  and  the  "  on-to- 
Kichmond  "  was  reserved  for  another  year. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  159 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Chattanooga  Lines.—  Grant's  Command.—  The  Military  Division  of  the  Missis- 
ippi.-  -Scarcity  of  Supplies  in  Chattanooga.  —  Wheeler's  Raid.  —  Grant's  Plans.  —  He 
Opens  the  Communications  of  Chattanooga.  —  THE  AFFAIR  OF  LOOKOUT  VALLEY.  — 
Relief  of  Chattanooga.—  THE  BATTLE  OF  MISSIONARY  RIDGE.—  Bragg's  Unfortunate 
Detachment  of  Longstreet's  Force.  —  His  Evacuation  of  Lookout  Mountain.  —  Tho 
Attack  on  Missionary  Ridge.—  Hardee's  Gallant  Resistance.—  Rout  and  Panic  of  the 
Confederates.—  President  Davis's  First  Reproof  of  the  Confederate  Troops.—  Bragg's 
Retreat  to  Dalton.  —  Cleburne's  Gallant  Affair.  —  LONGSTREET'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST 
KNOXVILLE.  —  More  of  Bragg's  Mismanagement.  —  Insufficiency  of  Longstreet's  Force. 
—Difficulty  in  Obtaining  Supplies.—  His  Investment  of  Knoxville.—  An  Incident  of 
Personal  Gallantry.  —  Daring  of  an  English  Volunteer.  —  Longstreet's  Plans  Discon 
certed.  —  The  Assault  on  Fort  Sanders.  —  Devotion  of  Longstreet's  Veterans.—  The 
Yankee  "  Wire-net."—  The  Fatal  Ditch.—  Longstreet's  Masterly  Retreat.—  His  Posi 
tion  in  Northeastern  Tennessee.  —  He  Winters  his  Army  there.  —  THE  AFFAIR  OF 
SABINE  PASS,  TEXAS.  —  THE  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI.  —  Franklin's  Expedition  Defeated.  — 
The  Upper  Portions  of  the  Trans-Mississippi.—  The  Missouri  "  Guerillas."—  Quan- 
trell.  —  Romantic  Incidents.  —  THE  VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE  FRONTIER.  —  Operations  of 
General  Sam  Jones.  —  An  Engagement  near  Warm  Springs.  —  The  Affair  of  Rogers- 
ville.  —  BATTLE  OF  DROOP  MOUNTAIN.  —  The  Enemy  Baffled.  —  Averill's  Great  Decem 
ber  Raid.  —  The  Pursuit.;  —  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  SWAMPS.  —  The  Negro  Banditti  in  the 
Swamps.  —  Wild,  Butler's  "Jackal."  —  His  Murder  of  Daniel  Bright.  —  Confederate 
Women  in  Irons.  —  Cowardice  and  Ferocity  of  the  Yankee*. 


left  Rosecrans  in  Chattanooga  and  General  Bragg 
hopefully  essaying  the  investment  of  that  place.  The  defeat  ot 
Rosecrans  at  Chickamauga  had,  despite  all  his  attempts  to 
qualify  it.  cost  him  his  command,  and  added  him  to  the  long 
list  of  the  victims  of  popular  disappointment* 

*  In  an  official  statement  on  the  Tennessee  campaign,  the  Yankee  commander- 
in-chief,  General  Halleck,  attributed  the  defeat  of  Chickamauga  to  a  disobedience 
of  his  orders.  He  stated  that  Burnside  was  ordered  to  connect  his  right  with 
Rosecrans'  left,  and,  if  possible,  to  occupy  Dalton  and  the  passes  into  Georgia 
and  North  Carolina,  so  that  the  two  armies  might  act  as  one  body,  and  sup 
port  each  other.  Rosecrans  was  not  to  advance  into  Georgia  or  Alabama  at 
that  time,  but  to  fortify  his  position  and  connect  with  Burnside.  If  his  weak 
point  —  his  right  and  the  communications  with  Nashville  —  were  threatened,  he 
was  to  hand  over  Chattanooga  to  Burnside,  and  swing  round  to  cover  that 
flank.  At  the  same  time  forces  were  ordered  up  from  Memphis  and  other  quar 
ters  to  guard  that  side,  as  well  as  his  long  line  of  communications.  General 
Burnside,  as  alleged  by  Halleck,  entirely  disobeyed  or  neglected  his  orders,  and 
did  not  connect  with  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  leaving  a  great  gap  be- 


160  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

On  the  18th  of  October  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  assumed 
command  of  the  Military  Division  of  the  Mississippi,  compris 
ing  the  Departments  of  the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland,  and  the 
Tennessee.  He  was  invested  with  plenary  powers,  and  a  mil 
itary  autocracy  that  extended  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the 
Mississippi.  Thomas  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Cumber 
land,  and  Burnside  commanded  at  Knoxville. 

Grant  proceeded  directly  to  Chattanooga.  He  had  tele 
graphed  Thomas  to  hold  the  place  to  the  last  extremity,  and 
the  latter  had  replied,  somewhat  ominously,  that  he  should  do 
BO  until  his  army  "  starved."  The  fact  was,  the  Yankee  forces 
at  Chattanooga  were  practically  invested,  the  Confederate  lines 
extending  from  the  Tennessee  river  above  Chattanooga  to  the 
river  at  and  below  the  point  at  Lookout  Mountain,  below 
Chattanooga,  with  the  south  bank  of  the  river  picketed  to 
near  Bridgeport,  our  main  force  being  fortified  in  Chattanooga 
Valley,  at  the  foot  of  and  on  Missionary  Ridge  and  Lookout 
Mountain,  and  a  brigade  in  Lookout  Valley.  The  enemy's 
artillery  horses  and  mules  had  become  reduced  by  starvation. 
It  was  estimated  that  ten  thousand  animals  perished  in  supply 
ing  half-rations  to  the  Yankee  troops  by  the  long  and  tedious 
route  from  Stevenson  and  Bridgeport  to  Chattanooga  over 
Waldron's  Ridge. 

While  Bragg  thus  held  the  Yankees  in  Chattanooga  at  the 
point  of  starvation,  his  cavalry  had  not  been  idle  in  their  rear. 
General  Wheeler  had  crossed  the  river  in  the  face  of  a  division 
of  the  enemy  at  Cotton  Port  Ford,  and  proceeded  in  the  direc 
tion  of  McMinneville,  when  after  a  sharp  fight  he  captured  a 
large  train  and  seven  hundred  prisoners.  The  train  was  loaded 
with  ammunition  and  other  stores,  and  supposed  to  consist  o,. 
seven  hundred  wagons,  all  which  were  burned.  He  then  at 
tacked  McMinneville,  capturing  five  hundred  and  thirty  pris 
oners,  and  another  large  train,  destroyed  several  bridges,  an 
engine  and  a  train  of  cars.  He  then  moved  to  Shelbyville, 
where  he  captured  a  large  amount  of  stores  and  burned  them. 
The  amount  of  property  destroyed  by  him  was  almost  without 
precedent  in  the  annals  of  raiding. 

tween  the  two  armies.  It  was  claimed  by  General  Halleck  that  had  the  in- 
etructions  of  the  department  been  strictly  followed,  the  disaster  of  Chickama  uga 
would  not  have  occurred. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  161 

On  arriving  at  Chattanooga,  General  Grant  seems  to  have 
at  once  appreciated  the  situation.  It  was  decided  that  Hook 
er's  command  at  Bridgeport  should  be  concentrated  ;  the  plan 
agreed  upon  being  for  it  to  cross  to  the  south  side  of  the  river, 
and  to  move  on  the  wagon  road,  by  the  way  of  Whitesides, 
to  Wauhatchie  in  Lookout  Valley.  On  the  28th  of  October 
Hooker  emerged  into  Lookout  Valley  at  Wauhatchie,  with  the 
Eleventh  army  corps  under  Major-general  Howard,  and  Geary's 
division  of  the  Twelfth  army  corps. 

In  the  mean  time  Grant  had  planned  an  expedition  to  seize 
the  range  of  hills  at  the  mouth  of  Lookout  Valley,  which  easily 
succeeded.  Hooker  proceeded  to  take  up  positions  for  the  de 
fence  of  the  road  from  Whitesides,  over  which  he  had  marched, 
and  also  the  road  leading  from  Brown's  Ferry  to  Kelly's 
Ferry ;  and  Major-general  Palmer,  who  had  moved  up  to 
Whitesides,  also  took  position  to  hold  the  road  passed  over  by 
Hooker.  By  these  movements  Grant  calculated  to  secure  two 
good  lines  for  supplies  from  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  at 
Bridgeport ;  that  at  Whitesides  and  Wauhatchie,  and  that  by 
Kelly's  Ferry  and  Brown's  Ferry. 


THE    AFFAIR   OF    LOOKOUT    VALLEY. 

The  Confederates  were  not  idle  observers  of  these  move 
ments.  On  the  night  of  the  29th  October,  a  night  attack  wa9 
made  by  a  portion  of  Longstreet's  forces,  with  the  hope  oi 
opening  the  way  to  the  possession  of  the  lines  which  had  been 
lost  to  us  by  surprise,  and  with  the  immediate  object  of  cap 
turing  Hooker's  wagon-train.  The  expedition  unexpectedly 
found  itself  fighting  a  whole  Yankee  corps,  the  Twelfth,  under 
command  of  Slocum.  Our  force  consisted  of  but  six  resri- 

o 

rnents.  By  the  vigor  of  our  attack  the  enemy's  lines  were 
broken.  At  one  time  the  Yankees  had  fallen  back  in  front, 
and  on  the  right  and  left  flanks,  until  wagon-trains  and  prison 
ers  were  captured  in  the  rear.  But  the  pressure  of  the  Yan 
kee  columns  from  Brown's  Ferry,  where  it  was  known  there 
were  at  least  two  corps,  threatened  the  integrity  of  our  posi 
tiori.  It  had  become  critical  in  the  extreme  ;  and  an  order 
was  given  to  retire.  In  this  action  Jenkins's  brigade  suffered 

11 


163  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

severely  ;  its  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  said  to  be  three 
hundred  and  sixty-one. 

Grant's  possession  of  the  lines  of  communication  south  of 
the  Tennessee  river  was  no  longer  disputed.  By  the  use  of 
two  steamboats  he  was  enabled  to  obtain  supplies  with  but 
eight  miles  of  wagoning.  His  relief  of  Chattanooga  was  to  be 
taken  as  an  accomplished  fact. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   MISSIONARY    RIDGE. 

President  Davis  had  visited  General  Bragg's  lines,  and  on 
his  return  therefrom  made,  in  public,  certain  mysterious  allu 
sions  to  a  campaign  that  was  to  retrieve  our  fortunes  in  the 
West.  The  country  was  shortly  afterwards  surprised  to  learn 
that  Bragg  had  detached  Longstreet  from  his  front,  and  moved 
him  in  the  direction  of  Knoxville,  to  attack  Burnside. 

Of  this  event,  so  untoward  for  the  Confederates,  Grant  says, 
in  his  official  report :  "  Ascertaining  from  scouts  and  deserters 
that  Bragg  was  despatching  Longstreet  from  the  front,  and 
moving  him  in  the  direction  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  evi 
dently  to  attack  Burnside,  and  feeling  strongly  the  necessity 
for  some  move  that  would  compel  him  to  retain  all  his  forces 
and  recall  those  he  had  detached,  directions  were  given  for  a 
movement  against  Missionary  Ridge,  with  a  view  to  carrying 
it  and  threatening  the  enemy's  communication  with  Long- 
etreet,  of  which  I  informed  Burnside  by  telegraph  on  the  7th 
November." 

Lookout  Mountain  was  evacuated  by  the  Confederates,  on 
the  24th  of  November,  being  no  longer  important  to  us  after 
the  loss  of  Lookout  or  Wills'  Valley,  and  no  longer  tenable 
against  such  an  overwhelming  force  as  General  Grant  had  con 
centrated  around  Chattanooga.  General  Bra^£  abandoned 

CD  OO 

also  the  whole  of  Chattanooga   Vallev,  and  the  trenches  and 

O  «/  ' 

breastworks"  running  along  the  foot  of  Missionary  Ridge  and 
across  the  valley  to  the  base  of  Lookout,  and  moved  his  troops 
up  to  the  top  ot  the  ridge.  It  was  found  necessary  to  extend 
his  right  well  up  towards  the  Chickamauga,  near  its  month,  in 
consequence  of  the  heavy  forces  which  the  enemy  had  thrown 
up  the  river  in  that  direction.  The  ridge  varies  in  height  from 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  163 

four  to  six  hundred  feet,  .and  is  crossed  by  several  roads  lead 
ing  out  from  Chattanooga.  The  western  side  next  to  the  enemy 
was  steep  and  rugged,  and  in  some  places  almost  bare,  the 
timber  having  been  cut  away  for  firewood.  Our  pickets  occu 
pied  the  breastworks  below,  while  the  infantry  and  artillery 
were  distributed  along  the  crest  of  the  ridge  from  McFarlan's 
Gap  almost  to  the  mouth  of  the  Chickamauga,  a  distance  of 
BIX  miles  or  more.  In  addition  to  the  natural  strength  of  the 
position  we  had  thrown  up  breastworks  along  the  ridge  wher 
ever  the  ascent  was  easy. 

Determined  to  make  his  attack  upon  Bragg's  reduced  num 
bers  as  formidable  as  possible,  Grant  waited  for  Sherman  to 
come  up :  Sherman,  strengthened  by  a  division  from  Thomas's 
command,  to  cross  the  Tennessee  river  below  the  mouth  of 
Chickamauga,  to  form  a  junction  with  Thomas,  and  advance 
towards  the  northern  end  of  Missionary  Ridge.  On  the  night 
of  the  23d  November,  Sherman,  with  four  divisions,  com 
menced  crossing  the  river.  By  daylight  of  the  24th,  eight  thou 
sand  Yankees  were  on  the  south  side  of  the  Tennessee,  and 
fortified  in  rifle-trenches.  By  noon  the  remainder  of  Sherman's 
force  was  over,  and  before  night  the  whole  of  the  northern  ex 
tremity  of  Missionary  Ridge  was  in  his  possession.  In  the 
mean  time,  Hooker  scaled  the  western  slope  of  Lookout  Moun 
tain.  On  the  night  of  the  24th,  the  Yankee  forces  maintained 
an  unbroken  line,  with  open  communications,  from  the  north 
end  of  Lookout  Mountain,  through  Cheat  Valley,  to  the  north 
end  of  Missionary  Ridge. 

On  the  25th  of  November,  the  enemy  prepared  for  his  grand 
assault.  The  Yankee  army  was  marshalled  under  Grant, 
Thomas,  Hooker,  and  Sherman,  and  did  not  number  less  than 
eighty-five  thousand  veteran  troops.  The  Confederate  army, 
under  Bragg,  Hardee  and  Breckinridge,  did  not  number  half 
BO  many.  Longstreet's  Virginia  divisions  and  other  troops  had 
been  sent  to  East  Tennessee.  Had  these  been  present,  with 
their  steady  leader  at  the  head  of  them,  we  might  have  won  a 
victory.  As  it  was,  we  ought  to  have  won  the  day  ;  especially 
considering  the  advantages  of  our  position,  by  which  the  ranks 
of  the  enemy  were  exposed  to  an  artillery  fire  while  in  the 
plain,  and  to  the  infantry  fire  when  they  attempted  the  ascent 
of  the  hill  or  mountain. 


164:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    VFAB. 

Grant  deployed  Ins  immense  masses  in  two  heavy  lines  of 
battle,  and  sometimes  in  three,  supported  by  larg-t  reserve 
forces.  The  spectacle  was  magnificent  as  viewed  from  the 
crest  of  Missionary  Ridge.  He  advanced  first  against  our 
right  wing,  about  ten  o'clock,  where  he  encountered  Hardee, 
who  commanded  on  the  right,  while  Breckinridge  commanded 
on  the  left.  Hardee' s  command  embraced  Cleburne's,  Walker's 
(commanded  by  General  Gist,  General  Walker  being  absent), 
Cheatham's  and  Stevenson's  divisions.  Breckinridge's  em 
braced  his  old  division,  commanded  by  Brigadier-general 
Lewis,  Stewart's,  part  of  Buckner's,  and  Hindman's  com 
manded  by  Patton  Anderson.  The  enemy's  first  assault  upon 
Hardee  was  repulsed  with  great  slaughter,  as  was  his  second, 
though  made  with  double  lines,  supported  with  heavy  reserves. 

The  attack  on  the  left  wing  was  not  made  until  about  noon. 
Here,  as  on  the  right,  the  enemy  wras  repulsed  ;  but  he  was 
obstinate,  and  fought  with  great  ardor  and  confidence,  return 
ing  to  the  charge  again  and  again  in  the  handsomest  style, 
until  one  of  our  brigades  in  the  centre  gave  way,  and  the 
Yankee  flag  was  planted  on  Missionary  Ridge.  The  enemy 
was  not  slow  in  availing  himself  of  the  great  advantages  of  his 
new  position.  In  a  few  minutes  he  turned  upon  our  flanks 
and  poured  into  them  a  terrible  enfilading  fire,  which  soon 
threw  the  Confederates  on  his  right  and  left  into  confusion. 
Under  this  confusion,  the  gap  in  our  lines  grew  wider  and 
wider,  and  the  wider  it  grew  the  faster  the  multitudinous  foe 
rushed  into  the  yawning  chasm.  A  disgraceful  panic  ensued. 
The  whole  left  wing  of  the  Confederates  became  involved,  gave 
way,  and  scattered  in  unmitigated  rout.  The  day  was  lost,  and 
shamefully  lost.  Hardee  still  maintained  his  ground  ;  but  no 
success  of  the  right  wing  could  restore  the  left  to  its  original 
position.  With  cheers  answering  cheers  the  Yankees  swarmed 
upwards.  Color  after  color  was  planted  on  the  summit,  while 
muskets  and  cannon  poured  their  deadly  thunder  upon  the  fly 
ing  Confederates.  Grant  was  surprised  at  the  ease  with  which 
he  had  won  a  victory  such  as  he  had  never  before  obtained, 
and  attributed  it  to  the  dismay  of  the  Confederates  at  his 
"  audacity,"  and  the  "  purposeless  aiming "  of  our  artillery 
from  the  crest  of  the  ridge. 

Our  casualties  were  shamefully  small.     Granted  stated  his 


LT  GEN.  HARDEE 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  165 

own  loss  as  about  five  thousand  in  killed  and  woui-ded.  He 
claimed  to  have  taken  over  six  thousand  prisoners,  forty  pieces 
of  artillery,  and  seven  thousand  stand  of  small  arms. 

The  disaster  of  Missionary  Ridge  was  not  only  a  great  mis 
fortune,  but  a  grievous  disgrace.  Of  the  unhappy  event,  Pre 
sident  Davis  said :  "  After  a  long  and  severe  battle,  in  which 
great  carnage  was  inflicted  on  the  enemy,  some  of  our  troops 
inexplicably  abandoned  positions  of  great  strength,  and,  by  a 
disorderly  retreat,  compelled  the  commander  to  withdraw  the 
forces  elsewhere  successful,  and  finally  to  retire  with  his  whole 
army  to  a  position  some  twenty  or  thirty  miles  to  the  rear.  It 
is  believed  that  if  the  troops  who  yielded  to  the  assault  had 
fought  with  the  valor  which  they  had  displayed  on  previous 
occasions,  and  which  was  manifested  iu  this  battle  on  the  other 
parts  of  the  line,  the  enemy  would  have  been  repulsed  with 
very  great  slaughter,  and  our  country  would  have  escaped  the 
misfortune,  and  the  army  the  mortification  of  the  first  defeat 
that  has  resulted  from  misconduct  by  the  tuoops." 

On  the  night  of  the  25th  of  November,  Bragg  was  in  full 
retreat ;  and  all  of  his  strong  positions  on  Lookout  Mountain, 
Chattanooga  Valley  and  Missionary  Ridge  were  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy.  His  army  was  put  in  motion  on  the  road  to 
Ringgold,  and  thence  to  Dalton. 

The  disgrace  of  this  retreat  was  somewhat  relieved  by  the 
spirit  of  the  brave  and  undaunted  Cleburne.  He  had  been 
left  to  bring  up  the  rear.  The  Yankee  pursuing  column,  num 
bering,  it  is  estimated,  about  ten  thousand  men  of  all  arms,  as 
saulted  him  before  he  reached  Tunnel  Hill.  This  column  con 
sisted  of  picked  troops,  who  moved  rapidly  and  fought  gal 
lantly  ;  but  Cleburne  succeeded  in  restraining  them  whenever 
he  encountered  them.  After  some  desultory  fighting,  he  suc 
ceeded  in  ambuscading  Thomas's  advance  at  Taylor's  Ridge. 
He  managed  to  conceal  his  forces,  including  his  artillery,  until 
the  enemy  got  within  a  few  paces  of  his  guns,  when  they  poured 
grape  and  canister  into  them  with  the  most  destructive  effect. 
The  road  was  filled  with  their  dead  and  wounded.  Our  infan 
try  then  sprang  forward  from  their  covert  on  either  side  of  the 
road,  and  literally  mowed  them  down  by  their  well-directed 
shot.  The  enemy  fled  in  confusion,  leaving  two  hundred  and 
fifty  prisoners  and  three  flags  (the  latter  taken  by  the  artille- 


166  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

rists)  in  our  hands,  and  from  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred 
killed  and  wounded  in  the  road.  Grant  desisted  from  pursuit, 
convinced  hy  Cleburne's  lesson,  that  the  Confederates  were  not 
demoralized,  and  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  despatching 
reinforcements  to  aid  Burnside,  at  Knoxville. 


LONGSTREET'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  KNOXVILLE. 

We  must  turn,  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Longstreet's  ill-ad 
vised  and  worse-furnished  expedition  against  Knoxville. 

.  It  is  an  indisputable  fact  that,  when  Longstreet  was  sent  frorc 
General  Bragg's  lines,  he  was  furnished  with  no  subsistence 
whatever ;  and  in  way  of  transportation,  was  provided  only 
with  some  refuse  teams  by  Bragg's  quartermaster.  Despite 
these  difficulties,  he  succeeded  in  subsisting  his  army,  and  in 
capturing  an  aggregate  amount  of  stores  from  the  enemy,  which 
alone  was  a  valuable  result  of  the  campaign.  At  Lenoir  Station 
he  captured  a  train  of  eighty-five  wagons,  many  of  them  loaded 
with  valuable  medical  stores.  At  Bean  Station  he  captured 
thirty  wagons,  a  quantity  of  forage,  and  some  horses.  In  the 
Clinch  Valley  he  captured  forty  other  wagons — a  particularly 
rich  spoil,  as  they  were  mostly  laden  with  sugar  and  coffee. 

He  had  been  disappointed  in  the  force  which  was  placed 
at  his  command.  When  he  started  on  his  expedition,  Steven 
son's  division  was  then  at  London,  some  thirty  miles  from 
Knoxville.  Stevenson  was  hastily  recalled  to  Chattanooga  by 
Bragg,  who  was  suddenly  awakened  to  the  danger  of  an  attack 
on  his  front ;  and  the  first  train  which  carried  Longstreet'a 
troops  through  to  London,  returned  with  those  of  Stevenson. 
It  appears  that  Longstreet's  movement  was  thus  uncovered,  and 
that  he  was  left  with  only  eleven  thousand  infantry  to  conduct 
the  campaign,  arduous  in  all  respects,  against  an  enemy  twice 
his  numbers. 

On  the  18th  of  November,  Longstreet  drove  the  enemy  from 
his  advance  lines,  in  front  of  Knoxville,  close  under  his  works. 
This  sortie  was  the  occasion  of  one  of  those  dashing  feats  of  in 
dividual  gallantry  which  demands  a  passing  notice.  A  breast 
work  was  charged  by  our  infantry.  They  winced  under  the 
galling  fire  of  the  enemy,  and  wavered,  when  Captain  Stephen 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  167 

Ncrthrop,  an  Englishman,  formerly  Captain  of  Her  Britannic 
Majesty's  22d  foot,  who  had  joined  our  ranks,  and  was  on  duity 
in  Alexander's  artillery  battalion,  stationed  several  hundred 
yards  from  the  scene  of  conflict,  mounted  his  horse,  and  dash 
ing  across  the  plain — the  only  horseman  in  the  melee — rode  in 
advance  of  the  wavering  line,  up  to  the  very  works  of  the  en 
emy  ;  a  hundred  rifles  were  lowered  upon  him,  but  he  moved 
on,  and  rallied  the  wavering  line  ;  the  work  was  carried,  and 
Northrop  borne  away,  with  a  minie  ball  through  his  shoulder, 
his  sword-scabbard  broken  by  another,  and  the  point  of  iris 
sword  cut  off  by  yet  another.  His  escape  was  miraculous. 

Longstreet's  investment  of  Knoxville  was  nearly  complete. 
The  enemy  could  only  procure  supplies  from  one  side  of  the 
river,  and  the  Yankees  were  already  restricted  in  their  rations. 

But  in  the  mean  time  news  had  come  of  Bragg's  disaster,  and 
nothing  remained  for  Longstreet  but  to  trust  to  the  vigor  of  a 
decisive  assault.  It  is  not  improbable  that  a  few  days  more 
might  have  starved  the  Yankees  into  a  surrender ;  but  we 
could  not  wait  for  the  event.  The  enemy's  cavalry  were  al 
ready  on  the  line  of  the  railroad  between  Knoxville  and  Chick- 
amauga.  Communication  with  General  Bragg  had  been  sev 
ered,  and  London  was  threatened. 

Knoxville  was  well  fortified.  College  Hill  was  fortified  with 
a  heavy  fort,  carrying  a  siege-piece  of  artillery.  Another  fort 
was  thrown  tip  on  the  hills,  near  the  Summit  House.  The  hill 
on  the  right  of  the  street  leading  from  the  public  square  to  the 
depot,  had  a  strong  fort.  Near  the  Humphrey's  was  another. 
The  hill  known  as  Temperance  Hill,  had  two  heavy  forts. 
Another  rise  had  two  batteries.  The  heights  south  of  Knox 
ville  were  also  fortified,  and  connected  with  these  immense  for 
tifications  was  one  continuous  line  of  rifle-pits  and  breastworks, 
from  the  extreme  east  of  Knoxville,  on  the  river,  to  the  west, 
on  the  river.  The  point  of  attack  was  a  strong  work  on  the 
north-west  angle  of  the  enemy's  line  (the  salient  angle  north 
west  the  immediate  point  to  be  assailed).  The  fort  was  on  a 
hill  of  considerable  eminence,  near  the  Kingston  road,  known 
as  Fort  Sanders. 

The  force  which  was  to  attempt  an  enterprise  which  ranks 
with  the  most  famous  charges  in  military  history,  should  be 
mentioned  in  detail.  It  consisted  of  three  brigades  of  McLaw's 


168  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

division  :  that  of  General  "Wolford,  the  Sixteenth,  Eighteenth, 
and  Twenty -fourth  Georgia  regiments,  and  Cobb's  and  Phillips's 
Georgia  legions  ;  that  of  General  Humphrey,  the  Thirteenth, 
Seventeenth,  Twenty-first,  Twenty-second  and  Twenty-third 
Mississippi  regiments,  and  a  brigade  composed  of  General  An 
derson's  and  Bryant's  brigades,  embracing,  among  others,  the 
Palmetto  State  Guard,  the  Fifteenth  South  Carolina  regiment, 
and  the  Fifty-first,  Fifty-third  and  Fifty-ninth  Georgia  regi 
ments. 

The  signal  gun  broke  the  silence  of  the  early  dawn  of  the 
29th  of  November.  The  assaulting  column  of  the  Confederates 
moved  up  to  the  attack  over  the  slope,  in  front  of  the  fort,  in 
a  direction  oblique  to  the  London  road.  A  heavy  artillery- 
fire  was  opened  upon  them  at  the  first  advance.  Despite  the 
Btorm  of  canister  which  howled  around  them,  on  came  the  de 
voted  men,  with  brigade  front,  slowly  pouring  over  the  rail 
road  cut,  and  anon  quickening  in  motion  as  the  ground  pre 
sented  less  obstruction,  until  at  last,  emerging  from  the  nearest 
timber,  they  broke  into  the  charge. 

Across  the  open  space  which  intervened  between  the  timber 
and  the  fort,  and  which  was  crossed  with  logs  and  the  stumps 
of  felled  trees,  the  Confederates  came  at  impetuous  speed.  But 
the  enemy  had  prepared  for  them  a  device  quite  worthy  of 
Yankee  ingenuity.  Among  the  stumps  which  covered  the 
elope,  the  Yankees  had  woven  a  network  of  wire.  Lines  of 
telegraph  wire  had  been  stretched  through  the  low  brush,  and 
coiled  from  stump  to  stump,  out  of  ordinary  view.  The  fore-, 
most  of  the  assaulting  column  stumbled,  one  falling  over  an 
other,  and  were  thrown  into  some  confusion,  until  the  cause  of 
the  obstruction  was  discovered.  The  enemy  took  advantage  of 
the  momentary  halt  and  confusion  to  pour  a  devouring  fire  upon 
the  broken  lines.  The  embrasures  of  the  fort,  and  the  whole 
line  of  the  parapet  blazed  at  once  with  discharges.  But  still 
the  gallant  Confederates  pressed  on,  their  battle-flags  of  red, 
with  cross  of  blue,  floating  triumphantly  above  their  heads. 
Kallying  over  the  temporary  obstruction,  leaping  the  stumps 
and  logs,  and  pushing  through  the  brush,  they  were  soon  within 
pistol  shot  of  the  fort.  The  enemy  reserved  his  fire.  He  had 
treble-shotted  some  of  his  guns,  and  others  were  loaded  with 
lerrible  canister. 


THE    TEI1KD    YEAR.  1(59 

Suddenly  all  the  enemy's  guns  launched  forth  their  in  smiles 
of  death.  Our  lines  were  shattered  ;  but  with  a  terrible  cour 
age,  some  of  the  Confederates  sprang  into  the  ditch,  clambered 
up  the  glacis,  and  almost  side  by  side  with  the  Yankee  flag 
planted  their  own.  But  the  rear  of  the  assaulting  column  had 
given  way.  Others  remained  with  their  officers,  who  valiantly 
kept  the  lead  to  the  very  fort  itself,  and  in  the  attempt  to  scale 
the  glacis.  There  was  a  spatter  of  blood  and  brains  as  each 
head  appeared  above  the  parapet.  A  Confederate  captain, 
with  an  oath,  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  garrison,  as  he 
pushed  his  body  through  one  of  the  embrasures,  and  faced  the 
very  muzzle  of  the  cannon.  The  answer  to  him  was  the  dis 
charge  of  the  piece,  when,  rent  from  limb  to  limb,  his  mangled 
corpse,  or  what  was  left  of  it,  was  hurled  outward  into  the  air. 
His  comrades,  yet  essaying  to  get  within  the  work,  were  now 
subjected  to  the  fire  of  hand-grenades,  extemporized  by  cutting 
short  the  fuses,  and  the  shells  being  then  tossed  over  the  edge 
of  the  parapet.  Baffled  at  every  point,  and  unsupported  by 
the  rest  of  the  charging  column,  these  brave  men  surrendered, 
and  were  hauled  within  the  fort ;  but  not  until  the  trench  was 
tilled  with  the  dead  and  dying. 

In  this  terrible  ditch  the  dead  were  piled  eight  or  ten  feet 
deep.  In  comparatively  an  instant  of  time,  we  lost  seven  hun 
dred  men  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners.  Colonel  McEI- 
roy  of  the  Thirteenth  Mississippi  arid  Colonel  Thomas  of  the 
Sixteenth  Georgia,  had  both  fallen  mortally  wounded  in  the 
ditch.  The  Yankees  lost  in  the  action  not  more  than  twenty 
men  killed  and  wounded. 

Never — excepting  Gettysburg — was  there  in  the  history  of 
the  war  a  disaster  adorned  with  the  glory  of  such  devoted 
courage  as  Longstreet's  repulse  at  Knoxville.  It  left  him, 
considering  the  consequences  of  Bragg's  defeat  at  Missionary 
Ridge,  with  no  other  alternative'  than  to  raise  the  siege  and 
occupy  a  new  line  of  operations.  A  retreat  to  Bragg's  line 
was  not  contemplated,  and  he  decided  to  transfer  his  base  to  a 
point  where  he  could  threaten  Knoxville  from  the  opposite 
Bide  of  the  town,  and  establish  communications  with  Bristol, 
Lynchburg,  and  Richmond.  These  intentions,  It  is  said,  were 
known  to  President  Davis  in  advance,  who,  it  is  further  said, 
advised  with  General  Longstreet  on  the  subject,  and  left 


170  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

to  his  discretion  the  plan  of  campaign  to  be  pursued  in  tha 
future. 

It  was  in  the  exercise  of  an  independant  judgment,  that 
Lpngstreet  made  his  retreat  to  Kussellville.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  fortunate  retreats  of  the  war.  It  was  made  without  the 
slightest  loss.  It  evaded  a  large  column  of  the  enemy  at  Lou- 
don.  Its  immediate  object  was  Rogersville,  where  Longstreet 
expected  to  get  supplies  and  milling  for  his  army.  Our  forces, 
however,  being  pressed  by  the  enemy,  who  followed  them  to 
Bean  Station,  on  the  Cumberland  Gap  road,  turned  upon  the 
Yankees,  inflicted  upon  them  a  severe  defeat,  and  drove  them 
twelve  lines  before  Russellville. 

Ey  an  admirable  movement,  Longstreet  selected  a  position 
in  Northeastern  Tennessee,  where  he  could  hold  communica 
tion  with  his  superiors  in  Richmond,  and  intrenching  himself 
against  all  possibility  of  surprise,  he  proceeded  to  carry  out 
what  remained  of  his  military  plans.  The  Army  of  the  Ohio 
was  weak,  and  he  knew  it.  It  was  strong  enough  to  hold 
Knoxville,  as  he  had  learned  by  sad  experience.  The  rein 
forcements  which  were  sent  from  Chattanooga,  were  with 
drawn.  He,  therefore,  organized  his  forces  for  conquest,  not 
necessarily  of  territory,  but  of  material  for  the  subsistence  of 
his  troops.  In  this  way  he  managed  to  overrun  the  entire  sec 
tion  of  the  State  east  of  a  line  drawn  from  Cumberland  Gap  to 
Cleveland ;  to  gather  within  his  lines  all  that  was  valuable  in 
supplies  of  food  ;  and  to  make  his  army  quite  self-subsisting  in 
a  tract  of  country  where  it  was  thought  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  remain  without  external  aid. 

While  events  of  dominant  importance  were  taking  place  on 
the  lines  of  Generals  Lee  and  Bragg,  there  were  distant  and 
minor  theatres  of  the  contest,  which,  at  various  times  in  the 
fall  of  1863,  exhibited  some  remarkable  episodes  in  the  war. 
"We  shall  make  a  rapid  resume  of  these  minor  events,  taking 
the  reader's  attention  from  the  Gulf  Coast  to  the  distant  regions 
of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and  thence  to  the  frontiers  of  some 
of  the  eastern  States  of  the  Confederacy. 

THE   AFFAIR   AT    8AEINE    PASS,  TEXAS. — THE   TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. 

An  engagement  with  the  Yankee  navy  had  occurred  at  Sa- 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  171 

bine  Pass,  the  dividing  line  between  Louisiana  and  Texas,  on 
the  8th  of  September.  A  brilliant  victory  was  won  by  the 
little  Confederate  garrison  of  Sabine  Pass  against  the  fleet  of 
the  enemy.  Attacked  by  five  gunboats,  the  fort,  mounting 
but  three  guns  of  small  calibre,  and  manned  by  the  Davis 
Guards,  Lieutenant  E.  M.  Dowliug,  assisted  by  Lieutenant 
Smith,  of  the  engineers,  supported  by  about  two  hundred  men, 
the  whole  under  command  of  Captain  F.  A.  Odium,  steadily 
resisted  their  fire,  and  at  last  forced  the  surrender  of  the  two 
gunboats  Clifton  and  Sachem,  badly  crippling  another,  which 
with  the  others  escaped  over  the  bar.  The  result  of  this  gal 
lant  achievement  was  the  capture  of  two  fine  gunboats,  fifteen 
heavy  guns,  over  two  hundred  prisoners  (among  them  the 
commodore  of  the  fleet),  and  over  fifty  of  the  enemy  killed  and 
wounded,  while  not  a  man  was  lost  on  our  side,  or  a  gun 
injured. 

This  demonstration  of  the  Yankees,  under  command  of  Gen 
eral  Franklin,  was  part  of  an  expedition  from  General  Banks' 
lines  against  Texas.  A  column  under  "Washburne  had  moved 
by  railroad  to  Erashear  and  Bayou  Bceuf ;  and  another  Yankee 
column  had  been  taken  by  steamboats  to  the  mouth  of  Ked 
Kiver  to  go  to  Simmsport.  But  Franklin's  disaster  at  Sabine 
Pass  caused  him  to  abandon  his  part  of  the  movement ;  and 
on  this  account,  and  also,  it  is  said,  the  low  state  of  water,  an 
expedition  elaborately  and  ambitiously  planned  by  Banks  was 
wholly  abandoned. 

In  the  upper  portions  of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  Confederate 
operations  had  assumed  an  irregular  character.  The  States 
beyond  the  great  river  possessed  many  advantages  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  defence.  In  provisions  they  abounded 
beyond  any  other  part  of  the  Confederacy.  In  the  various 
equisites  for  establishing  and  supplying  an  army  they  were 
by  no  means  destitute.  Through  Mexico  they  had  been  en 
abled  to  make  good  their  deficiencies,  to  some  extent,  by 
importation. 

Great  activity  seemed  to  pervade  the  Trans-Mississippi,  and 
brilliant  actions  performed  by  small  bodies  of  men  charac 
terized  it,  instead  of  sanguinary  and  resultless  battles.  The 
nature  of  the  country  and  the  requirements  of  the  situations 
had  no  doubt  wrought  a  considerable  chango  in  the  character 


172  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  the  warfare  carried  on  in  that  region ;  but  although  no 
signal  indications  of  strategic  skill  might  be  traceable,  marks 
of  dash  and  daring  were  plainly  discernible. 

But  while  Texas  and  Arkansas  still  maintained  formidable 
military  organizations,  in  unhappy  Missouri  the  Confederates 
were  well  nigh  driven  to  the  wall.  Quantrell,  the  famous 
partisan  chief,  was  compelled,  in  the  fall  of  1863,  to  make  his 
exodus  from  Missouri. 

Towards  the  middle  of  September  the  guerillas  reunited  at 
Blackwater,  and  were  ready  in  a  few  hours  to  leave  their  ren 
dezvous  for  their  march  South.  Cold  nights  and  occasional 
frost  had  warned  them  to  leave  Missouri,  and  like  poor  house 
less  birds  of  passage,  beaten  by  the  pitiless  storm,  they  sought 
a  more  genial  clime,  where  the  grass  was  green  and  Yankees  less 
numerous.  Missouri  would  afford  no  shelter  of  safety  after  win 
ter  had  set  in ;  the  bare  and  leafless  forests  no  hiding  places, 
and  the  pure  driven  snow  would  afford  to  the  enemy  the  best 
means  of  tracking  the  hunted  and  hungry  guerillas  whenever 
they  should  leave  their  holes  in  search  of  food.  Outlawed  by 
an  order  of  General  Blount,  proscribed  by  every  Yankee  offi 
cial,  the  citizens  warned  against  furnishing  food  or  shelter 
under  the  cruelest  and  severest  penalties,  the  very  earth  almost 
denying  them  a  resting-place,  the  gallant  three  hundred  broke 
np  their  rendezvous  and  left  for  the  plains  of  Texas. 

The  romantic  adventures  of  these  men  in  the  Indian  coun 
try  were  of  thrilling  interest.  At  one  time,  they  came  upon 
a  party  of  Yankees  near  Fort  Smith,  who  mistook  them  for 
comrades.  The  little  Confederate  command  was  drawn  up  in 
line  of  battle,  motionless  as  statues,  with  Quantrell  at  their 
head  on  his  war-horse,  looking  grimly  at  a  brilliant  cavalcade  of 
horsemen  forming  beautifully  about  three  hundred  yards  in 
front.  The  whisper  ran  through  the  line,  "  It  is  old  Blount, 
and  he  thinks  we  are  Yankees  coming  out  to  give  him  a  recep 
tion  !"  It  was  true.  There  rode  General  Blount  and  staff, 
glittering  in  blue  cloth  and  gold  lace,  and  about  two  hundred 
of  his  body  guard ;  just  then  the  cavalcade  moved,  ard  the 
band  commenced  playing  Yankee  Doodle.  Quantrell  moved 
also  ;  but  the  quick  eye  of  Blount  discovered  something  wrong 
and  called  a  halt.  But  the  guerillas  by  this  time  were  under 
full  gallop,  and  down  they  swept  upon  the  brilliant  cortege 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  173 


like  an  avalanche  and  hurled  them  to  the  earth.  The  struggle 
was  short  and  fierce;  the  shock  terrific,  as  guerilla  rodt  over 
both  horse  and  his  rider,  and  dashed  out  the  brains  of  the  lat 
ter  as  he  passed.  Again  and  again  they  turned  and  fired, 
charged  and  recharged,  until  the  ground  was  strewn  with  the 
dead,  ambulances  overturned,  and  horses  flying  madly  in  every 
direction.* 


THE   VIRGINIA-TENNESSEE   FRONTIER. 

The  frontier  in  which  we  include  the  vast  body  of  land  lying 
generally  between  General  Lee's  lines  in  Virginia  and  East 
Tennessee,  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  minor  theatres 
of  the  war. 

What  was  known  as  the  Department  of  West  Virginia  and 
East  Tennessee,  was  under  the  command  of  Major-general  Sam 

*  A  stirring  episode  of  this  engagement  is  told  by  one  who  participated  in  it 
We  give  it,  in  his  words,  as  a  characteristic  incident  of  the  romance  of  parti- 
Ban  warfare : 

"Lieutenant-colonel  Curtis,  adjutant-general  on  General  Blount's  staff,  rodo 
a  magnificent  horse,  richly  caparisoned,  and  was  himself  dressed  in  the  richest 
uniform  of  his  rank.  He  %vas  a  remarkably  handsome  man,  fair,  and  rosy,  eyes 
blue  as  those  of  the  fairest  blonde  of  his  own  clime ;  pale,  fair,  tall,  slender 
figure — with  features  as  beautiful  as  those  of  a  woman.  He  was  well  armed 
with  pistol  and  sabre,  and  usod  them  gallantly.  He  sees  that  his  force  is  de 
feated,  and  determines  to  escape.  But  as  he  turns  his  horse's  head  he  encoun 
ters  the  fierce  eye  of  a  young  guerilla  as  handsome,  as  brave  and  as  well 
mounted  as  himself,  bearing  right  down  upon  him.  He  observes  the  adjutant- 
general  endeavoring  to  escape ;  calls  to  him  to  stop  and  fight.  He  does 
turn  to  meet  the  guerilla  now  swooping  down  upon  him  like  an  eagle  on  its 
prey.  The  Yankee  fires  a  long-range  gun,  but  misses  his  aim  ;  he  draws  his 
six-shooter  and  rapidly,  nervously  discharges  the  contents  at  his  adversary, 
who  all  this  time  is  gaining  on  him  and  dashing  straight  at  him. 

"As  an  eagle  swoops  down  on  his  prey,  gracefully  and  grandly  ferocious, 
beautiful  even  in  the  act  of  destruction,  so  does  Peyton  Long,  the  young  hero, 
gallantly  bear  down  on  the  "  cutt"  Yankee ;  he  reserves  every  shot,  while 
Curtis  is  wasting  his ;  he  dashes  upon  him — both  pause  for  an  instant  as  if  in 
mutual  admiration — but  only  for  a  moment.  Peyton  Long  watches  his  antag 
onist,  and  sways  his  body  to  the  left  to  escape  the  sabre  cut  of  the  Yankee ; 
the  next  instant  the  inevitable  six-shooter  of  the  guerilla  is  pointed  at  the  head 
of  the  splendid-looking  fellow ;  it  is  the  work  of  an  instant ;  Peyton  strikes 
like  an  eagle,  and  all  is  over!  A  shout  of  triumph  rose  from  the  throng  ol 
guerillas,  who  had  ceased  the  fight  to  watch  the  encounter  between  this  well 
matched  couple." 


174:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Jones,  one  of  the  most  active  of  Confederate  commanders.  Of 
events  in  his  department  we  must  make  a  rapid  summary, 
which,  however,  will  admit  some  detail  of  his  most  interesting 
operations. 

For  many  months  operations  had  been  active  in  this  De 
partment  to  cope  with  raids  under  the  energetic  direction  of 
the  somewhat  famous  Yankee  commander  General  Averill. 
On  the  26th  of  August  a  portion  of  General  Jones's  forces  en 
countered  the  enemy  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Dublin,  on 
the  road  leading  to  the  Warm  Springs.  Every  attack  made  by 
the  enemy  was  repulsed.  At  night  each  side  occupied  the 
same  position  they  had  in  the  morning.  The  next  morning  the 
enemy  made  two  other  attacks,  which  were  handsomely  re 
pulsed,  when  he  abandoned  his  position  and  retreated  towards 
Warm  Springs,  pursued  by  cavalry  and  artillery.  The  troops 
engaged  were  the  first  brigade  of  Jones's  army,  Colonel  George 
S.  Patton  commanding.  The  enemy  were  about  three  thousand 
strong,  with  six  pieces  of  artillery,  under  Brigadier-general 
Averill.  Our  loss  was  about  two  hundred  killed  and  wounded. 
The  enemy's  loss  was  not  known.  We  took  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  prisoners  and  a  piece  of  artillery. 

On  the  6th  November  occurred* an  affair  at  Rogersville, 
East  Tennessee,  which  was  a  considerable  success  for  the  Con 
federates.  Information  of  a  reliable  character  was  received  by 
General  Ransom  of  the  exact  position,  numbers  and  condition 
of  the  Yankees  at  Big  Creek,  four  miles  east  of  Rogersville. 
The  nearest  supporting  force  being  at  Greenville,  he  conceived 
the  idea  of  cutting  them  off  by  a  rapid  night  march  of  cavalry 
upon  their  front  and  rear.  The  attack  was  successful.  Among 
the  fruits  of  the  expedition  were  eight  hundred  and  fifty  pri 
soners,  four  pieces  of  artillery,  sixty  wagons,  and  several  hun 
dred  animals. 


BATTLE   OF  DROOP   MOUNTAIN. 

On  the  same  day  (6th  November)  occurred  an  important 
action  between  another  portion  of  General  Jones's  forces,  and 
the  redoubtable  Averill. 

At  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  6th  of  November 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  175 

Echols'  brigade,  consisting  of  a  regiment  and  battalion  of 
infantry,  and  six  pieces  of  artillery,  came  up  to  the  support  of 
Colonel  Wm.  L.  Jackson,  commanding  Confederate  forces  in 
the  Northwest  (who  was  closely  pushed  by  General  Averill), 
on  Droop  Mountain,  in  the  county  of  Pocahontas,  twenty- eight 
rniles  north-east  of  Lewisburg.  The  entire  forces  of  the  two 
commands  thus  united,  amounted  to  about  fifteen  hundred 
infantry  and  dismounted  cavalry,  and  eight  pieces  of  artillery. 
The  position  of  our  men,  naturally  a  very  strong  one,  was 
selected  with  great  judgment  by  Colonel  Jackson,  on  the 
western  extremity  of  Droop  Mountain.  At  *  ten  o'clock,  the 
enemy,  who  had  remained  in  the  front  of  Colonel  Jackson 
since  daybreak,  with  a  force  amounting  to  seven  thousand  five 
hundred  mounted  infantry  and  cavalry,  and  eight  pieces  of 
artillery,  commenced  his  advance  upon  us,  by  posting  his  long- 
range  guns  on  an  eminence  to  our  right,  and  by  advancing  his 
line  of  skirmishers  upon  our  right  and  left ;  and  brisk  skirmish 
ing  then  ensued,  which  continued  from  time  to  time  until  the 
fight  became  general  between  our  infantry  and  dismounted 
cavalry  and  those  of  the  enemy. 

The  monstrously  unequal  combat  was  kept  up  for  several 
hours.  Our  men  fought  with  the  utmost  gallantry  and  deter 
mination,  and  stubbornly  maintained  their  position  against  an 
enemy  five  times  their  number  until  they  were  well  nigh  sur 
rounded.  Human  endurance  could  hold  out  no  longer;  the 
troops  on  the  right  gave  away  before  overwhelming  numbers, 
while  the  enemy  were  rapidly  flanking  those  on  the  left.  Just 
at  this  stage  of  proceedings,  General  Echols,  seeing  that  if  he 
remained  longer  his  retreat  would  be  cut  off,  withdrew  the 
troops  from  the  field  and  ordered  a  retreat  in  the  direction  of 
Lewisburg.  Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  three 
hundred.  Although  the  action  terminated  in  the  retreat  of 
the  Confederates,  yet  they  had  given  an  exhibition  of  spirit 
among  the  proudest  in  the  war.  Our  little  army  had  wrestled 
in  deadly  conflict  with  an  enemy  five  times  its  strength  for 
seven  long  hours;  and  when  they  did  retreat,  succeeded  in 
bringing  off  all  of  our  quartermaster  and  commissary  stores 
together  with  our  trains  and  artillery,  leaving  to  the  enemy  no 
trophies  over  which  to  exult,  save  the  bodies  of  our  gallant 
dead. 


176  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

So  far  as  the  beneficial  results  of  the  expedition  to  the 
enemy  could  be  estimated  they  amounted  to  nothing.  They 
came  with  two  large  forces,  amounting,  in  the  aggregate,  t; 
nearly  ten  thousand  men,  with  the  expectation  of  capturing 
the  command  of  Colonel  Jackson  and  General  Echols'  brigade, 
and  of  moving  then  upon  our  interior  lines  of  railroad.  By 
fighting,  however,  so  far  from  the  interior,  and  by  being  so 
checked  and  damaged  and  baffled  as  they  were,  they  failed  in 
the  one  object  and  abandoned  the  other. 

But  the  great  raid  of  Averill  seems  to  have  been  reserved 
for  December.  He  came  from  New  Creek,  a  depot  on  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  in  the  county  of  Hardy,  along 
the  western  base  of  the  Shenandoah  mountains,  through 
Covington  to  Salem,  burning  and  destroying  what  he  could  in 
his  path.  His  command  consisted  of  four  regiments  of  mounted 
infantry,  a  battalion  of  cavalry,  and  a  battery.  On  the  16th 
of  December  he  cut  the  Virginia  and  Tennessee  railroad  at 
Salem.  Here  three  depots  were  destroyed,  the  contents  of 
which  were  officially  stated  by  Averill  to  have  been  2,000 
barrels  of  flour,  10,000  bushels  of  wheat,  100,000  bushels  of 
shelled  corn,  50.000  bushels  of  oats,.  2,000  barrels  of  meat, 
several  cords  of  leather,  and  1,000  sacks  of  salt. 

On  his  retreat,  the  adventurous  Yankee  had  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  different  Confederate  commands,  arranged  in  a 
line  extending  from  Staunton  to  Newport  upon  all  the  avail 
able  roads  to  prevent  his  return.  Having  captured  a  despatch 
from  General  Jones  to  General  Early,  Averill  deflected  from 
the  line  of  his  retreat  and  instead  of  passing  through  Buchanan, 
moved  towards  Covington. 

Colonel  William  L.  Jackson  moved  his  command  down  to 
Jackson's  river  depot,  and  directed  the  bridge  to  be  burned  as 
soon  as  it  was  ascertained  that  the  enemy  were  advancing  to 
wards  it.  Jackson  then  took  a  strong  position  near  the  Jackson's 
river  depot,  at  the  point  where  the  Rich  Patch  road  connects 
the  Covington  turnpike.  He  then  directed  his  mounted  men, 
under  Captain  Sprague,  to  move  on  the  Rich  Patch  road  until 
they  met  the  enemy's  advance,  and  to  attack  them  desperately, 
and  cut  the  column  in  two,  if  possible.  At  four  o'clock  on 
Saturday  evening,  the  19th  December,  a  courier  from  Captain 
Sprague  announced  the  approach  of  the  enemy  by  that  road, 


THE    THIRD    YEAK.  177 

and  that  he  had  commenced  a  skirmish  with  Averili's  advanced 
forces.  Jackson  immediately  ordered  an  advance  of  the  Twen 
tieth  Virginia  Regiment  by  a  blind  road,  so  as  to  attack  the 
enemy  obliquely.  He  also  ordered  the  Nineteenth  Virginia 
Regiment  to  advance  on  the  Coving  tori  turnpike  road,  and  to 
attack  the  enemy  directly.  At-  that  point  Jackson  conceived 
the  idea  of  taking  a  detachment  of  about  fifty  men,  and  move 
forward  with  them  for  the  purpose  of  striking  the  enemy  vigo 
rously,  and  cutting  his  column  in  two.  In  this  he  succeeded 
perfectly.  One  half  of  the  Yankees  were  thus  separated  from 
the  other  half,  which  was  under  the  immediate  command  of 
Averill,  and  who  rapidly  passed  forward  towards  the  Island 
Ford  bridge.  Persons  entrusted  with  the  burning  of  the  Island 
Ford  bridge  failed  to  do  so,  however,  owing  to  the  rapid  ad 
vance  of  the  enemy  upon  that  point.  The  advance,  under 
Averill  in  person,  thus  managed  to  make  their  escape  across 
the  bridge. 

There  remained  in  Jackson's  hand  about  two  hundred  pri 
soners.  Averill  continued  his  retreat  to  Pocahontas  county. 
On  the  22d  December  he  wrote  to  the  War  Department  at 
"Washington  :  "My  command  has  marched,  climbed,  slid  and 
swam  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  since  the  8th  instant." 


THE   NORTH    CAROLINA    SWAMPS. 

We  have  referred  in  this  chapter  to  the  occult  romances  of 
warfare  in  the  Trans-Mississippi.  But  there  was  a  district 
much  nearer  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  to  which  all  eyes 
were  turned  to  witness  certain  thrilling  scenes,  a  drama  of 
cruelty  such  as  the  world  had  seldom  seen,  even  in  the  wars 
and  outrages  of  barbarians. 

We  refer  to  the  north-eastern  parts  of  North  Carolina.  In 
Camden  and  Currituck  counties,  and  in  the  country  lying 
generally  between  Franklin  on  the  Blackwater  and  the  Roan- 
oke  river,  a  series  of  atrocities  was  committed  by  the  envniy  at 
which  the  blood  runs  cold.  It  is  difficult  to  find  words  ol"  de 
scription  for  the,pictures  of  the  wild  and  terrible  consequences 
of  the  negro  raids  in  this  obscure  theatre  of  the  war.  The 
country  was  traversed  by  negro  banditti;  they  burned  houses; 
they  entered  the  parlors  of  their  masters  ;  they  compelled  "fadies 

12 


178  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

to  entertain  them  on  the  piano,  cursed  and  abused  them, 
stripped  them  of  their  jewelry  and  clothing,  and  offered  them 
indignities  which  it  would  offend  delicacy  to  describe. 

The  fiat  seemed  to  have  gone  forth  for  stern  and  terrible 
work  on  the  North  Carolina  frontier,  in  this  dark  and  melan 
choly  country  of  swamps,  overrun  with  negro  banditti,  and 
now  the  especial  theatre  of  the  war's  vengeance.  The  country 
was  a  rich  one,  comparing  favorably  with  the  Mississippi  bot 
toms,  and  one  of  the  most  important  sources  of  meat  supplies 
which  was  at  this  time  accessible  to  our  armies.  To  protect 
this  country  as  far  as  possible,  forces  were  raised,  under  autho 
rity  of  the  Government  of  North  Carolina,  for  local  defence 
and  to  repel  invasion  ;  they  were  duly  organized,  and  their 
officers  were  commissioned  by  the  governor,  and  for  a  year  or 
more  had  been  in  the  regular  service  of  the  State.  The 
Yankees  found  it  convenient  to  designate  these  forces  as 
"guerillas,"  in  order  to  justify  the  fiendish  warfare  of  negro 
partisans  and  white  banditti,  who  were  invited  to  prey  upon 
the  population. 

In  December,  a  force  of  negroes,  under  the  command  of 
Brigadier-general  Wild,  who  emulated  the  brutal  disposition 
and  ferocious  cowardice  of  his  master,  "  Beast "  Butler,  invaded 
the  north-eastern  parts  of  North  Carolina.  In  the  county  of 
Pasquotank,  forty  miles  from  Norfolk,  he  hung  Daniel  Bright 
at  his  own  house.  He  seized  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars'  worth  of  personal  property  in  the  adjoining  counties; 
stripped  the  farmers  of  every  living  thing,  and  brought  it  all 
away,  leaving  hundreds  of  inhabitants  without  a  pound  of  meat 
or  a  peck  of  meal. 

Daniel  Bright  was  a  member  of  the  Sixty-second  Georgia 
regiment,  under  command  of  Colonel  J.  R.  Griffin,  and  had 
received  authority  from  the  Governor  of  North  Carolina  to 
raise  a  company  in  the  county  for  local  defence.  Failing  in 
the  effort,  he  had  retired  to  his  farm,  and  was  there  seized,  car 
ried  off  and  executed.  He  was  hung  on  the  side  of  the  public 
road,  and  a  placard  fastened  upon  his  back. 

But  the  most  brutal  of  all  the  outrages  of  Wild  was  the  seiz 
ure,  as  u  hostages  "  for  two  of  his  negroes  who  had  been  cap 
tured,  of  two  most  respectable  married  ladies,  Mrs.  Phcebo 
Munden,  wife  of  Lieutenant  W.  J.  Munden,  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  179 

Weeks,  wife  of  Private  Fender  Weeks,  of  Captain  John  T 
Elliot's  company.  The  first  was  arrested  at  her  own  house,  in 
the  presence  only  of  her  three  children,  of  whom  the  oldest  was 
ten  years  of  age,  conveyed  a  few  miles  to  Elizabeth  City,  con 
fined  in  a  room  without  fire,  bed  or  bedding,  with  several  male 
prisoners,  and  tied  by  the  feet  and  hands.  A  negro  guard  was 
placed  in  charge  of  the  prisoners.  The  succeeding  day,  the 
other  lady,  Mrs.  Weeks,  was  placed  in  the  same  room.  They 
were  constantly  guarded,  and  neither  was  allowed  to  leave  the 
room  for  the  most  necessary  duty,  but  in  company  with  an 
armed  negro  soldier.  Mrs.  Munden  was  in  delicate  health,  and 
forced  from  a  home  immediately  laid  in  ashes,  with  all  it  con 
tained,  without  other  apparel  than  she  wore  upon  her  person, 
and  passed  several  nights  in  the  cheerless  and  cold  apartment 
to  which  she  was  confined  at  that  inclement  season,  before  the 
humanity  of  her  captors  was  so  far  softened  as  to  permit 
blankets  to  be  furnished  for  her  use.  They  were  kept  some 
days  and  then  removed  to  Norfolk.  When  Mrs.  Munden  was 
carried  off,  her  wrists  were  bleeding  with  the  stricture  of  the 
cord  with  which  she  was  bound,  and  it  is  said  that  a  negro  waa 
allowed  by  Wild  to  hold  the  cord  that  bound  her,  and  thus 
drive  her  into  Norfolk. 

Such  were  the  scenes  which  illustrated  the  Yankee  idea  of 
prosecuting  the  war  with  "  vigor,"  and  gratified  the  vile  and 
cowardly  revenge  of  those  who,  in  luxurious  cities  and  com 
fortable  homes,  clamored  for  the  blood  of  "  rebels,"  and  eves 
claimed  women  and  children  as  their  victims. 


180  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAK. 


CHAPTER  Yin. 

The  President's  Declaration  to  the  Confederate  Congress  of  1863-64.— "Want  >' 
Capacity"  in  the  Confederate  Authorities.— Character  of  Jefferson  Davis.— Officia. 
Shiftlessness  at  Richmond. — Early  Prognostications  of  the  War. — The  "  Statesman 
ship"  of  the  Confederates. — Ludicrous  Errors  of  Confederate  Leadens. — What  "  King 
Cotton"  might  have  done.— Gross  Mismanagement  of  the  Confederate  Finances.— Mr. 
Memminger's  Maladministration. — The  Moral  Evils  of  an  Expanded  Currency. — The 
Military  Situation  in  December. — Secretary  Seddon's  Shameful  Confession. — "De- 
magogueism"  in  the  Confederate  War  Department.— Seddon's  Propositions. — Military 
"  Substitutes."— An  Act  of  Perfidy.— Bullying  in  Congress.— Spirit  of  the  Confederate 
Soldiery. — LINCOLN'S  "  PEACE  PROCLAMATION." — Its  Stupidity,  Insolence,  and  Out 
rage. — How  the  Confederates  Eeplied  to.  it. — A  New  Appeal  Against  "  Recon 
struction." — THE  SLAVERY  QUESTION  IN  THE-  WAR. — A  French  Opinion. — The 
Abolitionists  Unmasked. — Decay  of  European  Sympathy  with  Them. — Review  of 
Lincoln's  "Emancipation"  Policy.— The  Arming  of  the  Bhcks.— The  Negro  Coloni 
zation  Schemes. — Experiments  of  New  England  "Civilization"  in  Louisiana. — 
Frightful  Mortality  of  "  Freedmen." — The  Appalling  Statistics  of  Emancipation. — 
The  Contraband  Camps  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. — Pictures  of  Yankee  Philanthropy. 
—"Slavery"  Tested  by  the  War.— The  Confederates  the  True  Friends  of  the  African 
Laborer. — The  System  of  Negro  Servitude  in  the  Confederacy. — The  "  War-to-the- 
Knife"  Party  in  the  North. — HISTORY  or  THE  "  RETALIATION"  POLICY. — The  Outrages 
of  Yankee  Warfare. — President  Davis's  Sentimentalism. — The  Record  of  his  Unpar 
donable  and  Unparalleled  Weakness. — A  Peep  into  Yankee  Prisons. — The  Torture- 
Houses  of  the  North. — Captain  Morgan's  Experience  Among  "the  Convict-Drivers." 
— President  Davis's  Bluster. — His  Two  Faces. — Moral  Effects  of  Submission  to  Yankee 
Outrage. — The  Rival  Administrations  in  December  1863. — Richmond  and  Washing 
ton. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Gaiety. — New  Issues  for  the  Confederacy. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  in  December, 
1863,  President  Davis  said:  "We  now  know  that  the  only 
reliable  hope  for  peace  is  in  the  vigor  of  our  resistance,  while 
the  cessation  of  their  [the  enemy's]  hostility  is  only  to  be  ex 
pected  from  the  pressure  of  their  necessities."  The  Confederate 
Administration  had  at  last  arrived  at  the  correct  comprehension 
of  the  war.  But  it  had  reached  this  conclusion  only  after  a 
period  of  nearly  three  years  of  ignorance,  short-sighted  conceit 
and  perversity. 

The  careful  and  candid  reader  of  the  pages  of  two  volumes 
of  the  history  of  the  war,  by  this  writer,  will  bear  him  witness 
that  at  no  time  has  he  reflected  upon  the  patriotism  or  the 
public  integrity  of  President  Davis.  The  accusation,  which 


THE    THIRD    YEAH.  181 

has  run  Wi  rough  these  volumes,  is  simply  this:  want  of  capacity 
in  the  '^ministration  of  public  affairs. 

It  is  not  possible  that  any  historian  of  this  war  can  overlook 
certain  admirable  qualities  of  the  President  of  the  Confederacy  : 
his  literary  abilities,  his  spruce  English,  his  ascetic  morals,  the 
purity  of  his  private  life,  and  the  extraordinary  facility  of  his 
manners.  But  he  was  not  a  statesman  ;  he  had  no  administra 
tive  capacities;  he  lacked  that  indispensable  and  practical 
element  of  success  in  all  political  administrations — knowledge 
of  the  true  value  of  men ;  and  he  was — probably,  unconscious 
ly  through  Lie  vanity — accessible  to  favorites.  In  the  old  gov 
ernment,  Mr.  Davis  had  never  been  accounted  as  a  statesman, 
but  was  quite  as  obtuse  as  most  of  the  public  men  of  that  day. 
He  it  was,  of  Southern  politicians,  who  declared  in  a  public 
letter,  in  1858,  that  the  "  Kansas  Conference  bill"  was  "  the 
triumph,  of  all  for  which  we  contended."  He  had  failed  to  see 
the  origin  and  occasion  of  the  revolution  which  he  assumed  to 
conduct. 

His  choice  of  favorites  in  the  field  had  been  as  unapt  as  hia 
selection  of  political  advisers  in  the  Cabinet.  This  President, 
who  depreciated  Price  as  a  militiaman,  and  held  (or  probably 
affected)  a  light  opinion  of  Beauregard,  was  convinced  that 
Pemberton  was  a  genius  who  should  be  raised  by  a  single 
stroke  of  patronage  from  the  obscurity  of  a  major  to  the  posi 
tion  of  a  Lieutenant-general;  recognized  Heth  as  a  young 
Napoleon  ;  selected  Lovell  as  the  natural  guardian  of  the 
Mississippi ;  declared  that  Holmes,  who  had  let  the  enemy 
slip  out  of  his  lingers  at  Richmond,  was  the  appointed  deliverer 
of  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  and  competent  to  take  charge  of  the 
destinies  of  an  empire ;  and  prophesied  with  peculiar  emphasis 
of  mystery,  but  a  few  weeks  before  the  session  of  Congress,  in 
a  public  speech  in  a  Southern  city,  that  Bragg  by  that  time 
would  be  in  the  heart  of  Tennessee,  and  on  the  pinnacles  ot 
victory ! 

The  civil  administration  of  Mr.  Davis  had  fallen  to  a  low 
ebb.  There  are  certain  minds  which  cannot  see  how  want  of 
capacity  in  our  government,  official  shiftlessness  and  the  mis 
management  of  public  affairs  yet  consist  with  the  undeniable 
facts  of  the  successes  of  our  arms  and  the  great  achievements 
of  tho  Confer! pracv.  But  it  is  possible  that  these  two  conditions 


182  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

may  consist— that,  in  a  revolution,  the  valor  and  determination 
of  a  people  may  make  considerable  amends  for  the  faults  of  its 
governors.  If  the  history  of  this  war  has  proved  one  proposi 
tion  clearly  it  is  this:  that  in  all  its  subjects  of  congratulation, 
the  "statesmanship"  of  Eichmond  has  little  part  or  lot.  Let 
those  who  deny  the  justice  of  this  historical  judgment,  which 
refuses  to  attribute  to  the  official  authorities  of  this  government 
such  success  as  we  have  had  in  this  war,  say  what  they  have 
contributed  to  it. 

The  evidences  of  the  "  statesmanship"  of  Richmond  were  not 
to  be  found  in  our  foreign  relations :  these  were  absurdities. 
They  were  not  to  be  found  in  our  provisions  for  the  war :  these 
were  make-shifts  from  month  to  month.  They  were  not  to  be 
found  in  our  financial  calculations  :  these  had  proved  the  most 
ridiculous  failures  in  the  monetary  annals  of  the  world.  We 
owe  this  melancholy  confession  to  history,  that  we  do  not 
know  of  any  real  and  substantial  particulars  in  which  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Davis  has  contributed  to  this  war.  The 
reverse  of  the  proposition  need  not  be  repeated  here. 

It  is  mortifying,  indeed,  to  look  back  upon  the  currents  of 
our  history,  to  observe  the  blindness  and  littleness  of  mind, 
the  conceit,  the  perversity,  the  short-sighted  management  on 
all  which  we  have  drifted  into  this  present  vastness  of  war  and 
depths  of  distress.  In  Montgomery,  at  the  period  of  the  pro 
visional  inauguration  of  the  Confederacy,  any  one  who  had  the 
hardihood  to  insist  upon  the  probability  of  a  war,  became  a 
butt  of  raillery  or  the  object  of  suspicion.  The  war  once  b< 
gun,  the  next  idea  in  the  minds  of  the  Confederate  leaders  wa? 
that  it  was  to  be  despatched  in  a  few  months  by  mere  make 
shifts  of  armies  and  money,  and  with  the  scant  supply  of 
munitions  already  on  hand.  Months  intervened  between  Lin 
coln's  declaration  of  war  and  the  actual  establishment  of  the 
blockade.  But  no  use  was  made  of  this  golden  opportunity, 
and  our  importations  of  army  supplies  from  Europe  during  all 
these  months,  actually  may  be  counted  in  a  few  thousand  stand 
of  small  arms.  Secretary  Mallory  laughed  off  contractors  in 
New  Oi  leans,  who  offered  to  sell  to  the  government  a  large 
amount  of  navy  supplies.  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  at  the  head  o? 
the  War  Department,  wrote  to  a  friend  in  the  first  winter  o 
the  war,  that  within  sixty  days  the  country  would  be  at  peace 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  18  J 

later  still,  in  the  winter  of  1862,  President  Davis,  in  a  speech 
before  the  Legislature  of  Mississippi,  had  pronounced  the 
solemn  opinion  that  the  war  would  soon  come  to  an  end.  Yet 
we  find  the  same  eminent  personage  now  declaring  to  the 
Congress  of  1863,  his  belief  in  an  indefinite  prolongation  of 
the  war,  and  his  despair  of  his  many  brilliant  former  prospects 
of  peace,  through  instrumentalities  other  than  that  of  our  arms. 

Able  and  candid  journals  of  the  North,  have  repeatedly  con 
fessed  that  they  were  puzzled  by  the  extraordinary  want  of 
foresight  and  judgment  displayed  by  the  Confederate  leaders, 
in  their  calculation  at  different  periods  of  the  war  of  the  course 
likely  to  be  pursued  by  Europe  and  the  North.  These  errors 
might  have  been  expected  from  men  of  little  education,  to 
whom  self-interest  in  its  lowest  sense  was  the  key  to  all  politi 
cal  problems,  but  by  no  means  from  persons  who  had  studied 
politics  in  books.  uThe  notion,"  said  the  New  York  T'imes, 
"  that  the  North,  being  a  commercial  community,  devoted  to 
the  pursuit  of  gain,  was,  for  that  reason,  sure  not  to  fight,  was 
rather  the  conclusion  of  a  backwoodsman  than  of  a  student. 
The  lesson  of  history  is  that  commercial  communities  are 
among  the  most  pugnacious  and  ambitious  and  most  obstinate 
of  belligerents :  witness  Carthage,  Yenice,  Genoa,  Holland,  and 
England," 

The  utter  failure  of  the  calculations  of  the  Confederate  Ad 
ministration,  regarding  France  and  England,  had  exhibited  & 
hasty  and  passionate  reasoning,  of  which  Mr.  Davis  and  his 
associates  might  well  be  ashamed.  The  idea  is  ludicrous  now 
that  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  American  revolution,  France 
and  England,  with  their  centuries  of  vast  and  varied  experi 
ence,  in  peace  and  war,  would  fling  themselves  into  a  convul 
sion  which  their  great  politicians  easily  saw  was  the  most 
tremendous  one  of  modern  times.  Yet  this  idea  was  enter 
tained  by  President  Davis ;  and  as  proof  of  it,  the  Confederate 
commissioners  were  instructed  to  apply  to  Earl  Russell  for 
recognition  in  England  after  the  first  battle  of  Mariassas! 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  cotton  was  pronounced 
"  King ;"  and  the  absurd  and  puerile  idea  was  put  forward  by 
the  politicians  of  the  Davis  school,  that  the  great  and  illustri 
ous  power  of  England  would  submit  to  the  ineffable  humilia 
tion  of  acknowledging  its  dependency  on  the  infant  Confed- 


184  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WA*. 

eracy  of  the  South,  and  the  subserviency  of  its  empire,  it& 
political  interests,  and  its  pride,  to  a  single  article  of  trade  that 
was  grown  in  America!  And  what  indeed  is  the  ^um  of 
advantages  which  the  Confederacy  drew  from  the  royal  re 
sources  of  cotton  ?  It  is  true  that  these  resources  could  not 
compel  the  political  interests  and  pride  of  England.  But, 
properly  used,  they  might  have  accomplished  much  for  the 
interests  of  the  Confederacy.  In  point  of  fact  they  accom 
plished  nothing.  For  one  year  after  the  war  commenced,  the 
blockade  was  so  slight  that  the  whole  of  the  cotton  might  have 
been  shipped  to  Europe,  and  there  sold  at  two  shillings  ster 
ling  a  pound,  giving  the  government,  purchasing  at  twenty 
cents,  a  clear  profit  of  six  hundred  millions  of  dollars  !  We 
may  even  suppose  one-fifth  of  this  captured  by  the  enemy,  and 
we  would  still  have  had  a  balance  in  our  favor,  which  would 
have  enabled  us  to  have  drained  every  bank  in  Europe  of  its 
Bpecie !  Or  if  we  had  drawn  for  this  sum  as  we  needed  it,  our 
treasury  notes  would  have  been  equal  to  gold,  and  confidence 
in  our  currency  would  have  been  unshaken  and  universal. 

The  Confederacy  had  thus  the  element  at  ready  hand  for  the 
structure  of  one  of  the  most  successful  schemes  of  finance  in 
the  world.  But  the  government  was  too  grossly  ignorant  to 
see  it.  The  purchase  of  the  cotton  to  the  government  was 
decried  by  Mr.  Memminger,  as  a  scheme  of  "  soup-house  legis 
lation  ;"  and  the  new  government  was  started  without  a  basis 
of  credit;  without  a  system  of  revenue;  on  the  monstrous  de 
lusion  that  money  might  be  .manufactured  at  will  out  of  paper, 
and  that  a  naked  "promise  to  pay,"  was  all  sufficient  for  the 
wants  of  the  war ! 

It  is  to  be  frankly  admitted  that  the  South  commenced  the 
war  \^\i\\  financial  advantages  which  the  North  did  not  have — • 
that  is,  without  reference  to  commercial  incidents  of  the  block 
ade,  but  with  respect  to  the  sustention  of  its  credit  at  home. 
The  South  had  the  cotton  and  the  tobacco.  It  had  the  un 
bounded  sympathies  of  its  people.  It  had  larger  taxable  values 
per  capita  than  any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  is  not  pos 
sible  that  with  these  advantages  it  could  have  wrecked  its 
credit  with  its  own  people,  unless  through  a  great  want  of 
capacity  in  the  administration  of  the  government.  It  is  not 
possible,  that,  with  these  advantages,  its  currency  should  havo 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  185 

declined  with  its  own  people  ten  times  faster  than  that  of  the 
North  with  its  people,  unless  through  a  gross  mismanagement 
of  public  affairs.  These  are  logical  conclusions  which  are  not 
to  be  disputed. 

At  the  organization  of  the  permanent  government  of  tTie 
Confederacy,  in  February,  1862,  President  Davis  had  made 
the  most  extravagant  congratulations  to  the  country,  on  on** 
financial  condition  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  North.  In 
less  than  eighteen  months  thereafter,  when  gold  was  quoted  in 
New  York  at  twenty-five  per  cent,  premium,  it  was  selling  in 
Richmond  at  nine  hundred  per  cent,  premium  ;  and  by  the 
time  that  the  Confederate  Congress  met,  in  December,  1863, 
gold  in  Richmond  was  worth  about  two  thousand  per  cent, 
premium,  and  was  publicly  sold,  one  for  twenty  in  Confeder 
ate  notes !  Such  had  been  the  results  of  the  financial  wisdom 
of  the  Confederacy.  It  had  been  dictated  by  the  President, 
who  advised  Congress  (as  late  as  August,  1862)  to  authorize 
illimitable  issues  of  treasury  notes,  without  fear  of  their  depre 
ciation,  and  aggravated,  no  doubt,  by  the  igitorance  of  his 
secretary,  who  invented  the  legerdemain  of  "funding,"  that 
had  given  the  last  stab  to  the  currency,  and  who  opened  the 
doors  of  the  treasury  to  brokers,  blockade-runners,  and  the 
vast  tribes  of  those  who  lived  on  the  depreciation  of  the  public 
credit* 


*  The  experiments  of  Mr.  Memminger  on  the  currency  was  the  signal  of 
multiplied  and  rapid  depreciation.  While  the  eccentric  and  pious  Secretary 
was  figuring  out  impossible  schemes  of  making  money,  or  ransacking  the  book 
stores  for  works  on  religious  controversy,  unprincipled  brokers  in  the  Confed 
eracy  were  undermining  the  currency  with  a  zeal  for  the  destruction  of  their 
country  not  less  than  that  of  the  Yankees.  The  assertion  admits  of  some  quali 
fication.  Sweeping  remarks  in  history  are  generally  unjust.  Among  those 
engaged  in  the  business  of  banking  and  exchange  in  the  South,  there  were 
undoubtedly  some  enlightened  and  public-spirited  men  who  had  been  seduced 
by  the  example  or  constrained  by  the  competition  of  meaner  and  more  avari 
cious  men  of  the  same  profession,  to  array  themselves  against  the  currency, 
and  to  commit  offences  from  which  they  would  have  shrunk  in  horror,  had 
they  not  been  disguised  by  the  casuistry  of  commerce  and  gain. 

It  was  generally  thought  in  the  South  reprehensible  to  refuse  the  national 
currency  in  the  payment  of  debts.  Yet  the  broker,  who  demanded  eighteen 
or  twenty  dollars  in  this  currency  for  one  in  gold,  really  was  guilty  of  so  many 
times  refusing  the  Confederate  money.  It  was  accounted  shocking  for  citizena 
in  the  South  to  speculate  in  soldiers'  clothing  and  bread.  Yet  the  broker,  who 


186  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Of  all  the  features  of  maladministration  in  the  Confederacy, 
which  we  have  unwillingly  traced,  that  of  the  currency  was, 
certainly,  the  most  marked,,  and,  perhaps,  the  most  vital. 
Nothing  could  be  more  absurd  than  the  faith  of  Mr.  Davis 
and  Mr.  Memminger  in  the  virtues  of  paper  money,  and  110 
empiricism  more  ignorant  and  destructive  than  that  which 
made  the  mere  emission  of  paper  issues  a  system  of  revenue. 
In  the  old  government,  we  had  had  many  emphatic  lessons  on 
the  subject  of  paper  money.  Indeed,  it  is  a  curious  and  inter 
esting  fact,  that  in  sixty  years  of  our  past  history,  the  banking 

demanded  twenty  prices  for  gold,  the  representative  of  all  values,  speculated 
alike  in  every  necessary  in  the  country.  Nor  was  this  the  greatest  of  their 
offences.  With  unsurpassed  shamelessness,  brokers  in  the  Confederacy  ex 
posed  the  currency  of  the  North  for  sale,  and  demanded  for  it  ten  hundred  per 
cent,  premium  over  that  of  the  Confederacy  !  This  act  of  benefit  to  the  Yan 
kees  was  openly  allowed  by  the  government.  A  bill  had  been  introduced  in 
Congress  to  prohibit  this  traffic  and  to  extirpate  this  infamous  anomaly  in  our 
history  ;  but  it  failed  of  enactment,  and  its  failure  can  only  be  attributed  to  the 
grossest  stupidity,  or  to  sinister  influences  of  the  most  dishonorable  kind.  The 
traffic  was  immensely  profitable.  State  bonds  and  bank  bills  to  the  amount  oi 
many  millions  were  sent  North  by  the  brokers,  and  the  rates  of  discount  were 
readily  submitted  to  when  the  returns  were  made  in  Yankee  paper  money, 
which,  in  Richmond  shops,  was  worth  in  Confederate  notes  ten  dollars  for  one 
One — but  only  one — cause  of  the  depreciation  of  the  Confederate  currenc. 
was  illicit  trade.  It  had  done  more  to  demoralize  the  Confederacy  than  any 
thing  else.  The  inception  of  this  trade  was  easily  winked  at  by  the  Confed 
erate  authorities ;  it  commenced  with  paltry  importations  across  the  Potomac ; 
it  was  said  the  country  wanted  medicines,  surgical  instruments,  and  a  number 
of  trifles,  and  that  trade  with  the  Yankees  in  these  could  result  in  no  serious 
harm.  But  by  the  enlarged  license  of  the  government  it  soon  became  an  infa 
my  and  a  curse  to  the  Confederacy.  What  was  a  petty  traffic  in  its  commence 
ment  soon  expanded  into  a  shameless  trade,  which  corrupted  the  patriotism  of 
the  country,  constituted  an  anomaly  in  the  history  of  belligerents,  and  reflected 
lasting  disgrace  upon  the  honesty  and  good  sense  of  our  government.  The 
country  had  taken  a  solemn  resolution  to  burn  the  cotton  in  advance  of  the 
enemy ;  but  the  conflagration  of  this  staple  soon  came  to  be  a  rare  event ; 
instead  of  being  committed  to  the  flames  it  was  spirited  to  Yankee  markets. 
Nor  were  these  operations  always  disguised.  Some  commercial  houses  in  the 
Confederacy  counted  their  gains  by  millions  of  dollars  since  the  war,  through 
the  favor  of  the  government  in  allowing  them  to  export  cotton  at  pleasure. 
The  beneficiaries  of  this  trade  contributed  freely  to  public  charities,  and  did 
certain  favors  to  the  government ;  but  their  gifts  were  but  the  parings  of  im 
mense  gains  ;  and  often  those  who  were  named  by  weak  and  credulous  people 
or  by  interested  flatterers  as  public-spirited 'citizens  and  patriotic  donors,  were, 
in  fact,  the  most  unmitigated  extortioners  and  the  vilest  leeches  on  the  bodj 
politic.—"  The  Second  Year  of  the  War,"— pp.  804,  305 


TEE    THIED    YEAR.  1ST 

institutions  of  America  had  been,  more  or  less,  in  a  state  of 
suspension  for  one-third  of  the  time. 

But  despite  the  protest  of  historical  facts,  against  all  sys 
tems  of  paper  expansion,  Mr.  Memminger  had  succeeded  by 
the  time  of  the  meeting  of  Congress,  in  putting  afloat  some 
seven  hundred  millions  of  currency  ;  although  at  another  time, 
he  himself  had  declared  that  the  business  of  the  country  could 
not  conveniently  absorb  more  than  one  hundred  arid  fifty  mil 
lions.*  And  even  that  estimate  of  absorption  was  ridiculously 
excessive.  It  was  so  for  this  particular  reason:  that  in  the 
state  of  war,  with  its  commerce  cut  off  by  the  blockade,  with 
no  merchant  ships,  with  few  manufactures,  with  few  enter 
prises  open  to  capital,  the  South  afforded  but  little  scope  for 
the  profitable  employment  of  its  currency.  The  difficulty  was 
that  of  stagnant  capital,  as  well  as  that  of  an  expanded  cur 
rency. 

At  least  one  reason  for  the  comparative  financial  prosperity 
of  the  North,  during  the  war,  was  its  capacity  of  absorbing 
large  amounts  of  currency  in  the  various  functions  of  its  active 
commercial  life :  in  its  trade  open  with  all  the  world  ;  in  its 
shipping  whitening  every  sea ;  in  its  immense  internal  trade, 
borne  over  immense  lines  of  railroad  and  navigable  waters  \  in 
its  manufactures,  enjoying  the  monopoly  given  them  by  a  tariff, 
which  shut  out  foreign  competition  ;  in  its  stocks,  which  made 
fortunes  by  the  million  in  Wall  street.f 


*  Before  the  war  the  paper  money  of  the  whole  country,  North  and  South, 
was  two  hundred  and  twelve  millions  ;  the  gold  and  silver,  say  one  hundred 
and  fifty  millions — total  circulation,  three  hundred  and  sixty-two  millions. 

f  The  hey-day  of  "  Wall  street"  is  thus  described  in  a  New  York  paper 
(August,  1863) :  "  Stocks  have  advanced  on  an  average  fully  three  hnndred  per 
cent.  For  example,  the  Erie  formerly  sold  for  five  ;  it  is  now  one  hundred  and 
twenty.  The  Galena  and  other  roads  of  the  same  kind,  which  were  down  to 
thirty  and  forty,  are  now  up  to  one  hundred  and  thirty  and  one  hundred  and 
forty.  The  Harlem  railroad,  that  nobody  would  take  at  six,  has  risen  to  one 
hundred  and  seventy.  Formerly  the  average  receipts  of  the  Erie  railroad  were 
five  millions  ;  now  they  are  eleven  millions.  The  receipts  of  the  New  York 
Central  formerly  averaged  seven  millions  ;  now  they  average  eleven  and  a  hall 
millions.  Formerly  the  Hudson  River  never  could  pay  its  debts ;  this  year  it  is 
making  thirty  per  cent.  The  Fort  Wayne  road  formerly  received  two  and  a 
half  millions  annually  ;  its  receipts  this  year  are  five  millions.  The  Central 
Illinois  increased  its  receipts  last  week,  by  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  it  wiT 
earn  this  month  four  hundred  thousand  dollars." 


188  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

But  the  agricultural  South  was  inunda'red  with, a  curiencjr 
for  which  there  was  no  outlet  except  in  that  pernicious  and  un 
productive  speculation  whose  sphere  of  trade  is  within  itself, 
and  whose  operations  can  be  only  those  of  engrossing  and  ex 
tortion.  The  evils  of  the  expanded  currency  of  the  Confede 
racy,  were  not  only  financial ;  they  were  also  moral.  The  su 
perabundance  of  paper  money  was  the  occasion  of  a  wild 
speculation,  which  corrupted  the  patriotism  of  the  country  ;  in 
troduced  extravagance  and  licentiousness  into  private  life;  be 
stowed  fortune  upon  the  most  undeserving  ;  and  above  all,  bred 
the  most  grave  and  dangerous  discontents  in  the  army.  As 
long  as  there  was  a  spirit  of  mutual  sacrifice  and  mutual  ac 
commodation  in  the  war,  our  soldiers  were  content  and  cheer 
ful.  But  when  they  had  to  compare  their  condition — the  hard 
ships  of  the  camp  ;  the  pittance  of  eleven  dollars  a  month,  that 
could  scarcely  buy  a  pair  of  socks ;  the  poverty  of  the  dear 
home  left  behind  them — with  the  easy  and  riotous  wealth  of 
those  who  had  kept  out  of  the  army  merely  to  wring  money 
out  of  the  necessity  and  distress  of  the  country ;  who,  in  snug 
shops  in  Richmond,  made  thousands  of  dollars  a  day,  or,  by  a 
single  stroke  of  speculation,  became  rich  for  life ;  it  is  not  to 
be  wondered,  that  bitter  conclusions  should  have  been  drawn 
from  the  contrast,  and  that  the  soldier  should  have  given  his 
bosom  to  the  bullets  with  less  alacrity  and  zeal,  when  he  re 
flected  that  his  martyrdom  was  to  protect  a  large  class  of  men 
grown  rich  on  his  necessities,  and  that  too,  \£ith  the  compliance 
and  countenance  of  the  Government  he  defended ! 

At  the  period  of  the  assembling  of  Congress,  the  military 
situation  in  the  Confederacy,  which  in  the  early  part  of  1863 
had  encouraged,  not  without  apparent  reasons,  hopes  of  an  early 
and  honorable  peace,  had  become  overshadowed,  critical,  and, 
to  some  extent,  truly  alarming.  At  the  time  of  the  fall  of 
Yicksburg,  the  enemy  had  also  obtained  an  important  and  per 
manent  success  in  Arkansas.  The  greater  portion  of  the  South 
west  he  had  now  overrun.  Missouri,  Kentucky  and  North 
western  Virginia,  were  exclusively  occupied  by  the  forces  of 
the  enemy.  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Alabama, 
were  partial ly  invaded  by  him.  He  had  passed  the  barrier 
of  the  Cumberland  mountains,  established  his  dominion  ia 
East  Tennessee,  and  from  his  lines  in  the  central  West,  now 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  189 

hoped  to  inundate  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  South  Al 
abama. 

In  the  face  of  this  critical  military  situation,  came  the  ad 
founding  disclosure  from  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  War 
Mr.  James  Seddon,  that  the  effective  force  of  the  army  was 
"  not  more  than  a  half,  never  two-thirds  of  the  soldiers  in  tho 
ranks." 

In  stating  this  deplorable  fact,  the  Secretary  avoided  attrib 
uting  it  to  its  paramount  causes — the  fault  of  his  own  ad 
ministration  ;  the  remissness  of  discipline  ;  the  weak  shunning 
of  the  death-penalty  in  our  armies,  and  that  paltry  quackery 
which  proposed  to  treat  the  great  evil  of  desertion  with 
"proclamations"  and  patriotic  appeals.  He  did  what  was 
worse  than  this  insincerity  ;  for  he  proposed  to  repair  that 
evil  of  absenteeism,  which  the  government  itself  had  occa 
sioned,  by  new  and  violent  measures  to  replenish  the  army. 
These  were  an  extension  of  the  conscription,  which  endangered 
the  exhaustion  of  the  military  reserves  of  the  country  ;  the  ex 
post  facto  annulment  of  all  contracts  for  substitution,  which 
was  to  the  scandal  of  the  moral  world,  and  to  the  lively  dis 
satisfaction  of  more  than  seventy  thousand  persons,  many  of 
whom  were  indispensable  in  civil  employments  and  by  their 
wealth  and  social  position,  commanded  an  influence  which  the 
government  could  not  afford  to  despise  ; — and,  to  crown  all, 
the  supc/sedure  of  all  exemptions  by  a  system  of  details  in  the 
War  Department,  which  would  have  transferred  the  question  of 
all  relief  writh  respect  to  the  burdens  of  the  war,  from  the 
proper  constitutional  jurisdiction  and  collective  wisdom  of 
Congress,  to  the  exclusive  discretion,  caprice  or  malice  of  a 

single  official.* 

\ 

*  There  is  a  little  piece  of  official  history  which  may  be  properly  given  here. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  18G4,  Mr.  Dargan,  of  Alabama,  referred  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  to  "  ads  of  merciless  crwlty"  on  the  part  of  the  authorities, 
with  reference  to  exemptions,  which  it  was  then  proposed,  by  a  certain  dema 
gogical  bill  in  the  House,  to  entrust  exclusively  and  omnipotently  to  the  Ex 
ecutive.  He  illustrated  the  epithets  applied  by  an  instance  where  a  man  had 
been  mercilessly  put  in  the  military  service,  who  had  never  walked  and  never 
been  able  to  walk  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  any  one  day  in  his  life,  and  all  the  ef 
forts  made  by  Mr.  Dargan  with  the  Secretary  of  War  to  procure  his  release 
had  so  far  been  unavailing. 

Yet  it  appears,  from  a  certain  record,  that  the  same  official  who  had  been  BO 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Such  measures  were  finished  pieces  of  demagoguism.  11,6 
various  propositions  made  to  Congress  for  further  military 
drafts,  at  the  expense  of  the  public  faith  and  the  gravest  in 
terests  of  the  citizen  and  producer,  were  calculated  to  find  favor, 
of  course,  in  the  army,  which,  as  designing  politicians  knew, 
contained  the  great  body  of  voters  in  the  country,  and  was 
destined  to  hold  the  balance  of  political  power  in  the  Con 
federacy. 

The  vice  of  our  public  men  was  an  inordinate  passion  for  an 
ephemeral  and  worthless  popularity.  The  entire  legislation  of 
the  country,  Confederate  and  State,  was  demoralized  by  a  pe 
culiar  demagoguism.  All  the  legislative  bodies  of  the  coun 
try  were  filled  with  schemes  of  agrarianism  for  the  benefit 
of  the  soldier,  and  assaults  on  the  most  important  civil  rights 


exacting  to  the  cripple,  and  who  solicited  from  Congress  plenary  powers  on  the 
subject  of  exemptions,  had  given,  over  his  own  name,  a  special,  secret  exemp 
tion  to  a  man  who  professed  to  him  that  he  was  writing  a  history  of  the  war ; 
in  which  it  was,  of  course,  expected  that  Mr.  James  Seddcn  would  be  one  of  the 
figure-heads  in  the  gallery  of  celebrities. 

This  little  piece  of  nefarious  traffic  in  an  official's  vanity  is  of  record :  else  it 
might  be  doubted  whether,  even  in  our  Democratic  system,  a  man  occupying 
Mr.  Seddon's  position  could  be  so  easily  and  shamefully  used. 

We  copy  the  extraordinary  paper  below,  omitting  the  name  of  its  beneficiary, 
because  it  is  not  necessary  to  history,  and  because  we  &re  anxious  to  spare  all 
private  feelings  which  are  not  materially  involved  in  a  public  issue  : 

CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA,) 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  >• 

RICHMOND,  October  20,  1863.        ) 

Mr. ,  not  being  a  native  01  naturalized  citizen  of  the  Confederacy,  AND 

MOREOVER,  being  engaged  in  compiling  a  work  of  interest  to  our  people,  and  ad 
vantageous  to  our  cause,  is  exempt  until  further  orders  from  conscription. 

JAMES  A.  SEDDON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

Of  this  curious  paper  two  remarks  are  to  be  made : 

1.  If  Mr. had  relied  for  exemption  upon  his  alienage  (a  plea  we  must 

suppose  him  unwilling  to  admit,  after  his  literary  exploits  for  the  Confederacy), 
then  it  was  quite  unnecessary  for  the  Secretary  to  assign  "  moreover"  his  lite 
rary  adventure  as  a  cause  of  exemption. 

2.  If  Mr. had  relied  for  exemption  upon  his  alienage,  it  was  not  for 

the  'Secretary  of  War,  but  for  the  consular  authority  of  the  courts,  to  give  him 

he  benefit  of  that  plea. 

This  record  may  appear  to  be  a  small  matter  for  history.  It  is  not :  it  is  one 
evidence,  selected  because  it  is  indisputable,  of  the  spirit  that  is  fast  reducing 
tne  administration  of  the  Confederate  affairs  to  schools  of  demagoguism  and 
paltry  inventions  of  personal  vanity. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  191 

and   interests  at  the  instance  of  the  blind   passicra   of  the 
army. 

The  annulment,  by  the  Confederate  Congress,  of  contracts 
heretofore  concluded  for  military  substitutes,  was  an  act  of  un 
paralleled  infamy.  In  making  the  assertion,  that  the  substitu 
tion  was  not  a  contract,  but  a  privilege  accorded  by  the  au 
thorities,  the  government  adopted  the  argument  of  the  despot 
to  this  effect,  that  the  rights  of  the  people  is  the  pleasure  of  the 
sovereign,  to  be  enjoyed  with  becoming  humility.  In  assum 
ing  to  break  the  contract  as  to  the  principal,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  maintain  it  in  force  against  the  substitute,  the  govern 
ment  stultified  itself,  and  violated  the  plainest  and  justest  of 
legal  maxims,  that  a  contract  broken  on  one  side,  is  broken  on 
all  sides.  In  attempting  this  violence  in  the  face  of  the  admit 
ted  fact,  that  nearly  half  of  the  army  were  eut  of  the  ranks, 
the  government  avoided  the  plain  duty  of  replenishing  the 
army  with  these  absentees ;  proposed  to  replace  seasoned  vete 
rans  by  raw  malcontents  ;  and,  for  a  nominal  accession  to  its 
military  forces,  to  sacrifice  recorded  pledges ;  to  wound  the 
confidence  and  affections  of  the  people ;  and  to  perpetrate  a 
great  moral  evil,  for  which  the  compensation  in  any  practical 
benefit  was  utterly  disproportionate. 

If  such  an  act  of  perfidy  had  been  accomplished  by  the  Lin 
coln  government,  the  Southern  newspapers  would  have  ex 
claimed  against  it  as  an  unequalled  example  of  despotism. 
But  when  it  was  perpetrated  by  their  own  government,  South 
ern  journals,  with  few  honorable  exceptions,  were  base  enough 
to  sustain  or  disguise  it ;  and  one  Southern  Senator,  at  least — 
a  man  of  the  name  of  Brown — was  ready  in  his  official  seat, 
and  in  the  security  of  his  own  exemption  from  military  ser 
vice,  to  bully  the  people  with  an  insufferable  insolence,  and  t<r 
flourish  from  the  shelter  of  his  parliamentary  position,  the  vul 
gar  and  detestable  threat  of  "  military  power." 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  pursue  here  the  legislation  of  the 
Confederate  Congress  on  military  subjects.  We  have  forborne 
to  say  here  that  the  condition  of  our  arms  was  desperate :  it 
was  critical,  but  there  was  no  real  occasion  for  despair,  or  for 
that  violent  anxiety  which  approaches  it.  There  was  yet  much 
room  for  hope.  We  have  stated  that  the  amount  of  absentee 
ism  in  the  army  was,  at  l^asf  in  great  part,  the  fault  of  the  au 


192  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

thorities,  and  it  is  therefore  not  to  be  taken  as  the  indication  of 
decay  in  the  spirit  of  our  soldiery.  That  spirit  was  yet  brave 
and  resolute.  The  displacement  of  Bragg  from  his  command, 
which  was  at  last  unwillingly  made  by  the  President,  had  com 
posed  a  dangerous  discontent  in  the  armies  of  the  West,  and 
was  the  occasion  of  the  re-organization  of  our  forces  there,  and 
a  reassurance  of  the  spirits  of  the  troops.  In  Virginia,  Lee 
still  held  the  enemy  at  bay,  and  possessed  the  unanimous  and 
enthusiastic  confidence  of  the  country  and  the  army.  At 
Charleston,  Beauregard  had  checked  the  enemy,  broken  the 
line  of  his  successes  on  the  coast,  and  was  advanced  even  in 
his  former  reputation  as  a  skilful  commander.  If  the  prospect 
was  chequered  in  the  West,  it  was  without  a  serious  shadow 
in  the  East ;  and,  although  a  large  portion  of  the  Confederacy 
had  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  enemy,  the  general 
condition,  at  least,  externally,  was  not  so  serious  as  when, 
in  1862,  Richmond  was  threatened,  and  there  were  two  hund 
red  and  ten  thousand  Federal  soldiers  in  Virginia  alone. 


LINCOLN  8 

In  the  mean  time  there  came  a  new  and  powerful  appeal  to 
the  patriotism  and  resolution  of  the  Confederacy.  The  Yan 
kee  Congress  had  assembled  simultaneously  with  that  of  the 
Confederacy,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  the  war.  the  conditions 
upon  which  peace  would  be  made  with  the  South  were  offici 
ally  announced.  They  were  contained  in  the  message  and 
proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln.*  They  were  briefly  these : 


*  The  following  are  the  material  portions  of  this  remarkable  proclamation : 

Whereas,  In  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it  is  provided 
that  the  President  shall  have  power  to  give  reprieves  and  pardons  for  offences 
against  the  United  States,  except  in  cases  of  impeachment,  and 

Whereas,  a  rebellion  now  exists  whereby  the  loyal  State  Governments 
of  several  States  have  for  a  long  time  been  subverted,  and  many  persons 
have  committed,  and  are  now  guilty,  of  treason  against  the  United  States, 
and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  said  rebellion  and  treason,  laws  have  been  en 
acted  by  Congress  declaring  forfeitures  and  confiscations  of  property  and  lib 
eration  of  slaves,  all  upon  terms  and  conditions  therein  stated;  and  also  declar 
ing  that  the  President  was  thereby  authorized  at  any  time  thereafter,  by  proo 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  193 

the  forcible  emancipation  of  the  slaves  ;  the  perpetuity  of  con 
fiscations  ;  pardon  on  condition  of  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
government,  to  the  Union,  and  to  the  Abolition  party  of  the 
North  ;  the  exception  from  this  pardon  of  all  important  ranks 
in  the  army,  and  conditions  in  political  life;  and  finally,  the 
monstrous  republican  anomaly  that  one-tenth  of  the  voters  iu 
any  of  the  Confederate  States,  declaring  for  these  terms,  "  should 
be  recognized  as  the  true  government  of  the  State."  In  pro- 


lamation,  to  extend  to  persons  who  may  have  participated  in  the  existing  rebel 
lion  in  any  State,  or  part  thereof,  pardon  and  amnesty,  with  such  exceptions, 
and  at  such  times,  and  on  such  conditions  as  he  may  deem  expedient  for  the 
public  welfare,  and 

Whereas,  the  Congressional  declaration  for  limited  and  conditional  pardon 
accords  with  the  well-established  judicial  exposition  of  the  pardoning  power, 
and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  the  said  rebellion  the  President  of  the  United 
States  has  issued  several  proclamations  and  provisions  in  regard  to  tlfb  libera 
tion  of  slaves,  and 

Whereas,  it  is  now  desired  by  some  peisons  heretofore  engaged  in  said  re- 
bellion,  to  assume  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  and  to  reinaugurate 
loyal  State  Governments  within  and  for  their  respective  States  ; 

Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do  proclaim, 
declare,  and  make  known  to  all  persons  who  have  directly  or  by  implication 
participated  in  the  existing  rebellion,  except  as  hereinafter   excepted,    that 
a  full  pardon  is    hereby    granted  to  them  and   each  of  them,  with    rest 
ation  of  all  rights  of  property  except  as  to  slaves,   and  in   property  <• 
where  the  rights  of  third  parties  shall  Jiave  intervened,  and  upon  the  cc- 
dition  that  every  such  person  shall  take  and  subscribe  an  oath,  and  thence* 
forward  keep  and  maintain  such  oath  inviolate,  and  which  oath  shall  be  reg 
istered  for  permanent  preservation,  and  shall  be  of  the  tenor  and  eifect  follow 
ing,  to  wit : 

"  I, ,  do  solemnly  swear  in  the  presence  of  Almighty  God,  that  I  wiJJ 

henceforth  faithfully  support,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  and  the  Union  of  the  States  .thereunder,  and  that  I  will  in  like  man 
ner  abide  by  and  faithfully  support  all  acts  of  Congress  passed  during  the  ex 
isting  rebellion  with  reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  repealed,  modi 
fied,  or  held  void  by  Congress  or  by  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that 
I  will,  in  like  manner,  abide  and  faithfully  support  all  proclamations  of  tho 
President  made  during  the  existing  rebellion  having  reference  to  slaves,  so  fei 
as  not  modified  or  declared  void  by  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  So  help 
me  God." 

The  persons  excepted  from  the  benefits  of  the  foregoing  provisions  are  all 
who  are  or  shall  have  been  civil  or  diplomatic  officers  or  agents  of  the  so-called 
Confederate  Government ;  all  who  have  left  judicial  stations  under  the  United 
States  to  aid  in  the  rebellion  ;  all  who  are  or  shall  have  been  military  or  naviU 
officers  of  said  so-called  Confederate  Government  above  the  rank  of  Colonel  ia 

II 


194:  SOUTHERN"    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

posing  these  utterly  infamous  terms,  this  Yankee  minster  j>f 
inhumanity  and  falsehood  had  the  audacity  to  declare,  that  in 
some  of  the  Confederate  States  the  elements  of  reconstruction 
were  ready  for  action  ;  that  those  who  controlled  them  differ 
ed,  however,  as  to  the  plan  of  action  ;  and  that,  "  by  the  pro 
clamation,  a  plan  is  presented  which  may  be  accepted  by  them 
as  a  rallying  point,  and  which  they  are  assured  in  advance  will 
not  be  rejected  here." 

This  insulting  and  brutal  proposition  of  the  Yankee  govern 
ment  was  the  apt  response  to  those  few  cowardly  factions 
which  in  North  Carolina,  and  in  some  parts  of  Georgia  and 
Alabama,  hinted  at  "  reconstruction.'7  It  was  as  the  sound  of 
a  trumpet  to  every  brave  man  in  the  South  to  meet  and  to 
contest  a  question  of  life  and  death.  Appeals  had  formerly 
been  made  in  the  Confederacy  against  "reconstruction/'  on 
such  arguments  as  the  conduct  of  the  enemy  in  the  war;  his 
political  prostitution;  his  vandalism;  and  sentimental  motives 
of  vengeance.  There  were  truth  and  eloquence  in  those  ap 
peals.  But  now  there  was  another  added  to  them  which 


the  army,  of  Lieutenant  in  the  navy ;  all  who  left  seats  in  the  United  States 
Congress  to  aid  the  rebellion : 

All  who  resigned  commissions  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States,  and 
afterwards  aided  the  rebellion,  and  all  who  have  engaged  in  any  way  in  treat 
ing  colored  persons  or  white  persons  in  charge  of  such,  otherwise  than  lawfully 
as  prisoners  of  war,  who  have  been  found  in  the  United  States  service  as  sol 
diers,  seamen,  or  in  any  other  capacity. 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known,  that  whenever,  in 
any  of  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Ala 
bama,  Georgia,  Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina,  a  number  of 
persons,  not  less  than  one-tenth  in  number  of  the  votes  cast  in  such  States; 
at  the  Presidential  election  of  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1800,  each  having  taken 
the  oath  aforesaid,  and  not  having  since  violated  it,  and  being  a  qualified 
voter  by  the  election  law  of  the  State  existing  immediately  before  the  so- 
called  act  of  secession,  and  excluding  all  others,  shall  re-establish  a  State 
Government,  which  shall  be  republican,  and  in  no  wise  contravening  said 
oath,  such  shall  be  recognized  as  the  true  Government  of  the  State,  and  the 
State  shall  receive  thereunder  the  benefit  of  the  Constitutional  provision  whteh 
declares  that 

"  Tl  e  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  the  Union  a  Republi 
can  form  of  Government,  and  shall  protect  each  of  them  against  invasion,  on 
application  of  the  Legislature,  or  of  the  Executive,  when  the  Legislature  cau- 
aot  be  convened,  against  domestic  violence." 


THE    THIRD    TEAR.  195 

addressed  us  not  only  in  our  passions,  bnt  in  every  fibre  of  our 
selfishness,  and  in  every  ramification  of  our  interests.  It  wag 
the  authoritative  exposition  to  the  South  of  the  consequences 
of  its  submission.  These  could  no  longer  be  misconstrued: 
they  were  gibbers,  proscription,  universal  poverty,  the  sub 
version  of  our  social  system,  a  feudal  allegiance  to  the  Aboli 
tionists  and  the  depths  of  dishonor. 


THE   SLAVERY   QUESTION   IN   THE   WAR. 

The  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln  was  made  under  cer 
tain  affectations  of  benevolent  zeal  for  the  negro.  He  declared 
that  his  former  "  emancipation"  proclamation  had  "  much  im 
proved  the  tone  of  public  sentiment  in  foreign  countries,"  and 
he  insisted  that  to  abandon  it  would  be  to  the  negro  "  a  cruel 
and  astounding  breach  of  faith." 

In  view  of  these  pretensions,  it  is  not  out  of  place  here  to 
make  a  brief  summary  of  the  true  questions  of  the  war,  and  its 
real  relations  to  negro  slavery  in  the  South. 

A  French  pamphlet  on  the  American  war,  published  at 
Paris,  holds  the  following  language : 

"The  pride  of  the  North  will  never  stoop  to  admit  the 
superiority  of  Southern  men  ;  and  yet  it  is  from  these  that  the 
Union  drew  its  best  statesmen  and  a  majority  of  its  presidents. 
The  pride  of  the  North  will  bend  only  to  necessity,  because  it 
has  not  kept  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  age.  To-day  the 
Americans  of  the  North  are  as  completely  foreign  to  the  family 
of  nations  as  they  were  twenty  years  ago.  They  understand 
nothing  but  the  narrowest  and  most  mechanical  mercantilism, 
the  art  of  purchase  and  sale ;  and  they  long  to  annihilate  the 
Confederate  States  in  order  that  the  South,  by  its  intelligence, 
its  enterprise,  and  the  talent  of  its  statesmen,  may  not  throw 

down  the  rampart  it  has  built  up  against  Europeanism 

The  Federals  are  so  well  aware  of  this  that  the  war  which  they 
are^  waging  is  really  and  mainly  a  war  of  interest.  The  pro 
ducing,  agricultural  South  was  the  commercial  vassal  of  the 
North,  which  insists  upon  keeping  its  best  customer:  emanci 
pation  is  merely  a  skilful  device  for  entrapping  the  sympathies 
of  European  liberalism The  Northern  idea  of  the 


196  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

abolition  of  slavery  by  making  the  negro  food  for  powder^ 
or  by  exiling  him  from  his  home  to  die  of  hunger,  is  now 
thoroughly  understood  in  Europe.  Our  notions  of  philanthropy 
and  our  moral  sense  alike  revolt  from  these  ferocious  exagger 
ations  of  the  love  of  liberty." 

The  above  is  an  admirable  summary  of  the  questions  of  tho 
war — especially  of  the  ^slavery  question."  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  Anti-Slavery  party  in  the  North  had,  through  the 
violence  of  its  measures,  and  the  exposure  of  its  hollow 
pretensions  for  the  negro,  lost  much  of  that  sympathy  in 
Europe  which  it  had  formerly  obtained ;  while  the  war  had 
also  given  occasion  to  intelligent  persons  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  for  a  more  tfiorough,  a  more  interested,  and  a  more 
practical  study  of  slavery  in  the  South.  The  old  stones 
which  the  newspapers  of  the  enemy  revived  of  fiendish 
masters  in  the  South,  and  pandemoniums  on  the  cotton  plan 
tations,  had  now  come  to  be  objects  of  scepticism  or  derision 
in  Europe. 

In  connection  with  the  subject  of  the  relations  of  slavery  to 
the  war,  it  becomes  interesting  to  inquire  what  real  benefits  to 
the  negro  were  accomplished  by  the  political  measures  of  the 
Lincoln  government.  The  famous  "emancipation"  proclama 
tion  extended  "freedom"  to  the  negro  merely  to  subject  him 
to  a  worse  fate,  and  to  transfer  him  from  the  peaceful  service 
of  the  plantation  to  that  of  the  military  camp.  It  was  followed 
by  various  acts  of  Congress  to  enlist  the  negro  in  the  military 
service.  It  was  stated  by  Mr.  Seward,  in  a  diplomatic  circu 
lar,  dated  August  the  12th,  1863,  that  nearly  seventy  thousand 
negroes  were  at  that  time  employed  in  the  Yankee  armies,  oi 
whom  twenty-two  thousand  were  actually  bearing  arms  in  the 
field  ;  and  at  a  later  date  (that  of  the  meeting  of  the  Yankee 
Congress  in  December),  the  whole  number  of  these  African 
allies  of  the  North  was  said  to  exceed  one  hundred  thousand. 
The  employment,  as  soldiers,  against  the  Confederacy,  of  this 
immense  number  of  blacks,  was  a  brutality  and  crime  in  sight 
of  the  world ;  it  was  the  ignoring  of  civilization  in  warfare ;  jt 
was  a  savage  atrocity  inflicted  on  the  South ; — but  it,  cer 
tainly,  was  no  benefit  to  the  negro.  It  could  be  no  benefit  to 
him  that  he  should  be  exposed  to  the  fury  of  the  war,  and 
translated  from  a  peaceful  and  domestic  sphere  of  laboi 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  197 

to  the  hardships  of  the  camp    and  the  mortal  perils  of  the 
battle-field. 

The  scheme  of  the  colonization  of  the  negro  in  the  invaded 
districts  of  the  South  was  alike  destitute  of  benefit  to  him,  and 
destructive  of  the  white  "  civilization"  under  whose  auspices  it 
was  conducted.  Wherever  this  new  system  of  labor  was  intro 
duced,  the  negro  suffered,  the  plantation  relapsed  into  weeds, 
the  garden  disappeared,  and  desolation  and  ruin  took  up  their 
abodes.  It  had  converted  the  rice  coasts  of  South  Carolina 
into  barrens.  It  had  been  instituted  on  a  grand  scale  in  Louisi 
ana.  The  result  was,  to  use  the  language  of  a  Yankee  writer, 
this  beautiful  State  was  fast  becoming  "  an  alligator  pleasure- 
ground."  Where  formerly  had  flourished  rich  and  teeming 
plantations,  were  to  be  seen  here  and  there  some  show  ot 
cultivation,  some  acres  of  corn  and  cane;  but  these  were 
"government"  plantations;  the  able-bodied  negroes  had  been 
forced  into  the  Yankee  military  service,  and  a  few  aged  and 
shiftless  negroes,  who  poked  lazily  through  the  weed-growth, 
were  the  only  signs  of  labor  in  the  vast  districts  occupied  by 
the  enemy.  In  Louisiana,  where  the  Yankees  had  indulged 
such  hopes  of  "infusing  new  life"  by  free  labor  and  the  scien 
tific  farming  of  Massachusetts,  the  development  of  the  country, 
its  return  in  crops,  in  wealth,  amounted  to  little  more  than 
nothing.  The  negro  had  merely  exchanged  his  Southern 
master  for  a  Massachusetts  shoe-maker,  who  was  anxjous  to 
become  a  Louisiana  sugar-maker.  His  condition  was  not  im 
proved,  his  comforts  were  decreased ;  and  the  country  itself, 
redeemed  by  the  most  tedious  labors  from  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  brought  to  a  point  of  fertility  unexampled  in 
American  soils,  was  fast  reverting  to  the  original  swamp. 
Louisiana  had  taken  more  than  fifty  years  to  raise  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  to  drain  and  redeem  the  swamp  lands,  and 
to  make  herself  a  great  producing  State.  But,  said  the  New 
York  World,  "it  has  required  only  a  few  months  for  the 
Administration  at  Washington  to  prepare  the  State  for  its 
return  to  its  original  worthlessness ;  to  '  restore5  it  to  barbar 
ism  ;  to  re-people  it,  in  spots,  with  half-bred  bastards  ;  to  drive 
out  every  vestige  of  civilization,  and  to  make  the  paradise  ot 
the  South  a  rank,  rotten,  miasmatic,  alligator  and  moccasin 
ewamp-grourid  again." 


198  SOUTHERN    H1STOKY    d"    THE    WAR. 

The  fact  is  indisputable,  that  in  all  the  localities  of  the  Con 
federacy  whei;e  the  enemy  had  obtained  a  foothold,  the  negroes 
had  been  reduced  by  mortality  during  the  war  to  not  mor 
than  one-half  their  previous  number. 

To  this  statement,  the  deliberate  assertion  of  President 
Davis  to  the  Confederate  Congress,  we  may  make  an  official 
addition  of  the  most  melancholy  interest.  In  the  winter  of 
1863-64,  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  in  his  official  message, 
published  to  the  world  the  appalling  fact,  that  more  negroes 
had  perished  in  Louisiana  from  the  cruelty  and  brutality  of 
the  public  enemy  than  the  combined  number  of  white  men,  in 
loth  armies,  from  the  casualties  of  war.  In  illustration  he 
stated,  that  when  the  Confederate  forces  surprised  and  cap 
tured  Berwick's  Bay,  last  summer,  they  found  about  two 
thousand  negroes  there  in  a  state  of  the  most  utter  destitution 
— many  of  them  so  emaciated  and  sick  that  they  died  before 
the  tender  humanity  of  the  Confederates  could  be  applied  to 
their  rescue  from  death. 

The  fate  of  these  poor  wretches  was  to  be  attributed  to  sheer 
inhumanity.  The  Yankees  had  abundant  supplies  of  food, 
medicines  and  clothing  at  hand,  but  they  did  not  apply  them 
to  the  comfort  of  the  negro,  who,  once  entitled  to  the  farce  of 
"  freedom,"  was  of  no  more  consequence  to  them  than  any 
other  beast  with  a  certain  amount  of  useful  labor  in  his 
anatomy. 

The  practice  of  the  enemy  in  the  parts  of  the  Confederacy 
he  had  invaded,  was  to  separate  the  families  of  the  blacks 
without  notice.  Governor  Moore  officially  testified  to  this 
practice  in  Louisiana.  The  men  were  driven  off  like  so  man  v 
cattle  to  a  Yankee  camp,  and  were  enlisted  in  the  Yankee- 
army.  The  women  and  children  were  likewise  driven  off  in 
droves,  and  put  upon  what  are  called  "  Government  planta 
tions" — that  is,  plantations  from  which  the  lawful  owners  had 
been  forced  to  fly,  and  which  the  Yankees  in  Louisiana  were 
cultivating. 

The  condition  of  the  negroes  at  the  various  contraband 
camps  in  the  Mississippi  valley  furnishes  a  terrible  volume  of 
human  misery,  which  may  some  day  be  written  in  the  fright 
ful  characters  of  truth.  Congregated  at  these  depots,  without 
employment,  deprived  of  the  food  to  which  they  had  been  ac- 


THE    THIRD    irEAK.  190 

tustomed,   and  often  without  shelter  or  medical  care,  these 
helpless  creatures  perished,  swept  off  by  pestilence  or  the  cruel 
ties  of  the  Yankees. 

We  may  take  from  Northern  sources  some  accounts  of  these 
contraband  camps,  to  give  the  reader  a  passing  picture  of  what 
the  unhappy  negroes  had  gained  by  what  the  Yankees  called 
their  "  freedom." 

A  letter  to  a  Massachusetts  paper  said  : — "  There  are,  be 
tween  Memphis  and  Natchez,  not  less  than  fifty  thousand 
blacks,  from  among  whom  have  been  culled  all  the  able-bodied 
men  for  the  military  service.  Thirty-five  thousand  of  these, 
viz.,  those  in  camps  between  Helena  arid  Natchez,  are  furnished 
the  shelter  of  old  tents  and  subsistence  of  cheap  rations  by  the 
Government,  but  are  in  all  other  things  in  extreme  destitution. 
Their  clothing,  in  perhaps  the  case  of  a  fourth  of  this  number, 
is  but  one  single  worn  and  scanty  garment.  Many  children 
are  wrapped  night  and  day  in  tattered  blankets  as  their  sole 
apparel.  But  few  of  all  these  people  have  had  any  change  of 
raiment  since,  in  midsummer  or  earlier,  they  came  from  the 
abandoned  plantations  of  their  masters.  Multitudes  of  them 
have  no  beds  or  bedding — the  clayey  earth  the  resting  place 
of  women  and  babes  through  these  stormy  winter  months. 
They  live  of  necessity  in  extreme  filthiness,  and  are  afflicted 
with  all  fatal  diseases.  Medical  attendance  and  supplies  arc 
very  inadequate.  They  cannot,  during  the  winter,  be  disposed 
to  labor  and  self-support,  and  compensated  labor  cannot  be 
procured  for  them  in  the  camps.  They  cannot,  in  their  present 
condition,  survive  the  winter.  It  is  my  conviction  that,  unre 
lieved,  the  half  of  them  will  perish  before  the  spring.  Last 
winter,  during  the  months  of  February,  March  and  April,  I 
buried,  at  Memphis  alone,  out  of  an  average  of  about  four  thou 
sand,  twelve  hundred  of  these  people,  or  twelve  a  day." 

Another  Yankee  correspondent  wrote  as  follows  respecting 
the  negroes  who  had  come  into  Yicksburg  after  the  surrender 
of  General  Pemberton  : — 

"  About  the  1st  of  August  the  military  authorities  became 
alarmed  lest  a  pestilence  should  break  out  among  them  and 
extend  to  the  army.  Peremptory  orders  were  issued  to  at  once 
remove  across  the  river  all  negroes,  of  every  age  and  sex, 
whether  sick  or  well,  who  were  not  in  some  employment. 


200  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

"  One  morning  I  went  out  to  inform  a  certain  Lieutenant 

W ,  who,  with  an  inadequate  force,  was  executing  the 

order,  that  one  of  them  in  the  Baptist  church  was  dead,  and 
that  another,  a  woman,  was  lying  behind  a  fence,  dying.  He 
told  me  that  he  had  detailed,  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the 
negroes,  20  army  wagons  ;  that  he  had  hauled  thenij  well,  sick 
and  dead,  with  all  their  traps,  to  the  river,  where  he  had  a 
steamer  to  convey  them  across  to  a  point  opposite  the  lower 
part  of  the  city ;  that  he  had  one  wagon  to  haul  the  dead,  and 
that  some  days  he  found  as  many  as  twenty ;  that  in  one  house 
he  found  six  dead  bodies,  with  living  ones  sitting  and  lying 
around  them,  apparently  unconscious  of  their  situation.  Holes 
were  dug  on  the  river's  bank  and  the  dead  buried.  The  search 
ing  out  and  removal  of  these  negroes  consumed  about  fifteen 
or  twenty  days.  About  three  hundred  were  thus  removed  to 
the  low  grounds  opposite  Yicksburg,  and  there  left  in  the 
weeds  without  any  shelter,  under  the  care  of  a  man  who  was 
appointed  to  organize  them  into  a  camp,  and  separate  small 
pox  cases  from  the  rest. 

u  The  chaplain  told  me  that  these  negroes  had  suffered  and 
were  still  suffering  untold  want  and  wretchedness  ;  that  nearly 
four  hundred  had  died  since  he  had  taken  charge  of  them ; 
that  from  sixteen  to  twenty  died  daily.  Sometimes  they  would 
crawl  off  into  the  woods  and  die,  where  their  bodies  would  be 
found  only  by  the  stench  which  arose  from  their  decay.  That 
there  was  no  white  man  with  them  but  a  nephew  of  his  ;  that 
rations  were  furnished  them  by  the  Government,  but  sometimes 
lie  had  difficulty  in  getting  them  over  the  river ;  that  once 
they  were  live  days  without  receiving  any  food,  and  the  negroes 
in  their  despair  threatened  to  kill  him,  thinking  the  fault  was 
his.  He  also  stated  that  they  had  no  tents  or  shelter  except 
brush  to  shield  them  from  the  sun,  or  storm,  or  dews  of  night. 

Oaptain  A stated  to  me  that  there  were  in  his  camp  two 

thousand  ;  at  Young's  Point,  eight  thousand  five  hundred  and 
fifty-one  ;  on  Papaw  Island,  where  he  purposed  gathering  most 
of -them,  two  thousand  eight  hundred  ;  and  on  Black's  planta 
tion,  on  the  Yazoo,  two  thousand  four  hundred — in  all  over 
sixteen  thousand.  One  morning  I  went  among  the  wretched 
masses  where  they  were  hauled  to  the  bank  of  the  river,  pre 
paratory  to  being:  sent  across.  I  tried  in  vain  to  find  some 


THE    THIKP    YEAB.  201 

women  who  were  able  to  work,  as  we  wished  their  labor  at 
our  house.  All  were  either  sick  or  taking  care  of  the  sick.  1 
saw  nothing  but  one  sad  scene  of  misery." 

The  war  had  tested  slavery  in  the  South  with  results  that 
could  not  escape  the  intelligent  attention  of  the  world.  While 
it  had  exhibited  the  horrors  of  "  emancipation  "  on  the  one 
side,  it  had  shown,  on  the  other,  the  docility  and  fidelity  of  the 
slave  in  his  proper  condition  of  servitude.  It  is  true  that  the 
negroes,  in  cases  of  invasion,  had  flocked  to  the  standards  of 
the  Yankee  ;  but  such  a  course  was  to  be  ascribed  purely  to 
their  ignorance  and  tractability,  seduced  as  they  were  by  the 
word  u  liberty,"  by  bribes  and  by  frauds.  It  was  no  evidence 
of  any  real  discontent,  still  less  of  hostility  to  the  masters  they 
deserted.  The  majority  of  negroes  lost  by  us  were  those  allured 
to  the  Yankees  by  promises  of  freedom,  no  work,  and  bountiful 
supplies  of  good  things.  Deceived  in  their  anticipation  of 
otium  cum  dignitate,  and  finding  the  spade  and  the  musket  in 
health,  and  cold  neglect  in  sickness,  in  lieu  of  it — their  wives 
and  children,  their  old  and  infirm,  subjected  to  privations  and 
Bufferings  never  experienced  from  their  masters — as  many  as 
could  returned  home. 

In  all  the  war  there  had  been  no  servile  insurrection  in  the 
South — not  a  single  instance  of  outbreak  among  the  slaves — a 
conclusive  evidence  that  the  negro  was  not  the  enemy  of  his 
master,  but,  in  his  desertion  of  him,  merely  the  victim  of 
Yankee  bribes.  Assured,  through  a  thousand  channels,  as 
these  negroes  were,  that  they  were  the  victims  of  the  most 
grinding  and  cruel  injustice  and  oppression  ;  assured  of  the 
active  assistance  of  the  largest  armies  of  modern  times,  and  of 
the  countenance  and  sympathy  of  the  rest  of  the  world  ;  assured 
that  such  an  enterprise  would  not  only  be  generous  and  heroic, 
but  eminently  successful,  our  enemies  had  heretofore  failed  to 
excite  one  solitary  instance  of  insurrection,  much  less  to  bring 
on  a  servile  war. 

It  was  thus  that  the  war  itself  had  greatly  cleared  up  our 
moral  atmosphere,  and  swept  away  much  mist  and  darkness 
of  doubt  and  delusion.  After  nearly  three  years  of  bloody 
struggle,  we  had  at  least  already  attained  this  result:  the 
assurance  that  it  was  we,  the  Confederates,  who  had  in  charge 
the  cause  of  freedom  in  the  Western  continent  against  the  wild 


202  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

anarchy  of  ignorant  mobs — we,  who  were  saving  civilization 
from  the  frenzy  of  democracy  run  mad — we,  above  all,  who 
were  guarding  the  helpless  black  race  from  utter  annihilation 
at  the  hands  of  a  greedy  and  bloody  "  philanthropy,"  which 
sought  to  deprive  them  of  the  care  of  humane  masters  only 
that  they  might  be  abolished  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  leave 
the  fields  of  labor  clear  for  that  free  competition  and  demand- 
and-supply,  which  reduced  even  white  workers  to  the  lowest 
minimum  of  a  miserable  livelihood,  and  left  the  simple  negro 
to  compete,  as  he  best  could,  with  swarming  and  hungry  mil 
lions  of  a  more  energetic  race,  who  were  already  eating  one 
another's  heads  off,  and  who  regarded  him  and  his  claims  as  an 
intrusion  and  superfluity  upon  earth — to  be  retrenched  and  got 
rid  of  in  the  most  summary  manner. 

The  affectation  of  the  Yankee  for  the  good  of  the  negro  was 
intended,  as  we  have  seen,  to  solicit  the  sympathies  of  Europe 
in  the  war.  It  was  not  very  effectual  in  this  respect.  But,  at 
least,  it  could  no  longer  hope  to  impose  upon  the  South,  and 
it  did  not  hesitate  to  unmask  to  it  its  brutal  and  ferocious  in 
sincerity.  In  the  mean  time,  the  "  war-to-the-knife"  party  in 
the  North,  with  the  large  accession  of  so  many  blacks  to  its 
armies,  and  a  recent  confirmation  at  the  polls  of  its  party 
strength,  was  preparing  for  new  careers  of  atrocity  and  crime.* 

*  In  referring  to  the  condition  of  the  negro  in  this  war,  we  use  the  terra 
"slavery"  in  these  pages  under  strong  protest.  For  there  is  no  such  thing  in 
the  South  ;  it  is  a  term  fastened  upon  us  by  the  exaggeration  and  conceit  of 
Northern  literature,  and  most  improperly  acquiesced  in  by  Southern  writers. 
There  is  a  system  of  African  servitude  in  the  South  ;  in  which  the  negro,  so  fai 
from  being  under  the  absolute  dominion  of  his  master  (which  is  the  true  mean 
ing  of  the  vile  word  "  slavery"),  has,  by  law  of  the  land,  his  personal  rights 
recognized  and  protected,  and  his  comfort  and  "  right"  of  "  happiness"  con 
sulted,  and  by  the  practice  of  the  system,  has  a  sum  of  individual  indulgences, 
which  makes  him  altogether  the  most  striking  type  in  the  world  of  cheerful 
ness  and  contentment.  And  the  system  of  servitude  in  the  South  has  this  pe 
culiarity  over  other  systems  of  servitude  in  the  world  :  that  it  does  not  debase 
one  of  God's  creatures  from  the  condition  of  free-citizenship  and  membership 
in  organized  society  and  thus  rest  on  acts  of  debasement  and  disenfranchise- 
ment,  but  elevates  a  savage,  and  rests  on  the  solid  basis  of  human  improve 
ment.  The  European  mind,  adopting  the  nomenclature  of  our  enemies,  luia 
designated  as  "slavery"  what  is  really  the  most  virtuous  system  of  servitude 
in  the  world. 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  203 


RETALIATION"  POLICY. 


While  thus  the  war  waxed  in  the  hands  of  the  North,  tin 
Administration  at  Richmond  had  nothing  to  respond  to  its 
ferocity  but  a  feeble  sentirnentalism  and  a  weak  protest  for  the 
rights  of  humanity,  which  amused  the  enemy  and  disgusted 
the  stern  spirit  of  a  people  fighting  for  their  liberties.  "  Retal 
iation"  had  by  this  time  become  a  lost  word  in  our  vocabula 
ry.  In  the  year  now  well  nigh  past,  the  Yankees  had  enacted 
barbarities  greater  than  those  of  former  years,  in  proportion  as 
they  were  encouraged  by  impunity.  They  had  burned  the 
town  of  Darien,  arid  this,  one  of  the  oldest  towns  in  Georgia, 
the  New  Inverness  of  Oglethorpe's  time,  was  now  a  plain  of 
ashes  and  blackened  chimneys.  They  had,  in  a  raid  on  the 
Combahee,  committed  to  the  flames  the  beautiful  town  of 
BlufFton.  They  had  attempted  to  destroy  Charleston  by  an 
incendiary  composition.  They  had  made  a  desert  of  the  whole 
country  between  the  Big  Black  and  the  Mississippi,  and  in 
every  district  of  the  South  which  they  had  penetrated,  houses 
had  been  either  pillaged  or  burnt,  crops  laid  waste,  and  enor 
mities  committed  which  exhausted  the  calendar  of  crimes. 

Yet  we  have  seen  that  when  General  Lee  invaded  the  terri 
tory  of  the  North  he  had  omitted  even  the  devastation  of  the 
enemy's  country,  had  paid  the  Yankees'  own  prices  for  theii 
supplies,  and  had,  in  fact,  given  a  protection  to  their  property 
which  had  never  been  afforded  that  of  our  citizens,  either 
from'  the  rapacity  of  the  soldier  or  that  of  the  impressment 
agent. 

It  is  true  that  of  this  singular  behavior  President  Davis  said 
in  his  message  to  Congress:  "Though  the  forbearance  may 
have  been  unmerited  and  unappreciated  by  the  enemy,  it  was 
imposed  by  their  [our  soldiers']  own  self-respect,  which  for 
bade  their  degenerating  from  Christian  warriors  into  plunder 
ing  ruffians."  But  herein  the  President  sought  to  impose 
upon  the  public  mind  not  only  a  wretched  piece  of  seritimen- 
talism,  but  a  glaring  fallacy,  alike  unworthy  of  his  intellect. 
The  punishment  of  the  Yankees  for  what  they  had  done  in  the 
South  certainly  did  not  mean  an  imitation  of  the  wrong — a 
retaliation  in  kind.  The  Southern  people  had  almost  unani- 


204  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

mously  applauded  General  Lee's  orders  in  Pennsylvania  re 
straining  pillage  and  private  outrage.  But  there  were  penalties 
other  than  those  of  marauding  which  might  have  been  meas 
ured  out  to  the  enemy,  and  have  inflicted  upon  him  some 
injury  commensurate  with  what  we  had  suffered  at  his  hands. 
It  would  not  have  been  unjust,  it  would  not  have  been  immoral, 
it  would  not  have  detracted  from  our  "  self-respect,"  it  would 
not  have  endangered  the  discipline  of  our  troops,  it  would  not 
have  been  an  act  unbecoming  "  Christian  warriors,"  to  have 
laid  waste  the  enemy's  country,  if  done  under  the  justification 
of  retaliation,  with  the  deliberation  of  official  orders,  and  by 
the  army  acting  in  line  of  battle.  But  no  such  orders  were 
given  ;  no  such  line  of  battle  carried  with  it  the  chastisements 
of  real  war ;  and  the  fertile  acres  of  the  Pennsylvania  Yalley 
were  untouched  by  the  "  Christian  warriors." 

The  subject  of  "  retaliation"  brings  to  the  mind  a  number  of 
specific  acts  in  which  the  Confederate  government  had  failed, 
alike,  in  the  execution  of  justice  and  in  the  protection  of  its 
own  people.  The  record  of  these  affords  an  exhibition  of 
weakness  that  is,  positively,  without  parallel  in  the  history  of 
governments.  In  contrasting  the  rival  administrations  of  the 
North  and  South,  it  is  indispensable  here  to  make  a  brief  re 
view  of  the  incidents  to  which  we  have  referred  in  the  history 
of  the  "  retaliation"  policy.  They  are  rapidly  grouped  in  the 
summary  which  follows: 

1.  Shortly  after  the  capture  of  New  Orleans,  General  Butler 
executed  a  citizen  of  the  Confederacy,  William  B.  Mumford, 
for  the  extraordinary  crime  of  "  disrespect"  to  the  Yankee  flag. 

Instead  of  making  prompt  retaliation,  the  Confederate  gov 
ernment  found  a  conveniently  circuitous  course  in  addressing, 
several  months  after  the  event,  the  singularly  gratuitous  inquiry 
to  the  Lincoln  government,  whether  the  act  of  Butler  was 
"  approved"  by  it  ? 

The  authorities  at  Washington  returned  this  answer: 

HEADQUARTERS  OF  THE  ARMY,  ) 

WASHINGTON,  Aug.  9,  1862.    \ 
GEN'L  R.  E.  LEE,  Comd'g,  &c. : 

General: — Your  two  communications  of  the  2d  inst.,  witti 
inclosures,  are  received.  As  these  papers  are  couched  in  lan 
guage  exceedingly  insulting  to  the  Government  of  the  United 


THE    TH.BD    YEAR.  205 

States,  I  must  respectfully  decline  to  receive  them.    They  are 
returned  here  with. 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  ob't  serv't, 

H.  W.  HALLKCK,  Gen'1-in-Chief  F.  S.  Army. 

And  here  ended  the  whole  matter. 

2.  At  Palmyra,  in  Missouri,  General  McNeil  murdered,  in 
cold  blood,  ten  soldiers  of  the  Confederacy. 

Although  the  Confederate  government  must  have  had  prompt 
official  intelligence  of  this  outrage,  it  was  only  several  months 
thereafter,  when  "the  Palmyra  massacre"  had  been  inconve 
niently  noised  in  the  newspapers,  that  President  Davis  ordered 
by  telegraph  the  execution  in  retaliation,  of  ten  Yankee  pris 
oners,  in  the  Department  of  the  Trans-Mississippi, 

The  bloody  telegram,  communicated  by  the  Richmond  au 
thorities  to  the  press  with  peculiar  liberality  of  information, 
quieted  it  and  consoled  the  public.  But  that  was  all ;  the 
telegraphic  order  was  never  executed;  it  was  a  dead  letter, 
that  died  in  the  public  mind  ;  and  the  Palmyra  massacre  was 
not  only  unavenged,  but  justice  itself  was  cheated  by  a  false 
and  most  unworthy  show  of  compliance  with  its  demands. 

3.  Under  the  "Death  Order"  of  Burnside,  two  Confederate 
officers,  Captains  Corbin  and  McGraw,  had  been  executed  for 
recruiting  white  soldiers  in  Kentucky,  a  part  of  our  own  terri 
tory  embraced  in  our  political  system  and  represented  in  our 
Congress ;  at  a  time  when  the  Yankees  were  recruiting  negro 
soldiers  in  our  political  jurisdiction,  and  in  the  circle  of  our 
homes. 

By  the  order  of  the  Confederate  government,  two  Yankee 
prisoners  were  selected  by  a  formal  lot  at  Richmond,  upon 
whom  retaliation  Avas  to  be  visited.  The  day  of  their  execu 
tion  was  fixed.  But  instead  of  hanging  them,  President  Davis 
arranged  a  back-door  of  mercy  by  commissioning  a  personage 
no  less  considerable  than  Mr.  Stephens,  Yice-president  of  the 
Republic,  to  make  arrangements  in  Washington  "  to  temper 
the  present  cruel  character  of  the  contest."  The  "  back-door 
of  mercy"  was  closed  in  his  face.  Mr.  Stephens  went  as  far  as 
Hampton  Roads,  where  he  was  stopped  by  the  enemy's  admi 
ral,  with  the  curt  information  from  Washington,  that  the 


206  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

enemy  wished  no  further  communication  with  the  Confederacy 
than  it  already  had  through  the  ordinary  military  channels. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Yankee  government,  without  troub 
ling  itself  with  a  selection  by  lot,  had  summarily  designated 
two  of  the  most  important  prisoners  in  its  hands  as  victims  to 
repay  with  their  lives  the  tragedy  that  had  been  appointed  at 
Richmond.  The  consequences  were,  that  the  tragedy  did  not 
come  off,  but  the  Confederate  government  replied  with  some 
brave  words,  that  it  was  not  dismayed  by  the  threat,  but 
would,  at  its  convenience,  execute  the  penalties  it  had  pro 
nounced.  The  day  of  execution  passed ;  there  was  no  public 
notice  of  respite  or  pardon ;  there  was  no  other  day  of  execu 
tion  appointed ;  and  the  convenient  silence  of  the  authorities 
was  evidence  enough  that  the  matter  was  dropped,  and  that 
they  desired  it  to  pass  out  of  the  public  mind.  Thus  termin 
ated  this  issue  of  "  retaliation." 

4.  A  notorious  renegade,  Rucker,  was  taken  in  the  ranks  of 
the  enemy  in  Western  Virginia,  and  committed  as  a  spy  and 
murderer.     The  Yankees   threatened  the  life    of  one  of  our 
prisoners  of  war,  if  he  should  be  executed. 

The  criminal  was  kept  fifteen  months  without  a  trial,  and  at 
last  conveniently  escaped.  There  was  no  possible  occasion  for 
the  extraordinary  delay  of  a  trial,  unless  that  the  Confederate 
authorities  feared  to  risk  its  conclusion,  for  the  evidence  was 
ready,  abundant,  and  immediately  at  hand  to  convict  him. 

5.  The  Yankees   imprisoned    women  for  waving  handker 
chiefs  at  our  prisoners.     For  offences  not  much  more  consid 
erable,  they  put  them  in  political  jails,  and  subjected  them  to 
the  vilest  indignities,  and  to  penalties  which  made  no  distinc 
tion  of  sex. 

In  the  summer  of  1863,  a  Mrs.  Patterson  Allen,  a  Yankee 
woman,  was  detected  in  Richmond  holding  the  most  brutal 
and  treasonable  communication  with  the  enemy ;  pointing  out 
to  him  objects  for  his  resentment;  and  proposing  to  betray 
into  his  hands  as  prisoner  a  minister  of  Christ,  under  whose 
roof,  at  the  time  the  letter  was  written,  the  Yankee  spy  and 
traitress  was  herself  a  guest,  and  a  sick  child  of  the  minister 
was  dying  in  the  absence  of  its  father. 

By  special  direction  of  the  Confederate  Secretary  of  War 
Mr.  Seddon,  Mrs.  Patterson  Allen,  a  fashionable  woman,  was 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  207 

sent,  not  to  prison,  but  to  the  Asylum,  Francis  de  Sales,  in 
Richmond.  Her  trial  had  riot  yet  taken  place ;  and  for  nearly 
six  months  the  vulgarity  of  a  legal  prison  was  spared  her,  and 
a  romantic  confinement  in  a  charitable  institution  was  the 
ehivalric  invention  of  the  Confederacy  for  the  crime  of  trea 
son  I 

6.  It  had  been  estimated  by  the  Confederate  Commissioner 
of  Exchange,  in  the  fall  of  1863,  that  the  enemy  held  in  im 
prisonment  not  less  than  one  thousand  citizens  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  who  had  been  captured  in  peaceful  employments,  and 
were  in  no  way  amenable  as  combatants  in  the  war. 

In  a  correspondence  on  the  subject  of  exchange  of  prisoners, 
the  Confederate  government  protested  against  the  outrageous 
practice  of  the  enemy  in  arresting  non-combatants  and  kid 
napping  private  citizens  within  his  military  lines  or  elsewhere 
within  his  reach.  Bat  the  enemy  continued  these  arrests,  arid 
no  retaliation  was  ever  attempted.  At  the  time  unarmed  citi 
zens  of  the  Confederacy  were  torn  from  their  homes  in  Missis 
sippi  and  sent  to  the  jails  of  Memphis,  General  Lee  protected 
the  citizens  of  Pennsylvania,  and  allowed  them  even  to  avow 
their  political  animosity  in  his  camps. 

7.  When  General  Morgan  was  captured  by  the  enemy,  he 
was  carried  to  Cincinnati,  and  thence  he  and  twenty-eight  of 
his  officers  were  taken  to  Columbus,  Ohio,  where  they  were 
shaved,  their  hair  cut  close  by  a  negro  convict,  and  then  locked 
up  in  cells.     Seven  days  afterwards,  forty-two  more  of  General 
Morgan's  officers  were  conveyed  from  Johnston's  Island  to  the 
penitentiary,  and  subjected  to  the  same  indignities. 

A  correspondence  ensued  between  the  Commissioners  of 
Exchange  on  the  subject  of  these  cruelties  and  indignities,  in 
which  the  excuse  was  made  by  the  enemy  that  the  Federal 
authority  was  not  responsible  for  them,  implying  that  the 
State  of  Ohio  having  these  captives  in  her  custody,  had  chosen 
to  associate  them  with  convicts. 

Yet,  at  this  time,  our  government  was,  in  deference  to  "  gen 
eral  orders"  at  Washington,  treating  as  prisoners  of  war 
negroes  captured  in  arms,  who  were  clearly  responsible  to  the 
authority  of  the  States,  under  State  laws,  as  criminals.  No 
surrender  of  these  criminals  was  made  to  any  of  the  States  of 
the  Confederacy,  and  when  South  Carolina  made  some  motion 


208  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

in  the  matter,  it  was  strangely  hushed  up,  and  the  negro  ma.- 
efactors  retained  to  this  day  by  the  Confederate  authority  in 
full  enjoyment  of  the  privileges  aceorded  them  by  Yankee 
edict,  as  "  prisoners  of  war." 

8.  The  enemy  had  violated  the  cartel.     Under  this  cartel, 
for  many  months,  we  had  restored  to  the  enemy  many  thou 
sands  of  prisoners  in  excess  of  those  whom  he  held   for  ex 
change.     But  in  July,  when  the  fortune  of  war  favored  the 
Yankees,  and  they  held  the  excess  of  prisoners,  they  had  bro 
ken  the  cartel ;  they  had  refused  to   return  to  our  lines  the 
prisoners  taken  at  Gettysburg;    and  they  had  gone  further 
even  than  this  treachery,  for  they  had  not  only  retained  the 
prisoners  captured  by  them,  but  they  had  declared  null  the 
paroles  given  by  the  prisoners  captured  by  us  in  the  same 
series  of  engagements. 

What  were  the  returns  of  the  Confederate  government  for 
this  outrage?  It  allowed  the  prisoners  in  our  hands  comforts 
not  enjoyed  by  the  men  who  captured  them  in  battle.  It  per 
mitted  the  Yankee  captives  in  Richmond  to  receive  stores 
from  the  North  to  the  amount  of  half  a  million  of  dollars.  It 
indulged  them  in  a  festival ;  and  while  our  prisoners  were 
sighing  in  the  dungeons  and  penitentiaries  of  the  North,  or  at 
Johnston's  Island,  were  (to  use  President  Davis's  own  state 
ment),  dying  from  the  slow  tortures  of  cold,  "exposed  to  the 
piercing  cold  of  the  Northern  lakes,  by  men  who  cannot  be 
ignorant  of,  even  if  they  do  not  design,  the  probable  result,"  a 
table  cThoU  was  spread  in  the  Libby  Prison  at  Richmond,  with 
all  the  luxuries  that  the  teeming  markets  of  the  Northern 
cities  could  afford.  And  this  licentiousness,  with  its  awful 
and  terrible  contrast  to  our  own  people,  went  by  the  name  oi 
Christian  charity  in  Richmond,  and  was  a  pleasant  humanity 
to  be  told  to  Europe  ! 

9.  The  Confederacy  treated  prisoners  of  war  according  to 
the  rules  of  war;  consulted  their  comfort  as  well  as  their  secu 
rity  ;  enacted  a  law  allowing  them  the  same  rations  as  Con 
federate  soldiers  in   the  field  ;    and,  in  fine,  considering  the 
scarcity  of  supplies  in  the  South,  made  a  provision  for  pris 
oners  of  war  of  extreme  generosity. 

It  is  true  that  statements  were  made  by  the  North  much  to 
the  contrary ;  that  Yankee  newspapers  circulated  ghastly 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  209 

romances  of  their  starving  prisoners  ;  and  that  pictorial  illus 
trations  of  the  horrors  of  Libby  Prison  and  Belle  Isle  were 
manufactured  into  a  public  document  by  a  Yankee  Congress 
for  circulation  throughout  Christendom.  However,  these  sto 
ries  were  but  little  entitled  to  the  credit  or  sympathy  of  the 
world ;  so  often  had  it  been  imposed  upon  by  Yankee  fictions, 
and  so  little  reason  had  it  to  suppose  that  a  people  false  in  one 
particular  were  even  tolerably  truthful  in  another. 

It  was  not  to  be  supposed,  indeed,  that  in  a  war  in  which 
the  favorite  object  of  the  Yankee  was  to  plunder  and  starve 
the  Confederacy,  and  in  which  the  first  men  of  the  Confed 
eracy  were  forced  to  live  scantily  on  bread  and  beef,  and  to 
deny  themselves  such  luxuries  as  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  and  vege 
tables,  Yankee  prisoners  of  war  could  have  many  of  the  com 
forts  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  obtain  from  their 
own  bountiful  commissariat.  But  it  is  seriously  true  that 
they  fared  as  well  as  our  own  worn  and  hardened  soldiers  in 
the  field.  They  were  allowed,  in  many  instances,  to  receive 
supplies  from  friends  in  the  North,  and  it  frequently  happened 
that  the  occupants  of  the  Libby  actually  lived  better  than  the 
cabinet  ministers  of  the  Confederacy. 

What  was  the  Yankee  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war  in 
comparison  with  these  humanities  of  the  Confederacy  ?  Their 
system  of  imprisonment  was  essentially  a  penal  one.  They 
assumed  the  right  to  punish  prisoners  of  war;  to  enact  the 
part  of  magistrate  over  soldiers  and  citizens  of  the  Confederacy; 
to  sentence  them  to  terms  of  years,  to  add  ball  and  chain,  to 
subject  them  to  penalties  of  the  felon,  and  to  employ  upon 
them  the  tortures  of  the  common  penitentiary.  Even  women, 
accused  of  sympathy  with  the  South,  were  required  to  employ 
their  time  in  prison  with  "  sewing  for  Union  soldiers."  The 
right  to  punish  prisoners  of  war  was  assumed  quite  as  much 
as  that  to  secure  their  persons. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  outrageous  incarceration  of 
General  Morgan  and  his  command.  We  may  refer  here  to  the 
experience  at  length  of  one  of  these  unfortunate  captives 
which  was  personally  narrated  to  the  writer  of  these  pages. 

This  statement  was  taken  from  the  Tips  of  Captain  Calvin  C 
Morgan,  a  brother  of  the  famous  General  Morgan. 

Captain  Morgan  was  among  those  of  his  brother's  expedi 

14 


210  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tion  who,  in  last  July,  were  incarcerated  in  the  penitentiary  of 
Ohio.  On  entering  this  infamous  abode,  Captain  Morgan  and 
his  companions  were  stripped  in  a  reception  room  and  their 
naked  bodies  examined  there.  They  were  again  stripped  in 
the  interior  of  the  prison,  and  washed  in  tubs  by  negro  con 
victs  ;  tjieir  hair  cut  close  to  the  scalp,  the  brutal  warden,  who 
was  standing  by,  exhorting  the  negro  barber  to  "  cut  off  every 
lock  of  their  rebel  hair."  After  these  ceremonies,  the  officers 
were  locked  up  in  cells,  the  dimensions  of  which  were  thirty- 
eight  inches  in  width,  six  and  a-half  feet  in  length,  and  about 
the  same  in  height.  In  these  narrow  abodes  our  brave  soldiers 
were  left  to  pine,  branded  as  felons,  goaded  by  "convict- 
drivers,"  and  insulted  by  speeches  which  constantly  reminded 
them  of  the  weak  and  cruel  neglect  of  that  government,  on 
whose  behalf,  after  imperilling  their  lives,  they  were  now 
suffering  a  fate  worse  than  death.  But  even  these  sufferings 
were  nothing  to  what  was  reserved  for  them  in  another 
Invention  of  cruelty  without  a  parallel,  unless  in  the  secrets  of 
the  infernal. 

It  appears  that,  after  General  Morgan's  escape,  suspicion 
alighted  on  the  warden,  a  certain  Captain  Merion,  who,  it  was 
thought,  might  have  been  corrupted.  To  alleviate  the  suspicion 
(for  which  there  were  really  no  grounds  whatever),  the  brute 
commenced  a  system  of  devilish  persecution  of  the  unfortunate 
Confederate  prisoners  who  remained  in  his  hands.  One  part 
of  this  system  was  solitary  confinement  in  dungeons.  These 
dungeons  were  close  cells,  a  false  door  being  drawn  over  the 
grating,  so  as  to  exclude  light  and  air.  The  food  allowed  the 
occupants  of  these  dark  and  noisome  places,  was  three  ounces 
of  bread  and  half  a  pint  of  water  per  day.  The  four  walls 
were  bare  of  every  thing  but  a  water-bucket,  for  the  necessities 
of  nature,  which  was  left  for  days  to  poison  the  air  the  prisoner 
breathed.  He  was  denied  a  blanket ;  deprived  of  his  overcoat, 
if  he  had  one,  and  left  standing  or  stretched  with  four  dark, 
cold  walls  around  him,  with  not  room  enough  to  walk  in  to 
keep  up  the  circulation  of  his  blood,  stagnated  with  the  cold, 
and  the  silent  and  unutterable  horrors  of  his  abode. 

Confinement  in  these  dungeons  was  the  warden's  sentence 
for  the  most  trivial  offences.  On  one  occasion  one  of  our 
prisoners  was  thus  immured  because  he  refused  to  tell  MerioD 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  211 

which  one  of  his  companions  had  whistled  contrary  to  tht 
prison  rules.  But  the  most  terrible  visitation  of  this  demon's 
displeasure  remains  to  be  told. 

Some  knives  had  been  discovered  in  the  prisoners'  cells,  and 
Merion  accused  the  occupants  of  meditating  their  escape. 
Seven  of  them,  all  officers,  were  taken  to  the  west  end  of  the 
building  and  put  in  the  dark  cells  there.  They  were  not 
allowed  a  blanket  or  overcoat,  and  the  thermometer  was  below 
zero.  There  was  no  room  to  pace.  Each  prisoner  had  to 
struggle  for  life,  as  the  cold  benumbed  him,  by  stamping  his 
feet,  beating  the  walls,  now  catching  a  few  minutes  of  horrible 
sleep  on  the  cold  floor,  and  then  starting  up  to  continue,  in  the 
dark,  his  wrestle  for  life. 

"I  had  been  suffering  from  heart  disease,"  says  Captain 
Morgan,  speaking  of  his  own  solitary  confinement  on  another 
occasion.  "It  was  terribly  aggravated  by  the  cold  and  horror 
of  the  dungeon  in  which  I  was  placed.  I  had  a  wet  towel,  one 
end  of  which  I  pressed  to  my  side ;  the  other  would  freeze,  and 
I  had  to  put  its  frozen  folds  on  my  naked  skin.  I  stood  this 
way  all  night,  pressing  the  frozen  towel  to  my  side  and  keeping 
my  feet  going  up  and  down.  I  felt  I  was  struggling  for  my 
life." 

Captain  Morgan  endured  this  confinement  for  eighteen 
hours,  and  was  taken  out  barely  alive.  The  other  prisoners 
endured  it  for  sixteen  days  and  nights.  In  this  time  they  were 
visited  at  different  periods  by  the  physician  of  the  penitentiary 
— Dr.  Loring — who  felt  their  pulses,  and  examined  their  con 
dition,  to  ascertain  how  long  life  might  hold  out  under  the 
exacting  torture.  It  was  awful,  this  ceremony  of  torture,  this 
medical  examination  of  the  victims.  The  tramp  of  the  prison 
ers'  feet,  up  and  down  (there  was  no  room  to  walk),  as  they 
thus  worked  for  life,  was  incessantly  going  on.  This  black 
tread-mill  of  the  dungeon  could  be  heard  all  through  the  cold 
and  dreary  hours  of  the  night.  Dr.  JLoring,  who  was  compara 
tively  a  humane  person,  besought  Merion  to  release  the  un 
happy  men  ;  said  they  had  already  been  taxed  to  the  point  of 
death.  The  wretch  replied,  "They  did  not  talk  right  yet." 
He  wished  them  to  humble  themselves  to  him.  He  went  into 
the  cell  of  one  of  them,  Major  Webber,  to  taunt  him.  "  Sir," 
the  officer,  "I  defy  you.  You  can  kill  rne,  but  you  can 


212  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

add  nothing  to  the  sufferings  jou  have  already  inflicted.    Pio- 
ceed  to  kill  me ;  it  makes  not  the  slightest  difference." 

At  the  expiration  of  sixteen  days  the  men  were  released  froir. 
the  dungeons.  Merion  said  "he  would  take  them  out  this  time 
alive,  but  next  time  they  offended,  they  would  be  taken  out 
feet  foremost."  Their  appearance  was  frightful;  they  could 
no  longer  be  recognized  by  their  companions.  With  their 
bodies  swollen  and  discolored,  with  their  minds  bordering  on 
childishness,  tottering,  some  of  them  talking  foolishly,  these 
wretched  men  seemed  to  agree  but  in  one  thing — a  ravenous 
desire  for  food. 

"  I  had  known  Captain  Coles,"  says  Captain  Morgan,  "  as 
well  as  my  brother.  When  he  came  out  of  his  dungeon,  I 
swear  to  you  I  did  not  know  him.  His  face  had  swollen  to  two 
or  three  times  its  ordinary  size,  and  he  tottered  so  that  I  had 
to  catch  him  from  falling.  Captain  Barton  was  in  an  awful 
state.  His  face  was  swollen  and  the  blood  was  bursting  from 
the  skin.  All  of  them  had  to  be  watched,  so  as  to  check  them 
in  eating,  as  they  had  been  starved  so  long." 

We  had  had  in  this  war  many  examples  of  Yankee  cruelty. 
But  the  statement  given  ahove,  may  be  said  to  take  precedence 
of  all  that  had  ever  yet  been  narrated  of  the  atrocities  of  the 
enemy ;  and  it  is  so  remarkable,  both  on  account  of  its  matter 
and  the  credit  that  must  naturally  attach  to  its  authorship 
that  we  doubt  whether  the  so-called  civilized  world  of  this 
generation  has  produced  anywhere  any  well-authenticated 
story  of  equal  horror. 

In  his  message  to  Congress,  President  Davis  elo 
quently  adverted  to  the  savage  ferocity  of  the  enemy  and  his 
crimes.  But  he  had  not  a  word  to  say  of  what  had  become  ot 
all  his  proclamations,  pronunciamentos,  gloomy  appeals  and 
terrible  threatenings  with  respect  to  retaliation.  The  truth 
was  they  had  never  resulted  in  one  solitary  performance ;  they 
were  a  record  of  bluster  and  an  exhibition  of  weakness  and 
shame  upon  which  the  President  might  well  turn  his  back. 
It  is  remarkable  that  Mr.  Davis  in  all  these  proceedings  touch 
ing  questions  of  retaliation  should  have  shown  a  character  so 
different  from  that  which  he  exhibited  in  the  domestic  contro 
versies  and  intrigues  of  his  administration.  In  his  contro 
versies  with  his  military  officers,  he  was  very  obstinate,  ver^ 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  213 

bitter;  in  bis  attachment  to  certain  favorites  and  to  certain 
measures  of  domestic  policy  lie  was  immovable  and  defiant. 
It  was  only  when  bis  duty  brought  him  in  contact  with  the 
enemy  that  these  imperious  traits  of  character  disappeared,  and 
were  replaced  by  halting  timidity  and  weak  hesitation. 

Tt  was  unfortunate  that  the  Confederate  President  ever  made 
any  threats  of  retaliation,  since  he  had  not  the  resolution  to 
perform  them.  They  had  been  ineffectually  repeated  until 
they  had  become  the  sneer  of  the  enemy.  But  the  most  un 
fortunate  consequence  of  the  want  of  a  proper  response  to  the 
cruel  assumptions  of  power  by  the  North  was  the  moral  effect 
it  had  upon  our  own  people ;  for  it  implied  a  certain  guilt,  a 
certain  moral  inferiority  in  the  South,  of  which  the  enemy  had 
the  right  to  take  advantage.  It  converted  the  relations  be 
tween  us  and  our  foes  to  those  of  the  malefactor  and  the  con 
stable  ;  it  depressed  our  sense  of  right ;  and  it  gave  to  the  sol 
dier  the  bitter  reflection  that  his  government  cared  but  little 
for  him,  in  that  martyrdom  on  the  gallows  or  captivity  in  dun 
geons  with  the  terrors  of  which  the  enemy  assailed  him. 

Finally,  there  is  this  to  be  said  of  the  rival  administrations 
of  Richmond  and  "Washington :  that  if  in  the  former  there 
were  to  be  found  many  evidences' of  weakness,  these,  at  least, 
were  not  crimes,  while  if  in  the  latter  there  were  to  be  seen 
vigor  and  decision,  they  were  associated  with  the  insolence  of 
the  reprobate  and  the  inhumanity  of  the  savage.  If  the  his 
tory  of  the  retaliation  policy  and  other  questions  which  we 
have  traced,  exhibits  imbecility  on  the  part  of  the  Confederate 
authorities,  it  has  this  compensation :  that  it  has  inseparably 
connected  with  it  a  fearful  record  of  the  inhumanity  and  crime 
of  the  enemy. 

In  this  conflict,  which,  as  to  goverments,  was  that  between 
the  weakly  good  and  the  resolutely  evil,  the  people  of  the  Con 
federacy  had  but  little  to  expect  from  their  political  authori 
ties;  but  it  was  precisely  the  condition  in  which  they  had 
much  to  expect  from  the  resources  of  their  own  righteous  and 
aroused  passions. 

In  connection  with  his  "  peace"  proclamation,  the  Yankee 
President  pointed  with  an  air  of  triumph  to  the  great  resources 
of  the  North  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  There  was  an 
actual  surplus  in  its  treasury.  While  the  Confederacy  had 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

collected  only  one  hundred  millions  from  its  tax  and  revenue 
system,  the  receipts  of  the  Yankee  treasury  were  nine  hundred 
millions.  The  Yankee  army  was  increased.  The  Yankee 
navy  now  numbered  nearly  six  hundred  vessels,  and  seventy- 
five  of  them  were  iron-clads  or  armored  steamers.  The  Yan 
kee  political  parties  had  accommodated  their  differences  and 
no  longer  embarrassed  the  authorities  at  Washington.  "The 
crisis  which  threatened  to  divide  the  friends  of  the  Union  ia 
past,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln. 

The  Washington  government  had  now  a  united  people,  an 
unexhausted  treasury,  enlarged  military  resources,  and  a  con 
fidence  more  insolent  than  ever. 

Richmond,  in  December,  1863,  was  a  sombre  city.  An  air 
of  gloom  pervaded  the  public  offices.  In  Congress,  Mr.  Foote 
told  his  endless  story  of  official  corruption  and  imbecility,  and 
had  his  savage  jokes  on  "the  pepper-doctor  from  North  Caro 
lina,"  who  governed  the  commissariat  of  the*  Confederacy. 
There  were  no  social  gaieties,  although  disreputable  balls  and 
gambling  "hells"  still  amused  those  immoral  mobs,  at  all 
times  inseparable  from  a  metropolis.  In  the  streets  there  waa 
the  perpetual  juggle  of  bargain  and  sale,  apparently  uncon 
scious  of  the  war,  simply  because  engrossed  in  individual  ava 
rice  ;  the  clatter  of  the  auction  sales ;  the  levity  of  the  tho 
roughfare.  But  there  was  the  seriousness  of  anxiety,  if  not  the 
gloom  of  despair,  in  the  home,  in  the  private  sanctuary,  in  the 
public  office — in  every  place  where  thoughtful  minds  contem 
plated  the  future,  and  looked  beyond  the  circle  of  the  twenty- 
four  hours. 

Washington  was  gay,  in  the  mean  time,  not  with  thought 
lessness,  but  with  exultations  over  the  prospects  of  the  war, 
and  the  promises  of  its  government.  Balls,  "diamond"  wed 
dings,  presidential  levees,  social  parties,  with  splendid  arrays 
of  silks  and  jewels,  with  all  the  fantasy  of  wealth,  the  inso 
lence  of  licentiousness,  and  the  fashionable  commerce  of  lust, 
amused  the  hours.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  jocose  again.  He  snapped 
his  fingers  at  "  the  rebellion."  He  attended  the  theatre  night 
ly.  This  piece  of  human  jacquerie  chattered  incessantly  over 
the  success  of  his  schemes.  The  Northern  newspapers  indulged 
the  almost  immediate  prospect  of  a  peace,  which  was  to  irra 
diate  the  Yankee  arms,  humiliate  thn  South,  and  open  the  dooi 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  215 

to  the  prosperity  of  the  conquerors  in  an  indiscriminate  plun 
der,  and  the  lasting  vassalage  of  the  vanquished.  The  New 
York  Herald  declared,  that  even  if  this  event  did  not  happen 
in  the  festivities  of  the  Christmas  season  of  1863,  it  would  cer 
tainly  be  celebrated  in  the  early  part  of  the  ensuing  year. 

Intelligent  men  of  the  South,  understood  the  ap 
proaching  issues.  The  war  was  to  be  prosecuted  by  the  North 
with  certain  important  accessions  to  its  former  advantages ; 
and,  on  the  side  of  the  South,  there  was  a  demand  for  a  new 
measure  of  that  devotion  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  which 
wins  success  on  unequal  terms — and  without  which  all  expe 
dients  of  States,  all  violence  of  legislation,  and  all  commands 
of  authority  are  utterly  in  vain. 


216  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Importance  of  the  Winter  Campaigns  of  the  War. — A  Series  of  Remarkable 
Events.  —  Encouragement  of  the  Confederacy.  —  ROSSER'S  RAID.  —  A  Magnificent 
Prize. — PICKETT'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  NEWBEKN. — The  Fight  on  Bachelor's  Creek. — 
Destruction  of  the  Yankee  Gunboat  "  Underwriter."— The  Brilliant  Exploit  of  Com 
mander  Wood. — Results  of  the  Expedition. — THE  AFFAIR  OF  JOHN'S  ISLAND. — General 
Wise's  Fight. — THE  BATTLE  OF  OCEAN  POND. — History  of  the  Yankee  Expeditions  into 
Florida. — Lincoln's  Designs  upon  Florida. — Their  Utter  Defeat. — Political  Jugglery 
of  Seymour's  Expedition. — Price  of  "Three  Electoral  Votes." — SHERMAN'S  EXPEDI 
TION  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. — What  it  Contemplated. — Grant's  Extensive  Designs. — The 
Strategic  Triangle. — Grant's  Proposed  Removal  of  the  Mississippi  River. — Polk's  Re 
treat  into  Alabama. — Forrest's  Heroic  Enterprise. — His  Defeat  of  Smith's  and  Grier- 
son's  Columns. — Sherman's  Retreat  to  Vicksburg. — His  Disgraceful  Failure. — The 
Yankee  Campaign  in  the  West  Disconcerted. — The  Lines  in  North  Georgia. — Repulse 
of  the  Yankees. 

So  far  in  the  history  of  the  war,  the  winter  had  been  com 
paratively  an  uninteresting  period.  That  of  1863-64  was  not 
an  exception  to  this  observation.  But  although  there  was,  in 
this  period,  no  battles  on  the  dominant  military  lines  in  Yir- 
ginia  and  North  Georgia,  there  was  a  series  of  remarkable 
events,  running  through  several  months,  each  one  a  marked 
success  for  the  Confederacy,  and,  collectively,  an  important 
Bum  of  victory  which  did  much  to  raise  the  hopes  of  the  Con 
federacy  and  relieve  the  dark  days  in  which  the  year  1863  had 
expired.  These  events  transpired  at  considerable  distances 
from  each  other,  and  they  have  no  other  connection  than  a 
chronological  one,  and  their  singular  concurrence  in  uniform 
success.  In  this  connection  we  shall  treat  them. 


BOBBER  8    EAID. 

On  the  30th  of  January,  a  brilliant  expedition  of  Genera? 
Rosser  in  the  Yalley  district  culminated  in  the  capture  of  a  train 
jf  ninety-three  wagons  loaded  with  commissary  stores  and  forage 
on  the  way  from  New  Creek  to  Petersburg,  and  was  prosecuted 
in  a  few  days  thereafter  to  a  most  unexpeck  d  and  gratifying 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  217 

vnccess.     The  incidents  of  this  expedition  were  of  unufeiuil  IT. 
terest. 

For  several  months  past  the  enemy  had  kept  a  garrison  at 
the  village  of  Petersburg,  in  Hardy  county,  as  an  outpost  to 
their  defences  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  Peters 
burg  was  some  forty-two  miles  from  New  Creek,  their  princi 
pal  depot  for  supplies  and  operations. 

General  Early,  who  had  lingered  in  the  Valley  since  the 
Averill  raid,  concluded  to  go  over  and  capture  this  party 
at  Petersburg,  numbering  about  one  thousand,  and  strongly 
fortified.  He  sent  General  Rosser's  brigade  (cavalry)  and 
four  pieces  of  McClannahan's  battery  (Imboden's  com 
mand)  through  Brock's  Gap,  and  pushed  on  himself  with 
Thomas's  brigade  of  infantry  from  New  Market,  by  Orkney 
Springs,  to  the  same  destination — Moorefield,  in  Hardy. 
Moorefield  is  between  Petersburg  and  the  railroad,  eleven 
miles  from  the  former  place.  Rosser  and  the  artillery  arrived 
first.  The  plan  was  for  Early  to  remain  with  the  infantry  at 
Moorefield,  preventing  the  enemy's  escape  to  the  railroad  by 
that  route,  while  Rosser  passed  over  Patterson  Creek  mountain 
— fifteen  miles  across — and  took  position  on  the  turnpike  lead 
ing  from  Petersburg  to  New  Creek.  When  Rosser  reached 
Moorefield  he  learned  that  the  road  from  that  place  across  Pat 
terson  Creek  mountain  to  the  turnpike  had  been  blockaded  by 
felling  numberless  trees  and  cutting  away  the  road  itself.  He 
also  learned  that  a  large  train  of  wagons  were  coming  up  from 
New  Creek  to  Petersburg,  heavily  guarded  by  infantry.  He 
started  across  the  mountain  with  his  brigade  and  the  four 
pieces.  In  the  gap  he  met  one  or  two  hundred  of  the  enemy, 
perfecting  the  blockade  and  guarding  the  pass.  They  were 
charged  by  the  Twelfth  cavalry  and  fled.  The  pioneers  went 
to  work  heartily.  Never  did  axes  fly  more  rapidly.  The  train 
was  near  the  point  on  the  turnpike  opposite  the  mouth  of  the 
gap.  If  it  passed  that  place,  the  probability  was  of  its  escape 
within  the  breastworks  at  Petersburg,  which  was  only  ten 
miles  distant.  The  fortifications  were  strong,  and  the  chances 
were  against  the  capture  of  this  place,  being  reinforced  by  the 
wagon  guard.  In  an  hour  the  obstructions  were  cleared  away, 
and  the  horsemen  and  cannon  rushed  into  the  turnpike,  and 
saw,  with  exultation,  a  long  line  of  snowy-covered  wagons 


218  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

slowly  moving  towards  them.  Our  position  was  difficult.  If 
the  twelve  hundred  infantry  guarding  the  wagons  should  make 
a  stubborn  resistance,  the  force  at  Petersburg  might  come  up 
and  fall  upon  our  rear.  Kosser  had  only  about  eight  hundred 
cavalry.  The  dispositions  were  soon  made.  Colonel  White's 
(Lige)  battalion  and  three  pieces  were  sent  towards  Petersburg 
— the  balance  of  the  brigade  and  one  piece  of  artillery  ad 
vanced  upon  the  train.  The  enemy  were  so  certain  of  success, 
that  they  never  even  turned  their  wagons  around,  but  stopped 
them  facing  us  in  the  pike. 

The  Yankees  were  posted  at  right  angles  with  the  pike,  be 
hind  a  ten-rail  fence.  The  long-range  guns  were  dismounted 
and  advanced  as  infantry.  A  squadron  of  cavalry  were  sent 
to  the  left  to  flank  the  enemy,  while  another  was  placed  in  the 
pike.  The  piece  opened.  The  dismounted  men  trudged  through 
a  miry  meadow,  sinking  to  their  ankles,  right  up  a  hill  to  meet 
twelve  hundred  Yankees  with  their  guns  resting  upon  the 
fence.  Four  hundred  cavalry,  on  foot,  in  an  open  field,  with 
boots  and  spurs,  and  without  the  advantage  of  order,  faced 
such  odds  and  such  position  !  The  enemy's  artillery,  which 
had  accompanied  the  train  from  "New  Creek,  thinking  all  safe, 
turned  back  a  few  miles  below,  hence  they  were  without  can 
non.  We  had  only  one  piece.  It  being  placed  in  a  flat,  and 
firing  up  hill,  the  recoil  came  almost  directly  against  the  axle, 
and  it  broke.  Still  it  continued  to  fire,  carrying  dismay 
among  the  wagoners  and  the  enemy's  line. 

The  action  lasted  about  twenty  minutes.  The  squadron  on 
the  left  charged  a  Yankee  squadron  up  hill,  some  on  foot  lead 
ing  their  horses,  and  as  each  one  reached  the  plateau  mounted 
and  spurred  after  the  frightened  enemy,  who  fled  without 
making  but  a  feeble  resistance.  Meanwhile  the  party  behind 
the  fence  were  routed  and  fled  ;  but  being  too  swift  for  boots 
and  spurs,  the  cavalry  on  the  pike  charged  upon  them.  The 
immense  train,  now  in  a  mass  of  confusion,  so  blocked  the  pike 
as  to  prevent  overtaking  the  fugitives.  The  whole  train  was 
now  in  our  hands.* 


*  The  prize  is  thus  described  by  a  correspondent  who  participated  in  the 
affair :  "  There  stood  ninety-three  six-mule  wagons,  loaded  to  the  very  sheet 
with  commissary  stores,  new  gear,  new  wagons,  new  everything.  Contents, 


THE    TH1KD    YEAR.  219 

After  securing  his  prize,  Rosser  moved  rapidly  on  to  co* 
operate  with  Early  in  the  capture  of  Petersburg.  But  infor 
mation  of  the  advance  had  been  received,  and  the  garrison 
evacuated  the  place  during  the  night.  They  had  powerful 
works  and  six  pieces  of  cannon,*and,  if-  they  had  been  less 
cowardly,  might  have  given  us  a  terrible  reception. 

Rosser,  when  he  had  discovered  the  escape  of  the  Yankees,, 
wheeled  and  moved  upon  the  railroad,  destroying  two  bridges 
— one  over  Patterson  creek,  the  other  the  North  Branch  of  the 
Potomac. 

The  expedition  got  back  safely  into  the  valley.  Rosser 
brought  off  two  hundred  and  seventy  prisoners,  fifty  wagons 
and  teams,  twelve  hundred  cattle  and  five  hundred  sheep. 


The  town  of  Newbern,  situated  at  the  junction  of  the  Trent 
and  Neuse,  was  a  place  of  some  note  in  North  Carolina.  Soon 
after  the  fall  of  Roanoke  Island,  on  the  14th  day  of  February, 
1862,  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Yankees,  since  which  time 
it  had  been  in  their  possession,  and  had  been  the  seat  of  some 
of  their  most  important  military  operations.  Immediately 
after  occupation,  extensive  fortifications  were  erected,  and  the 
lines  extended  over  some  twenty  miles  of  surrounding  country. 
The  regiments  stationed  here  had  been  composed  principally 
of  men  from  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  the  blackest  of 
Abolitionists,  full  of  schemes  and  plans  for  negro  emancipation, 
equalization  and  education.  Negro  regiments  had  been  organ 
ized  ;  companies  of  disloyal  Carolinians  put  in  service  against 
us ;  the  most  tyrannical  rule  established ;  and  both  men  and 
officers  had  been  guilty  of  the  grossest  outrages  and  atrocities. 
For  many  months  they  had  occupied  the  town  securely,  retain 
ing  undisturbed  possession,  scarcely  dreaming  of  the  possibility 
of  an  attack.  In  the  river  some  two  or  three  gunboats  were 


'  in  part,*  corn,  oats,  flour,  bacon,  ad  infinitum  ;  coffee,  two  thousand  pounds 
nicely  roasted ;  candles  (adamantine),  fifty  boxes  ;  sugar,  by  the  barrel ;  fiesh 
oysters,  one  thousand  cans  ;  brandy  peaches,  five  hundred  cans  ;  cheese,  Lats, 
&c.,  &c.,  '  too  numerous  to  mention.'  One  bushel  of  pocket-knives." 


^20  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    W  A.R. 

generally  lying,  either  anchored  off  the  town  or  cruising  up  or 
down  the  Neuse  or  Trent,  to  the  great  terror  of  the  inhabitants 
living  near  their  banks. 

General  Pickett's  demonstration  upon  Newbern,  which  sur 
prised  the  Yankees,  on  the  1st  of  February,  appears  to  have 
followed  just  in  the  retiring  footsteps  of  a  Yankee  raiding 
party  which  had  been  sent  out  from  the^town.  He  had  with 
him  two  brigades  only — Clingrnan's  and  Hoke's — while  Gene 
ral  Barton  had  been  sent  up  the  Trent  to  fall  upon  the  town 
simultaneously  with  those  in  front.  An  expedition  of  boats, 
under  command  of  Commander  Wood,  of  the  Confederate 
Navy,  was  to  make  a  demonstration  upon  the  enen^'s  gun 
boats,  and  to  essay,  if  possible,  their  capture  or  destruction. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  1st  February,  the  Yankee  outposts 
at  Bachelor's  creek  were  attacked  by  the  Confederates.  The 
force  of  the  enemy  here  occupied  a  strong  line  of  fortifications 
along  the  edge  of  the  creek,  on  both  flanks  of  a  powerful 
blockhouse,  which  commanded  the  approach  to  the  bridge. 

While  a  furious  shower  of  shot  and  shell  was  kept  up  near 
the  bridge,  the  right  of  our  line  succeeded  in  pushing  through 
the  marsh  and  effected  a  crossing,  flanking  the  enemy.  A 
vigorous  attack  was  made  by  the  Confederates,  and  the  Yan 
kees  were  driven  out,  and  began  falling  back.  Those  of  our 
men  on  the  other  side  of  the  creek  rushed  upon  the  bridge, 
laid  the  pontoon  planks,  crossed,  and  joined  the  light.  Charg 
ing  with  a  yell,  they  broke  the  line  of  the  enemy,  and  pursued 
them  to  the  cover  of  the  fortifications  of  Newbern. 

The  night  passed  without  a  general  attack  ;  but  not  withou 
a  bold  achievement  by  the  Confederates. 

The  Yankee  gunboat,  Underwriter,  had  passed  up  the  Neuso 
river  near  Fort  Stephenson,  throwing  out  her  anchors  and 
placing  all  her  guns,  to  be  in  readiness  for  any  service  in  case 
of  an  attack  on  the  town.  About  one  o'clock  at  night,  the  sen 
tinel  saw  some  boats  approaching,  and,  hailing  them,  received 
no  reply.  They  were  Wood's  boats.  As  they  came  up  tho 
Yankees  greeted  them  with  a  volley  of  musketry,  which 
flashed  in  the  very  faces  of  the  daring  Confederates,  the  balk 
whistling  unpleasantly  into  the  boats  or  into  the  water  beyond. 
But  the  boats  were  soon  at  the  side  of  the  steamer,  the  grap 
nels  thrown  on,  and  a  hand-to-hand  combat  joined  between 


THE    THIRD    YEAR-  221 

the  boarding-party  and  the  crew.  But  the  Yankees  sc  on  cried 
for  quarter,  and  the  steamer  was  ours.  The  Confederate  engi 
neer  Gill  was  lying  in  the  gangway,  shot  in  four  places  and 
mortally  wounded,  and  midshipman  Saunders,  cut  down  in  a 
hand-to-hand  fight,  was  breathing  his  last  upon  the  decks. 

,  The  Underwriter  was  moored,  head  and  stern,  to  the  shore, 
under  three  of  the  largest  batteries,  and  hardly  a  stone's  throw 
from  the  wharf.  The  flash  of  the  guns  and  the  report  of 
musketry  had  aroused  the  soldiers  on  shore,  and  they  were 
now  witnesses  of  the  scene,  but  determined  not  to  be  inactive 
ones ;  for,  regardless  of  their  own  prisoners  on  board,  they 
fired  a  shell  into  the  steamer,  which,  striking  the  upper  ma 
chinery  and  exploding  on  the  deck,  produced  a  terrible  shock. 
To  spare  the  prisoners  and  wounded,  Captain  Wood  ordered 
them  to  be  put  into  the  boats  and  the  ship  made  ready  for  fir 
ing.  As  the  steam  was  down,  it  was  found  it  would  be  impos 
sible  to  take  time  to  get  it  up  under  the  heavy  fire  of  batteries 
not  one  hundred  yards  away  ;  and  so,  the  wounded  and  pris 
oners  being  put  into  the  boars,  the  vessel  was  fired.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  Underwriter  was  one  mass  of  flame,  burning  up 
the  dead  bodies  of  the  Yankees  killed  in  action. 

General  Pickett  having  ascertained  the  strength  of  the  for 
tifications  of  Newbern,  concluded  that  it  would  be  useless  to 
risk  an  assault  upon  them,  and  appears  to  have  been  satisfied 
with  the  results  his  expedition  had  already  accomplished.  In 
deed,  he  represented  to  the  War  Department  that  he  had  at 
tempted  nothing  more  than  a  "reconnoissance  in  force."  But 
the  results  of  the  reconnoissance  was  not  a  mean  victory. 
Pickett  had  met  the  enemy  in  force  at  Bachelor's  creek,  killed 
and  wounded  about  one  hundred  in  all,  captured  thirteen  offi 
cers  and  two  hundred  and  eighty  prisoners,  fourteen  negroes 
two  rifled  pieces  and  caissons,  three  hundred  stand  of  small 
arms,  four  ambulances,  three  wagons,  fifty-five  animals,  a 
quantity  of  clothing,  camp  and  garrison  equipage,  and  two 
flags.  The  destruction  of  the  Underwriter  was  an  important 
pait  of  the  success.  She  was  the  largest  and  best  of  the  Yan 
kee  gunboats  in  the  sounds;  had  engines  of  eight  hundred 
horse  power,  the  largest  the  Yankees  had  taken  across  Hatteraa 
swash ;  mounted  four  guns — two  large  eight-inch  shell  guns 
one  twelve-pound  rifle,  and  one  twelve-pound  howitzer. 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 


An  incident  "  worthy  of  note"  was  at  last  to  occur  in  what 
fir  months  had  been  the  dull  vicinity  of  famous  Charleston. 

On  the  9th  of  February  the  enemy  came  over  in  force  from 
Folly  to  Kiawah  Island,  and  thence  crossed  over  at  a  place 
called  the  Haulover,  to  John's  Island,  killing,  wounding,  and 
capturing  some  nine  men  of  Major  Jenkins's  command.  With 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  only,  he  fought  them  until 
night,  when  Colonel  Tabb  reinforced  him,  and  the  Colonel  im 
mediately  attacked  the  enemy  at  night,  with  but  a  battalion, 
and  staggered  them  so  that  they  paused  and  did  not  advance 
again  until  Colonel  Page  reinforced  them  with  another  battal 
ion  of  the  26th  Virginia,  the  next  morning. 

General  Wise  sent  forward  more  troops,  and  went  in  person 
on  the  10th,  and  got  there  just  as  five  hundred  and  fifty  in 
fantry,  with  one  battery  and  two  hundred  cavalry  were  drawn 
up  in  line  under  the  fire  of  two  thousand,  at  least,  of  the 
enemy.  Seeing  they  were  about  to  turn  our  left  flank,  Gen 
eral  Wise  ordered  our  forces  to  fall  back  to  a  point  called  the 
"  Cocked  Hat."  There  we  took  a  position  and  awaited  rein 
forcements.  They  came  up  in  time  to  increase  our  numbers  to 
about  one  thousand  infantry,  and  two  batteries  of  artillery. 

The  enemy  did  not  advance  until  the  llth.  By  3  p.  M.  they 
came  up  to  our  front.  Just  at  this  moment  General  Colquitt 
reinforced  us  with  nine  hundred  men.  At  3.25  p.  M.  we 
opened  upon  the  enemy  with  six  pieces,  the  Marion  battery, 
and  one  section  of  Charles's,  at  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
distance.  The  enemy  replied  with  three  pieces — Parrott's  and 
Blakely's.  They  ceased  tiring  at  forty  minutes  past  5  P.  M., 
and  retreated  rapidly,  leaving  some  of  their  dead.  Four  bod 
ies  were  found  on  the  ground.  General  Wise's  men  were  too 
much  broken  and  fatigued  to  follow  them.  The  enemy  retired 
in  confusion  to  Haulover,  burnt  the  Seabrook  houses  there,  and 
before  day  crossed  back  to  Kiawah,  burning  the  bridge  behind 
them. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  223 


THE   BATTLE   OF   OCEAN    POND. 

But  the  month  of  February  was  to  be  distinguished  by  an 
important  battle,  and  that  in  a  part  of  the  Confederacy  which 
had  yet  attracted  but  little  notice  in  the  war. 

The  Yankees  had  invaded  Florida  in  the  spring  of  1862, 
when  they  occupied  Jacksonville.  They  then  said  they  came 
to  protect  the  city  against  the  reprehensible  incendiarism  of 
some  of  our  own  people ;  and,  after  this  profession  of  protec 
tion,  and  making  great  promises  of  an  intention  to  hold  the 
place  forever,  thus  duping  a  good  many  disaffected  citizens  to 
take  sides  with  them  in  some  sort  of  a  State  government  which 
they  proposed,  and  finding  much  less  of  Union  sentiment  than 
they  expected,  but  more  of  a  military  demonstration  in  their 
front  than  they  looked  for,  they  departed,  after  a  three  weeks' 
stay  in  the  "  water-oak  city." 

They  came  again  in  October,  1862.  But  this  expedition 
turned  out  to  be  a  very  heavy  negro  trade  ;  and  General 
Brannon,  who  commanded  it,  after  collecting  a  large  number 
of  "  contrabands,"  took  his  departure. 

Again,  in  March,  1863,  the  Yankees  invaded  Florida,  to  try 
the  experiment  there  of  recruiting  blacks.  They  were  only 
partially  successful ;  and  the  third  experiment  of  invasion 
ended,  leaving  its  malignant  track  in  the  burning  of  two 
churches,  and  laying  waste  a  number  of  squares  of  private  re 
sidences  in  the  beautiful  little  city  of  Jacksonville. 

The  fourth  invasion  was  designed  at  Washington,  and  con 
templated  nothing  less  than  the  taking  and  holding  of  the 
whole  State  of  Florida,  reincorporating  it  into  the  Union,  and 
erecting  a  State  government  there  under  the  auspices  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  private  secretary,  who  was  sent  to  Florida  to  engineer 
the  political  part  of  the  movement.  The  times  were  thought 
to  be  ripe  for  so  extensive  a  design  upon  Florida.  The  opera 
tions  against  Charleston  were  virtually  abandoned  ;  surplus 
troops  were  on  hand  ;  and  deserters  and  fugitives  had  per 
suaded  the  Yankees  that  the  pathway  was  open,  and  that  all 
there  was  to  resist  them  was  a  local  force  of  not  more  than  a 
dozen  companies  scattered  broadcast  over  the  State.  It  was 
so  .m  known  that  a  force  of  six  or  seven  thousand  Yankee 


224  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

troops,  under  command  of  Major-general  Seymour,  had  left 
Charleston  harbor  in  eighteen  transports  for  what  was  supposed 
to  b'e  the  easy  conquest  of  Florida. 

The  State  was  in  General  Beauregard's  military  department, 
and  that  alert  commander  had  hastened  General  Colquitt  down 
to  meet  the  movement  of  the  enemy.  General  Finnegan  was 
in  command  of  a  small  force  at  Camp  Finnegan,  where  the 
enemy  had  expected  to  surprise  him.  He  eluded  him  by  with 
drawing  his  forces  through  the  woods.  The  enemy  advanced 
twenty  miles  on  the  railroad,  and  took  the  junction  of  the  other 
railroad  crossing  it,  the  place  or  village  known  as  Baldwin. 
Our  rail  lines  in  their  hands,  our  case  seemed  desperate.  The 
enemy  advanced  still  westward  towards  Lake  City,  which  had 
long  been  the  head-quarters  of  the  Eastern  Department.  His 
advance  cavalry  had  come  within  three  miles  of  Lake  City. 
But  troops  were  pouring  in  to  Finnegan.  General  Colquitt 
and  his  brigade  were  en  route.  The  celebrated  Chatham  artil 
lery  of  Savannah,  which  stood  the  brunt  of  Fort  Wagner  for 
long  weeks,  arrived.  They  were  hurried  down.  Body  aftei 
body  of  troops  arrived.  Clinch's  cavalry  were  expected  to 
onter  the  State  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  and  thus  cut  off  theii 
xetreat  while  the  main  body  of  the  troops  pushed  them  back. 
( )ur  forces  concentrated  and  fortified  at  Oulustre,  a  spot  pre 
f  erving  its  Indian  name.  It  was  the  headwaters  of  a  creek  of 
that  name,  being  a  continuous  swamp  on  the  right  of  the  rail 
road,  inclining  southward,  Ocean  Pond,  or  one  of  the  inland 
lakes  of  Florida,  lying  not  far  north,  thus  forming  a  good  de 
fensible  position.  Our  forces  there  concentrated  about  five 
thousand  men.  Our  rifle-pits  and  redoubts  connected  with 
the  swamp  on  the  south,  and  Ocean  Pond  on  the  north. 

On  the  morning  of  the  20th  February,  General  Finnegan 
was  notified  that  the  enemy  was  approaching.  About  12 
&£.,  they  were  reported  as  distant  four  miles.  The  command 
was  then  moved  out  to  meet  them. 

When  we  had  marched  three  iniles  from  camp,  our  cavalry 
was  discovered  falling  back  rapidly.  Our  line  of  battle 
was  formed  at  once,  but  so  rapidly  did  the  enemy  advance  that 
a  furious  fire  commenced  before  the  line  was  completed.  The 
fire  soon  became  general.  The  battle  opened  at  2  o'clock  P.  M. 
For  two  hours  the  enemy  was  steadily  pushed  back,  though 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  225 

they  resisted  most  obstinately.  We  had  captured  in  this  time 
five  pieces  of  artillery,  and  the  enemy  were  at  their  last  line. 
Just  then  our  ammunition  became  exhausted.  It  was  a  trying 
time  to  all  our  troops.  Their  conduct,  however,  was  above 
praise.  They  remained  steadfast  in  line  under  a  heavy  fire,  to 
which  there  was  scarcely  any  reply.  But  as  soon  as  cartridges 
were  distributed,  the  men  moved  forward,  and  drove  them  again. 

Just  at  sunset,  the  Twenty-seventh  Georgia,  commanded  by 
Colonel  Zachry,  made  a  furious  attack  upon,  the  centre.  This 
movement  was  seconded  by  a  flank  attack  of  the  Sixth  Georgia, 
Colonel  Lofton,  upon  the  enemy's  right.  They  now  broke  and 
fled  in  great  confusion.  We  pursued  until  dark.  The  Yankees 
did  not  halt  until  they  had  placed  the  St.  Mary's  river  in  their 
rear,  twenty  miles  from  the  battle-field.  The  fruits  of  the  vic 
tory  were  five  pieces  of  artillery,  two  stands  of  colors,  two 
thousand  small  arms,  and  five  hundred  prisoners.  The  enemy 
left  upon  the  field  three  hundred  and  fifty  dead.  They  also 
abandoned  the  severely  wounded. 

Our  loss  amounted  to  eighty  killed  and  six  hundred  and  fifty 
wounded.  The  fight  was  in  the  open  pine  woods  peculiar  to. 
Florida.  This  accounts  for  the  large  number  wounded  in  pro 
portion  to  the  killed.  The  enemy  could  not  have  lost  less  than 
two  thousand  killed  and  wounded.  General  Finnegan  reported 
that  the  roads  for  three  miles  were  strewn  with  the  enemy's 
dead  and  wounded.  More  than  one  half  of  the  two  negro 
regiments  that  Seymour  had  placed  in  front  were  said  to  have 
been  killed  and  wounded. 

The  enemy  fell  back  to  Jacksonville,  forty-five  miles  from 
where  they  fought  the  battle.  Our  forces  followed  them  along 
the  road,  and  stragglers  and  wounded  were  picked  up  as  they 
went.  A  lady  reported  that  General  Seymour  passed  along,  look 
ing  haggard  and  pale,  saying  he  had  lost  half  of  his  troops. 

The  victory  was  a  subject  of  extraordinary  congratulation. 
Had  the  enemy  been  successful  at  Ocean  Pond,  there  were  not 
five  hundred  men  between  them  and  the  capital,  and,  with  the 
capture  of  our  rolling  stock  at  Lake  City,  they  would  soon 
have  reached  Tallahassee  and  fallen  back  on  St.  Mark's  as  a 
base,  and  by  water  held  their  communications  perfectly.  Viewed 
in  this  respect,  it  was  one  of  the  decisive  battles  of  the  war, 
and  had  preserved  the  State  of  Florida  to  the  Confederacy. 

15 


226  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  Yankee  journals  (probably  for  political  reasons')  were 
more  candid  in  their  admissions  of  defeat  at  Ocean  Pond  than 
on  any  other  occasion  of  disaster  to  them  in  the  war.  An  in 
vestigation  was  ordered  in  the  Yankee  Congress.  The  Xe\v 
York  Herald  declared  that  the  whole  movement  grew  out  of 
the  political  jugglery  for  the  next  Presidency,  and  the  whole 
thing  was  a  trick  to  secure  the  electoral  vote  of  Florida.  It 
said  that  "  a  thousand  lives  were  lost  in  the  attempt  to  get 
three  electoral  votes." 


SHERMAN'S  EXPEDITION  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. 

In  the  winter  of  1864,  the  enemy  had  planned  a  grand  mili 
tary  combination  in  the  Southwest,  which,  properly  viewed, 
was  one  of  the  greatest  projects  of  the  war.  It  was  imperfect 
ly  known  by  the  Confederates  at  the  time,  who,  for  many 
weeks  vainly  imagined  the  object  of  Sherman's  movement  into 
Mississippi  at  the  head  of  an  infantry  column  of  thirty-five 
thousand  men. 

Events  developed  the  scheme,  and  indicated  Grant,  the  Yan 
kees'  present  military  idol,  as  its  originator.  It  was  the  con 
ceit  of  this  General  that  the  u  rebellion  "  presented  its  most 
formidable  front  in  North  Georgia  and  that  he  was  so  circum 
stanced  as  to  render  it  extremely  difficult  to  turn  his  advant 
age,  in  the  possession  of  Chattanooga,  to  account.  His  disad 
vantages  were  the  enormous  prolongation  of  the  line  connect 
ing  the  front  of  operations  with  the  base  of  supplies,  the  im 
perfect  character  of  the  communications,  and  the  difficulty  of 
accumulating  sufficient  supplies  for  a  long  and  severe  campaign 
in  the  Gulf  States. 

A  ISTew  York  paper  declared  that  it  had  been  recognized  as 
a  necessary  condition  to  any  advance  from  Chattanooga,  look 
ing  to  great  and  decisive  results,  that  a  water  base  be  opened 
up,  whence  a  powerful  column  should  march  to  connect  with, 
and  support,  the  Union  army  advancing  from  Chattanooga. 
A  possible  point  from  which  a  water  base  could  be  opened  up 
was  Mobile. 

It  was  known  by  the  beginning  of  February  that  three  dis 
tinct  Yankee  columns,  from  as  many  different  points,  were  now 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  227 

under  way  in  the  Southwest.  A  very  powerful  cavalry  col 
umn,  under  command  of  Generals  Smith  and  Grierson,  had 
started  from  Corinth  and  Holly  Springs.  An  infantry  column, 
composed  of  the  two  corps  of  Hurlbut  and  McPherson,  under 
command  of  General  Sherman,  was  under  way  from  Yicksburg. 
A  combined  land  and  naval  expedition  was  moving  from  New 
Orleans. 

"While  Mobile  was  the  plain  objective  point  at  which  the 
latter  force  aimed,  it  is  probable  that  Sherman  did  not  design 
to  make  an  overland  march  from  Yicksburg  to  Mobile — about 
three  hundred  miles.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  he  ex 
pected,  when  he  marched  out  of  Yicksburg,  to  reach  Selma, 
in  Alabama.  The  heavy  column  of  cavalry  that  started  from 
Memphis,  and  constituted  an  important  part  of  his  forces,  was 
to  move  rapidly  across  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  cut  the  in 
terior  railway  lines,  destroy  the  bridges  and  Government  work 
shops,  lay  waste  the  country,  and  gain  the  rear  of  General 
Polk,  harass  and  delay  his  retreat,  and,  if  possible,  force  him 
down  towards  Mobile,  while  Sherman  rushed  upon  him  in 
front.  Had  General  Polk  retreated  upon  Mobile,  the  attack 
upon  which  by  the  Federal  fleets  was  calculated  if  not  design 
ed  to  draw  him  in  that  direction,  Sherman  would  have  occu 
pied  Meridian,  Demopolis,  and  Selma,  and  thus  have  rendered 
his  escape  impossible,  and  the  fall  of  Mobile,  from  lack  of  pro 
visions  and  without  a  blow,  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty. 
The  possession  of  Mobile  and  Selma  would  have  given  the 
Federal  commander  two  important  water  bases,  the  one  on  the 
Mississippi,  at  Yicksburg,  the  other  at  Mobile,  on  the  Gull, 
two  navigable  rivers  communicating  with  the  latter — the  Ala 
bama  and  Tombigbee — and  two  railways  ready  to  hand,  viz. : 
the  Mobile  and  Ohio,  and  the  Yicksburg  and  Jackson  roads. 
Once  in  possession  of  these  important  points  and  his  army  firm 
ly  established  in  the  triangle  formed  by  the  Alabama  and  Tom 
bigbee  rivers,  and  the  railroad  leading  from  Selma  to  Demop 
olis  and  Meridian,  and  we  should  no  more  have  been  able  to 
dislodge  him  from  his  position  than  we  had  been  to  drive  the 
enemy  from  the  Yirginia  Peninsula  and  Fortress  Monroe. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  there  were  in  these  combinations 
the  marks  of  a  bold,  brilliant,  original  conception.  General 
Grant  had  contemplated,  so  to  speak,  the  removal  of  the  Mis- 


228  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

sissippi  river  from  Yicksburg  and  New  Orleans  to 
erj  and  Mobile ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  organization  of 
this  line  would  have  operated  as  a  flank  movement  upon  Gen 
eral  Johnston's  army,  and  might  have  resulted  in  the  fall  of 
Atlanta,  and  the  occupation  by  the  legions  of  the  enemy  of  the 
northern  half  of  the  great  State  of  Georgia.  He  proposed  thus 
to  get  possession  of  the  only  remaining  line  of  defence  which 
it  was  possible  for  the  Confederates  to  take  up  when  he  should 
advance  from  Chattanooga.  Military  men  of  the  North  had 
recognized  that,  if  the  Confederates  were  once  turned  at  Atlan 
ta,  the  line  of  the  Tombigbee  was  the  only  available  position 
left  them.  The  other  line  led  directly  into  a  cul-de-sac,  end 
ing  in  Florida.  If,  therefore,  the  present  movements  were  suc 
cessful,  it  would  clutch  this  single  position  at  which  the  Con 
federates  could  have  hoped  to  make  any  protracted  stand. 

But  Grant — and  it  will  be  found  to  be  his  characteristic 
fault— had  overtasked  himself.  His  formidable  combination 
was  to  fail  because  too  much  was  attempted,  and  because  it 
was  to  be  met  by  the  Confederates  with  consummate  skill  and 
courage.  The  co-operating  columns  were  too  widely  separated, 
were  exposed  to  too  many  chances  of  failure,  and  were  entrusted 
to  too  many  different  heads. 

The  expedition  so  largely  planned  was  inaugurated  by  the 
moving  of  the  first  two  columns.  Sherman  left  Yicksburg  the 
1st  of  February,  at  the  head  of  thirty-five  thousand  infantry, 
two  or  three  thousand  cavalry,  and  from  sixty  to  eighty  pieces 
of  artillery.  Almost  simultaneously  Grierson  or  Smith  began 
their  march  through  North  Mississippi  with  about  ten  thou 
sand  cavalry  and  mounted  infantry.  Mobile,  at  the  same  time, 
was  threatened  by  water  with  the  enemy's  fleet  of  gunboats, 
and  by  land  from  Pensacola  and  Pascagoula. 

General  Polk  had  recently  been  placed  by  the  Confederate 
authorities  in  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Southwest. 
He  assumed  command  late  in  December,  and  scarcely  had 
more  than  familiarized  himself  with  the  command,  and  had 
but  little  time  to  organize  his  troops  and  collect  together  all 
the  energies  of  his  department. 

General  Polk  took  the  field.  Forrest  was  still  detached 
from  the  main  army,  and  remained  so  as  to  watch  the  move 
ments  of  Grierson  and  his  command.  Sherman  with  his  thirty 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  229 

five  thousand  men  could  only  be  opposed  by  Loring,  French, 
and  Lee. 

From  Yicksburg  the  enemy  moved  very  rapidly  and  vigor 
ously  on  to  Jackson,  and  from  that  point  they  threatened  Me 
ridian,  the  railroad  centre  of  the  Southwestern  Department. 
At  this  time  General  Polk  borrowed  from  the  Mobile  garrison 
two  or  three  brigades  to  retard  the  enemy  in  order  to  enable 
him  to  save  his  supplies,  which  had  accumulated  at  different 
points  of  the  railroads  for  the  past  two  years.  It  would  have 
been  the  height  of  folly  to  have  given  the  enemy  battle  under 
the  circumstances.  Our  force,  when  strengthened  by  the  rein 
forcements  from  Mobile,  did  not  reach  over  half  that  of  the 
enemy,  inclusive  of  our  cavalry. 

With  the  additional  force  from  Mobile  the  enemy  was  checked, 
enabling  General  Polk  to  save  his  accumulated  stores  and  protect 
his  supplies.  The  little  army  fell  back  from  Brandon  in  per 
fect  order — slowly  and  successfully.  The  enemy  moved  his 
bodies  of  infantry,  artillery  and  cavalry,  with  caution  and 
prudence.  Lee  hung  upon  his  flanks  and  compelled  him  to 
move  in  compact  column,  giving  him  but  little  time  to  forage 
or  to  depredate  upon  the  country.  In  the  mean  time  General 
Polk,  with  all  his  acknowledged  energy,  was  moving  all  his 
stores  from  points  of  the  different  railroads  likely  to  fall  into 
the  enemy's  hands. 

On  Sunday,  the  14th,  Lieutenant-general  Polk  evacuated 
Meridian,  with  his  little  army,  heavily  pressed  by  an  enemy 
thirty-five  thousand  strong.  Before  the  evacuation,  however, 
every  article  belonging  to  the  different  departments  of  the  Gov 
ernment  had  been  moved.  The  rolling  stock  of  four  important 
railroads  had  been  saved — not  a  car  was  left,  and  scarcely  a 
wheel  left.  The  locomotives  and  cars  belonging  to  the  Mobile 
and  Ohio  road  were  safely  housed  in  Mobile.  Those  of  the  other 
roads  were  brought  to  the  Tombigbee  and  safely  placed  upon 
the  other  side  of  the  river.  It  was  a  literal  and  positive  evac 
uation  of  this  great  railroad  centre.  The  little  town  of  Merid 
ian  stood  lonely  amid  the  silence  of  pine  barrens,  without  a 
noise  to  disturb  its  solitude  or  to  arouse  its  inhabitants.  The 
garrison  belonging  to  Mobile  had  been  safely  returned  to  their 
duties  there,  and  Mobile  was  as  safe  as  the  department  at 
Richmond  intended  it  to  be.  General  Polk  retired  to  De- 


230  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

mopolis,   Alabama,    and    prepared   for   the   gathering   emcr 
gencj. 

The  enemy's  cavalry  column  under  Smith  and  Grierson  was 
to  pass  through  one  of  the  richest  districts  of  the  Confederacy 
to  the  assistance  of  Sherman. 

From  Pontotoc,  Mississippi,  to  the  southern  boundary  line  or 
Noxubee  county,  a  distance  of  eighty  or  ninety  miles  from 
forty  to  fifty  in  width,  there  was  an  area  of  country  rich  as  the 
Delta  of  the  Nile.  Magnificent  plantations  were  spread  on 
either  side  of  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  level  as  the  sea, 
and  dotted  with  abodes  of  wealth  and  intelligence.  Pontotoc, 
Aberdeen,  Columbus,  and  Macon,  were  the  centres  of  local 
trade  for  all  this  region.  These  towns  had  an  aggregate  pop 
ulation  of  perhaps  thirty  thousand,  and  the  narrow  territorial 
limits  of  their  trade  illustrated  the  fact  that  this  district  was 
the  richest  granary  of  the  South. 

Owing  to  the  exhaustion  of  his  horses,  the  want  of  arms  and 
munitions,  and  other  causes,  Forrest  could  array  a  force  of 
only  two  thousand  four  hundred  men  to  confront  Smith  and 
Grierson's  column  of  seven  thousand  of  the  best  equipped  cav 
alry  the  Yankees  had  ever  put  in  the  field.  Forrest's  men, 
too,  were  mostly  new  and  untried,  especially  in  the  cavalry 
service.  He  had  recently  recruited  them  in  West  Tennessee. 
It  seemed  the  extreme  of  rashness  and  recklessness,  to  attempt 
with  such  a  force  to  arrest  the  march  of  a  column  of  seven 
thousand  splendidly  mounted  and  equipped  men,  led  by  expe 
rienced  officers,  whose  march  thus  far  had  been  uninterrupted, 
who  were  buoyant  and  confident,  and  were  charged  with  such 
an  important  mission.  The  junction  of  this  cavalry  force  with 
Sherman  at  Meridian,  was  the  key  of  the  Yankee  plan  for  the 
occupation  and  subjugation  of  the  Southwest.  If  successful, 
Sherman  would  have  been  in  a  condition  to  advance  upon 
Demopolis  and  Selma,  and  these  important  points,  as  well  as 
the  rich  countries  adjacent,  would  have  been  at  the  mercy 
of  the  enemy. 

General  Polk,  with  his  scant  infantry  force,  quickly  per 
ceived  the  momentous  issue  which  depended  upon  the  result 
of  the  cavalry  movement  from  Memphis,  and  after  securing 
his  small  army  on  the  east  side  of  the  Tombigbee,  and  remov 
ing  all  his  supplies  and  munitions  and  returning  to  Mobile  the 


THE    THIRD    TEAK.  231 

troops  he  had  borrowed  from  General  Maury,  sent  imperative 
orders  to  Lee  and  Forrest  to  unite  their  forces,  and  at  every 
cost   to   crush   and   drive    back    Smith   and   Grierson's   cav 
airy. 

Lee  did  not  receive  these  orders  in  time  to  reach  Forrest 
with  his  force,  which  was  already  greatly  exhausted  by  the 
continual  skirmishing  with  Sherman's  column.  Forrest,  there 
fore,  was  left  alone  with  his  two  thousand  four  hundred 
men  to  perform  this  immense  undertaking.  Confronting  the 
enemy  on  the  broad  prairies  near  West  Point,  on  the  Tibbee 
river,  he  prepared  for  action.  The  enemy  formed  in  a  long 
and  most  imposing  line,  outflanking  Forrest  and  threatening 
the  instant  demolition  of  his  small  and  imperfectly  organized 
force.  The  charge  was  given,  and  the  Yankees  advanced  with 
great  boldness  and  an  air  of  certain  victory.  Great  was  their 
surprise  when,  as  they  approached  Forrest's  line,  they  observed 
his  men  slip  from  their  horses,  converting  themselves  into 
infantry,  each  man  taking  the  most  favorable  position,  availing 
themselves  of  every  advantage  the  ground  afforded,  and  await 
ing  with  the  utmost  coolness  the  impetuous  charge  of  the  Yankee 
chivalry.  On  came  the  splendidly  mounted  dragoons,  under 
those  far-famed  Yankee  chiefs,  Smith  and  Grierson,  with  such 
fierce  displays  of  valor  and  determination  as  augured  badly  for 
Forrest's  infantry  scouts,  scattered  through  the  bushes  and  over 
the  prairie  in  rather  an  irregular  and  unmilitary  style.  But 
these  valorous  horsemen  did  not  advance  far  before  the  balls  of 
two  thousand  riflemen  began  to  rattle  through  their  ranks  with 
fearful  effect.  Scores  of  men  and  horses  fell  at  the  first  fire, 
and  their  onward  movement  was  checked,  and  before  they 
could  recover  and  reform  the  volley  was  repeated — again  and 
again — until  dismay  and  terror  began  to  prevail  in  their  ranks, 
and  they  soon  broke  into  confusion  and  fled. 

Having  discovered  the  small  force  of  Forrest,  several  at 
tempts  were  made  by  Smith  and  Grierson  to  rally  their  men 
and  resume  the  offensive.  Their  efforts  were  successful  on  the 
hills,  just  beyond  Okalona,  when  the  last  grand  charge  was 
made  by  them  on  the  21st  of  February.  The  fight  commenced 
late  in  the  evening,  and  was  obstinate,  as  the  enemy  were 
forced  to  make  repeated  stands  to  hold  us  in  check,  and  to  save 
their  pack  mules,  &c.,  from  a  stampede.  It  closed  with  a 


232  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

grand  cavalry  charge  of  the  enemy's  whole  force.     We  re 
pulsed  them  with  heavy  loss,  and  completely  routed  them. 

General  Forrest's  command  was  too  tired  to  continue  the 
pursuit.  General  Gholson,  with  six  or  seven  hundred  State 
troops,  arrived  and  went  in  pursuit.  The  enemy  never  halted 
for  a  moment  in  his  retreat,  and  when  last  heard  from,  the 
remnant  of  this  splendid  force  was  hastening  fast  to  Memphis, 
in  far  different  plight  from  that  in  which  it  had  so  recently 
emerged  from  its  fortifications. 

The  disastrous  retreat  of  Grierson  and  Smith  upon  Memphis 
was  decisive  of  the  campaign.  Their  retreat  naturally  inter 
rupted  Sherman's  communications  all  along  the  line  of  the  Mo 
bile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  and  deprived  his  army  of  an  important 
source  of  supply,  without  which  he  was  incapable  of  maintain 
ing  his  ground.  Worse  still,  the  falling  back  of  these  two  of 
ficers  took  away  from  him  the  cavalry  force  upon  which  he  re 
lied  to  prosecute  his  operations.  He  was  left  to  retrace  his 
steps  in  disappointment  and  disgrace,  and  to  retire  to  Vicks- 
burg.  Back  there  he  dragged  his  weary,  broken-down  column, 
in  a  demoralized  state ;  having  accomplished  not  a  single  mil 
itary  result  in  his  campaign,  and  having  achieved  no  other 
glory  than  that  of  warfare  upon  private  property  and  inoffen 
sive  people,  a  cheap  triumph  of  the  ruffian  and  the  plunderer. 

In  a  congratulatory  order  to  his  army,  General  Polk  said  : 
"  The  concentration  of  our  cavalry  on  the  enemy's  column  of 
cavalry  from  West  Tennessee  formed  the  turning  point  of  the 
campaign.  That  concentration  broke  down  his  only  means  of 
subsisting  his  infantry.  His  column  was  defeated  and  routed, 
and  his  whole  force  compelled  to  make  a  hasty  retreat.  IvTever 
did  a  grand  campaign,  inaugurated  with  such  pretension,  ter 
minate  more  ingloriously.  With  a  force  three  times  that  which 
was  opposed  to  its  advance,  they  have  been  defeated  and  forced 
to  leave  the  field  with  a  loss  of  men,  small  arms  and  ar 
tillery." 

The  Yankees  made  an  absurd  attempt  to  cover  up  Sherman's 
defeat  with  the  stereotyped  lie,  that  the  expedition  had  "  ac 
complished  all  that  was  intended."  It  could  hardly  be  possible 
that  the  object  of  an  expedition  of  such  magnitude  as  that  con 
ducted  by  Sherman  through  Mississippi  was  simply  to  inarch 
over  a  sterile  country  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  take  posses- 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  233 

sion  of  a  comparatively  insignificant  point,  and  then  march 
back  again. 

The  truth  was,  Grant's  grand  combination  in  the  West  had 
completely  broken  down  ;  and  Sherman's  defeat  had  given  the 
Confederacy  two  months  more  time  to  prepare  for  the  great 
campaign  of  1864. 

"While  the  events  we  have  been  narrating  were  transpiring 
in  the  Southwest,  as  part  of  the  grand  plan,  there  had  been  a 
movement  on  the  lines  in  North  Georgia.  Thomas,  in  imme 
diate  command  of  the  Yankee  forces  there,  had  attempted  an 
advance  on  the  25th  of  February.  For  a  whole  day  he  at 
tempted  to  penetrate  our  lines,  but  was  compelled  suddenly  to 
fall  back  upon  his  base  at  Chickamauga.  The  "  On-to- Atlanta" 
was  a  programme  all  parts  of  which  had  been  disconcerted, 
and  to  amend  which  the  campaign  in  the  "West  had  to  be  pu* 
over  until  the  fighting  month  of  May. 


234  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

Auspicious  Signs  of  the  Spring  of  18(54.— Military  Successes  of  the  Confederates.^ 
Irnprc  vernents  in  the  Internal  Polity  of  the  Confederacy — Two  Important  Measures 
of  Legislation. — Revolution  of  our  Finances. — Enlargement  of  the  Conscription. — 
Theory  of  the  New  Military  Law.— A  Blot  on  the  Political  Record  of  the  Confeder 
acy. — Qualified  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus. — An  Infamous  Edict,  but  a  "  Dead- 
letter."— An  Official  Libel  upon  the  Confederacy.— The  Real  Condition  of  Civil 
Liberty  in  the  South.— The  Conscription  not  properly  a  Measure  of  Force. — Im 
pressments  but  a  System  of  Patriotic  Contribution. — Development  of  the  Yankee 
Government  into  Despotism. — An  Explanation  of  this. — The  Essence  of  Despotism 
in  One  Yankee  Statute. — MILITARY  RESOURCES  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. — Its  Military 
System,  the  Best  and  Most  Elastic  in  the  World.— The  War  Conducted  on  A  V»lun- 
tary  Bans. — Supplies.— Scarcity  of  Meat. — The  Grain  Product. — Two  Centres  of  Sup 
plies. — A  Dream  of  Yankee  Hate. — Great  Natural  Resources  of  the  North. — Summary 
of  the  Yankee  Military  Drafts.— Tonnage  of  the  Yankee  Navy.— The  Yankee  War 
Debt.— Economic  Efl'ects  of  the  War.— Its  Effects  on  European  Industry.— Yankee 
Conquest  of  the  South  an  Impossibility. — A  Remarkable  Incident  of  the  War.— 
DAHLGREN'S  RAID  AROUND  RICHMOND. — Kilpatrick's  and  Custar'a  Parts  of  the  Expe 
dition. — Dahlgreu  and  his  Negro  Guide. — His  "Braves"  Whipped  by  the  Richmond 
Clerks  and  Artisans. — Death  of  the  Marauder. — Revelation  of  his  Infamous  Designs. 
— Copy  and  History  of  "  the  Dahlgren  Papers." — A  Characteristic  Yankee  Apothe 
osis. — Ridiculous  and  Infamous  Behavior  of  the  Confederate  Authorities. — A  Bru 
tal  and  Savage  Threat.— President  Davis  in  Melodrama. 

THE  auspicious  signs  of  the  spring  of  1864  was  the  theme 
everywhere  of  the  Confederate  press.  We  have  seen  how  a 
current  of  success  had  set  in  for  the  South.  Mr.  Lincoln's 
shocking  experiment  in  Florida ;  Thomas's  disastrous  repulse 
in  North  Georgia;  Sherman's  magnificent  failure,  were  glad 
auguries  for  the  Confederate  arms  in  the  coming  campaigns. 
The  situation  was  being  rapidly  improved.  Not  to  speak  just 
yet  of  our  achievements  in  Texas,  in  \Yestern  Louisiana,  and 
along  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  we  could  refer  with  satisfac 
tion  to  Longstreet's  exploits  in  East  Tennessee,  subsequent  to 
the  raising  of  the  siege  of  Knoxville,  and  fancied  permanent 
occupation  of  East  Tennessee  by  the  enemy.  The  siege  ot 
Charleston  had  proven  only  a  running  sore,  where  the  strength 
and  wealth  of  the  enemy  were  wasted  without  the  slightest 
prospect  of  advancing  one  step  beyond  the  landward  beach  of 
Morris  Island.  Florida  had  afforded  nothing  but  disaster  to 
them  and  glory  to  us.  The  rainy  season  would  soon  render  it 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  235 

as  uninhabitable  to  a  Northern  army  as  it  has  hitherto  been 
unconquerable.  "  Dixie,"  said  the  Yankee  papers,  was  "  in 
fine  feather." 

This  period  of  military  success  was  coincident,  too,  with  cer» 
tain  important  improvements  in  the  internal  polity  of  the  Con 
federacy.  The  Confederate  Congress  of  1863-64,  had  accom 
plished  two  important  measures  of  legislation.  It  had  revolu 
tionized  the  Confederate  finances  by  a  law  which  required  the 
currency  to  be  funded,  under  the  penalty,  within  certain  dates, 
of  thirty-three  and  a  third  per  cent.,  stopped  further  issues  ot 
paper  money,  and  provided  for  the  public  revenues  by  heavy 
taxation,  and  the  sale  of  five  hundred  millions  of  six  per  cent, 
bonds.  It  had  enlarged  the  conscription  and  qualified  it  by  a 
system  of  details,  the  administration  of  which,  though  it  prop 
erly  resided  in  Congress,  and  should  not  have  been  delegated 
to  the  Executive  branch  of  the  Confederacy,  which  was  noto 
riously  corrupted  by  favoritism,  was  especially  designed  to 
compose  and  protect  the  vexed  industry  and  resources  of  the 
country. 

The  new  military  law  was  designed  to  devote  to  the  army, 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  whole  physical  power  and  energy  ot 
the  country.  Providing,  first,  recruits  for  the  ranks  by  an  ex 
tended  conscription,  it  then  organized  the  remaining  labor  01 
the  country,  for  the  sole  use  and  benefit  of  the  army  and  the 
country's  cause.  The  great  pervading  principle  of  this  mili 
tary  bill  was  that  every  man  owed  to  his  country  the  duty  of 
defending  it,  either  in  or  out  of  the  ranks,  and  the  law  provided 
for  the  discharge  of  this  paramount  duty  by  putting  in  the 
ranks  all  men  capable  of  bearing  arms,  except  certain  persons 
who  could  be  of  more  service  to  the  cause  out  of,  than  in  the 
army.  Exemptions  and  details  were  to  be  permitted  upon  the 
great  and  important  principle  of  promoting  the  public  service. 
Recognizing  the  absolute  dependence  of  the  country's  cause 
upon  the  great  agricultural  interest,  the  Confederate  Congress, 
while  protecting  this  great  interest,  had  made  it  contribute  to 
the  support  of  the  army,  for.  the  privilege  of  its  exemption — 
thus  protecting  the  production  of  the  country,  without  depriv 
ing  the  army  of  the  recruits  necessary  to  its  reinforcement. 

It  is,  however,  to  be  confessed,  with  pain,  that  the  Confed 
erate  Congress  of  1863-64-,  marred  the  work  of  this  legislative 


236  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

year  by  a  base  imitation  of  the  Washington  despotism  in  a  sns 
pension  of  the  habeas  corpus.  It  was  an  act  of  criminal  stu 
pidity,  the  fruit  of  an  inferiority  of  mind  in  our  legislators  that 
aped  the  precedents  of  the  Yankee.  It  is  true  that  the  law 
authorizing  the  suspension  of  the  great  writ  of  liberty  was 
qualified  by  a  stringent  bill  of  particulars.*  But  what  can  be 

*  The  following  is  a  copy  of  this  unfortunate  law : 
A  bill  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  HABEAS  CORPUS  in  certain  cases. 

Whereas,  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America  provides,  in 
article  1,  section  9,  paragraph  3,  that  "  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas' corpus 
shall  not  be  suspended,  unless  when,  in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public 
safety  may  require  it ;"  and,  whereas  the  power  of  suspending  the  privilege  of 
said  writ,  as  recognized  in  said  article  1,  is  vested  solely  in  the  Congress,  which 
is  the  exclusive  judge  of  the  necessity  of  such  suspension ;  and,  whereas,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Congress,  the  public  safety  requires  the  suspension  of  said  writ 
in  the  existing  case  of  the  invasion  of  these  States  by  the  armies  of  the  United 
States ;  and,  whereas  the  President  has  asked  for  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  informed  Congress  of  conditions  of  public  danger  which  ren 
der  the  suspension  of  the  writ  a  measure  proper  for  the  publjc  defence  against 
invasion  and  insurrection ;  now,  therefore : 

1.  That  during  the  present  invasion  of  the  Confederate  States,  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  liabeas  corpus  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby,  suspended ;  but  such 
suspension  shall  apply  only  to  the  cases  of  persons  arrested  or  detained  by  order 
of  the  President,  Secretary  of  War,  or  the  general  officer  commanding  the 
Trans-Mississippi  Military  Department,  by  the  authority  and  under  the  control 
of  the  President.  It  is  hereby  declared  that  the  purposes  of  Congress  in  the 
passage  of  this  act  is  to  provide  more  effectually  for  the  public  safety  by  sus 
pending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpu*  in  the  following  cases,  and  no  other : 

I.  Of  treason  or  treasonable  efforts  or  combinations  to  subvert  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  Confederate  States. 

II.  Of  conspiracies  to  overthrow  the  Government,  or  conspiracies  to  resist  the 
lawful  authority  of  the  Confederate  States. 

III.  Of  combining  to  assist  the  enemy  or  of  communicating  intelligence  to 
the  enemy,  or  giving  him  aid  and  comfort. 

IV.  Of  conspiracies,  preparations  and  attempts  to  incite  servile  insurrection. 

V.  Of  desertions  or  encouraging  desertions,  of  harboring  deserters,  and  of 
attempts  to  avoid  military  service ;  Provided,  that  in  cases  of  palpable  wrong 
and  oppression  by  any  subordinate  officer,  upon  any  party  who  does  not  legally 
owe  military  service,  his  superior  officer  shall  grant  prompt  relief  to  the  op 
pressed  party,  and  the  subordinate  shall  be  dismissed  from  office. 

VI.  Of  spies  and  other  emissaries  of  the  enemy. 

VII.  Of  holding  correspondence  or  intercourse  with  the  enemy,  without  no 
cessity,  and  without  the  permission  of  the  Confederate  States. 

VIII.  Of  unlawful  trading  with  the  enemy  and  other  offences  against  th 
laws  of  the  Confederate  States,  enacted  to  promote  their  success  in  the  war. 

IX.  Of  conspiracies,  or  attempts  to  liberate  prisoners  of  war  held  by  the  Con 
federate  States. 


THE    THIRD    YEAE.  237 

most  said,  to  wipe  from  the  record  of  the  Confederacy  the  stain 
of  this  infamous  edict,  is,  that  it  was  never  put  into  practice- 
It  was  not  put  into  practice  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  was 
no  occasion  for  it;  no  one  doubted  the  integrity  and  patriotism 
of  our  judiciary ;  that  branch  of  the  government  was  practically 
permitted  to  continue  its  dispensations  of  law  and  justice  ;  and 
the  worst  that  can  be  said  of  the  law  suspending  the  habeas 
corpus  was,  that  it  was  a  stain  upon  our  political  history.  It 
was  an  uncalled  for  libel  upon  the  Confederacy  ;  but  although 
it  might  blacken  our  reputation,  yet  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  know 
that  it  did  not  practically  affect  our  system  of  liberties. 

In  contrasting  the  political  systems  of  the  North  and  South 
in  this  war,  we  find  an  invariable  superiority  in  the  latter  with 
respect  to  all  questions  of  civil  liberty.  This,  indeed,  is  to  be 
taken  as  the  most  striking  and  significant  moral  phenomenon 
of  the  war. 

Despite  the  conscription  and  other  harsh  necessities  of  legis 
lation,  the  principles  of  liberty  were  yet  substantially  secure 
in  the  Confederacy.  The  spirit  of  the  devotion  of  the  people 
was;  in  most  instances,  in  advance  of  the  demands  of  the  gov- 

X.  Of  conspiracies,  or  attempts  or  preparations  to  aid  the  enemy. 

XI.  Of  persons  aiding  or  inciting  others  to  abandon  the  Confederate  cause, 
or  to  resist  the  Confederate  States,  or  to  adhere  to  the  enemy. 

XII.  Of  unlawfully  burning,  destroying,  or  injuring,  or  attempting  to  burn, 
destroy,  or  injure  any  bridge  or  railroad,  or  telegraph  line  of  communication, 
or  other  property  with  the  intent  of  aiding  the  enemy. 

XIII.  Of  treasonable  designs  to  impair  the  military  power  of  the  Govern 
ment  by  destroying  or  attempting  to  destroy  the  vessels,  or  arms,  or  munitions 
of  war,  or  arsenals,  foundries,  workshops,  or  other  property  of  the  Confederate 
States.  * 

SEC.  2.  The  President  shall  cause  proper  officers  to  investigate  the  cases  of 
all  persons  so  arrested  or  detained,  in  order  that  they  may  be  discharged  if 
improperly  detained,  unless  they  can  be  speedily  tried  in  the  due  course  of  law. 

SEC.  8.  That  during  the  suspension  aforesaid,  no  military  or  other  officer 
shall  be  compelled,  in  answer  to  any  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  to  appear  in  person, 
or  to  return  the  body  of  any  person  detained  by  him  by  the  authority  of  the 
President,  Secretary  of  War,  or  the  general  officer  commanding  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  Department ;  but  upon  the  certificate,  under  oath,  of  the  officer 
having  charge  of  any  one  so  detained  that  such  person  is  detained  by  him  as  a 
prisoner  under  the  authority  aforesaid,  further  proceedings  under  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  shall  immediately  cease  and  remain  suspended  so  long  as  this 
act  shall  continue  in  force. 

SEC.  .4.  This  act  shall  continue  in  force  for  ninety  days  after  the  next  meeting 
of  Congress,  and  no  longer. 


238  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

eminent.  The  people  of  the  Confederacy  were  more  heartily 
willing  than  the  Yankees  to  contribute  of  their  substance  and 
convenience  to  the  war,  but  much  less  willing  than  they  to 
sacrifice  their  civil  liberties  to  its  fancied  necessities.  In  the 
Confederacy  the  impressments  of  property  were,  in  fact,  in  the 
majority  of  instances,  voluntary  contributions.  In  the  Con 
federacy,  the  conscription  was  not,  in  effect,  a  measure  of  force, 
but  was  rather  to  be  regarded  as  a  measure  to  organize  the 
proffer  of  patriotic  devotion,  and  to  equalize  its  service.  It  was 
the  purer  spirit  and  superior  motives  of  the  Confederacy  in  the 
war  that  made  its  administration  so  superior  to  that  of  the 
enemy,  with  regard  to  the  constitutional  standards  of  liberty, 
and  the  well  recognized  principles  of  conservatism. 

The  North  presented  a  different  picture.  The  process  by 
which  the  Yankee  Government  had  developed  itself  into  one 
of  the  vilest  despotisms  on  the  earth  is  one  of  the  most  inter 
esting  problems  of  the  history  of  the  war.  In  an  address  of 
the  Confederate  Congress,  which  met  in  the  spring  of  1864,  a 
reference  was  made  to  Yankee  despotism  as  "  engendered  in  a 
desperate  warfare  upon  the  liberties  of  another  and  kindred 
people."  The  language  of  this  reference  contains  the  key  of 
the  problem.  The  unholy  passions  of  this  war,  its  hate,  its 
greed,  its  dire  revenge,  its  desperation,  induced  the  people  of 
the  North  to  compromise  their  constitutional  rights.  They 
were  willing  to  purchase  the  gratification  of  their  passions  at 
the  expense  of  their  liberty,  and  those  who  gainsayed  the 
price  were  denounced  as  disloyal  persons,  and  threatened  as 
traitors. 

Personal  liberty  was  no  longer  a  thing  of  any  account  in 
the  eyes  of  "  the  best  government  the  world  ever  saw."  There 
was  a  law  on  the  statute-book  of  the  Government  at  Washing 
ton,  which  not  only  undertook  to  deprive  the  judicial  tribunals 
of  the  States  of  all  cognizance,  civil  and  criminal,  over  pro 
ceedings  instituted  against  persons  who  had  done  any  act 
injurious  to  a  citizen,  by  order  of  President  Lincoln,  but  which 
also  made  the  order  of  the  President,  or  of  any  one  acting 
under  his  authority,  a  full  and  perfect  defence,  in  all  courts,  in 
any  civil  or  any  criminal  proceeding  in  which  the  act  was 
drawn  in  question.  This  law  annihilated  the  liberties  of  th 
citizen  ;  perfected  the  despotism  at  "Washington ;  and  gav 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  239 

Abraham  Lincoln  a  power  above  all  judicial  redress  in  tho 
country,  and  as  irresponsible  as  any  autocracy  on  earth. 


MILITARY  RESOURCES    OF   THE    CONFEDERACY. 

The  military  system  of  the  South  was,  perhaps,  the  most 
admirable  and  elastic  in  the  world.  The  conscription,  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  not  regarded  in  the  Confederacy  as  an 
edict  of  violence,  but  was  in  fact  merely  an  organized  form  of 
public  spirit,  was  constantly  and  harmoniously  in  operation  ; 
and  it  had  the  especial  merit  of  avoiding  that  agitation  and 
public  demoralization  inseparable  from  a  system  of  periodical 
drafts.  It  provided  a  class  of  reserves,  from  sixteen  to  eighteen 
years  of  age,  which  was  constantly  passing  within  the  limits  of 
the  active  military  age.  The  army  was  thus  steadily  replen 
ished.  It  was  qualified  by  a  system  of  details,  the  administra 
tion  of  which  was  to  be  constantly  concerned  in  adjusting  the 
demands  of  the  military  service  to  precise  necessities,  and 
accommodating  the  conscription,  either  enlarging  or  contract 
ing  it,  to  the  state  of  the  country.  The  military  system  of  the 
Confederacy  had  thus  an  elasticity  which  was  indeed  its  most 
valuable  quality. 

Ignorant  minds  appear  to  have  been  much  impressed  with 
the  idea  that  the  Confederacy  would  break  down  for  the  want 
of  men.  There  had  been  yearly  repetitions  of  this  idea  since 
the  commencement  of  the  war  ;  and  yet,  strange  to  say,  for  all 
this  time  tiie  Confederate  armies  had  not  declined  in  numbers. 
Fighting  on  the  defensive,  their  losses  were  much  less  than 
those  of  the  Yankees ;  occupying  interior  and  shorter  lines, 
and  commanded  by  generals  who  carefully  economized  human 
life,  they  did  not  require  the  same  numbers  as  the  enemy  ; 
and,  even  if  they  were  decreasing,  there  was  this  compensa 
tion  :  that  while  they  declined  in  numbers,  the  Yankee  army 
was  declining,  at  a  much  more  rapid  rate,  in  &  personnel,  which 
had  come  to  be  mostly  composed  of  negroes  and  foreigners, 
and  in  those  measures  of  courage  and  devotion  which  best 
insure  victory. 

The  advantage  which  the  Confederacy  had  in  the  conduct 
of  the  war  was  that  every  thing  was,  really  and  substantially, 


24:0  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

on  the  voluntary  basis.  The  impressment  law,  though  violent 
in  form,  like  the  conscription,  was,  in  fact,  the  conduit  of  patri 
otic  contributions.  Every  thing  that  was  asked  for  the  war 
was  generally  given  with  cheerful  consent ;  and  supplies 
poured  in  upon  the  Government,  from  private  sources,  much 
faster  than  the  transportation  of  rail-cars,  boats,  and  wagons 
could  dispose  of  them. 

The  scarcity  of  meat  was  a  difficulty  which  could  be  com 
paratively  endured.  There  was  an  impression,  long  prevalent 
with  us,  that  the  South  was  dependent  upon  the  North  for  a 
large  portion  of  the  meat  we  consumed.  "We  actually  reared 
and  slaughtered  more  animals  in  proportion  to  population  than 
the  North,  and  it  was  simply  owing  to  the  fact  of  our  almost 
wasteful  use  of  meat,  in  which  they  economized,  that  we 
became  annual  purchasers  of  this  article  to  so  great  an  extent. 
Thrown  upon  our  own  resources,  diverting  our  agriculture 
from  the  production  of  our  great  commercial  staples  to  that  of 
breadstuffs,  and,  along  with  it,  to  raising  animals,  hogs  especi 
ally,  since  the  war  began,  in  sections  undisturbed  by  the 
march  of  armies,  or  not  affected  by  epidemics  among  our 
stock,  the  supplies  of  meat  were  far  more  bountiful  than  evei 
before. 

But  although  it  must  be  confessed  that  our  meat  supplies 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  superabundant,  had  been 
sadly  diminished  by  the  enemy's  occupation  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee,  and  the  isolation  of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  yet  none 
but  the  most  ignorant  could  doubt  our  sufficiency  of  other  sub 
sistence  in  a  country  where  the  cereals  might  be  produced  on 
every  acre  of  arable  land.  The  difficulty  was  in  the  ready 
equalization  of  supplies  by  transportation,  not  in  the  want  of 
them.  There  were  two  centres  of  supplies  in  the  Confederacy, 
inaccessible  to  the  enemy,  either  of  which  was  sufficient  to  sub 
sist  our  entire  army  and  people ;  one  whose  lines  radiated 
through  north-western  Carolina  and  the  southern  tier  of  coun 
ties  in  Virginia,  and  the  other  in  the  unequalled  grain  districts 
of  south-western  Georgia  and  Alabama.  To  "  starve "  the 
South  was  the  atrocious  dream  of  Northern  hate,  scarcely  the 
calculation  of  Yankee  shrewdness  and  intelligence. 

The  North  had  great  material  resources,  but  it  was  wasting 
them  in  a  war  the  advance  of  which  was  more  than  doubtful, 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  241 

and  the  object  of  which  morally  unattainable.  It  Lad  put  two 
millions  of  soldiers  in  the  field.*  The  tonnage  of  its  navy  was 
but  little  short  of  half  a  million.  But  while  Yankee  pride 
took  delight  in  the  exhibits,  they  were  not  merely  displays  of 
power,  they  were  also  evidences  of  debt. 

The  expenditures  of  the  Yankee  Government  during  the  war 
had  constantly  exceeded  the  official  estimates,  while  the  receipts 
had  fallen  off. 

Mr.  Chase  estimated  the  expenses  for  1864  at  $750,815,088; 
Congress  had  already  appropriated  $1,104,000, 000  for  the  War 
Department  alone!  The  rate  at  which  the  debt  had  accumu 
lated,  and  the  amount  of  claims  yet  to  be  adjusted,  made  it 
certain  that  the  public  debt  was  not  far  from  $3,000,000,000.f 


*  The  following  is  a  list,  compiled  from  official  sources,  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 

enormous  calls  for  troops  : 

April  16,  1861 ,  75,000 

May  4,  1861 64,748 

From  July  to  December,  1861 500,000 

July  1,  1862 300,000 

August  4,  1862 300,000 

Draft,  summer  of  1863 300,000 

February  1,  1864 500,000 

Total 2,039,748 

f  The  following  figures,  which  we  find  compiled  to  our  hand,  show  the  various 

loans  and  liabilities  of  the  Yankee  Government  thus  far  authorized  by  various 
a^ts  of  Congress : 

Loan  of  1842 $242,621 

Loan  of  1847 9,415,250 

Loan  of  1848 8,908,341 

Texas  indemnity  loan  of  1850 3,461,000 

Loan  of  1858 20,000,000 

Loan  of  1860 7,622,000 

Loanof  1861 18,415,000 

Treasury  notes,  March  1861 512,910 

Oregon  war  loan,  1861 1,016,000 

Another  loan  of  1861 50,000,000 

Three  years  treasury  notes 139,679,000 

Loan  of  August,  1861 320,000 

Five-twenty  loan 400,000,000 

Temporary  loans 104,933,103 

Certificates  of  indebtedness 156,918,437 

Unclaimed  dividends 114,115 


Carried  over 921,557,777 

16 


242  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

Mr.  Chase's  statement  of  his  administration  exhibited  the  fol 

lowing  interesting  figures : 

Government  expenses,  72  years,  1789  to  1861,  $1,458,790,786 
Government  expenses,  4  years,  1861  to  1865,     2,692,086,941 

Excess  in  four  years  ....  $1,238,294,155 
So  we  find  that,  accepting  the  figures  and  estimates  of  the 
Yankee  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  expenditures  of  the 
Government  during  the  administration  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
would  nearly  double  those  of  the  whole  period  from  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  government  to  the  inauguration  of  the  "age 
of  purity." 

It  is  impossible,  with  the  imperfect  materials  at  present  at 
hand,  to  make  a  pecuniary  estimate  of  the  losses  due  to  the 
ehock  and  derangement  of  the  war.  These  losses  were  not 
only  shared  by  the  North  and  South  ;  the  whole  commercial 
world  was  involved  in  the  misfortunes  of  the  war,  and  dragged 
into  its  vortex. 

The  South,  with  a  population  of  ten  millions,  of  whom  four 
millions  were  slaves,  with  about  one  million  of  these  engaged 
in  the  production  of  our  great  commercial  staples,  with  but 
little  artificial  labor,  but  with  only  the  simplest  implements  of 
husbandry,  her  peculiar  social  institution  and  her  climate,  had 
yet  furnished^all  the  vitality,  had  actually  created  and  brought 
into  existence  the  greater  part  of  all  the  great  wealth-pro 
ducing  artificial  labor  in  other  nations.  Her  productions,  which 
could  be  supplied  or  substituted  from  no  other  avenue  without 
enormous  additional  expense,  were  indispensable  to  the  capital 
invested  and  the  labor  developed.  English  factories  had  al 
ready  many  of  them  suspended,  or  were  reduced  greatly  in 
!he;r  operations.  Northern  newspapers  informed  us  that  not  a 

Brought  over 921,557,777 

Demand  treasury  notes 500,000 

Legal  tenders,  1862 397,767,114 

Legal  tenders,  1863 104,969,937 

Postal  and  fractional  currency 50,000,000 

Old  treasury  notes  outstanding 118,000 

Ten-forty  bonds 900,000,000 

Interestrbearing  treasury  notes 500,000,000 

Total ...     $2,774,912,828 


THE    THIRD    TEAR.  243 

spindle  at  Lowell  was  in  operation.  The  manufacture! s  of 
France  were  already  clamorous.  The  only  wonder  was,  that 
civilized  nations  could  so  long  remain  unmoved  by  such  catas 
trophes — so  long  remain  disinterested  spectators  of  a  war  upon 
the  South  for  the  destruction  of  our  system  of  natural  labor, 
whether  for  a  mere  sentiment  or  for  any  other  cause,  that  of 
necessity  involved  the  loss  to  them  of  an  immense  invested 
capital,  and  was  destructive  of  artificial  labor  equivalent,  in 
operatives,  to  many  hundred-fold  the  number  of  our  slaves. 

And  what  of  the  results  of  conquest  ?  what  of  the  indica 
tions  of  final  success  ?  what  of  the  signs  of  conclusion  had  the 
war  accomplished  ?  Eight  hundred  thousand  square  miles  was 
too  large  an  area  for  decisive  war.  When  we  imagine  the  toil 
some  inarches,  the  mighty  mountains,  the  dense  and  unhealthy 
swamps,  the  innumerable  and  impassable  rivers  and  inlets, 
when  we  see  a  resolute  people  enduring  outrage  and  destitu 
tion,  ever  ready  to  sting  the  heel  of  the  invader,  it  is  obvious 
that  no  human  force  can  traverse  those  distances,  subdue  that 
people,  and  establish  any  other  government  than  what  such  a 
people  shall  approve.  A  territory  so  extensive  could  not  be 
held  by  the  policy  of  plunder  and  extermination.  The  miser 
able  gains  of  the  thief,  the  marauder,  the  ruffian,  and  the  plun 
derer — the  achievements  of  banditti,  might  discourage  any 
government  and  dissatisfy  any  soldiery.* 


*  A  curious  attempt  was  that  of  the  Yankees  to  represent  to  the  world  the 
extent  and  permanency  of  their  conquests  by  bogus  State  organizations  ;  alto 
gether,  one  of  the  vilest  cheats  of  the  war.  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  other 
States,  were  made  to  play  false  parts  upon  paper,  and  were  claimed  as  acquisi 
tions  for  "  the  Union,"  when  a  Yankee  dared  not  show  Ms  face  in  his  new  do 
minions  outside  of  his  picket  lines.  It  was  by  the  management  of  bayonets 
that  bogus  delegates  met  at  Little  Rock,  and  concocted  a  paper  which  they 
termed  a  "Constitution,"  declaring  that  slavery  should  not  exist  in  the  State  of 
Arkansas,  and  sent  men  to  Washington  to  ask  to  be  received  back  into  the 
Union. 

In  Louisiana  the  farce  of  a  State  election  had  just  been  completed.  How 
far  such  an  election  represented  the  franchise  or  free  will  of  the  people  we 
may  infer  from  the  following  extract  from  General  Order  No.  23,  issued  by 
General  Banks,  and  paraded  in  every  Government  paper  the  morning  of  the 
election : 

"Open  hostility  cannot  be  permitted.  Indifference  will  be  treated  as  a 
crime,  and  faction  as  treason.  Men  who  refuse  to  defend  their  country  with 
the  ballot-box  have  no  just  claim  to  the  benefits  of  liberty  regulated  by  law 


2-14  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

We  leave  these  discussions  to  follow  the  current  of  military 
events. 


DAHLGREN'S  KAID  AROUND  RICHMOND. 

In  the  month  of  March,  1864,  was  to  occur  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  incidents  of  the  war ;  inasmuch  as  it  was  the  oc 
casion  of  certain  documentary  evidence  of  the  savage  and 
^atrocious  spirit  of  our  enemies,  which  heretofore,  though  it  had 
been  the  constant  assertion  of  the  Confederates,  had  been  per 
sistently  denied  in  Yankee  prints,  and  concealed  from  the 
world  by  brazen  lies,  audacious  recrimination,  and  the  stereo 
types  of  Yankee  hypocrisy. 

On  the  28th  of  February,  a  raid  was  undertaken  towards 
Kichmond  by  the  Yankee  cavalry  under  General  Kilpatrick. 
Colonel  Ulric  Dahlgren,  a  son  of  the  Yankee  admiral  of 
Charleston  "sensation,"  was  second  in  command.  After 
reaching  Beaver  Dam  and  destroying  the  water  station  and 
tearing  up  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  track  at  that  point,  the 
force  divided,  Kilpatrick  with  his  command  passing  through 
the  upper  part  of  Hanover  into  Louisa,  where  he  took  the 
mountain  road,  which  he  followed  until  he  struck  the  Brook 
turnpike,  which  led  into  Richmond. 

After  the  force  was  divided,  Dahlgren's  command  proceeded 
to  Frederick  Hall,  in  Louisa  county,  where  they  captured  sev 
eral  of  our  officers  who  were  holding  a  court-martial  at  the 
time.  Among  these  officers  was  Captain  Dement,  of  a  Balti 
more  battery,  who  was  compelled  to  follow  the  expedition. 
After  tearing  up  the  railroad  for  some  distance,  Dahlgren  pro 
ceeded  rapidly  towards  the  James  River  Canal,  which  ho 
struck  in  Goochland  county.  He  burnt  a  grist-mill  here,  some 
barns,  injured  some  of  the  locks  on  the  canal,  and  did  other 

X 

Whoever  is  indifferent  or  hostile,  must  choose  between 

the  liberty  which  foreign  lands  afford,  the  poverty  of  the  rebel  States,  and  the 
innumerable  and  inappreciable  blessings  which  our  Government  confers  upon 
its  people." 

Thirty-five  thousand  Louisianians  had  already  gone  to  partake  oi  the  "  pov 
erty  of  the  rebel  States,"  and  about  eleven  thousand  played  the  farce  of  voting 
to  continue  "  the  blessings,  which  the  Yankee  Government  confers  upon  its 
people." 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  24:5 

trifiii.g  damage.  His  men  were  allowed  to  amuse  themselves 
for  some  hours  at  the  farm-houses,  in  hacking  up  furniture  and 
stealing  silver  spoons.  His  purpose  was  to  cross  the  Jamee 
river  here,  get  into  Richmond  by  a  surprise  on  the  south 
side,  and  do  his  peculiar  work  in  that  city  of  the  Confederacy. 

He  had  employed  a  negro  to  guide  him  to  a  ford  of  the  river. 
He  had  paid  him  for  the  proposed  service  with  what  appeared 
to  be  a  five-dollar  bill,  but  was  in  fact  a  barber's  "  token,"  in 
the  shape  of  a  bank  note,  after  the  ingenious  fashion  of  Yan 
kee  advertisements.  The  negro  conducted  him  to  a  ford,  but 
finding  the  water  too  high  to  cross,  and  imagining  that  he  had 
been  duped,  Dahlgren  turned  upon  the  helpless  black,  had 
him  instantly  hanged,  and  to  expedite  the  horrible  deed, 
furnished  a  rein  from  his  own  bridle  to  strangle  his  victim. 

Finding  that  he  could  not  cross  the  river,  Dahlgren  direct 
ed  his  movements  to  make  a  junction  with  Kilpatrick.  But 
in  the  mean  time  all  the  other  parts  of  the  expedition  had 
failed. 

One  part  had  been  to  distract  attention  by  a  movement  of 
General  Ouster,  with  cavalry  and  artillery,  in  the  direction  of 
Charlottesville.  It  had  come  to  grief.  It  had  reached  the 
vicinity  of  Rio  Mills,  where  Stuart's  horse  artillery,  under 
Major  Beckham,  was  stationed.  As  soon  as  the  enemy  crossed 
the  Rivanna  river,  the  artillery,  supported  by  some  furlough- 
ed  and  dismounted  men,  opened  on  the  advancing  column. 
This  seemed  entirely  unexpected,  some  of  the  Yankees  exclaim 
ing,  "  By ,  the  Secesh  have  been  reinforced ;  let's  go 

back,"  which  they  did  at  a  double-quick ;  nor  did  they  halt 
to  camp  until  they  reached  their  infantry  supports  at  Madison 
Court-house, 

Kilpatrick's  part  of  the  expedition  had  manifested  a  similar 
ludicrous  cowardice.  He  had  reached  the  outer  line  of  the 
Richmond  fortifications  at  a  little  past  ten  on  the  morning  of 
the  1st  of  March.  A  desultory  fire  was  kept  up  for  some 
hours,  in  which  the  Yankees  who  had  proposed  a  desperate  in 
road  into  Richmond  never  once  got  within  range  of  our  artil 
lery,  and,  satisfied  to  boast  that  they  had  been  within  sight  of 
the  city,  withdrew,  and  took  up  their  line  of  march  down  the 
Peninsula. 

Unapprised   of  these   dastardly   events,   Dahlgren,   on   the 


246  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

night  of  the  1st  of  March,  pursued  his  way  towards  Richmond 
following  the  Westham  plank-road,  with  some  seven  or  eigh 
hundred  horsemen.     An  exhibition  of  cowardice  was  reserved 
for  him,  unequalled  even  by  that  of  Ouster,  or  Kilpatrick. 

All  that  stood  in  the  darkness  of  that  night  between  Dalil 
gren  and  Richmond,  between  the  ferocious  Yankee  and  the 
revenge  he  had  plotted  to  pour  in  blood  and  iire  upon  the  de 
voted  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  was  a  force  of  local  soldiery, 
composed  of  artisans  from  the  Richmond  Armory,  and  clerks, 
•many  of  them  young  boys,  from  the  departments  of  the  gov 
ernment.  Such  was  the  force  that  was  to  give  to  Dahlgren'a 
*'  braves"  a  lesson  for  their  temerity. 

The  Armory  battalion  was  on  the  enemy's  flank,  and  ap 
pears  to  have  been  surprised.  But  when  the  enemy  came  in 
contact  with  Henly's  battalion  (the  clerks),  the  valorous  cav 
alry  broke  at  the  first  fire.  The  first  volley  of  musketry  seems 
to  have  done  all  the  disaster  that  occurred,  and  to  have  finished 
the  business.  Eleven  of  Dahlgren's  Yankees  were  killed  and 
thirty  or  forty  wounded,  while  the  rest  scattered  in  shameful 
flight. 

After  this  disgraceful  affair,  Dahlgren  seemed  to  be  anxious 
only  for  his  retreat.  He  divided  his  forces  so  as  to  increase 
the  chances  of  escape.  The  force  under  his  immediate  com 
mand  moved  down  the  South  bank  of  the  Pamunkey,  and 
crossed  the  river  at  Dabney's  Ferry.  From  the  ferry  they  pro 
ceeded  by  the  most  direct  route  to  Ayletts  on  the  Mattapony, 
watched  closely  at  every  step  by  scouts  detached  from  Lieu 
tenant  Jarnes  Pollard's  company  of  Lee's  Rangers,  then  on 
picket  duty  and  recruiting  service  in  King  William  County, 
the  residence  of  most  of  it  members.  Pollard,  himself,  while 
passing  through  the  streets  of  Richmond,  had  chanced  to  see  ai. 
a  newspaper  office  a  bulletin  giving  some  account  of  the  retreat 
of  Dahlgren's  party,  and  declaring  that  he  would  make  them 
"pay  toll"  on  their  route,  had  posted  to  intercept  the 
fugitives. 

The  ferry-boat  on  the  Mattapony  having  been  previously  re 
moved,  and  Pollard's  arrangements  for  disputing  the  passage 
of  the  Yankees  when  they  reached  the  King  and  Queen 
Bide  being  suspected,  they  dashed  across  the  river  as.  precip 
itately  as  possible  under  the  tire  of  a  small  squad  of  rangers. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  24:7 

The  Yankees  had  no  sooner  reached  King  and  Qr..ecn 
County  than  they  were  harassed,  both  front  and  rear,  Dy  the 
Bangers,  showing  fight  as  they  advanced,  until  Pollard  was 
reinforced  by  Captain  Fox  of  the  Fifth  Virginia  Cavalry  and 
some  of  his  men  then  on  furlough  in  the  county,  some  mem 
bers  of  .Lieutenant-colonel  Robins'  cavalry,  and  a  few  home 
guards. 

While  Dahlgren,  with  his  party  of  fugitives  constantly  slip 
ping  from  him  by  straggling,  and  with  sinking  spirits,  pursued 
the  road  to  Walkerton,  the  improvised  force  of  Confederates 
kept  pressing  him,  while  a  detachment,  making  a  rapid  circuit, 
got  ahead  of  him,  and  awaited  his  approach  in  the  darkness 
of  the  night.  Seeing  some  figures  ahead  on  the  road,  Dahl- 
gien  rode  towards  them,  requiring  for  his  protection  that 
Captain  Dement,  the  prisoner  he  had  taken  at  Frederick  Hall, 
should  ride  by  his  side.  "  Surrender,"  he  shouted,  to  what  he 
supposed  was  a  few  skulkers,  who  would  instantly  accede  to 
the  command.  "  Fire,"  was  the  reply.  "  Give  'em  hell,  boys," 
yelled  Pollard ;  and  the  woods  were  lighted  up  with  a  volley 
from  Confederate  muskets.  It  was  enough.  Dahlgren  fell 
dead  from  his  horse,  two  bullets  in  the  head,  two  in  the  body, 
and  one  in  the  hand.  Captain  Dement's  horse  was  shot  under 
him.  The  woods  were  filled  with  fugitive  Yankees,  who  had 
fled  at  the  first  volley,  and  who  might  be  heard  in  the  dark 
ness  of  the  night  imploring  the  Confederates  to  have  the  kind 
ness  to  come  up  and  accept  their  surrender.  The  remnant  of 
Dahlgren's  party  captured  here  in  the  night  was  one  hundred 
and  forty  negroes  and  Yankees. 

On  the  body  of  their  leader  were  found  the  remarkable  doc 
uments  to  which  we  have  referred  :  papers  showing  the  fiend 
ish  purpose  of  his  expectation,  and  revealing  to  the  startled 
sensibilities  of  the  people  of  Richmond,  the  horrors  which  they 
had  narrowly  escaped. 

The  following  address  to  the  officers  and  men  of  the  com 
mand  was  written  on  a  sheet  of  paper  having  in  printed  letters 
on  the  upper  corner,  "  Headquarters  Third  Division,  Cavalry 
Corps, ,  1864 :" 

Officers  and  Men : 

You  have  been  selected  from  brigades  and  regiments  as  a  picked  command 
to  attempt  a  desperate  undertaking — an  undertaking  which,  if  successful,  wi]] 


248  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

write  your  names  on  the  hearts  of  your  countrymen  in  letters  that  can  never 
be  erased,  and  which  will  cause  the  prayers  of  our  fellow  soldiers  now  confined 
In  loathsome  prisons  to  follow  you  and  yours  wherever  you  may  go. 

We  hope  to  release  the  prisoners  from  Belle  Island  firs*  *nd  having  seen 
them  fairly  started  we  Avill  cross  the  James  river  into  Ricnmond,  destroying 
the  bridges  after  us,  and  exhorting  the  released  prisoners  to  destroy  and  burn 
the  hateful  city,  and  do  not  allow  the  rebel  leader  Dam,  and  his  traitorous  crew 
to  escape.  The  prisoners  must  render  great  assistance,  as  you  cannot  leave 
your  ranks  too  far,  or  become  too  much  scattered,  or  you  will  be  lost. 

Do  not  allow  any  personal  gam  to  lead  you  off,  which  would  only  bring  you 
to  an  ignominious  death  at  the  hands  of  citizens.  Keep  well  together  and 
obey  orders  strictly,  and  all  will  be  well,  but  on  no  account  scatter  too  far ;  for 
in  union  there  is  strength. 

With  strict  obedience  to  orders,  and  fearlessness  in  the  execution,  you  will  be 
sure  to  succeed. 

We  will  join  the  main  force  on  the  other  side  of  the  city,  or  perhaps  meet 
them  inside. 

Many  of  you  may  fall ;  but  if  there  is  any  man  here  not  willing  to  sacrifice 
his  life  in  such  a  great  and  glorious  undertaking,  or  who  does  not  feel  capable 
of  meeting  the  enemy  in  such  a  desperate  fight  as  will  follow,  let  him  step  out, 
and  he  may  go  hence  to  the  arms  of  his  sweetheart,  and  read  of  the  braves  wko 
swept  through  the  city  of  Richmond. 

We  want  no  man  who  cannot  feel  sure  of  success  in  such  a  holy  cause. 

We  will  have  a  desperate  fight ;  but  stand  up  to  it  when  it  does  come,  and 
all  will  be  well. 

Ask  the  blessing  of  the  Almighty,  and  do  not  fear  the  enemy. 

U.  DAHLGREN,  Colonel  Commanding. 

The  following  special  orders  were  written  on  a  similar  sheet 
of  paper,  and  on  detached  slips,  the  whole  disclosing  the  dia 
bolical  plans  of  the  leaders  of  the  expedition  : 

"  Guides — Pioneers  (with  oakum,  turpentine,  and  torpedoes) — Signal  Officer 
— Quartermaster — Commissary  : 

"  Scouts  and  pickets — men  in  rebel  uniform  : 

"  These  will  remain  on  the  north  bank  and  move  down  with  the  force  on  the 
south  bank,  not  getting  ahead  of  them  ;  and  if  the  communication  can  be  kept 
up  without  giving  alarm,  it  must  be  done ;  but  everything  depends  upon  a 
surprise,  and  NO  ONE  must  be  allowed  to  pass  ahead  of  the  column.  Informa 
tion  must  be  gathered  in  regard  to  the  crossings  of  the  river,  so  that  should 
we  be  repulsed  on  the  south  side  we  will  know  where  to  recross  at  the  nearest 
point.  All  mills  must  be  burned,  and  the  canal  destroyed;  and  also  every  thing 
which  can  be  used  by  the  rebels  must  be  destroyed,  including  the  boats  on  the 
river.  Should  a  ferry-boat  be  seized,  and  can  be  worked  have  it  moved  down. 
Keep  the  force  on  the  south  side  posted  of  any  important  movement  of  the 
enemy,  and,  in  case  of  danger,  some  of  the  scouts  must  swim  the  river  and 
bring  us  information.  As  we  approach  the  city,  the  party  must  take  great  care 
that  they  do  not  get  ahead  of  the  other  party  ou  the  south  side,  and  must  con- 
seal  themselves  and  watch  our  movements.  We  will  try  and  secure  the  bridge 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  249 

to  the  city  (one  mile  below  Belle  Isle),  and  release  the  prisoners  .it  the  sane 
time.  If  we  do  not  succeed,  they  must  then  dash  down,  and  we  will  try  and 
carry  the  bridge  from  each  side. 

"  When  necessary,  the  men  must  be  filed  through  the  woods  and  along  the 
river  bank.  The  bridges  once  secured,  and  the  prisoners  loose  and  over  the 
river,  the  bridges  will  be  secured  and  the  dty  destroyed.  The  men  must  keep 
together  and  well  in  hand,  and  once  in  the  city,  it  must  be  destroyed,  and 
Jeff  Dams  and  Cabinet  killed. 

"  Pioneers  will  go  along  with  combustible  material.  The  officer  must  use 
his  discretion  about  the  time  of  assisting  us.  Horses  and  cattle,  which  we  do 
not  need  immediately,  must  be  shot  rather  than  left.  Every  thing  on  the  canal 
and  elsewhere,  of  service  to  the  rebels,  must  be  destroyed.  As  General  Custer 
may  follow  me,  be  careful  not  to  give  a  false  alarm. 

"  The  signal-officer  must  be  prepared  to  communicate  at  night  by  rockets, 
and  in  other  things  pertaining  to  his  department. 

"  The  Quartermasters  and  Commissaries  must  be  on  the  lookout  for  their  de 
partments,  and  see  that  there  are  no  delays  on  their  account. 

"  The  engineer  officer  will  follow  to  survey  the  road  as  we  pass  over  it,  &c. 

"  The  pioneers  must  be  prepared  to  construct  a  bridge  or  destroy  one.  They 
must  have  plenty  of  oakum  and  turpentine  for  burning,  which  will  be  rolled  in 
soaked  balls  and  given  to  the  men  to  burn  when  we  get  in  the  city.  Torpe 
does  will  only  be  used  by  the  pioneers  for  destroying  the  main  bridges,  &c. 
They  must  be  prepared  to  destroy  railroads.  Men  will  branch  off  to  the  right 
with  a  few  pioneers  and  destroy  the  bridges  and  railroads  south  of  Richmond, 
and  then  join  us  at  the  city.  They  must  be  well  prepared  with  torpedoes,  &c. 
The  line  of  Falling  Creek  is  probably  the  best  to  work  along,  or,  as  they  ap 
proach  the  city,  Goode's  Creek  ;  so  that  no  reinforcements  can  come  up  on  any 
cars.  No  one  must  be  allowed  to  pass  ahead,  for  fear  of  communicating  news. 
Rejoin  the  command  with  all  haste,  and,  if  cut  off,  cross  the  river  above  Rich 
mond  and  rejoin  us.  Men  Avill  stop  at  Bellona  Arsenal  and  totally  destroy  it, 
and  anything  else  but  hospitals ;  then  follow  on  and  rejoin  the  command  at 
Richmond  with  all  haste,  and,  if  cut  off,  cross  the  river  and  rejoin  us.  As 
General  Custer  may  follow  me,  be  careful  and  not  give  a  false  alarm." 

The  exhibition  of  these  papers,  disclosing  a  Yankee  plot  of 
incendiarism  and  murder  that  challenged  comparison  with  the 
atrocities  of  the  darkest  ages,  produced  a  profound  sensation  in 
Richmond.  Our  people,  although  already  familiar  with  out 
rages  of  the  enemy,  were  scarcely  prepared  to  imagine  such 
extremity  of  excess  ;  whi/e  these  bloody  papers  were  to  the 
world  an  important  evidence  of  the  spirit  of  Yankee  warfare.* 


*  Yankee  newspapers,  with  persistent  hardihood,  disputed  the  authenticity 
of  these  papers.  The  writer,  whose  relative  was  engaged  in  the  affair,  and  who 
himself  was  familiar  with  all  the  incidents  relating  to  these  papers,  may  assert 
most  positively  that  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  ground  to  question  their  authen 
ticity.  He  saw  the  originals.  In  half  an  hour  after  they  were  fou^  ™  Dahl 


250  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAE. 

It  is  partly  amusing  to  notice  that  flimsy  and  flippant  hjpr- 
crisy  which,  in  Yankee  newspapers,  declared  that  Dahlgren, 
who  had  come  on  such  an  errand,  when  killed  in  a  fight  with 
our  troops  was  "  assassinated,"  or  which,  through  the  offices  of 
an  alliterative  strong-minded  woman,  the  peculiar  creature  of 
Yankeedom — one  "  Grace  Greenwood" — apotheosized,  through 
public  lectures  to  Yankee  soldiers,  one  of  the  worst  of  their 
kind,  and  proclaimed  him  as  "  the  young  hero  of  the  North." 
The  dramatic  account  of  the  stripping  of  the  body  of  the 
marauder,  and  the  cutting  off  the  joint  of  a  finger  to  get  from 
it  a  diamond  ring,  is,  however  revolting  to  a  tender  humanity, 
nothing  but  aii  ordinary  circumstance  in  a  war  where  both 
sides  have  admitted  what  is  indeed  a  deplorable  practice — that 
of  "peeling  "  on  the  battle-field. 

But  there  were  some  acts  of  the  Confederate  authorities  in 
relation  to  the  Dahlgren  affair,  which  deserved  a  severe  cen 
sure,  and  which  were  wholly  indefensible.  Many  persons  in 
the  Confederacy  very  justly  thought  that  Dahlgren's  raiders 
were  not  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  prisoners  of  war,  but 
should  be  turned  over  to  the  State  authorities  as  thieves,  incen 
diaries,  and  felons  in  all  respects.  The  Confederate  authorities, 
from  motives  which  could  only  have  been  fear  of  the  enemy's 
displeasure,  declined  to  accede  to  this  demand.  But  popular 
clamor  was  to  be  appeased ;  and  to  do  so  the  old  game  of 
"retaliation"  was  to  be  played,  and  its  plain  demands  put  oflf 
by  melodramatic  expedients  honorable  to  tell,  but  in  reality 
amounting  to  nothing. 


gren's  body  they  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  General  FitzHugh  Lee ;  and  the 
Boiled  folds  of  the  paper  were  then  plainly  visible.  The  words  referring  to  the 
murder  of  the  President  and  his  cabinet  were  not  interlined,  but  were  in  the 
regular  context  of  the  manuscript.  The  proof  of  the  authenticity  of  the  papers 
is  clinched  by  the  circumstance  that  there  was  also  found  on  Dahlgren's  body 
a  private  note-book,  which  contained  a  rough  draft  of  the  address  to  his  soldiers, 
and  repetitions  of  some  of  the  memoranda  copied  above.  The  writer  has  care 
fully  examined  this  note-book — a  common  memorandum  pocket-book,  such  as 
might  be  bought  in  New  York  for  fifty  cents— in  which  are  various  notes, 
some  in  ink  and  some  in  pencil ;  the  sketch  of  the  address  is  in  pencil,  very  im 
perfect,  written  as  one  who  labored  in  composition,  crossed  and  recrossed.  It 
does  not  differ  materially  in  context  or  language  from  the  more  precise  com 
position,  except  that  the  injunction  to  murder  the  Confederate  leaders  is  in  fh*> 
rough  draft  made  with  this  additional  emphasis,  "  killed  on  the  spot." 


THE    THIHD    YEAR.  251 

Dahlgren's  body  was  buried  out  of  sight,  with  the  puerile 
mystery  of  a  concealed  grave.  The  Libby  Prison  was  under 
mined,  several  tons  of  powder  put  under  it,  and  the  threat 
made  that  if  any  demonstration  on  Richmond,  such  as  Dahl- 
gren's,  was  ever  again  to  occur,  the  awful  crime,  the  appaling 
barbarity  would  be  committed  of  blowing  into  eternity  the 
hundreds  of  helpless  men  confined  in  a  Confederate  prison. 
JS"o  one  can  believe  that  such  an  atrocity  was  ever  intended, 
under  any  circumstances,  to  be  executed  by  the  Confederacy, 
or  that  it  was  any  thing  more  than  the  melodrama  by  which 
our  weak  authorities  had  been  accustomed  to  avoid  the  real 
and  substantial  issues  of  "  retaliation."  This  was  not  the  first 
instance  in  which  the  Confederacy  had  needlessly  blackened 
its  reputation  by  exaggerated  pretences  of  retaliation,  which 
it  was  thought  necessary  to  make  very  ferocious  in  their  con 
ception,  in  proportion  as  they  were  to  be  failures  in  execution , 


252  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  Current  of  Confederate  Victories.— THE  RED  RIVER  EXPEDITION.— Banks'  Am 
bitious  Designs.— Condition  of  the  Confederates  West  of  the  Mississippi.— Banks1 
Extensive  Preparations. — A  Gala  Day  at  Vicksburg. — Yankee  Capture  of  Fort  Da 
Rossy.— Occupation  of  Alexandria.— Porter's  Warfare  and  Pillage.— Banks'  Con 
tinued  Advance.— Shreveport,  the  Grand  Objective  Point. — Kirby  Smith's  Designs.-— 
General  Green's  Cavalry  Fight.— BATTLE  OF  MANSFIELD. — Success  of  the  Confeder 
ates. — BATTLE  OF  PLEASANT  HILL. — The  Heroic  and  Devoted  Charge  of  the  Confeder 
ates. — The  Scene  on  the  Hill. — Banks  Fatally  Defeated. — Price's  Capture  of  Yankee 
Trains. — Grand  Results  of  Kirby  Smith's  Campaign. — Banks  in  Disgrace. — Yankee 
Tenure  of  Louisiana. — FORREST'S  EXPEDITION  INTO  KENTUCKY. — His  Gallant  Assault 
on  Fort  Pillow.— The  Yankee  Story  of  "  Massacre. "—Capture  of  Union  City.— Con 
federate  Occupation  of  Paducah. — Chastisement  of  the  Yankees  on  their  own  Theatre 
of  Outrages — CAPTURE  OF  PLYMOUTH,  N.  C. — General  Hoke's  Expedition. — Capture 
of  "Fort  Vessel."— Exploit  of  the  "  Albemarle."— The  Assaults  upon  the  Town.— 
Fruits  of  its  Capture. — The  Yankees  in  North  Carolina. 

THE  current  of  victory  for  the  Confederacy  was  still  to  en 
large.  The  spring  campaign  of  General  Kirby  Smith  in  the 
Trans-Mississippi  was  to  terminate  for  us  in  one  of  the  most 
decisive  and  fruitful  successes  of  the  war.  On  account  of  the 
remoteness  of  the  theatre  of  action  and  its  very  imperfect  com 
munications  with  Richmond,  we  have  now  at  hand  but  scant  ma 
terials  for  composing  the  history  of  these  events,  which  termi 
nated  in  the  overwhelming  defeat  of  Banks,  and  the  complete 
demolition  of  his  extensive  schemes  in  Western  Louisiana 
and  Texas. 


THE   RED   RIVER   EXPEDITION. 

To  understand  the  importance  of  Banks'  great  expedition 
np  the  Red  River,  it  is  necessary  to  review  the  military  situa 
tion  in  the  beginning  of  March.  Sherman  had  returned  to 
Vicksburg  from  his  grand  ,but  disappointed  expedition  into 
Mississippi,  and  instead  of  directing  his  forces  towards  Mobile, 
the  point  of  the  greatest  concern  to  the  Confederates,  he 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  253 

detached  a  portion  of  them  to  General  Banks  assistance,  who, 
it  appears,  had  predetermined  on  scattering  or  demolishing  the 
Confederate  force  in  West  Louisiana,  operating  against  Texas, 
and  opening  to  Yankee  spoliation  and  theft  one  of  the  richest 
cotton  regions  of  the  South.  A  very  general  impression 
existed  in  the  North  that  the  Confederate  cause  west  of  the 
Mississippi  was  particularly  hopeless.  General  Steele  had  cap 
tured  Little  Bock,  and  was  thought  to  have  control  of  almost 
the  entire  country  north  of  the  Red  river.  General  Banks  had 
captured  Brownsville,  and  occupied  several  points  on  the 
Texas  coast,  with  Yankee  forces.  The  discouragement  of  the 
Confederate  leaders  was  said  to  be  so  complete  that  the  story 
found  believers  among  the  Yankees  that  Kirby  Smith  had 
determined  to  pay  off  his  army,  furlough  his  men  for  an  indefi 
nite  period,  and  then  retire  with  his  principal  officers  into 
Mexico. 

The  preparations  of  Banks,  however,  showed  that  he  either 
contemplated  a  much  greater  resistance  than  what  vulgar 
opinion  in  the  North  anticipated,  or  that  he  was  determined  to 
insure  success  by  that  exaggeration  of  means  which  timidity 
always  suggests.  The  expedition  had  been  the  .occasion  of  a 
complete  change  in  his  plan  of  military  operations  in  the 
Department  of  the  Gulf.  Altogether,  it  was  the  most  import 
ant  military  enterprise  ever  attempted  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  the  largest  army  ever  assembled  in  that  section  (amount 
ing,  besides  the  fleet,  to  at  least  forty  thousand  men),  was 
entrusted  with  its  execution. 

About  the  1st  of  March  the  columns  under  General  Franklin 
proceeded  from  New  Orleans  to  Brashear  City,  and  thence 
took  up  the  line  of  march  along  the  Bayou  Teche.  The  forces 
under  General  A.  J.  Smith,  from  the  Department  of  Tennessee, 
comprising  the  brigades  under  Generals  F.  S.  Smith,  Thomas, 
and  Ellet,  embarked  at  Yicksburg  on  the  10th  of  March,  and 
proceeded  down  to  the  mouth  of  Red  river,  where  they 
found  a  fleet  of  twenty  gunboats  ready  for  the  ascent.  The 
twenty  transports,  preceded  by  the  twenty  gunboats,  started 
from  the  Mississippi  on  the  10th.  As  for  the  naval  force  oi 
the  expedition,  a  Northern  paper  stated  that  a  more  formida 
ble  fleet  was  never  under  a  single  command  than  that  now  on 
the  western  rivers  under  Admirtil  Porter. 


254  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  day  of  the  embarkation  at  Yicksburg  was  a  gala  one 
for  the  Yankees.  "  The  scene  on  the  Mississippi  river,  oppo 
site  Yicksburg,"  says  a  Yankee  correspondent,  "  was  sublime. 
From  the  deck  of  this  steamer,  the  flagship  of  the  expedition, 
went  up  the  long,  shrill  whistle,  the  signal  for  our  departure, 
which  was  instantly  answered  by  the  immense  fleet,  each 
steamer's  whistle  screaming  a  reply,  'All  ready,'  in  notes 
ranging  from  C  sharp  to  B  flat.  In  five  minutes  the  gigantic 
flotilla  was  in  motion,  the  variegated  lights  swinging  to  and 
fro  from  the  mastheads,  while  the  crowded  decks  glistened 
with  loyal  bayonets,  and  the  cabin  windows  reflected  a  brilliant 
light  upon  the  rushing  waters.  Add  to  this  picture  the  lively 
music  of  several  brass  bands,  the  cheering  of  the  soldiers,  eager 
for  the  approaching  conflict,  and  their  simple  shelter-tents 
spread  in  miniature  encampments  on  the  upper  decks  of  the 
steamers,  while  from  the  monster  black  chimneys  the  sparks 
fell  in  golden  showers  over  the  whole  scene,  and  perhaps  a 
slight  idea  will  be  conveyed  of  the  romantic  beauty  of  this  rare 
war  spectacle." 

The  imposing  expedition  proceeded  up  the  Ked  river  with 
out  serious  opposition  ;  and  its  first  achievement  was  the  cap 
ture,  on  the  14th  of  March,  of  Fort  De  Hussy*  The  fort  was 
easily  taken  by  General  Smith's  advance,  as  it  was  garrisoned 
by  only  two  or  three  companies  of  Confederates.  Had  it  been, 
fully  manned  it  would  have  been  a  difficult  point  to  capture. 
The  fort  was  intended  for  a  large  force.  It  consisted  of  a  very 
strong  water-battery,  mounting  four  guns,  and  a  bomb-proof 
battery  of  three  guns,  only  two  of  which  were  really  mounted. 
Both  these  batteries  fully  commanded  the  approaches,  and 
were  connected  with  a  strong  fort,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
the  rear,  by  a  causeway,  protected  by  high  breastworks,  thus 
enabling  the  men  to  pass  from  the  battery  to  the  fort  in  action 
with  comparative  safety.  The  bomb-proof  was  covered  with 
two  feet  of  solid  timber  and  two  layers  of  railroad  iron  of  the 
T  style,  fitted  into  each  other. 

Porter's  gunboats  were  not  engaged  ;  and  the  garrison  of 
the  fort  missed  the  coveted  opportunity  of  testing  the  power  of 
their  superb  water-battery.     The  Yankees  took  here  two  hun 
dred   and   eighty-three    prisoners    and    several    heavy   guns 
Among  the  prisoners  taken  was  Lieutenant-colonel  Byrd,  for- 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  255 

merly  in  command  of  the  fort.     He  was  put  in  double  irons, 
and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  at  Baton  Rouge  ! 

Fort  De  Russy  having  fallen,  Porter  had  no  difficulty  in 
steaming  up  to  Alexandria,  a  place  of  about  fifteen  hundred 
inhabitants,  and  the  county-seat  of  Rapides  parish.  It  was  sit 
uated  on  the  Red  river,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
above  its  confluence  with  the  Mississippi.  The  advance  of 
General  A.  J.  Smith's  forces  in  transports,  and  Admiral 
Porter's  fleet  of  iron-clad  gunboats,  anchored  before  the  red 
clay  bluffs  of  Alexandria  on  the  evening  of  the  16rh  March. 

The  Yankees  had  now  penetrated  the  famous  cotton  district 
of  the  Red  river ;  and  Porter,  who  had  already  obtained  in 
the  South  the  unenviable  title  of  "  the  Thief  of  the  Missis 
sippi,"  took  the  initiative  in  a  system  of  pillage  that  might 
have  disgraced  the  most  ruthless  and  ferocious  banditti. 
Many  of  the  planters  applied  the  torch  to  their  cotton  rather 
than  it  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  rapacious  enemy. 
Porter  reported  to  his  Government  that  upwards  of  four  thou 
sand  bales  of  cotton  had  been  confiscated  and  rescued  by  his 
gunboats :  a  boastful  estimate,  much  above  the  truth.  If 
cotton  could  not  be  found,  the  Yankees  had  no  hesitation  in 
making  prizes  of  other  property  ;  and  when  disappointed  of 
plunder,  they  could  at  least  give  vent  to  their  feelings  in  a 
spirit  of  destruction  and  wanton  ferocity. 

Alexandria  was  occupied  without  resistance ;  and  from  that 
point  Smith  continued  his  advance  towards  Shreveport,  one 
hundred  and  seventy  miles  higher  up  Red  river.  In  the 
meantime,  Franklin  was  making  his  way  with  all  haste  across 
the  country  via  Franklin,  New  Iberia,  and  Opelousas,  with 
the  intention  of  joining  Smith  at  Alexandria ;  but  he  arrived 
at  that  place  too  late  for  the  purpose.  Smith's  forces  had 
already  gone  up  the  river,  and,  therefore,  in  order  to  consum 
mate  the  junction,  it  was  necessary  for  Franklin  to  move 
towards  Shreveport  over  land.  The  Yankee  army,  now  under 
command  of  General  Banks,  passed  Grand  Ecore,  sixty  miles 
from  Alexandria,  the  fleet  having,  meanwhile,  got  within  ore 
hundred  miles  of  Shreveport. 

This  latter  place,  on  the  Louisiana  boundary,  appears  to 
have  been  the  grand  objective  point  of  Banks'  campaign.  The 
Trans-Mississippi  district  might  be  considered  as  having  its 


256  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

centie  oi  supplies  and  resources  at  Shreveport,  and  it  was  an 
obvious  base  of  operations  against  Texas.  Appreciating  its 
importance,  and  with  a  view  of  sustaining  and  uniting  with 
Price,  who  was  falling  back  in  Arkansas,  General  Kirby 
Smith,  in  command  of  the  Confederates,  in  giving  up  Fort  De 
Russy  and  the  adjoining  country  had  resolved  to  make  a  stand 
to  cover  Shreveport,  and  had  merely  designed  to  draw  Banks 
to  a  decisive  point  of  the  campaign. 

On  the  7th  of  April,  Banks  encountered  a  body  of  Confed 
erate  cavalry,  under  General  Green,  about  two  miles  beyond 
Pleasant  Hill.  A  desultory  fight  ensued,  in  which  Green's 
cavalry,  lighting  in  the  strips  of  woods  along  the  road,  severely 
harassed  the  Yankees.  The  appearance  of  this  force  had 
probably  taken  Banks  by  surprise.  He  despatched  a  courier 
to  Franklin  urging  him  to  "  hasten  up,"  and  announcing  that 
he  was  "  surrounded  by  rebel  cavalry." 


BATTLE    OF   MANSFIELD. 

Four  miles  from  the  town  of  Mansfield,  on  the  8th  of  April. 
General  Banks  found  himself  encountered  by  a  considerable 
Confederate  army,  composed  of  forces  under  Kirby  Smith, 
Dick  Taylor,  Mouton,  Green,  and  some  of  Price's  men.  The 
Yankee  cavalry  were  cautiously  advancing,  when  the  Confed 
erates  suddenly  assailed  the  enemy's  front  in  strong  force. 
The  contest  continued  fiercely  for  several  hours,  when  the 
Yankees  were  driven  back  with  great  loss,  and  both  wings  of 
Banks'  army  flanked.  A  retreat  appeared  to  be  inevitable, 
should  the  Confederates  continue  to  assault  the  enemy's  front. 
The  Yankee  artillery  played  furiously  upon  the  Confederate 
lines.  But  they  continued  to  advance  boldly,  our  devoted 
men  evincing  a  desperate  determination  to  conquer  or  perish 
in  the  attempt.  An  order  of  retreat  was  at  last  given  by 
Banks.  But  the  retreating  force  found  the  road  blocked  up 
by  their  trains,  which  had  got  into  confusion.  The  retreat 
/soon  became  a  route  and  a  panic  ensued.  The  Confederates 
pushed  on  in  pursuit,  capturing  eighteen  guns,  all  of  General 
Lee's  wagon  trains,  and  driving  the  panic-stricken  mass  of 
fugitive  Yankees  for  ten  miles  to  Pleasant  Hill.  Here 


LT    GEN.    KIRBY    SMITH 


C-  B.  Richardson. 
Publisher. 


THE    THIKD    YEAR.  25 1 

Franklin,  who  had  at  last  come  up,  opened  his  line  of  battle 
and  allowed  the  latter  to  pass.  The  Yankees  reported  their 
loss  about  fifteen  hundred  killed,  wounded,  and  missing. 
Among  the  Confederates,  General  Mouton  had  fallen  in  the 
action,  his  body  pierced  by  four  balls. 


BATTLE   OF   PLEASANT   HILL. 

The  next  day  Banks  had  his  forces  well  in  hand  ;  during  the 
night  General  A.  J.  Smith  having  arrived  with  fresh  troops. 
The  place  he  had  selected  for  a  decisive  battle  was  a  large  open 
field,  once  cultivated,  but  now  overgrown  with  trees  and 
bushes.  In  the  centre  of  the  field  was  a  slight  elevation,  from 
which  the  name,  Pleasant  Hill,  was  taken  ;  and  a  semicircular 
belt  of  timber  ran  around  the  field  on  the  Shreveport  side. 

The  engagement  of  the  two  armies  was  scarcely  more  than 
skirmishing  until  about  five  o'clock  in  the  .afternoon.  One  of 
the  most  thrilling  scenes  of  mortal  contest  was  now  to  take 
place.  The  Confederates  reached  the  open  ground  and  moved 
on  to  the  attack  in  three  lines  of  battle.  The  Yankee  batteries 
and  infantry  opened  with  terrible  effect,  making  great  slaugh 
ter  with  grape  and  canister,  while  the  Confederate  artillery, 
being  in  the  woods  and  in  bad  position,  did  scarcely  any  dam 
age.  The  fighting  was  terrific.  The  Confederates  pressed 
furiously  on.  The  Yankees  were  pushed  back,  Taylor's  bat 
tery  taken,  and  the  enemy's  line  pushed  up  the  hill.  As  the 
second  line  of  Confederates  appeared  on  the  crest  of  the  hill, 
the  death-signal  was  sounded,  and  from  the  long  line  of  can 
non  and  crouching  forms  of  men  there  leaped  a  terrible  and 
destroying  fire.  Thousands  of  rifles  blazed  away,  and  cannon 
loaded  nearly  to  the  muzzles  belched  forth  destruction.  Find 
ing  it  impossible  to  force  the  enemy  further,  the  Confederates 
fought  their  way  slowly  and  steadily  back  to  their  original 
line.  The  enemy  could  not  be  rallied  after  such  proof  of 
valor.  In  vain  General  Smith  ordered  a  charge.  Night  was 

O  f3 

near  at  hand,  and   the  engagement  dwindled  into  desultory 
skirmishing. 

The  loss  of  the  enemy  in  this  engagement  is  not  exactly 
known,  though  probably  much  greater  than  he  reported — two 

17 


258  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

thousand.  After  the  battle  Banks  fell  back  to  the  line  of  the 
Red  River,  and  took  position  at  Grand  Ecore,  near  Nachitoches. 
Thus  ended  the  fearful  aud  bloody  struggle  for  the  control  of 
Western  Louisiana,  and  the  important  destinies  it  involved. 

Some  days  later  there  was  an  exchange  of  fire  between 
Porter's  gunboats  and  a  force  of  Confederate  mounted  infantry 
about  twenty-five  miles  above  Grand  Ecore,  in  which,  un 
happily,  the  brave  General  Green  was  killed  by  the  fragment 
of  a  shell. 

The  Yankees  made  various  pretences  to  conceal  the  extent 
of  their  disaster.  It  was  declared  that  the  redoubtable  Banks 
had  only  fallen  back  for  "  rest  and  rations,"  and  that  Steele 
was  pushing  forward  from  Arkansas  with  fifteen  thousand 
men.  The  fact  was  that  the  latter  commander  had  left  Little 
Rock  with  twelve  thousand  infantry,  and  three  thousand  cav 
alry  ;  but  Price,  whom  he  imagined  he  was  driving  helplessly 
before  him,  had  turned  at  Camden,  and  captured  all  his  trains. 
The  Yankee  version  of  this  event  was  that  Steele  had  broken 
through  Price's  lines  and  got  back  to  Little  Rock  to  save  it 
from  Marmaduke  who  was  advancing  upon  it. 

The  results  of  the  campaign  of  Kirby  Smith  were  for  us  the 
most  substantial  ever  achieved  in  the  Trans-Mississippi.  Th 
expedition  of  Banks  had  proved  a  failure,  and  nothing  was  left 
for  him  but  to  retreat  to  Alexandria,  after  losing  several  thou 
sand  prisoners,  and  thirty-five  pieces  of  artillery.  The  expedi 
tion  of  Steele  into  Western  Arkansas  had,  as  we  have  seen, 
ended  in  a  complete  disaster.  The  immediate  points  of  our 
victories,  as  summed  up  in  the  official  report  of  General  Kirby 
Smith,  were  eight  thousand  killed  and  wounded,  six  thousand 
prisoners,  thirty-five  pieces  of  artillery,  twelve  hundred  wagons, 
one  gunboat,  and  three  transports.  These  wagons  comprised 
the  whole  of  Steele's  train,  which  had  been  captured  in  Arkan 
sas.  It  was  supposed,  at  one  time,  that  the  portion  of  Por 
ter's  fleet,  above  the  falls  at  Alexandria,  would  have  to  be 
abandoned ;  but  they  were  released  from  their  unpleasant 
position  by  building  a  tree-dam  of  six  hundred  feet  across  the 
river  at  the  lower  falls,  which  enabled  all  the  vessels  to  pass — 
the  back-water  of  the  Mississippi  reaching  Alexandria,  and 
enabled  the  vessels  to  pass  over  all  the  shoals  and  the  obstruc 
tions  planted  by  the  Confederates,  to  a  point  of  safety. 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  259 

ft  was  late  in  the  month  of  May,  when  Banks  arrived  at 
IN  ;w  Orleans,  with  the  remnants  of  his  army.  In  moving 
across  the  country,  during  his  retreat  from  Alexandria,  he  left 
the  .Red  River  at  Fort  De  Russy,  and  struck  for  Sernmesport, 
where  he  crossed  the  Atchafalaya,  and  then  marched  to  Mor- 
ganza,  on  the  Mississippi.  The  complete  failure  of  the  expe 
dition  was  beyond  disguise,  and  was  the  topic  of  severe  criti 
cism  in  the  North.  Although  Banks  was  still  permitted  to 
remain  in  command  of  his  department,  as  were  Rosecrans  and 
Steele,  he  was  placed  under  the  order  of  General  Canby,  whose 
first  business  was  to  resupply  the  troops  brought  back  by  Gen 
eral  Steele  and  General  Banks  from  the  disastrous  campaign 
of  the  Red  River,  and  to  reorganize  from  these  disjected  mate 
rials  the  army  of  the  Trans-Mississippi. 

Banks'  splendid  empire  west  of  the  Mississippi  was  now 
practically  reduced  to  the  tenure  of  New  Orleans,  the  banks  of 
the  river,  and  a  strip  of  coast.  "If,"  said  a  "loyal"  observer, 
at  New  Orleans,  "  our  friends  at  the  North  choose  to  amuse 
themselves  with  the  idea  that  Louisiana  is  reclaimed,  and  again 
loyal,  we  ought  not  to  complain  of  so  cheap  an  entertainment. 
In  truth,  under  the  mild  sway  of  Governor  Hahn,  who  was 
elected  by  several  thousand  majority,  there  is  just  so  much  of 
Louisiana  in  the  Union  as  is  covered  by  our  pickets.  Outside 
of  New  Orleans,  no  Union  officer  or  citizen  can  ride  alone  in 
safety  two  miles  from  the  Mississippi,  except  where  our  organ 
ized  soldiery  move." 

Banks  had  stripped  the  coast  and  frontier  for  his  expedition 
towards  Shreveport.  He  had  played  a  heavy  stake  in  his 
campaign,  and  he  had  plainly  and  irrevocably  lost  it. 


FORREST  8    EXPEDITION    INTO    KENTUCKY. 

« 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi  we  left  Forrest,  the  fa 
mous  cavalry  chief  of  the  West,  driving  back  the  Yankee 
cavalry  that  had  threatened  to  descend  through  Northern  Mis 
sissippi  with  lire  and  sword.  The  unwearied  Confederate  was 
on  the  war  path  again. 

By  long  and  rapid  marches,  Forrest  and  his  men  found  them 
selves,  in  the  month  of  April,  on  the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  sweep- 


260  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ing  the  enemy  before  them,  wherever  they  could  meet  the  Yan 
kees,  capturing  hundreds  of  prisoners,  and  valuable  and  needed 
stores  in  the  quartermaster  and  ordnance  departments. 

On  the  12th  of  April,  at  Fort  Pillow,  near  Columbus,  Ken 
tucky,  our  brave  men,  in  the  face  of  a  murderous  fire  from  two 
Yankee  gunboats  and  six  pieces  of  artillery,  stormed  the  works, 
and  killed  or  captured  the  entire  garrison,  a  motley  herd  of 
negroes,  traitors,  and  Yankees. 

The  attack  was  made  with  a  part  of  Bell's  and  McCullogh's 
brigades,  under  Brigadier-general  J.  II.  Chalmers.  After  a 
short  fight,  we  drove  the  enemy,  seven  hundred  strong,  into 
the  fort  under  cover  of  their  gunboats,  and  demanded  a  surren 
der,  which  was  denied  by  Major  L.  W.  Booth,  commanding 
the  Yankee  forces.  General  Forrest  then  stormed  the  fort,  and 
after  a  contest  of  thirty  minutes  captured  the  entire  garrison, 
killing  five  hundred,  and  taking  one  hundred  horses  and  a  large 
amount  of  quartermaster's  stores.  The  officers  in  the  fort  were 
all  killed,  including  Major  Booth.  General  Forrest  sustained 
a  loss  of  twenty  killed  and  sixty  wounded.  Over  one  hundred 
citizens,  who  had  fled  to  the  fort  from  conscription,  ran  into 
the  river  and  were  drowned. 

Yankee  newspapers  entitled  this  affair  "the  Fort  Pillow 
Massacre."  There  is  no  doubt  that,  for  some  moments,  the 
Confederate  officers  lost  control  of  their  men,  who  were  mad 
dened  by  the  sight  of  negro  troops  opposing  them.  It  is  to  bo 
remarked,  too,  that  the  Yankees  and  negroes  in  Fort  Pillow 
neglected  to  haul  down  their  flag.  In  truth,  relying  upon  their 
gunboats,  the  Yankee  officers  expected  to  annihilate  our  forces 
after  we  had  entered  the  fortifications.  They  did  not  intend  to 
surrender. 

At  the  first  fire,  after  Forrest's  men  sealed  the  walls,  many 
of  the  negroes  threw  down  their  arms,  and  fell  as  if  they  were 
dead.  They  perished  in  the  pretence,  or  could  only  be  re 
stored  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  To  resuscitate  some  of 
them,  more  terrified  than  the  rest,  they  were  rolled  into  tlit? 
trenches  made  as  receptacles  for  the  fallen.  This  is  the  extent 
of  the  Yankee  story  of  u  burying  negroes  alive." 

The  fall  of  Fort  Pillow  was  soon  followed  by  the  news  of  the» 
surrender  of  Union  City,  and  five  hundred  and  fifty  "  tories," 
to  a  force  under  command  of  Colonel  Falker,  of  Kentucky  In 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  261 

the  meantime,  Forrest  had  pressed  rapidly  to  Paducah,  which 
place  was  reached  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the 
25th  of  April. 

The  Yankee  force  here  was  two  thousand  infantry,  one  negro 
regiment  and  two  gunboats  of  large  size,  carrying  heavy  siege 
pieces  and  rifled  six  pounders.  Two  siege  pieces  were  mounted 
at  the  fort,  and  a  battery  of  light  artillery  inside.  The  attack 
began  at  once,  not,  however,  with  the  object  of  capturing  or 
routing  the  enemy  here  ;  for  it  was  well  known  that  he  would 
take  shelter  behind  his  fortifications,  which  were  strong  and 
made  impregnable  by  abattis,  ditches  and  spikes;  but  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  possession  of  the  town,  and  capturing  or  de 
stroying  the  immense  quantities  of  commissary,  quartermaster, 
ordnance  and  medical  supplies.  The  enemy  was  immediately 
driven  into  and  beyond  the  town,  behind  his  fortifications, 
where  he  was  kept  until  night,  while  the  Confederates  were 
capturing  or  destroying  his  stores. 

Our  forces  retiring  at  nightfall,  the  enemy  immediately  set 
fire  to  two  blocks  of  buildings  behind  which  our  men  had  been 
fighting,  fearing  that  the  attack  would  be  renewed  in  the  morn 
ing.  Nearly  the  whole  town  was  thus  burned  to  ashes,  and 
great  damage  done  to  the  remainder  by  shelling. 

The  results  of  this  expedition  across  the  State  of  Kentucky 
were  especially  gratifying  to  the  Confederacy,  not  only  for  its 
valuable  results  in  captures,  but  for  the  well  merited  chastise 
ment  it  had  inflicted  upon  the  enemy  in  a  quarter  where,  with 
his  convenient  allies  in  white  "tories"  and  negro  banditti,  he 
had  long  practised  with  impunity  the  most  infamous  outrages. 
The  Yankees  liberally  applied  to  this  expedition  the  epithets 
of  "  assassination,"  "  massacre,"  &c. ;  but  these  were  nothing 
more  than  their  usual  terms  for  those  Confederate  successes 
under  which  they  especially  smarted. 

CAPTURE  OF  PLYMOUTH,  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

The  detached  military  events  of  the  latter  part  of  the  winter 
of  1863-64-,  and  the  ensuing  spring — all  of  them  successes  for  the 
Confederacy — were  to  be  crowned  with  an  important  victory 
in  North  Carolina. 

After  some  hesitation  by  the  Confederate  authorities,  Briga- 


SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

dier-general  Hoke,  a  young  and  energetic  North  Carolinian, 
was  permitted  to  organize  and  lead  an  expedition  against  Ply 
mouth,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Roanoke,  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  miles  below  "Weldoii. 

Our  forces  consisted  of  Hansom's  and  Hoke's  North  Carolina 
brigades,  commanded  by  General  Ransom  and  Colonel  Mercer, 
of  the  Twenty-first  Georgia ;  Kemper's  Virginia  brigade,  com 
manded  by  Colonel  Terry;  Colonel  Dearing's  regiment  ot 
cavalry,  and  seven  batteries  of  field  artillery,  under  Lieutenant- 
colonel  Branch  and  Major  Reid — General  Hoke,  as  senior 
brigadier,  commanding  the  entire  force. 

For  nearly  twelve  months  the  Yankees  had  been  busy  with 
pick  and  spade  at  Plymouth.  They  had  thrown  up  a  very 
heavy  fortification  in  front,  extending  from  the  river  to  Conoby 
creek — a  distance  of  a  mile — with  a  deep  ditch  in  front.  At 
short  intervals  along  this  line  were  siege  arid  field  guns  in  em 
brasure  ;  and  in  the  centre  was  the  "  Williams  Fort,"  mounting 
six  very  heavy  siege  and  three  field  guns  in  batteries.  This 
fort  occupied  a  commanding  elevation ;  was  exceedingly 
strong,  with  a  deep  ditch  and  impenetrable  stockade  surround 
ing  it,  enclosed  on  all  sides,  and,  in  case  of  assault,  was  pro 
tected  with  a  heavy  gate  and  drawbridge,  thus  closing  the 
only  entrance  into  the  fort.  Inside  of  this  line  were  three 
other  forts,  mounting  two  to  four  siege  guns  in  barbette,  pro 
tecting  their  left  flank  and  rear.  Immediately  upon  the  river 
was  one  two-hundred-pound  Parrott  rifle  in  position.  On  the 
right  flank,  about  six  hundred  yards  in  advance  of  the  main 
line,  was  "  Fort  Wessell,"  similar  to  Fort  Williams — not  so 
large — and  mounting  two  guns.  One  mile  higher  up  the  river 
was  "  Fort  Warren,"  of  like  construction,  mounting  one  one- 
hundred-pound  Parrott,  and  several  other  guns  of  heavy  cali 
bre,  all  commanding  the  river  and  any  land  attack.  In  addi 
tion  were  four  gunboats  to  co-operate  with  these  forts. 

The  force  in  the  town  and  at  Warren  Neck  consisted  of  the 
Sixteenth  Connecticut,  Eighty-fifth  New  York,  One  Hundred 
and  First  and  One  Hundred  and  Third  Pennsylvania,  two  com 
panies  of  Massachusetts  heavy  artillery,  one  battery  of  light  artil 
lery,  and  two  squadrons  of  cavalry,  the  whole  commanded  by 
Brigadier-general  Wessell,  of  the  old  United  States  army. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  our  forces  were  within  two  miles  oi 


TH.b    THIRD    YEAR. 

Plymouth,  having  marched  through  swamps  and  acre  ss  swollen 
creeks  a  distance  of  seventy-five  miles  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  enemy.  Kemper's  brigade,  with  a  battery  of  twelve 
pounder  Napoleons  and  three  twenty-pounder  Parrotts,  was  de 
tached  to  attack  Warren  Neck,  a  strong  position  on  the  river 
a  mile  above  the  town,  which  the  enemy  thought,  and  w^ 
feared,  would  effectually  stop  the  passage  of  our  "  ram  " — the 
Albemarle — and  so  deprive  us  of  her  valuable  aid. 

About  sunset,  Bearing  and  Reid,  with  their  rifle  artillery, 
opened  a  brisk  fire  upon  Fort  Warren,  at  fifteen  hundred 
yards,  with  marked  effect,  soon  cutting  down  the  garrison  flag 
staff.  The  gunboats  steamed  up  to  the  assistance  of  the  fort. 
One  was  speedily  sunk  and  another  seriously  damaged. 

Early  the  next  morning,  our  artillery  under  Colonel  Branch 
opened  a  heavy  fire  upon  the  enemy's  works,  which  they  vigor 
ously  responded  to.  That  afternoon  General  Hoke  determined 
to  carry  "  Fort  Wessell  "  with  his  and  Kemper's  brigades,  and 
one  battery  under  Major  Reid  ;  he  ordered  Ransom,  with  his 
brigade,  and  Branch,  with  fourteen  pieces  of  artillery,  to  make 
a  heavy  demonstration  simultaneously  with  his  attack. 

Ransom's  brigade,  with  the  8th  North  Carolina,  was  drawn 
up  in  the  woods,  facing  the  works  on  the  Washington,  Lee's 
Mill,  and  Bath  roads.  A  heavy  line  of  skirmishers  was  thrown 
out,  and  advancing  rapidly  with  the  peculiar  gait  of  the  sharp 
shooters,  and  the  yell  with  which  Confederate  troops  go  to  the 
charge,  drove  the  enemy  back  into  his  works,  and  approached 
within  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  fort,  earnestly  de 
manding  to  be  led  into  the  place.  Meanwhile,  Pegram's  bat 
tery  dashed  forward  at  a  run,  supported  by  the  infantry,  anc 
unlimbering,  delivered  a  furious  fire  upon  the  devoted  place 
Three  times  the  infantry  advanced,  each  time  nearer,  unti* 
within  good  charging  distance  ;  but  the  artillery  had  it  all  to 
themselves.  The  movement  was  merely  a  demonstration  to 
call  off  the  enemy's  attention  from  Hoke's  attack1  upon  Fort 
Wessel. 

The  enemy  being  now  fully  engaged  on  the  right,  General 
Hoke  made  a  vigorous  attack  upon  Fort  Wessell  with  artillery 
and  infantry — the  enemy  opposing  a  spirited  resistance.  Our 
infantry  again  and  again  charged  the  fort,  the  enemy  hurling 
at. them  hand-grenades;  but  the  strong  stockade,  deep  ditch, 


264  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  liigli  parapet  prevented  our  men  from  scaling  it.  Dnrir.g 
one  of  these  charges,  the  intrepid  Colonel  Mercer,  command 
ing  Iloke's  brigade,  fell  mortally  wounded  at  the  head  of  his 
command.  Finally,  our  infantry  surrounded  the  fort,  the  ar 
tillery  advanced  to  within  two  hundred  yards  of  it,  and  Colo 
nel  Dearing,  in  behalf  of  General  Hoke,  demanded  a  surrend 
er  of  the  place,  which  was  immediately  complied  with,  and 
fifty-two  prisoners  marched  to  the  rear. 

About  two  o'clock  the  next  morning,  our  iron-clad,  the  Al- 
bemarle,  mounting  two  Brooke  rifled  guns,  and  commanded 
by  Captain  Cooke,  passed  easily  over  the  obstructions  from 
the  high  water,  passed  Fort  Warren  without  eliciting  a  shot, 
our  sharpshooters  so  closely  investing  the  fort  that  the  coward 
ly  cannoniers  would  not  man  their  guns.  Steaming  just  below 
Plymouth,  she  met  the  Miami,  commanded  by  Flusser,  and  the 
Southfield,  under  French.  They  were  side  by  side  of  each  other^ 
and  connected  by  heavy  iron  cables,  with  the  hope  of  entan 
gling  the  Albemarle  and  running  her  ashore,  or  breaking  her 
propeller,  and  then  boarding  her.  Each  of  these  boats  carried 
eight  guns  of  very  heavy  calibre,  and  were  regarded  equal  to 
any  in  the  waters  of  Eastern  Carolina.  The  gallant  Cooke 
headed  directly  for  the  Southfield,  gave  her  the  contents  of  his 
bow  gun,  and  striking  her  forward  with  his  prow,  she  imme 
diately  began  to  sink,  and  with  such  rapidity,  that  before  the 
Albemarle  could  disengage  herself  she  was  well  nigh  carried 
down,  water  running  in  at  her  ports.  This  occasioning 
some  delay,  the  Miami  fled,  but  not  until  she  was  severely 
punished,  her  commander,  Flusser,  and  many  of  her  crew  be 
ing  killed. 

Having  obtained  possession  of  Fort  "Wessell,  General  Hoke 
arranged  his  forces  for  an  assault  upon  the  town,  sending  Han 
som  on  the  right  to  make  a  demonstration  or  attack  as  he 
thought  best,  while  Hoke,  with  his  and  Kemper's  brigades, 
would  attack  on  the  left. 

At  early  dawn  on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  our  infantry 
moved  forward,  and  our  artillery,  consisting  of  Elount's,  Mar 
shall's,  and  Lee's  batteries,  under  Colonel  Branch,  dashed  for 
ward  at  a  full  gallop  into  position,  and  opened  immediately 
upon  the  town  and  forts  at  about  twelve  hundred  yards.  The 
enemy  by  this  time  had  concentrated  a  most  terrific  fire  from 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  205 

their  siege  and  field  gvms.  Just  at  this  time  General  Iloke 
opened,  with  his  artillery,  a  very  rapid  and  tremendous  lire, 
and  his  infantry  sent  up  yell  after  yell  as  if  charging.  Ransom 
caught1  the  sound,  and  rising  in  his  stirrups,  from  the  head  and 
right  of  the  line,  in  a  elear  and  ringing  voice  gave  the  com 
mand,  "  Charge,  boys,  and  the  place  is  yours." 

In  ten  minutes  the  two  outer  forts,  with  eight  guns,  were 
captured,  our  infantry  scaling  their  parapets,  and  the  artillery 
within  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  forts,  horses  and 
limbers  blown  up  and  cannoniers  shot  down,  and  yet  those  re 
maining  stood  to  their  guns,  without  shelter,  confident  of  vic 
tory  and  to  avenge  their  dead.  The  whole  command,  officers 
and  men,  infantry  and  artillery,  seemed  enthused  with  the  in 
spiration  of  certain  victory.  Several  hundred  prisoners  were 
captured  in  these  forts,  which  were  immediately  sent  to  the 
rear,  and  now  began  the  contest  for  the  town,  more  than  half 
a  mile  in  length,  the  enemy's  infantry  slowly  retiring,  and 
stubbornly  resisting  our  advance;  Fort  Williams  dealing  out 
grape  and  spherical  case ;  their  field-pieces,  at  the  further  ex 
tremities  of  the  broad,  straight  streets,  raking  them  with  a 
murderous  fire ;  their  infantry,  in  the  houses  and  cellars,  and 
behind  fences,  delivering  galling  charges  of  ininies ;  but  all 
of  no  avail ;  our  men  were  aroused,  confident,  and  irresistible. 
They  pressed  on  steadily,  without  halt  or  hesitation,  tearing 
down  fences,  hedges,  and  every  obstacle  that  they  met,  cap 
turing  the  enemy  at  every  step. 

The  town  was  ours.  But  still  Wessell,  shut  up  in  his  strong 
hold,  Fort  Williams,  refused  to  yield.  A  heavy  cannonade 
was  opened  upon  the  fort,  and  the  garrison  was  galled  by  our 
sharpshooters.  At  last  some  of  the  Confederates,  creeping  for 
ward  through  the  intrenchments,  got  an  enfilading  fire  upon 
them,  which  soon  brought  them  to  terms,  and  hundreds  of 
them  rushed  out  of  the  fort  without  arms  and  surrendered. 
Just  at  this  time  a  shell  burst  directly  on  the  magazine,  and 
when  the  smoke  cleared  away,  the  hated  flag  was  fluttering 
rapidly  down  to  the  ground. 

The  fruits  of  this  capture  were  sixteen  hundred  prisoners; 
twenty-five  pieces  of  artillery,  vast  quantities  of  commissary 
and  quartermaster  supplies,  arid  immense  ordnance  stores. 
Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  about  three  hunrlrp/1.  We 


266  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

had  also  destroyed  two  gunboats,  and  with  all,  had  obtained 
the  strong  position  of  Plymouth,  which  protected  the  whole 
Roanoke  valley. 

The  Yankees  now  held  but  two  places  on  the  North  Carolina 
coast,  Washington,  at  the  mouth  of  Tar  river,  and  Newbern, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Neuse.  The  latter  was  strongly  gar 
risoned,  but  the  larger  part  of  the  forces  at  Washington  had 
been  moved  up  to  Plymouth.  It  was  supposed  that  General 
lioke  would  prosecute  his  campaign  against  Newborn  ;  but 
his  forces  were  suddenly  to  be  recalled  to  more  imposing 
scenes,  and  to  a  participation  in  the  great  crisis  of  1864  in 
Virginia. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  267 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

Close  of  the  Third  Year  of  the  War. — Sketch  of  the  Subaequet y  op«>  *Vi' ns  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Georgia. — GRANT'S  "  ON-TO-RICHMOND." — The  CommraaUjA  Against  the 
Confederate  Capital. — THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  WILDERNESS. — A  Thrill/  \£  Crisis.  —Grant 
on  the  Verge  of  Rout. — His  First  Design  Baffled. — THE  BATTLES  an  GPOTTSYLVANIA 
COURT-HOUSE. — Death  of  General  Sedgwick.— THE  CARNAGE  OF  MA*  THE  12TH. — Five 
Battles  in  Six  Days. — Grant's  Obstinacy. — "The  Butcher." — Shdudan's  Expedition. 
—Death  of  General  "Jeb"  Stuart.— Butler's  Operations  on  the  South  Side  of  the 
uames. — "  The  Beast"  at  the  Back-Door  of  Richmond. — He  is  Driven  to  Bermuda 
Hundred  by  Beauregard.— Defeat  of  Sigel  in  the  Valley. — Grant's  Movement  Down 
the  Valley  of  the  Rappahannock.— His  Passage  of  the  Pamunkey. — Re-organization  of 
General  Lee's  Lines.— Grant's  Favorite  Tactics. — Yankee  Exultation  at  his  Approach 
to  Richmond — Caricatures  of  the  Confederacy. — A  Hasty  Apotheosis. — A  True  The 
ory  of  Grant's  "  Flank  Movements." — His  Occupation  of  McClellan's  Old  Lines. — THE 
BATTLE  OF  THE  CHICKAHOMINY  OR  COLD  HARBOR. — A  Confederate  Victory  in  Ten 
Minutes. — What  Had  Become  of  Yankee  Exultation. — Review  of  the  Rival  Routes  to 
Richmond.— Grant  Crosses  the  James  River. — His  Second  Grand  Combination  Against 
Richmond. — Hunter's  Capture  of  Staunton. — THE  BATTLES  OF  PETERSRURG. — General 
Wise's  Heroic  Address. — Engagement  of  16th  June. — Grand  Assault  of  18th  June. — 
on  "  the  Cockade  City." — A  Decisive  defeat  of  the  Yankees. — Engagement  at  Port 
Walthal  Junction — Sheridan's  Defeat  Near  Gordonsville.  —  Hunter's  Repulse  at 
Lynchburg. — Two  Affairs  on  the  Weldon  Railroad. — Grant's  Second  Combination  a 
Complete  Failure. — Discouragement  of  the  North. — The  Gold  Barometer. — Secretary 
Chase's  Declaration. — SHERMAN'S  "  ON-TO- ATLANTA." — His  Flanking  Movement. — 
Engagement  in  Resaca  Valley. — Johnston's  Retreat — Engagement  at  New  Hope. — 
Johnston's  Telegram  to  Richmond. — Defeat  of  Sturgis's  Expedition  in  Mississippi. — 
BATTLE  OF  KENESAW  MOUNTAIN. — Sherman's  Successful  Strategy. — The  Confederates 
Fall  Back  to  Atlanta. — THE  BATTLES  OF  ATLANTA. — Hood's  Gallant  Defence. —  .... 
The  Military  Situation  in  July,  1864. — Grant's  Failure. — His  Consumption  of  Troops. 
— Review  of  Yankee  Atrocities  in  the  Summer  Campaign  of  1864. — Sherman's  Char 
acter. — His  Letter  on  "  Wild  Beasts."— His  War  on  Factory  Girls.—  Sufferings  of 
Confederate  Women  and  Children. — Ravages  in  Georgia. — Hunter's  Vandalism  in 
Virginia. — "The  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow." — Sturgis  and  his  Demons. — The  Spirit  of 
the  Confederates. —  .  .  .  Some  Words  on  "  Peace  Negotiations." — A  Piratical  Prop 
osition  and  an  Infamous  Bribe. — The  Heroic  Choice  of  the  Confederates. 

THE  third  year  of  the  war  closes  properly  at  the  month  of 
May,  according  to  our  arrangement  of  dates  in  preceding  vol 
umes.  But  on  account  of  the  magnitude  of  what  is  closely 
subsequent,  it  is  thought  advisable  to  give  a  summary  and  very 
general  SKETCH  of  the  material  events  of  the  enemy's  two  grand 
campaigns  of  the  summer  of  1864 — the  parallel  operations  or 
Grant  and  Sherman  in  Yirginia  and  in  Georgia; — at  least,  so 


268  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

far  as  to  bring  the  reader  to  a  stand-point  of  intelligent  obser 
vation,  with  reference  to  questions  of  peace  and  negotiation 
which  were  agitating  the  public  mind  at  the  time  these  pages 
were  committed  to  the  press.  We  shall  follow  their  campaigns 
only  to  what  appear  to  be  their  decisive  stages  in  June  and 
July,.  The  period  we  shall  thus  rapidly  traverse  we  hope  to 
go  over  in  another  volume  with  a  more  perspicuous  narrative, 
and  certainly  with  much  more  abundant  detail. 

GRANT'S  "  ON-TO-RICHMOND."* 

General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  was  now  to  answer  the  eager  ex 
pectation  of  the  public  by  a  campaign  of  unrivalled  importance 
in  Virginia.  He  had  hitherto  been  known  in  the  North  as  the 
great  General  of  the  West,  and  the  Yankee  newspapers  had 
entitled  him  the  hero  of  Fort  Donelson,  Shiloh,  and  Vicks- 
burg.  His  elevation  had  been  rapid.  Four  years  ago  the 
man  who  commanded  all  the  armies  of  the  North  had  been  a 
tanner,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  had  been  accidentally 
selected  to  lead  a  regiment  of  raw  recruits. 

From  the  moment  of  receiving  his  commission  as  Lieutenant- 
General,  Grant  had  transferred  his  personal  presence  to  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  leaving  Sherman  as  his  vicegerent  to 
carry  out  the  Western  campaign.  Warren,  Sedgwick,  and 
Hancock,  were  made  the  corps  commanders  of  this  army,  and 
Bnrnside  was  given  a  separate  army  corps.  Butler  at  Fortress 
Monroe  was  reinforced  by  the  Tenth  corps  from  Charleston 
under  Gilmore,  and  the  Eighteenth  from  the  West,  under 
"  Baldy"  Smith.  To  the  infamous  hero  of  New  Orleans  was 
allotted  the  task  of  cutting  oif  the  city  of  Richmond  from  its 
southern  lines  of  communication  ;  while  Sigel  operating  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  was  to  cut  the  railroad  which  by  way  01 
Gordonsville  connected  Lee's  army  with  his  principal  base  of 
supplies  at  Lynchburg. 

Thus  were  the  preparations  completed  for  the  most  momen 
tons  campaign  in  American  history.     On  Wednesday,  May  4, 
nist  eight  weeks  from   the  day  Grant  received  his  commis 
sion,  his  two  grand  columns  were  ready  to  move — the  one 

*  Tiiis,  and  the  subsequent  sketches  of  battles  in  this  chapter,  are  treated 
more  fully  in  chapters  xiv.,  xv.,  and  xvi. 


THE    TH1BD    YEAR.  269 

well  in  hand  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Rapidan,  seventy  miles 
north  cf  Richmond,  and  the  other  at  Fortress  Monroe,  one 
day's  sail  from  Richmond  on  the  James. 


THE   BATTLES    OF   THE    WILDERNESS. 

At  dawn  on  the  5th  of  May,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
closely  succeeded  by  that  of  Burnside,  had  crossed  the  Rapi- 
dan  river  ;  the  Second  corps  at  Ely's,  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  corps 
at  Germania  ford.  Having  crossed  the  river,  the  first  demon 
stration  of  the  enemy  was  an  attempt  to  turn  the  right  flank 
of  Lee's  army,  between  the  Orange  Court-house  pike  and  the 
river.  The  assault  \vas  sustained  by  Heth  and  Wilcox's  di 
visions  of  the  Confederate  Army,  during  the  entire  day  ;  and 
that  it  was  successfully  sustained  even  the  Northern  account? 
do  not  hesitate  to  admit.  uNo  cheer  of  victory,"  says  a  Nor 
them  correspondent,"  swelled  through  the  Wilderness  thai 
night." 

During  the  day  Hancock,  Second  corps,  had  come  up,  and 
the  Federal  forces  were  concentrated.  On  the  morning  of  the 
6th  their  lines  were  consolidated  and  freshly  posted  ;  the  three 
corps  sustaining  their  respective  positions — Warren  in  the 
centre,  Sedgwick  on  the  right,  and  Hancock  on  the  left. 

The  attack  was  made  by  the  Confederates ;  Hill  and  Long- 
street's  corps  attacking  both  of  Hancock's  flanks  with  such 
fury,  that  the  whole  line  of  command  thus  assaulted  is  broken 
in  several  places.  The  effort,  however,  of  the  Confederates  to 
pierce  the  enemy's  centre  is  stayed,  the  Yankees  having  secured 
their  line  of  battle  behind  their  entrenchments. 

But  with  the  expiration  of  the  day  was  to  occur  a  thrilling 
and  critical  conjuncture.  Just  at  dusk  (the  Confederates'  fa 
vorite  hour  of  battle)  a  column  of  Lee's  army  attacked  the 
enemy's  left,  captured  Seymour  and  a  large  portion  of  his  bri 
gade,  and  excited  a  panic  which  put  Grant's  whole  army  on 
the  verge  of  irretrievable  rout.  Unfortunately,  the  Confed 
erates  had  no  idea  of  the  extent  of  their  success,  and  could  not 
imagine  how  fraught  witli  vital  issue  were  those  few  moments 
of  encounter.  The  Yankee  supply  trains  were  thought  to  be 
immediately  threatened,  and  artillery  was  posted  to  bear  upon 


270  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  Confederate  advance  in  that  direction.  But  the  Confed 
erates  did  not  press  their  advantage.  As  it  was,  Generals 
Shaler  and  Seymour,  with  the  greater  part  of  their  commands, 
wen?  taken  prisoners. 

Such  had  been  the  two  days'  battle  of  the  Wilderness :  a 
marked  success  for  the  Confederates,  disputed  by  the  Northern 
newspapers,  of  course,  but  manifest  in  the  face  of  the  facts. 
The  enemy  confessed  to  a  loss  of  twelve  thousand.  The  im 
mediate  consequence  of  these  engagements  was,  that  Grant 
being  clearly  outgeneralled  in  his  first  design  of  reaching  Lee's 
rear  and  compelling  him  to  fight  a  battle  with  his  communica 
tions  cut  off,  which  would  be  decisive  of  the  campaign,  was 
forced  to  change  his  plans,  and  with  it  his  position  ;  falling 
back  to  his  entrenched  line,  between  the  Wilderness  and  Trigg's 
Mill,  nearly  coincident  with  the  Brock  road,  leading  from  the 
Wilderness  to  Spottsylvania  Court-house. 

On  the  7th,  with  some  desultory  fighting,  Grant  continued 
his  movement  towards  Fredericksburg,  with  the  evident  view 
of  attempting  the  Fredericksburg  road  to  Richmond.  It  was 
in  consequence  of  this  change  of  front  that  General  Lee  took 
up  a  new  line  on  the  Po.  It  will  amuse  the  candid  reader  to 
find  how  this  movement  was  interpreted  by  the  mendacious 
press  of  the  North ;  for,  in  the  newspapers  of  New  York  and 
Boston  it  was  entitled,  in  flaming  capitals,  "  A  Waterloo  De 
feat  of  the  Confederates,"  "The  Retreat  of  Lee  to  Richmond," 
&c.  For  a  few  days  the  North  was  vocal  with  exultation,  and 
for  the  hundredth  time  it  had  the  Rebellion  "  in  a  corner,"  to 
be  conveniently  strangled.  But  this  imagination  of  easy 
conquest,  was  to  be  dissipated  as  the  many  that  had  pre 
ceded  it. 


THE   BATTLES    OF    SPOTTSYLVANIA    COURT-HOUSE. 

On  the  8th  of  May  two  engagements  wei»e  fought  at  Spott 
sylvania  Court-house,  between  Longstreet's  corps,  under  An 
derson  (General  Longstreet  having  been  wounded  in  the  battle 
of  the  6th)  and  the  Fifth  corps,  under  Warren,  supported  by 
cavalry.  The  enemy  was  repulsed,  with  heavy  loss,  in  boti 
instances. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  271 

On  the  9th,  which  was  marked  by  some  skirmishing,  Gen 
eral  John  Sedgwick,  one  of  the  most  valuable  corps  command 
ers  in  the  Yankee  army,  was  killed,  probably  by  a  stray  bullet. 
He  had  just  been  bantering  his  men  about  dodging  and  duck 
ing  their  heads  at  the  whistle  of  Confederate  bullets  in  the  dis 
tance.  "  Why,"  said  he,  "  they  couldn't,  hit  an  elephant  at  this 
distance."  The  next  moment  a  ball  entered  his  face,  just 
below  the  left  eye,  and  pierced  his  brain,  causing  instant 
death. 

On  Thursday,  the  12th  of  May,  occurred  what  may  be 
entitled  as  the  great  battle  of  Spottsylvania  Court-house. 
The  enemy  had  planned  an  attack  on  what  was  supposed  to  be 
a  vital  section  of  the  Confederates,  a  salient  angle  of  earth 
works  held  by  Johnson's  division  of  Ewell's  corps.  The  storm 
ing  column  advanced  silently,  and  without  firing  a  shot,  up  to 
the  angles  of  the  breastworks,  over  which  they  rushed,  taking 
the  forces  within  in  flank,  surrounding  them,  capturing  nearly 
the  entire  division  of  Johnson's,  with  its  commander,  and  also 
a  brigade  or  two  of  other  troops,  Brigadier-general  George  H, 
Stuart  in  command. 

But  the  surprise  was  only  momentary.  For  long  hours  a 
battle  raged  over  those  intrenchments,  the  intense  fury,  hero 
ism,  and  horror  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  describe.  From 
dawn  to  dusk  the  roar  of  guns  was  ceaseless ;  a  tempest  of 
shell  shrieked  through  the  forest  and  ploughed,  the  field. 
Ewell's  corps  held  the  critical  angle  with  a  courage  that  noth 
ing  could  subdue.  General  Hill  moved  down  from  the  right, 
joined  Ewell,  and  threw  his  divisions  into  the  struggle.  Long- 
street  came  on  from  the  extreme  left  of  the  Confederate  line. 
Column  after  column  of  the  enemy  was  hewn  down,  or 
repulsed  and  sent  back  like  a  broken  wave.  At  all  points  the 
enemy  was  repulsed  with  enormous  loss.  The  ground  in  front 
of  the  Confederate  lines  was  piled  with  his  slain. 

The  sixth  day  of  heavy  fighting  had  been  ended.  "  It 
would,"  says  an  intelligent  critic  of  this  period,  "  not  be  im 
possible  to  match  the  results  of  any  one  day's  battle  with 
btories  from  the  wars  of  the  old  world  ;  but  never,  we  should 
think,  in  the  history  of  man  were  five  such  battles  as  these 
compressed  into  six  clays."  Grant  had  been  foiled;,  but  his 
obstinacy  was  apparently  untouched,  and  the  fierce  and  brutal 


272  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE 

consumption  of  human  life,  another  element  of  his  generalship, 
and  which  had  already  obtained  for  him  with  his  soldiers  the 
soubriquet  of  "  the  butcher,"  was  still  to  continue.  He  te.e 
graphed  to  Washington  :  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this 
line,  if  it  takes  all  summer." 

But  we  must  turn  for  a  few  moments  from  this  dominant 
field  of  action  and  interest  to  notice  other  movements,  which 
were  parts  of  Grant's  combination,  and  of  the  great  military 
drama  in  Virginia. 

While  Grant  was  engaged  on  the  Rapidan,  a  cavalry  expe 
dition  of  the  enemy,  commanded  by  General  Sheridan,  moved 
around  Lee's  right  flank  to  the  North  Anna  river ;  committed 
Borne  damage  at  Beaver  Dam  ;  moved  thence  to  the  South 
Anna  and  Ashland  station^  where  the  railroad  was  destroyed  ; 
and  finally  found  its  way  to  the  James  at  Turkey  Island, 
where  it  joined  the  forces  of  Butler.  The  damage  inflicted  by 
this  raid  was  not  very  considerable ;  but  it  was  the  occasion  of 
a  severe  fight,  on  the  10th  May,  at  Yellow  Tavern,  on  the  road 
to  Richmond,  where  Sheridan  encountered  a  Confederate  cav 
alry  force,  in  which  engagement  was  lost  the  valuable  life  o* 
General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  the  brilliant  cavalry  commander,  wh<_ 
had  so  long  made  Virginia  the  theatre  of  his  daring  and  chiv 
alric  exploits. 

The  column  of  Butler,  the  important  correTpDndent  to 
Grant's  movement,  intended  to  operate  against  .fa'  Jimond  on 
the  south  side,  had  raised  the  hopes  of  the  !NV.<:Ja  merely  tc 
dash  them  by  a  failure  decisive  in  its  character,  '*nd  ridiculous 
in  all  its  circumstances.  On  the  5ih  of  May,  '3.v!er  proceeded 
with  his  fleet  of  gunboats  and  transports,  a-<0  the  Tenth  and 
Eighteenth  army  corps,  up  the  James  river,  landing  atWil- 
eon's  Wharf  a  regiment  of  Wild's  negro  troops,  and  two 
brigades  of  the  same  color  at  Fort  Fowhatan  ;  thence  up  to 
City  Point,  where  Ilinks'  division  was  landed  ;  and  at  Ber 
muda  Hundred,  just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Appomattox,  the 
entire  army  was  disembarked. 

On  the  Tth,  five  brigades,  under  General  Brooks,  struck  for 
the  Petersburg  and  Hichirond  Hailroad,  and  succeeded  in 
destroying  a  bridge  seven  miles  north  of  Petersburg.  In  the 
menn  time,  Butler,  after  intrenching  himself,  closed  about  the 
defences  of  Drury's  Bluff.  The  Yankee  genjral  seemed  confi- 


C  EN.  J.  E.3.   STUART. 
un-lire . 


Richardson 
Lstier. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  273 

dent  that  he  could,  by  a  little  fighting,  in  conjunction  with  the 
powerful  flotilla  upon  the  James,  easily  overcome  the  main 
barrier  to  his  approach  to  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  capital, 
presented  in  the  defences  of  Drury's  Bluff.  It  was  already 
announced  to  the  credulous  public  of  the  North  that  Butler 
had  cut  Beauregard's  army,  in  twain  ;  that  he  had  carried  two 
lines  of  the  defences  of  Drury's  Bluff;  and  that  he  held  the 
keys  to  the  back-door  of  Richmond. 

On  Monday,  the  16th  of  May,  General  Beauregard  fell  upon 
the  insolent  enemy  in  a  fog,  drove  Butler  from  his  advanced 
positions  back  to  his  original  earthworks,  and  inflicted  upon  him 
a  loss  of  five  thousand  men  in  killed,  wounded,  and  captured. 
He  had  fallen  upon  the  right  of  the  Yankee  line  of  battle  with 
the  force  of  an  avalanche,  completely  crushing  it  backward 
and  turning  Butler's  flank.  The  action  was  decisive.  Tho 
day's  operations  resulted  in  Butler's  entire  army  being  ordered 
to  leturn  from  its  advanced  position,  within  ten  miles  of  Rich- 
mond,  to  the  line  of  defence  known  as  Bermuda  Hundred,  be 
tween  the  James  aiid  Appornattox  rivers. 

While  Butler  had  thus  come  to  grief,  the  failure  of  Sigel, 
who  threatened  the  valley  of  Virginia,  was  no  less  complete. 
On  the  15th  his  column  was  encountered  near  Newmarket  by 
General  Breckinridge,  who  drove  it  across  the  Shenandoah, 
captured  six  pieces  of  artillery  and  nearly  one  thousand  stand 
of  small  arms,  and  inflicted  upon  it  a  heavy  loss ;  Sigel  aban 
doning  his  hospitals  and  destroying  the  larger  portion  of  hia 
train. 

We  left  Grant  defeated  in  the  action  of  the  12th  in  front  of 
Spottsylvania  Court-house.  On  the  14rth,  he  moved  his  lines 
by  his  left  flank,  taking  position  nearer  the  Richmond  and 
Fredericksburg  railroad.  On  the  18th  he  attempted  an  assault 
on  Ewell's  line,  which  was  easily  repulsed.  It  was  admitted  by 
the  enemy  that  the  object  of  this  attack  was  to  turn  Lee's  left 
flank,  and  that  their  line  got  no  further  than  the  abattis,  when 
it  was  "  ordered  "  back  to  its  original  position. 

A  new  movement  was  now  undertaken  by  Grant :  to  pass 
his  army  from  the  line  of  the  Po,  down  the  valley  of  the  Rap- 
pahannock.  It  thus  became  necessary  for  General  Lee  to  evac 
uate  his  strong  position  on  the  line  of  the  Po ;  and  by  an  ad 
mirable  movement  he  had  taken  a  new  position  between  the 

18 


274  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 

ISTorth  and  South  Anna,  before  Grant's  army  had  arrived  at  the 
Cornier  stream.  Having  cut  loose  from  Fredericksburg  as  a 
oase  (and  established  depots  on  the  Lower  Rappahannoek),  on 
the  21st  Grant's  forces  occupied  Milford  Station  and  Bowling 
Green,  and  were  moving  on  the  well  known  high  roads  to 
Richmond.  But  they  were  again  intercepted  ;  for  Lee  had 
planted  himself  between  Grant  and  Richmond,  near  Hanover 
Junction. 

On  the  23d,  and  on  the  25th,  Grant  made  attempts  on  the 
Confederate  lines,  which  Were  repulsed,  and  left  him  to  the 
last  alternative.  Another  flanking  operation  remained  for 
him,  by  which  he  swung  his  army  from  the  North  Anna 
around  and  across  the  Painunkey.  On  the  27th,  Hanovertown 
was  reported  to  be  occupied  by  the  Yankee  advance  under 
General  Sheridan ;  and  on  the  28th  Grant's  entire  army  was 
across  the  Painunkey. 

In  the  mean  time,  General  Lee  also  reformed  his  line  of  bat 
tle,  north  and  south,  directly  in  front  of  the  Virginia  Central 
railroad,  and  extending  from  Atlee's  Station,  south,  to  Shady 
Grove,  ten  miles  north  of  Richmond.  In  this  position  he  cov 
ered  both  the  Virginia  Central  and  the  Fredericksburg  and 
Richmond  railroads,  as  well  as  all  the  roads  leading  to  Rich 
mond,  west  of,  and  including  the  Mechanicsville  pike. 

The  favorite  tactics  of  Grant  appear  to  have  been  to  devel- 
ope  the  left  flank  ;  and  by  this  characteristic  maneuver,  he 
moved  down  the  Hanover  Court-house  road,  and  on  the  first 
day  of  June  took  a  position  near  Cold  Harbor. 

Grant  was  now  within  a  few  miles  of  Richmond.  The  vul 
gar  mind  of  the  North  readily  seized  upon  the  cheap  circum 
stance  of  his  proximity  in  miles  to  the  Confederate  capital, 
and  exclaimed  its  triumph.  The  capture  of  Richmond  was 
discounted  as  an  event  of  the  next  week.  The  Yankee  periodi 
cals  were  adorned  with  all  those  illustrations  which  brutal 
triumph  could  suggest;  Grant  drubbing  Lee  across  his  knee ; 
the  genius  of  Yankee  liberty  holding  aloft  an  impersonation  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy  by  the  seat  of  the  breeches,  marked 
"  Richmond ;"  Jefferson  Davis  playing  his  last  card,  ornament 
ed  with  a  crown  of  death's  heads,  and  with  his  legs  well  girt 
with  snakes;  and  a  hundred  other  caricatures  alike  character 
istic  of  the  vulgar  t^'ight  and  fiendish  temper  of  the  Yankee. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  275 

To  such  foolish  extremity  did  this  premature  celebration  go. 
that  a  meeting  was  called  in  New  York  to  render  the  thanka 
of  the  nation  to  Grant,  and  twenty-five  thousand  persons  com 
pleted  the  hasty  apotheosis.  ^ 

But  for  the  candid  and  intelligent,  the  situation  of  Grant  was 
one  of  sinister  import  to  him,  implied  much  of  disaster,  and 
was  actually  a  consequence  of  his  repeated  disappointments. 
The  true  theory  of  it  was  defeat,  not  victory.  He  did  nothing 
more  than  hold  the  same  ground  as  that  occupied  by  General 
McClellan  in  his  first  peninsular  campaign.  This  position,  had 
he  come  by  that  point,  a  day's  sail  from  "Washington,  he  could 
have  occupied  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man.  But  he  had 
occupied  it  by  a  devious  route  ;  with  a  loss  variously  estimated 
at  from-  sixty  to  ninety  thousand  men  ;  with  the  consumption 
of  most  of  his  veteran  troops,  whom  he  had  put  in  front;  with 
the  disconcert  and  failure  of  those  parts  of  the  drama  which 
Butler  and  Sigel  were  to  enact;  and  with  that  demoralization 
which  must  unavoidably  obtain  in  an  army  put  to  the  test  of 
repeated  defeats  and  forced  marches. 

"What  was  represented  by  the  enemy  as  the  retreat  of  Gen 
eral  Lee's  army  to  Richmond,  was  simply  its  movement  from 
a  position  which  its  adversary  had  abandoned,  to  place  itself 
full  before  him  across  the  new  road  on  which  he  had  deter 
mined  to  travel.  In  this  sense,  it  was  Grant  who  was  pursued. 
He  had  set  out  to  accomplish  Mr.  Lincoln's  plan  of  an  overland 
march  upon  Richmond.  Mr.  Lincoln's  scheme  as  detailed  by 
himself,  in  his  famous  letter  to  General  McClellan,  was  to 
march  by  the  way  of  the  Manassas  railroad.  The  first  move 
ment  of  General  Grant  was  to  give  up  that  route,  and  fall  back 
upon  the  line  by  which  Generals  Burnside  and  Hooker  at 
tempted  to  reach  the  Confederate  capital — that  is,  the  Freder- 
icksburg  and  Richmond  line.  But,  repulsed  at  Spottsylvania, 
this  route  proved  untenable,  and  General  Grant  was  forced 
east  and  south,  and  adopted  a  new  base  at  Fort  Royal  and 
Tappahannock,  on  the  Rappahannock  river,  which  conformed 
in  a  measure  to  General  McClellan's  first  plan  of  a  march  upon 
Richmond  by  way  of  Urbana.  The  next  change  Grant  was 
compelled  to  make  was,  after  finding  how  strong  the  Confed 
erates  were,  as  posted  on  the  South  Anna,  to  cross  the  Pamun- 
key  and  make  his  base  at  the  White  House,  bearing  thereafter 


276  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Btill  further  east  and  south  to  the  precise  ground  of  McCle.  Ian'* 
operations. 

The  significance  of  all  these  movements  was,  that  Grant  had 
utterly  failed  in  his  design  of  defeating  Lee's  army  far  from  its 
base,  and  pushing  the  fragments  before  him  down  to  Rich 
.mond,  and  had  been  forced  to  cover  up  his  failure  by  adopting 
the  derided  scheme  of  McClellan.  The  event  of  the  12th  01 
May  at  Spottsylvania  Court-house,  had  settled  the  question 
whether  he  could  beat  Lee  in  the  field  and  put  him  in  a  dis 
astrous  retreat.  Unable  to  remove  the  obstacle  on  the  thresh 
old  of  his  proposed  campaign,  nothing  was  left  but  to  abandon 
it.  Grant  makes  his  way  down  the  valley  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock ;  turns  aside  to  Hanover  Junction,  to  find  a  repetition  of 
Spottsylvania  Court-house;  deflects  to  the  headwaters  of  the 
York;  and  at  last,  by  a  monstrous  circuit,  reaches  a  point 
where  he  might  have  landed  on  the  1st  of  May,  without  loss 
or  opposition.  We  may  appreciate  the  amount  of. gaseous  non 
sense  and  truculent  blackguardism  of  Yankee  journals,  when 
we  find  them  declaring  that  these  movements  were  a  footrace 
for  Richmond,  that  Grant  was  across  the  last  ditch,  and  that 
the  end  of  the  rebellion  was  immediately  at  hand. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   THE   CIIICKAHOMINY,    OB   COLD   HABBOB. 

But  we  must  return  to  the  events  on  the  Richmond  lines. 
The  position  occupied  by  Grant  on  Wednesday,  1st  of  Jane, 
had  been  obtained  after  some  fighting,  and  by  the  enemy's 
own  admission  had  cost  him  two  thousand  men  in  killed  and 
wounded.  An  important  and  critical  struggle  was  now  to 
ensue.  Grant  had  secured  a  position,  the  importance  of  which 
was  that  it  was  the  point  of  convergence  of  all  the  roads,  radi 
ating  whether  to  Richmond — his  objective  point,  or  to  White 
House — his  base  of  supplies.  He  was  now  to  essay  the  pas 
sage  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  we  were  to  have  another  deci 
sive  battle  of  Cold  Harbor. 

There  is  good  evidence  that  Grant's  intention  was  to  make 
it  the  decisive  battle  of  the  campaign.  The  movements  of  the 
preceding  days,  culminating  in  the  possession  of  Cold  Harbor 
— an  important  strategic  point — had  drawn  the  enemy's  lines 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  277 

close  in  front  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  reduced  the  military 
problem  to  the  forcing  of  the  passage  of  that  river — a  problem 
•which,  if  solved  in  Grant's  favor,  would  decide  whether  Rich 
mond  could  be  carried  by  a  coup  de  main,  if  a  decisive  victory 
should  attend  his  arms,  or,  whether  he  should  betake  himself 
to  siege  operations  or  some  other  recourse. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  June  3d,  the  assault  was 
made,  Hancock  commanding  the  left  of  the  Yankee  line  ot 
battle,  and  leading  the  attack.  The  first  Confederate  line  was 
held  by  Breckinridge's  troops,  and  was  carried.  The  reverse 
was  but  momentary,  for  the  troops  of  Millegan's  brigade  and 
the  Maryland  battalion,  soon  dashed  forward,  to  retrieve  the 
honors  which  the  Yankees  had  snatched. 

On  every  part  of  the  line  the  enemy  was  repulsed  by  the 
quick  and  decisive  blows  of  the  Confederates.  Hancock's 
corps,  the  only  portion  of  the  Yankee  army  that  had  come  in 
contact  with  the  Confederate  works,  had  been  hurled  back  in 
a  storm  of  fire ;  the  Sixth  corps  had  not  been  able  to  get  up 
further  than  witlyn  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  main 
works  ;  while  Warren  and  Burnside,  on  the  enemy's  right  and 
right  centre,  were  staggered  on  the  lines  of  our  rifle  pits.  The 
decisive  work  of  the  day  was  done  in  ten  minutes.  Never 
were  there  such  signal  strokes  of  valor ;  such  despatch  of  vic 
tory.  It  was  stated  in  the  accounts  of  the  Confederates  that 
fourteen  distinct  assaults  of  the  enemy  were  repulsed,  and  that 
his  loss  was  from  six  to  seven  thousand.  No  wonder  that  the 
insolent  assurance  of  the  capture  of  Richmond  was  displaced 
in  the  Yankee  newspapers  by  the  ominous  calculation  that 
Grant  could  not  afford  many  such  experiments  on  the  en 
trenched  line  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  would  have  to  make 
some  other  resort  to  victory. 

The  battle  of  Cold  Harbor  was  sufficient  to  dispel  the  delu 
sion  of  weajmess  and  demoralization  in  Lee's  army ;  for  this 
derided  army,  almost  in  the  time  it  takes  to  tell  the  story,  had 
repulsed  at  every  point  the  most  determined  assault  of  the 
enemy,  and  in  the  few  brief  moments  of  a  single  morning  had 
achieved  an  unbroken  circuit  of  victories.  Grant  and  his 
friends  were  alike  dismayed.  The  latter  insisted  that  he  should 
have  half  a  million  more  of  men  to  accomplish  his  work. 
"We  should,"  said  a  Boston  paper,  "have  a  vigorous  and 


278  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

over  whelming  war,  or  else  peace  without  further  effusion  01 
blood."     A  certain  portion  of  the  Yankee  press  maintained  th 
unbroken  lie,  and  told  the  story  of  an  uninterrupted  series  o 
victories. 

An  object  of  most  curious  and  constant  interest  in  the  wa. 
was  the  rivalry  of  the  different  routes  to  Richmond.  Me 
Clellan  had  chosen  the  peninsular  approach,  while  Mr.  Lin 
coin  dissented  in  favor  o*f  an  advance  from  the  Lower  Rappa- 
hannock,  Burnside  had  chosen  Fredericksburg  as  his  base ; 
Hooker  had  acted  on  the  same  choice.  Meade  had  selected 
the  Eapidan,  as.  Pope  had  done  before  him.  Grant  came  to 
his  command,  unembarrassed  and  untramrneled  by  the  prece 
dents  and  comments  of  others.  He  had  hunted  up  the  roads 
to  Richmond,  through  the  Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania  Court 
house,  and  avowed  his  unchangeable  purpose  to  adhere  to  that 
as  his  true  line.  He  had  now  wandered  around  to  McClelland 
old  base.  But  the  battle  of  July  3d,  decided  that  Richmond 
could  no  longer  be  approached  with  advantage  from  the 
North,  and  the  disconcerted,  shifting  commander,  with  his 
stock  of  expedients  well-nigh  exhausted,  found  nothing  now 
left  for  him  but  to  transfer  his  entire  army  to  the  south  side  01 
the  James  river. 

On  the  5th  of  June  Hunter  had  obtained  a  success  at  Pied 
mont,  in  Western  Virginia,  and  had  effected  the  capture  oi 
Staunton ;  the  saddest  circumstance  of  which  affair  was  the 
loss  of  General  W.  E.  Jones,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
cavalry  commanders  of  the  Confederacy. 

After  occupying  Staunton.  Hunter  had  formed  a  junction 
with  the  combined  forces  of  Crook  and  Averill,  and  on  the 
13th  of  June  was  reported  to  be  moving  with  his  whole  com 
mand  against  Lynchburg.  On  the  7th,  Sheridan  had  crossed 
the  Pamunkey,  and  was  moving  eastward  in  the  direction  of 
the  Gordonsville  railroad.  The  main  movement  of  the  new 
combination — that  of  Grant  across  the  James — commenced 
Sunday  night  the  12th  of  June. 

The  first  plan  of  the  enemy  had  comprehended  the  advance 
of  Sigel  down  the  Shenandoah,  and  the  capture  of  Petersburg, 
if  nothing  more,  by  Butler,  while  General  Grant  engaged 
Lee's  army  between  the  Rapidan  and  Richmond.  That  plan 
having  signally  failed,  the  second  comprised  the  capture  of 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  279 

Lynch  burg  by  Hunter,  of  Gordon sville  and  Charlottesvflle  by 
Sheridan,  and  of  Petersburg  by  Meade.  It  was  thus  hoped  t< 
isolate  the  Confederate  capital  by  cutting  off  its  communica 
tions  on  every  side. 

It  was,  perhaps,  not  Grant's  design  to  cross  the  river  until 
h#  had  made  some  attempt  on  the  Central  and  New  Market 
roads  leading  into  Richmond  from  the  direction  of  Malvern 
Hill.  On  the  13th  June,  he  caused  a  reconnoissance  in  force 
to  be  made  from  the  Long  Bridge  toward  the  Quaker  road, 
and  in  an  affair  near  the  intersection  of  this  road  with  the 
Charles  City  road  was  repulsed,  and  drew  off  his  forces,  well 
satisfied  that  the  Confederates  held  with  heavy  forces  all  the 
roads  by  which  Richmond  could  be  reached  from  the  south 
east. 

The  Eighteenth  Yankee  corps  had  proceeded  by  water  to 
Bermuda  Hundred.  The  remaining  corps  had  crossed  the 
Chickahominy  at  James  Bridge  and  Long  Bridge ;  and  after 
the  reconnoissance  of  the  13th,  proceeded  down  the  James, 
and  crossed  in  the  neighborhood  of  City  Point. 


THE   BATTLES    OF   PETERSBURG. 

Petersburg  had  alr<%dy  sustained  a  considerable  attack  of 
the  enemy.  An  expedition  from  Butler's  lines  had  essayed  its 
capture  on  the  9th  of  June. 

Approaching  with  nine  regiments  of  infantry  and  cavalry, 
and  at  least  four  pieces  of  artillery,  the  enemy  searched  our 
lines,  a  distance  of  nearly  six  miles.     Hood's  and  Batles'  bat 
talions,  the.  Forty-sixth  Virginia,  one  company  of  the  Twenty- 
third   South   Carolina,   with  Sturdevant's   battery,  and  a  few 
guns  in  position,  and  Talliaferro's  cavalry,  kept  them  at  bay 
The  Yankees  were  twice  repulsed,  but  succeeded  at  last  in 
penetrating  a  gap  in  our  line  ;  when  reinforcements  corning  up 
drove  back  the  insolent  foe  from  approaches  which  their  foot 
steps  fur  the  first  time  polluted. 

The  fortunate  issue  of  this  first  attack  on  Petersburg  encoui 
aged  the  raw  troops  and  militia  who  had  been  put  under  arms 
for  the  defence  of  "  the   Cockade  City."     General  Wise  ad 
dressed  the  troops  of  his  command  in  a  memorable  and  thrill 


280  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

ing  order ;  "  Petersburg,"  said  he,  "  is  to  be,  and  shall  be 
defended  on  her  outer  walls,  on  her  inner  lines,  at  her  corpora 
tion  bounds,  in  every  street,  and  around  every  temple  of  God, 
and  altar  of  man." 

The  resolution  of  the  gallant  city — with  its  defences  rein 
forced  by  the  fortunate  Beauregard — was  now  to  be  put  to  a 
much  more  severe  test,  for  it  was  to  encounter  the  shock  of  the 
bulk  of  Grant's  army. 

Smith's  corps  having  disembarked  at  Bermuda  Hundred  on 
the  14th,  moved  rapidly  upon  Petersburg,  and  made  an  assault 
on  the  batteries  covering  the  approaches  to  the  city  on  the 
north-east.  Having  got  possession  of  this  line  of  works,  held 
principally  by  Confederate  militia,  Smith  waited  the  coining 
up  of  the  Second  corps. 

On  the  evening  of  the  16th,  an  attack  was  ordered  on  the 
Confederate  line  of  works  in  front  of  Petersburg,  Smith's  corps 
being  on  the  right,  on  the  Petersburg  and  City  Point  road, 
west  of  the  railroad,  the  Second  corps  in  the  centre,  and  Burn- 
side  on  the  left,  reaching  the  Prince  George  Court-house  road. 
The  assault  was  not  only  repulsed  at  every  point,  but  our 
troops,  assuming  the  aggressive,  drove  the  Yankees  from  their 
breastworks,  at  Hewlett's  House,  captured  some  of  their  guns, 
and  opened  upon  them  an  enfilading  fire,  under  which  they 
fled  precipitately.  0 

The  most  furious  assault  of  the  enemy  had  been  made  on 
General  Hoke's  front,  whose  division  occupied  a  position 
facing  batteries  from  Nine  to  Twelve  inclusive.  Three  differ 
ent  charges  were  repulsed  by  these  heroic  troops.  In  the  final 
repalse  of  the  enemy,  a  large  portion  of  a  Yankee  brigade, 
being  exposed  to  an  enfilading  artillery  fire  from  our  guns, 
sought  shelter  in  a  ravine,  and  surrendered  to  the  Sixty-fourtl 
Georgia  regiment. 

On  Friday,  17th  June,  fighting  was  renewed  without  result. 
The  next  day,  it  was  resolved  by  the  enemy  to  make  an  assault 
along  the  whole  line  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the  town.  It 
was  thus  that  the  action  of  the  18th  was  designed  to  be  deci 
sive  of  operations  on  the  present  position. 

Three  different  assaults  were  made  by  the  enemy  during  the 
day — at  four  in  the  morning,  at  noon,  and  at  four  in  the  after 
noon.  Each  one  was  repulsed.  Hancock  and  Burnside  in  the 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  281 

centre  suffered  severely.  After  severe  losses  on  the  part  of 
all  the  Yankee  corps,  night  found  the  Confederates  still  in 
possession  of  their  works  covering  Petersburg. 

The  disaster  of  this  day  left  Grant  without  hope  of  making 
any  impression  on  the  works  in  his  front,  and  placed  him  under 
the  necessity  of  yet  another  change  of  operations.  The  series 
of  engagements  before  Petersburg  had  cost  him  at  least  ten 
thousand  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  had  culminated  in 
another  decisive  defeat. 

The  misfortune  of  the  enemy  appeared,  indeed,  to  be  over 
whelming.  Pickett's  division  had  given  him  another  lesson 
at  Port  Walthal  Junction.  It  was  here  the  heroes  of  Gettys 
burg  repulsed  a  force  under  Gilmore  engaged  in  destroying 
the  railroad,  took  two  lines  of  his  breastworks  and  put  him  to 
disastrous  flight. 

Nor  was  there  any  compensation  to  be  found  in  the  auxil 
iary  parts  of  Grant's  second  gryid  combination.  Sheridan 
had  failed  to  perform  his  part.  lie  was  intercepted  by  Hamp 
ton's  cavalry  at  Trevillian  station  on  the  Gordonsville  road, 
defeated  in  an  engagement  on  the  10th,  and  compelled  to  with 
draw  his  command  across  the  North  Anna.  Hunter  had  come 
to  similar  grief,  and  his  repulse  at  Lynchburg  involved  conse 
quences  of  the  gravest  disaster  to  the  enemy. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  Hunter  made  an  attack  upon  Lynch 
burg  from  the  south  side  which  was  repulsed  by  troops  that 
had  arrived  from  General  Lee's  lines.  The  next  day,  more  re 
inforcements  having  come  up,  preparations  were  made  to 
attack  the  enemy,  when  he  retreated  in  confusion.  We  took 
thirteen  of  his  guns,  pursued  him  to  Salem,  and  forced  him  to 
a  line  of  retreat  into  the  mountains  of  Western  Virginia.  The 
attempt  of  the  Yankees  to  whitewash  the  infamous  and  cow 
ardly  denouement  was  more  than  usually  refreshing.  Hunter 
officially  announced  that  his  expedition  had  been  "  extremely 
successful ;"  that  he  had  left  Lynchburg  because  "  his  ammu 
nition  was  running  short ;"  and  that  as  to  the  singular  line  he 
had  taken  up,  he  was  now  "ready  for  a  move  in  any  di 
rection." 

But  the  measure  of  misfortune  in  Grant's  distracted  cam 
paign  appeared  to  be  not  yet  full.  On  the  22d  he  made  a 
movement  on  his  left  to  get  possession  of  the  Weldon  railroad, 


282  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THL    WAB. 

but  found  the  Confederates  had  extended  their  right  to  moot 
him.  While  the  Second  and  the  Sixth  corps  of  Grant's  army 
were  attempting  to  communicate  in  this  movement,  the  Con 
federates,  under  General  Anderson,  pierced  the  centre,  cap 
tured  a  battery  of  four  guns  and  took  prisoners  one  entire 
brigade,  General  Pearce's,  and  part  of  another. 

Another  attempt  or  raid  on  the  railroad,  by  Wilson's  and 
Kautz's  divisions  of  cavalry  was  terminated  in  disaster.  In 
the  neighborhood  of  Spottswood  river,  twenty-five  miles  south 
of  Petersburg,  on  the  28th,  the  expedition  was  attacked,  cut  in 
two,  the  greater  part  of  its  artillery  abandoned  and  its  wagon 
trains  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederates.  The  enemy  had 
been  encountered  by  Hampton's  cavalry,  and  Finnegan's  and 
Matron e' a  infantry  brigades;  and  the  results  of  the  various 
conflicts  were  enumerated  as  one  thousand  prisoners,  thirteen 
pieces  of  artillery,  thirty  wagons  and  ambulances,  and  many 
small  arms.  • 

It  was  evident  that  the  spirit  of  the  North  had  commenced  to 
stagger  under  this  accumulation  of  disaster.  Gold  had  already 
nearly  touched  three  hundred.  The  uneasy  whispers  in  Wash 
ington  of  another  draft  gave  new  suggestions  to  popular  discon 
tent.  The  Confederate  Congress  had  adjourned  after  the  publi 
cation  of  an  address  referring  to  recent  military  events  and  the 
confirmed  resolution  of  the  South,  and  deprecating  the  contin 
uance  of  the  war.  These  declarations  were  eagerly  seized  upon 
by  Northern  journals,  who  insisted  that  no  time  should  be  lost 
in  determining  whether  they  might  not  possibly  signify  a 
willingness  on  the  part  of  the  South  to  make  peace  on  the 
basis  of  new  constitutional  guaranties.  The  finances  at  Wash 
ington  were  becoming  desperate.  Mr.  Chase,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  had  peremptorily  resigned.  His  last  words  of 
official  counsel  were,  that  nothing  could  save  the  finances  but 
a  series  of  military  successes  of  undoubted  magnitude. 


SHERMAN'S   "  ON-TO- ATLANTA." 

Simultaneously  with  Grant's  advance  on  Richmond,  Shei 
man  moved  on  Dalton  in  three  columns  :    Thomas  in   front, 
Schofielcl  from  Cleveland  on  the  north-east,  while  McPherson 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  233 

threw  himseli  on  the  line  of  communication  south-west  at  Re« 
saca,  fifteen  miles  south  of  Dalton.  On  the  7th  of  June 
Thomas  occupied  Tunnel  Hill,  ten  miles  north-west  of  Dal  ton 
and  took  up  a  strong  position  at  Buzzard's  Eoost.  By  the 
flank  movement  on  Resaca,  Johnston  was  forced  to  evacuate 
Dalton. 

On  the  14th  the  first  important  battle  of  the  campaign  was 
"ought  in  Kesaca  valley.  Two  efforts  were  made  to  carry  the 
breastworks  of  the  Confederates,  without  success,  when  John 
ston  in  the  afternoon  assumed  the  offensive  and  drove  the  en 
emy  some  distance,  with  a  loss  which  his  own  bulletins  stated 
to  be  two  thousand. 

On  the  15th,  there  was  desultory  fighting,  and  on  the  16th 
General  Johnston  took  up  at  leisure  his  line  of  retrograde 
movement,  in  the  direction  of  the  Etowah  river,  passing 
through  Kingston  and  Cassville.  At  both  places  the  enemy 
was  held  in  check.  From  Cassville,  Sherman,  having  sent 
the  right  of  his  army  by  way  of  Rome,  moved  his  centre  and 
left  across  the  Etowah  west  of  the  railroad,  and  then  inarched 
towards  Dallas. 

On  the  28th,  General  Cleburne's  division  of  Johnston's  army 
engaged  the  advance  corps  of  the  enemy  under  General  Mc- 
Pherson  at  !N"ew  Hope,  and  signally  repulsed  him,  with  heavy 
loss.  So  far,  the  retrograde  movement  of  Johnston  was,  in 
some  respects,  a  success;  it  had  been  .attended  with  at  least 
two  considerable  victories ;  it  had  been  executed  deliberately, 
being  scarcely  ever  under  the  immediate  pressure  of  the  ene 
my's  advance  ;  and  it  had  now  nearly,  approached  the  decisive 
line  of  the  Chattahoochee  or  whatever  other  line  he,  who  was 
supposed  to  be  the  gneat  strategist  of  the  Confederacy,  should  se 
lect  for  the  cover  of  Atlanta.  The  events  of  the  campaign,  so  far, 
were  recounted  with  characteristic  modesty  by  General  John 
ston.  On  the  1st  of  June,  he  telegraphed  to  Richmond  of  his 
army  :  "In  partial  engagements  it  has  had  great  advantages, 
and  the  sum  of  all  the  combats  amounts  to  a  battle." 

In  the  mean   time,  the  two  armies  continued  to  maneuver 
for  position.     Sherman  held  both  Altoona  and  Ack\vorth  with 
out  a  battle,  the  latter  about  twelve  miles  from  Marietta.     It 
was  said  that  these  positions  would  enable  him  to  maintain  his 
lines  of  communications  with  Chattanooga  by  railway  intact. 


284:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  clear  his  rear  of  Confederates;  but  he  found  Jjlmstoi 
opposing  him  with  a  strong  rear-guard,  and  drawn  close  to  hia 
supplies  in  Atlanta  and  Augusta. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring  in  Georgia,  an  import 
ant  event  had  taken  place  in  the  Southwest :  the  defeat  of 
the  Yankee  expedition  under  Sturgis  on  its  way  from  Mem 
phis  to  operate  in  Sherman's  rear.  In  this  action,  at  Gun  town, 
Mississippi,  Sturgis  lost  most  of  his  infantry  and  all  of  his  ar 
tillery  and  trains,  and  the  Confederates,  under  Forrest,  achiev 
ed  a  victory  that  had  an  important  influence  on  the  campaign 
in  Georgia.  Forrest  took  two  thousand  prisoners,  and  killed 
and  wounded  an  equal  number. 


BATTLE   OF   KKNESAW   MOUNTAIN". 

On  the  27th  of  June,  General  Sherman  directed  an  attack  on 
Johnston's  position  at  Kenesaw  Mountain.  This  mountain 
was  the  apex  of  Johnston's  lines.  Both  armies  were  in  strong 
works,  the  opposite  salients  being  so  near  in  some  places  that 
skirmishers  could  not  be  thrown  out.  The  assault  of  the  enemy 
was  made  in  three  columns,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing.  It  was  repulsed  on  every  part  of  the  Confederate 
line.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was  considerable,  even  as  stated 
in  his  own  official  reports.  General  McPherson  reported 
his  loss  about  five  hundred,  and  Thomas,  his,  about  two  thou 
sand. 

In  consequence,  however,  of  a  flanking  movement  of  the 
enemy  on  the  right,  Johnston  on  the  3d  of  July  abandoned 
the  mountain  defence  and  retired  toward  Atlanta. 

It  is  true  that  Johnston's  retreat  to  the  immediate  lines  of 
Atlanta,  was  consummated  without  any  considerable  military 
disaster.  But  it  was  a  sore  disappointment  to  the  public  ;  for 
it  had  given  up  to  the  Yankees  half  of  Georgia,  abandoned 
one  of  the  finest  wheat  districts  of  the  Confederacy,  almost 
ripe  for  harvest,  and  at  Rome  and  on  the  Etowah  river,  had 
surrendered  to  the  enemy  iron-rolling  mills,  and  government 
works  of  great  value. 


THE    THIKD    TEAK.  2S5 


THE    BATTLES    OF    ATLANTA. 

But  a  lesson  was  reserved  for  Sherman  on  the  Atlanta  lines 
oy  the  gallant  and  impulsive  Lieutenant-general  Hood,  who 
had  taken  command  of  the  army  that  Johnston  had,  by  a  long 
and  negative  campaign,  brought  back  to  Atlanta. 

We  shall  not  attempt  here  the  details  of  the  great  battles  of 
Atlanta. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  Hood  attacked  the  enemy's  right  on 
Peach-tree  creek,  near  the  Chattahoochee,  driving  him  from 
his  works,  and  capturing  colors  and  prisoners. 

On  the  22d  of  July,  Hood's  army  shifted  its  position  front 
ing  on  Peach-tree  creek,  and  Stewart's  and  Cheatham's  corps 
formed  line  of  battle  around  the  city.  Hardee's  corps  made  a 
night  march  and  attacked  the  enemy's  extreme  left  at  one 
o'clock,  on  the  22d,  and  drove  him  from  his  works,  capturing 
sixteen  pieces  of  artillery  and  five  stands  of  colors.  Cheatham 
attacked  the  enemy  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  with  a 
portion  of  his  command,  and  drove  the  enemy,  capturing  six 
pieces  of  artillery.  During  the  engagement  we  captured  about 
two  thousand  prisoners. 

After  the  battle  of  the  22d,  Sherman's  army  was  transferred 
from  its  position  on  the  east  side  of  Atlanta  to  the  extreme 
night  of  Hood's  army,  on  the  west  side,  threatening  the  Macon 
road.  Lieutenant-generals  Stewart  and  Lee  were  directed  by 
Hood  to  hold  the  Lickskillet  road  for  the  day  with  their  com 
mands.  On  the  28th,  a  sharp  engagement  ensued,  with  no 
advantage  to  either  side  ;  the  Confederate  loss  fifteen  hundred 
killed  and  wounded. 

The  results  of  these  battles  were,  on  the  who)/*,  a  most 
encouraging  success  for  the  Confederates ;  revived  their  hopes 
on  what  had  been  considered  a  doubtful  theatre  of  action ;  and 
left  Sherman,  although  still  holding  his  lines  of  investment,  in 
a  most  critical  condition,  with  an  army,  several  hundred  miles 
in  its  country,  having  its  rear  exposed,  and  depending  upon  a 
single  line  of  railroad  for  its  communications. 

We  may  take  leave  here  of  the  military  situation  ;  satisfied 


SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

that  a  pause  had  now  been  given  to  the  parallel  operations  of 
the  enemy  in  Virginia  and  Georgia :  aimed,  the  one  at  .Rich 
mond,  which  the  Yankees  entitled  the  heart  and  brains  of  the 
Confederacy  ;  and  the  other  at  Atlanta,  the  centre  of  import 
ant  manufacturing  enterprises,  and  the  door  to  the  great 
granary  of  the  Gulf  States.  Both  movements  were  now 
unmistakably  in  check  ;  and  the  interlude  of  indecision  afford 
ed  a  curious  commentary  on  the  boastful  confidence  that  had 
recorded  the  fall  of  Richmond  and  the  capture  of  Atlanta  as 
the  expectations  of  each  twenty-four  hours. 

There  was  reason,  indeed,  for  the  North  to  be  depressed. 
The  disappointment  of  the  Yankees  was  with  particular  refer 
ence  to  the  campaign  of  Grant  in  Virginia.  The  advance 
from  the  Rapidan,  which  we  have  followed  to  its  recoil  before 
Petersburg,  had  been  made  under  conditions  of  success  which 
had  attended  no  other  movement  of  the  enemy.  It  was  made 
after  eight  months'  deliberate  preparation.  In  the  Congress 
at  Washington  it  was  stated  that,  in  these  eight  months,  the 
Government  had  actually  raised  seven  hundred  thousand  men 
• — an  extent  of  preparation  which  indicated  an  intention  to 
overwhelm  and  crush  the  Confederacy  by  a  resistless  com 
bined  attack.  Nor  was  this  all.  One  hundred  thousand 
three-months'  men  were  accepted  from  Ohio  and  other  States, 
for  defensive  service,  in  order  that  General  Grant  might  avail 
himself  of  the  whole  force  of  trained  soldiers.  The  result  of 
the  Campaign,  so  far,  did  not  justify  the  expectations  on  which 
it  had  been  planned.  The  Yankee  Government  which,  since 
the  commencement  of  the  war,  had  called  for  a  grand  total  ot 
twenty-three  hundred  thousand  men,  and  had  actually  raised 
eighteen  hundred  thousand  men,  of  an  average  term  of  service 
.f  three  years,  to  crush  the  Confederacy,  saw  in  the  fourth 
year  of  the  war  the  Confederacy  erect  and  defiant,  and  Rich 
mond  shielded  by  an  army  which  had  so  far  set  at  nought  the 
largest  preparations  and  most  tremendous  exertions  of  the 
North. 

We  cannot  close  this  brief  sketch  of  important  parts  of  the 
summer  campaign  of  1864-,  in  Virginia  and  in  the  West,  with 
out  adverting  to  the  barbarities  of  the  enemy,  which  especially 
marked    it,    and    which,   indeed,    by   regular    augmentatio 
became  more  atrocious  as  the  war  progressed.     In  this  year 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  287 

they  exceeded  all  that  was  already  known  of  the  brutal.ty  of 
our  enraged  enemy. 

General  Sherman  illustrated  the  campaign  in  the  "West, 
by  a  memorable  barbarity,  in  a  letter  of  instructions  to 
General  Burbridge,  commanding  in  the  Department  of  Ken 
tucky,  charging  him  to  treat  all  partisans  of  the  Confederates 
in  that  State  as  "  wildleazts"  It  was  the  invariable  and  con 
venient  practice  of  the  Yankees  to  designate  as  "  guerillas," 
whatever  troops  of  the  Confederates  were  particularly  trouble 
some  to  them  ;  and  the  opprobrious  term  was  made,  by  Gen 
eral  Sherman,  to  include  the  regularly  commissioned  soldiers 
of  General  Morgan's  command,  and  whatever  bodies  of  Con 
federate  cavalry  chose  to  roam  over  territory  which  the  enemy 
disputed.* 

Some  expressions,  in  the  orders  referred  to,  were  character 
istic  of  the  Yankee,  and  indicated  those  notions  of  constitu 
tional  law  which  had  rapidly  demoralized  the  North.  General 
Sherman  declared  that  he  had  already  recommended  to  Gov 
ernor  Bramlette  of  Kentucky,  "  at  one  dash  to  arrest  every 
man  in  the  country  who  was  dangerous  to  it."  "  The  fact  is," 
said  this  military  Solomon,  "  in  our  country  personal  liberty 
has  been  so  well  secured  that  public  safety  is  lost  sight  of  in 
our  laws  and  institutions  ;  and  the  fact  is  we  are  thrown  back 
one  hundred  years  in  civilization,  laws,  and  every  thing  else, 

*  Burbridge  was  not  slow  to  carry  out  the  suggestions  or  instructions  of  Ids 
masters.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  a  section  of  one  of  his  orders : 

HEADQUARTERS  DISTRICT  KENTUCKY,     ) 

FIFTH  DIVISION,  TWENTY-THIRD  ARMY  Cours,)- 

LEXINGTON,  Kentucky,  July  16,  1864.         ) 

Rebel  sympathizers  living  within  five  miles  of  any  scene  of  outrage  commit 
ted  by  armed  men,  not  recognized  as  public  enemies  by  the  rules  and  usages 
of  war,  will  be  arrested  and  sent  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States. 

In  accordance  with  instructions  from  the  major-general  commanding  the 
military  district  of  the  Mississippi,  so  much  of  the  property  of  rebel  sympathiz. 
ers  as  may  be  necessary  to  indemnify  the  Government  or  loyal  citizens  for 
losses  incurred  by  the  acts  of  such  lawless  men,  will  be  seized  and  appropriated 
for  this  purpose. 

Whenever  an  unarmed  Union  citizen  is  murdered,  four  guerillas  will  be 
selected  from  the  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  military  authorities,  and  pub. 
icly  shot  to  death  in  the  most  convenient  place  near  the  scene  of  outrage.     Bj 
ommand  of 

Brevet  Major-general  S.  <>.  BURBRIDQK, 
J.  B.  DICKSON,  Captain  and  A.  A.  General 


SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  wiJl  go  riglit  straight  to  anarchy  and  the  devil,  if  some 
body  don't  arrest  our  downward  progress.  We,  the  military, 

must  do  it,  and  we  have  right  and  law  on  our  side 

Under  this  law  everybody  can  be  made  to  stay  at  home  and 
mind  his  or  her  own  business,  and,  if  they  won't  do  that,  can 
be  sent  away.-'  These  sage  remarks  on  American  liberty  were 
concluded  viih  the  recommendation  that  all  males  and 
females,  in  eyrcpathy  with  so-called  "  guerillas,"  should  be 
arrested  and  sent  down  the  Mississippi  to  some  foreign  land, 
where  they  should  be  doomed  to  perpetual  exile. 

As  Sherman  advanced  into  the  interior  of  Georgia  he  laid 
waste  the  country,  fired  the  houses,  anJ  even  did  not  hesitate 
at  the  infamous  expedient  of  destroying  the  agricultural  imple 
ments  of  all  those  who  produced  from  the  soil  subsistence  for 
man.  He  declared  to  the  persecuted  people  that  this  time  he 
would  have  their  property,  bnt,  if  the  war  continued,  next 
year  he  would  have  their  lives.  Four  hundred  factory  girls 
whom  he  captured  in  Georgia  he  bundled  i.nto  army  wagons, 
and  ordered  them  to  be  transported  beyond  the  Ohio,  where 
the  poor  girls  were  put  adrift  far  frcx.1  home  and  friends,  in  a 
strange  land.* 


*  Tlie  following  announcement  appeared  in  th«  Lonisville  Lbw^papera: — 

"  ARRIVAL  OF  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  FROM:  THE  SOUTH  - -The  train  v/Hch  arrived 
from  Nashville  last  evening  brought  up  from  the  South  tvo  hundred  and  forty-nine 
women  and  children,  who  are  sent  here  by  order  of  General  Sherman,  to  b^  trans 
ferred  north  of  the  Ohio  river,  there  to  remain  during  tho  war.  We  understand  that 
there  are  now  at  iNashvnle  niteen  Hundred  women  and  chjiJrc.'.,  w.io  <.re  LJ  a  \cry 
destitute  condition,  and  who  are  to  be  sent  to  this  place  to  be  sj.'v*.  North.  A  num 
ber  of  them  were  engaged  in  the  manufactories  at  Sweet  \\  aier.  at  the  time  thai 
place  was  captured  by  our  forces.  Tlie.se  people  are  mostly  in  a  i\&H,itute  condition, 
having  no  means  to  provide  for  themselves  a  support.  Why  th^j  thould.  be  se:it 
here  to  be  transferred  North  is  more  than  we  can  understand." 

It  was  also  stated  in  these  same  papers  that,  when  these  woroor  «.rd  children 
arrived  at  Louisville,  they  were  detained  there  and  advertised  to  he  hired  out 
as  servants,  to  take  the  place  of  the  large  number  of  negroes  wbo  have  been 
liberated  by  the  military  authorities  and  are  now  gathered  in  large  campa 
throughout  Kentucky,  where  they  are  fed  and  supported  in  Idleness  ind 
viciousness  at  the  expense  of  the  loyal  taxpayers.  Thus,  while  these  np>*ro 
women  are  rioting  and  luxuriating  in  the  Federal  camps,  on  the  boiinty  of  '•  be 
Government,  the  white  women  and  children  of  the  South  are  arrested  at  iA  ir 
homes,  and  sent  off  as  prisoners  to  a  distant  country,  to  be  sold  in  bondage  *a 
'he  following  advertisement  fully  attests : — 

'  NOTICE. — Families  residing  in  the  city  or  the  country,  wisning  se -unstress* 


THE    THIRD    YEAK.  289 

From  Chattanooga  to  Marietta  there  was  presented  to  tho 
eye  one  vast  scene  of  misery.  The  fugitives  from  ruined  vil 
lages  or  deserted  fields  sought  shelter  in  the  mountains.  Citiea 
were  sacked,  towns  burnt,  populations  decimated.'  All  along 
the  roads  were  great  wheat-fields,  and  crops  sufficient  to  feed 
all  New  England,  which  were  to  be  lost  for  want  of  laborers. 
The  country  had  been  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Con 
federacy.  One  looked  upon  tho  gentle  undulations  of  the  val 
leys,  terminating  in  the  windings  of  the  rivers,  and  flanked  by 
the  majestic  barriers  of  the  mountains.  This  beautiful  country 
had  been  trodden  over  by  both  armies.  In  every  town  the 
more  public  buildings  and  the  more  conspicuous  residences  had 
been  devoured  by  fire,  or  riddled  with  shot  and  shell.  Every 
house  used  as  headquarters,  or  for  Confederate  commissary 
stores,  or  occupied  by  prominent  citizens,  had  been  singled  out 
by^the  enemy  for  destruction.  In  some  instances  churches  had 
not  escaped.  They  had  been  stripped  for  fire-wood  or  con 
verted  into  barracks  and  hospitals.  Fences  were  demolished, 
and  here  and  there  a  lordly  mansion  stood  an  unsightly  ruin. 

The  vandalism  of  Hunter  in  Virginia  drew  upon  him  the 
censure  of  the  few  journals  in  the  North  which  made  any  pre 
tension  to  the  decencies  of  humanity.  At  Lexington,  he  had 
burned  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  with  its  valuable  library, 
philosophical  and  chemical  apparatus,  relics  and  geological 
specimens  ;  sacked  Washington  College,  and  burned  the  houso 
of  ex-Governor  Letcher.  giving  his  wife  only  ten  minutes  to 
save  a  few  articles  of  clothing. 

In  the  Southwest,  the  hellish  crimes  of  the  enemy  were 
enough  to  sicken  the  ear.  The  expedition  of  Sturgis,  defeated, 
as  we  have  Been,' in  Mississippi  by  Forrest,  flourished  the  title 
of  the  "  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow."  "  Before  the  battle,"  says 
a  correspondent,  "fugitives  from  the  counties  through  which 
Sturgis  and  his  troops  were  advancing,  came  into  camp  detail 
ing  incidents  which  made  men  shudder,  who  are  accustomed 
to  scenes  of  violence  and  bloodshed.  I  cannot  relate  the  stories 
of  these  poor  frightened  people.  Robbery,  rapine,  and  the 
assassination  of  men  and  women,  were  the  -least  crimes  com 


servants,  can  be  suited  by  applying  at  the  refugee  quarters  on  Broadway,  betweea 
Ninth  v.>d  Tenth.     This  is  sanctioned  by  Captain  Jones,  Provost  Marshal." 

ID 


290  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

mitted,  while  the  '  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow'  overran  and  deso 
lated  the  country.  Rude  unlettered  men,  who  had  fought  at 
Shiloh,  and  in  many  subsequent  battles,  wept  liko  children 
when  they  heard  of  the  enormities  to  which  their  mothers,  sis 
ters,  and  wives  had  been  subjected  by  the  negro  mercenaries 
of  Sturgis." 

Such  enormities  were  monstrous  enough ;  they  shocked  the 
moral  sentiment  of  the  age;  yet  they  did  not  affright  the  soul 
of  the  South.  The  outrages  practised  upon  helpless  women, 
more  helpless  old  age,  and  hopeless  poverty,  assured  the  people 
of  the  Confederacy  of  the  character  of  their  enemies,  arid  the 
designs  of  the  war,  and  awakened  resolution  to  oppose  to  the 
last  extremity  the  mob  of  murderers  and  lawless  miscreants 
who  desecrated  their  soil  and  invaded  their  homes.  The  war 
had  obtained  this  singular  hold  on  the  minds  of  the  Confed 
erates;  that  every  man  'considered  that  he  had  in  it  the  prac 
tical,  individual  stake  of  his  personal  fortunes.  When  such  a 
sentiment  pervades  a  nation  in  war,  who  can  say  when  or  how 
it  may  be  conquered  ! 

.....  At  the  time  these  pages  are  given  to  the  press,  it 
appears  that  the  great  disappointment  of  the  North  in  the  re 
sults  of  the  summer  campaign  of  1864,  has  given  rise  to  a  cer 
tain  desire  to  end  the  war  by  negotiations,  arid  that  this  desire 
lias  found  some  response  in  the  South.  The  undignified  and 
somewhat  ridiculous  overtures  for  peace  made  in  this  summei 
by  parties,  who,  on  each  side,  anxiously  disclaimed  that  the} 
had  any  authority  from  their  governments,  but,  on  each  side, 
by  a  further  curious  coincidence,  represented  that  they  were 
acquainted  with  the  wishes  and  views  of  their  governments, 
cannot  be  altogether  a  story  of  egotistical  adventures.  They 
betray  the  incipiency,  though  an  obscure  one,  of  negotiations; 
and  the  times  are  rapidly  making  developments  of  the  tendency 
of  an  appeal  to  compose  the  war. 

We  cannot  anticipate  what  bribes  may  be  offered  the  South 
to  confederate  again  with  the  North.  But  one  has  been  already 
suggested  in  the  North  :  it  is,  to  find  an  atrocious  compensation 
for  the  war  in  a  combined  crusade  against  foreign  nations. 

The  New  York  Herald  declares:  "With  a  restored  Union, 
prosperity  would  once  more  bless  the  land.  If  any  bad  blood 
remained  on  either  side,  it  would  soon  disappear,  or  be  purged 


THE    THIRD    YEAR  291 

by  a  foreign  war.  With  a  combined  veteran  army  of  o\  er  a 
million  of  men,  and  a  fleet  more  powerful  than  that  of  any 
European  power,  we  could  order  France  from  Mexico,  England 
from  Canada,  and  Spain  from  Cuba,  and  enforce  our  orders  i? 
they  were  not  obeyed.  The  American  continent  would  then 
belong  to  Americans.  The  President  at  Washington  would 
govern  the  New  World,  and  the  glorious  dreams  and  prophe 
cies  of  our  forefathers  would  at  length  be  realized." 

To  a  proposition  of  such  infamy  of  infamies,  the  attention  of 
the  civilized  world  should  be  called.  What  a  commentary 
upon  that  European  policy  which  has  lavished  so  much  of 
sympathy  and  material  comfort  upon  the  North,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  rejected  the  cause  of  a  people,  who  as  they  are 
resolute  in  maintaining  their  own  rights,  are  as  equally,  indeed 
expressly  and  emphatically,  innocent  of  any  designs  on  the 
right  and  welfare  of  others  !  The  suggestion  is,  that  of  a  huge 
and  horrible  Democracy,  eager  to  prey  upon  the  rights  of 
others,  and  to  repair  by  plunder  and  outrage  the  cost  of  its 
feuds  and  the  waste  of  its  vices. 

The  people  of  the  Confederacy  do  not  easily  listen  to  sug 
gestions  of  dishonor.  Yet  none  are  more  open  to  the  cunning 
persuasion  which  wears  the  disguise  of  virtuous  remonstrance 
and  friendly  interest.  It  is  here  where  the  Yankee  peacemaker 
is  to  be  resisted  and  unmasked. 

It  will  be  for  the  Confederacy  to  stand  firm  in  every  political 
conjuncture,  and  to  fortify  itself  against  the  blandishments  and 
arts  of  a  disconcerted  and  designing  enemy.  It  will  remember 
that  enemy's  warfare.  It  will  remember  that  an  army,  whose 
personnel  has  been  drawn  from  all  parties  in  the  North,  has 
carried  the  war  of  the  savage  into  their  homes.  It  will  re 
member  how  Yankees  have  smacked  their  lips  over  their  car 
nage  and  the  sufferings  of  their  women  and  little  ones.  It  will 
remember  how  New  England  clergymen  have  advised  that 
"rebels,"  men,  women  and  children,  should  be  sunk  beneath 
the  Southern  sod,  and  the  soil  "  salted  with  Puritanical  blood, 
to  raise  a  new  crop  of  men."  To  hate  let  us  not  reply  with 
hate.  We  reply  with  the  superiority  of  contempt,  the  resolu 
tion  of  pride,  the  scorn  of  defiance.  Surely,  rather  than  re 
unite  with  such  a  people ;  rather  than  cheat  the  war  of  "  inde 
pendence,"  and  make  its  prize  that  cheap  thing  in  American 


292  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

history-  -a  paper  guarantee ;  rather  than  cheat  our  dead  of  that 
for  which  they  died  ;  rather  than  entitle  ourselves  to  the  con 
tempt  of  the  world,  the  agonies  of  self-accusation,  the  reprooi 
of  the  grave,  the  curses  of  posterity,  the  displeasure  of  the  mer 
ciftil  God  wlio  has  so  long  signified  His  providence  in  our  en 
deavors,  we  are  prepared  to  choose  more  suffering,  more  trials, 
even  utter  poverty  and  chains,  and  exile  and  death. 


THE    THIRD    YEAR. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

AMERICAN    IDEAS  :     A   REVIEW   OF    THE   WAR. 

Sentimental  Regrets  concerning  American  History. — The  European  Opinion-  of 
*  State"  Institutions.— Calhoun,  the  Great  Political  Scholar  of  America. — His  Doc 
trines. — Conservatism  of  u  N  unification." — Its  "  Union"  Sentiment. — Brilliant  Vision 
of  the  South  Carolina  Statesman. — Webster,  the  Representative  of  the  Imperfect  and 
Insolent  "Education"  of  New  England. — Yankee  Libels  in  the  shape  of  Party 
N  jmenelature. — Influence  of  State  Institutions. — How  they  were  Auxiliary  to  the 
Union.—  T/te  Moral  Veneration  of  the  Union.  Peculiarly  a  Sentiment  of  the  South. — 
What  the  South  had  done  tor  the  Union.— Senator  Hammond's  Speech. — The  States, 
not  Schools  of  Provincialism  and  Estrangement. — The  Development  of  America,  a 
North  and  South,  not  Hostile  States.— Peculiar  Ideas  of  Yankee  Civilization, — Ideas 
Nursed  in  "Free  Schools." — Yankee  Materialism. — How  it  has  Developed  in  the 
War. — Yankee  False-hoods  and  Yankee  Cruelties. — His  Commercial  Politics. — Price 
of  his  Liberties.— Ideas  of  the  Confederates  in  the  War.— How  the  Washington 
Routine  was  introduced.  —  The  Richmond  Government,  Weak  and  Negative. — 
No  Political  Novelty  in  the  Confederacy. — The  Future  of  Confederate  Ideas. — 
Intellectual  Barrenness  of  the  War. — Material  of  the  Confederate  Army.— Th« 
Birth  of  Great  Ideas.— The  Old  Political  Idolaters.— The  Recompense  of  Suf 
fering. 

It  has  been  a  sentimental  regret  with  certain  European  stu 
dents  of  American  History  that  the  colonies  of  America,  after 
acquiring  their  independence,  did  not  establish  a  single  and 
compact  nationality.  The  philosophy  of  these  optimists  is  that 
the  State  institutions  were  perpetual  schools  of  provincialism, 
selfishness,  and  discontent,  and  that  they  were  constantly  edu 
cating  the  people  for  the  disruption  of  that  Union  which  was 
only  a  partial  and  incomplete  expression  of  the  nationality  of 
America.  These  men  indulge  the  idea  that  America,  as  a  na 
tion,  would  have  been  colossal ;  that  its  wonderful  mountains 
and  rivers,  its  vast  stretch  of  territory,  its  teeming  wealth,  and 
the  almost  boundless  military  resources,  which  the  present  war 
has  developed  and  proved,  would  then  have  deen  united  in  one 
picture  of  grandeur,  and  in  a  single  movement  of  sublime,  ir 
resistible  progress. 

These  are  pretty  dreams  of  ignorance.  Those  who  ascribe 
to  the  State  institutions  of  America  our  present  distractions, 


29.4:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  discover  in  them  the  nurseries  of  the  existing  war,  are 
essentially  ignorant  of  our  political  history.  They  are  stran 
gers  to  the  doctrines  of  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina — the  first 
name  in  the  political  literature  of  our  old  government — the 
iirst  man  who  raised  the  party  controversies  of  America  to  the 
dignity  of  a  political  philosophy  and  illuminated  them  with 
the  lights  of  the  patient  and  accomplished  scholar. 

The  great  political  discovery  of  Mr.  Calhoim  was  this  :  that 
the  rights  of  the  States  were  the  only  solid  foundation  of  the 
Union  ;  and  that,  so  far  from  being  antagonistic  to  it,  they  con 
stituted  its  security,  realized  its  perfection,  arid  gave  to  it  all 
the  moral  beauty  with  which  it  appealed  to  the  affections  ot 
the  people.  It  was  in  this  sense  that  the  great  South  Carolina 
statesman,  so  frequently  calumniated  as  "nullifier,"  agitator, 
&c.,  was  indeed  the  real  and  devoted  friend  of  the  American 
Union.  He  maintained  the  rights  of  the  States — tiie  sacred 
distribution  of  powers  between  them  and  the  general  govern 
ment — as  the  life  of  the  Union,  and  its  bond  of  attachment  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people.  And  in  this  he  was  right.  The  State 
institutions  of  America,  properly  regarded,  were  not  discord 
ant ;  nor  were  they  unfortunate  elements  in  our  political  life. 
They  gave  certain  occasions  to  the  divisions  of  industry  ;  they 
were  instruments  of  material  prosperity  ;  they  were  schools  oi 
pride  and  emulation  ;  above  all,  they  were  the  true  guardians 
of  the  Union,  keeping  it  from  degenerating  into  that  vile  and 
short-lived  government  in  which  power  is  consolidated  in  & 
mere  numerical  majority. 

Mr.  Calhoun's  so-called  doctrine  of  Nullification  is  one  of 
the  highest  proofs  ever  given  by  any  American  statesman  ot 
attachment  to  the  Union.  The  assertion  is  not  made  for  para 
doxical  effect.  It  is  clear  enough  in  history,  read  in  the  severe 
type  of  facts,  without  the  falsehoods  and  epithets  of  that  Yan 
kee  literature  which  has  so  long  defamed  us,  distorted  our 
public  men,  and  misrepresented  us,  even  to  ourselves. 

The  so-called  and  miscalled  doctrine  of  Nullification  marked 
one  of  the  most  critical  periods  in  the  controversies  of  Amer 
ica,  and  constitutes  one  of  the  most  curious  studies  for  its 
philosophic  historian.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  unwilling  to  offend 
the  popular  idolatry  of  the  Union  ;  he  sought  a  remedy  fo 
existing  evils  short  of  disunion,  and  the  consequence  was  what 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  295 

was  called,  by  an  ingenious  slander,  or  a  contemptible  stu 
pidity,  Nullification.  His  doctrine  was,  in  fact,  an  accommo 
dation  of  two  sentiments  :  that  of  Yankee  injustice  and  that  of 
reverence  of  the  Union.  He  proposed  to  save  the  Union  b} 
the  simple  and  august  means  of  an  appeal  to  the  sovereign 
States  that  composed  it.  He  proposed  that  should  the  general 
government  and  a  state  come  into  conflict,  the  power  should 
be  invoked  that  called  the  general  government  into  existence, 
and  gave  it  all  of  its  authority.  In  such  a  case,  said  Mr.  Cal- 
houn,  "  the  States  themselves  may  be  appealed  to,  three- 
fourths  of  which,  in  fact,  form  a  power  whose  decrees  are  the 
Constitution  itself,  and  whose  voice  can  silence  all  discontent. 
The  utmost  extent,  then,  of  the  power  is,  that  a  State  acting  in 
its  sovereign  capacity,  as  one  of  the  parties  to  the  constitu 
tional  compact,  may  compel  the  government  created  by  that 
compact  to  submit  a  question  touching  its  infraction  to  the 
parties  who  created  it."  He  proposed  a  peculiar,  conserva 
tive,  and  noble  tribunal  for  the  controversies  that  agitated  the 
country  and  threatened  the  Union.  He  was  not  willing  that 
vital  controversies  between  the  sovereign  States  and  the  gen 
eral  government  should  be  submitted  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
which  properly  excluded  political  questions,  and  comprehend 
ed  those  only  where  there  were  parties  amenable  to  the  pro 
cess  of  the  court.  This  was  the  length  and  breadth  of  Nullifi 
cation.  It  was  intended  to  reconcile  impatience  of  Yankee 
injustice,  and  that -sentimental  attachment  to  the  Union  which 
colors  so  much  of  American  politics;  it  resisted  the  suggestion 
of  revolution  ;  it  clung  to  the  idolatry  of  the  Union,  and 
marked  that  passage  in  American  history  in  which  there  was 
a  combat  between  reason  and  that  idolatry,  and  in  which  that 
idolatry  made  a  showy,  but  ephemeral  conquest. 

The  doctrine,  then,  of  Mr.  Calhoun  was  this :  he  proposed 
only  to  constitute  a  conservative  and  constitutional  barrier-to 
Yankee  aggression  ;  arid,  so  far  from  destroying  the  Union, 
proposed  to  eiect  over  it  the  permanent  and  august  guard  of  a 
tribunal  of  those  sovereign  powers  which  had  created  it.  Ifc 
was  this  splendid,  but  hopeless  vision  of  the  South  Carolina 
statesman,  which-  the  North  slandered  with  the  catch-word  of 
Nullification  ;  which  Northern  orators  made  the  text  of  indig 
nation;  on  which  Mr.  Webster  piped  his  schoolboy  rhetoric; 


296  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  on  which  the  more  modern  schools  of  New  England  have 
exhausted  the  lettered  resources  of  their  learned  blacksmiths 
and  Senatorial  shoemakers.  Mr.  Webster,  the  representative 
of  that  imperfect  and  insolent  education  peculiar  to  New  Eng 
land,  appears  never  to  have  known  that  Mr.  Calhoun's  doc 
trine  was  not  of  his  own  origination  ;  that  its  suggestion,  a 
least,  came  from  one  of  the  founders  of  the  republic.  We  re 
fer  to  that  name  which  is  apostolic  in  the  earliest  party  divis 
ions  of  America,  and  the  enduring  ornament  of  Virginia — 
Thomas  Jelferson,  the  Sage  of  Monticello.  At  a  late  period  of 
his  life,  Mr.  Jefferson  said  :  "  With  respect  to  our  State  and 
Federal  governments,  I  do  not  think  their  relations  are  cor 
rectly  understood  by  foreigners.  They  suppose  the  former 
subordinate  to  the  latter.  This  is  not  the  case.  They  are  co 
ordinate  departments  of  one  simple  and  integral  whole.  But 
you  may  ask  if  the  two  departments  should  claim  each  the 
came  subject  of  power,  where  is  the  umpire  to  decide  between 
them  ?  In  cases  of  little  urgency  or  importance,  the  prudence 
of  both  parties  will  keep  them  aloof  from  the  questionable 
ground  ;  but,  if  it  can  neither  be  avoided  nor  compromised,  a 
Convention  of  the  States  must  be  called  to  ascribe  the  doubt 
ful  power  to  that  department  which  they  may  think  best." 

Here  was  the  first  suggestion  of  the  real  safety  of  the'Union  ; 
and  it  was  this  suggestion,  reproduced  by  Calhoun,  which  the 
North  slandered  as  Nullification,  insulted  as  heresy,  and 
branded  as  treason. 

It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  the  South  should  have 
tamely  allowed  the  Yankees  to  impose  upon  her  political  lit 
erature  certain  injurious  terms,  and  should  have  adopted  them 
to  her  own  prejudice  and  shame.  The  world  takes  its  imprcs 
eion  from  names ;  and  the  false  party  nomenclature  which  the 
North  so  easily  fastened  upon  us,  and  which  survives  even  in 
this  war,  has  had  a  most  important  influence  in  obscuring  our 
history,  and  especially  in  soliciting  the  prejudices  of 'Europe. 

The  proposition  of  Mr.  Calhoun  to  protect  the  Union  by  a 
certain  constitutional  and  conservative  barrier,  the  North  des 
ignated  Nullification,  and  the  South  adopted  a  name  which 
was  both  a  falsehood  and  a  slander.  The  well  guarded  and 
moderate  system  of  negro  servitude  in  the  South,  the  North 
called  Slavery ;  and  this  false  and  accursed  name  has  beec 


THE    THIRD    TEAK.  297 

permitted  to  pass  current  in  European  literature,  associating 
and  carrying  with  it  the  horrors  of  barbarism,  and  defiling  us 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  The  Democratic  party  in  the  South, 
which  claimed  equality  under  the  Constitution,  as  a  principle, 
and  not  merely  as  a  selfish  interest,  was  branded  by  the  North 
as  a  pro-slavery  party,  and  the  South  submitted  to  the  desig 
nation. 

How  little  that  great  party  deserved  this  title  was  well  illus 
trated  in  the  famous  Kansas  controversy;  for  the  history  of 
that  controversy  was  simply  this  :  the  South  struggled  for  the 
principle  of  equality  in  the  Territories,  without  reference  to  the 
selfish  interests  of  so-called  Slavery,  and  even  with  the  admis 
sion  of  the  hopelessness  of  those  interests  in  Kansas  ;  while  the 
North  contended  for  the  narrow,  selfish,  practical  consequence 
of  making  Kansas  a  part  of  her  Free-soil  possessions.  The 
proofs  of  this  may  be  made  in  two  brief  extracts  from  these 
celebrated  debates.  These  are  so  full  of  historical  instruction 
that  they  supply  a  place  here  much  better  than  any  narrative 
or  comment  could  do  : 

Mr.  ENGLISH,  of  Indiana. — I  think  I  may  safely  say  that  there  is  not 
Southern  man  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  who  will  not  vote  for  the  admis 
sion  of  Kansas  as  a  Free  state,  if  she  brings  here  a  Constitution  to  that  effect 
Is  there  a  Southern  man  here  who  will  vote  against  the  admission  of  Kansa 
as  a  Free  State,  if  it  be  the  undoubted  will  of  the  people  of  that  Territory  tha 
it  shall  be  a  Free  State  ? 

MANY  MEMBEKS. — Not  one. 

At  another  stage  of  the  Kansas  debate  occurs  the  following: 

Mr.  BARKSDALE,  of  Mississippi. — I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  House,  of  the  Black  Republican  party,  would  you  vote  for  the  admission  ol 
Kansas  into  the  Union,  with  a  Constitution  tolerating  Slavery,  if  a  hundred 
thousand  people  there  wished  it  ? 

Mr.  GIDDINGS,  of  Ohio. — I  answer  the  gentleman  that  I  will  never  associate, 
politically,  with  men  of  that  character,  if  I  can  help  it.  I  will  never  vote  to 
compel  Ohio  to  associate  with  another  Slave  State,  if  I  can  prevent  it. 

Mr.  STANTON. — I  will  say,  if  the  gentleman  will  allow  me,  that  the  Repub 
lican  members  of  this  House,  so  far  as  1  know,  will  never  vote  for  the  admis 
sion  of  any  Slave  State  north  of  3G°  80'. 

We  return  to  the  influence  of  State  institutions  on  America. 
We   contend    that   they   were   not   hostile  to   the  Union,   01 


298  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

malignant  in  their  character ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  tlity  were 
auxiliary  to  the  Union ;  that  they  stimulated  the  narional 
progress;  that,  in  fact,  they  interpreted  the  true  glory  of 
America ;  and  that  it  was  especially  these  modifications  of  our 
national  life  which  gave  to  the  Union  that  certain  moral 
sublimity  so  long  the  theme  of  American  politicians.  From 
these  propositions  we  advance  to  a  singular  conclusion.  It  is 
that  the  moral  veneration  of  the  Union,  which  gives  the  key  to 
so  much  of  American  history,  was  peculiarly  a  sentiment  of 
the  South  ;  while  in  the  North  it  was  nothing  more  than  a  mere 
affectation. 

This  may  sound  strange  to  those  who  have  read  American 
history  in  the  smooth  surface  of  Yankee  books ;  who  remember 
Webster's  apostrophes  to  the  glorious.  Union,  and  Everett's 
silken  rhetoric ;  whose  political  education  has  been  manu 
factured  to  hand  by  the  newspapers,  and  clap-traps  of  Yankee 
literature  about  "  nullification"  and  treason.  But  it  is  easy  of 
comprehension.  The  political  ideas  of  the  North  excluded  that 
of  any  peculiar  moral  character  about  the  Union  ;  the  doctrine 
of  State  Rights  was  rejected  by  them  for  the  prevalent  notion 
that  America  was  a  single  democracy  ;  thus,  the  Union  to  them 
was  nothing  more  than  a  geographical  name,  entitled  to  no 
peculiar  claims  upon  the  affections  of  the  people.  It  was 
different  with  the  South.  The  doctrine  of  State  Rights  gave 
to  the  Union  its  moral  dignity  ;  this  doctrine  was  the  only  real 
possible  source  of  sentimental  attachment  to  the  Union  ;  and 
this  doctrine  was  the  received  opinion  of  the  Southern  people, 
and  the  most  marked  peculiarity  of  their  politics.  The  South 
did  not  worship  the  Union  in  the  base  spirit  of  commercial 
idolatry,  as  a  painted  machinery  to  secure  tariffs  and  bounties, 
and  to  aggrandize  a  section.  She  venerated  the  Union  because 
she  discovered  in  it  a  sublime  moral  principle;  because  she  re 
garded  it  as  a  peculiar  association  in  which  sovereign  States 
were  held  by  high  considerations  of  good  faith ;  by  the  ex 
changes  of  equity  and  comity ;  by  the  noble  attractions  of 
social  order;  by  the  enthused  sympathies  of  a  common  destiny 
of  power,  honor,  and  renown.  It  was  this  galaxy  which  the 
South  wore  upon  her  heart,  and  before  the  clustered  fires  of 
whose  glory  she  worshipped  with  an  adoration  almost  Oriental, 
That  Union  is  now  dissolved;  that  splendid  galaxy  of  stars  ia 


THE    THIRD    YEAR. 

no  more  in  the  heavens;  and  where  once  it  shone,  the  fierce 
comet  of  war  has  burst,  and  writes  a  red  history  on  the  azure 
page. 

But  let  this  be  said  by  the  historian  of  this  war:  that  the 
South  loved  the  Union  ;  dissolved  it  unwillingly;  and,  though 
she  had  had  the  political  administration  of  it  in  her  hands 
during  most  of  its  existence,  surrendered  it  without  a  blot  on 
its  fame.  "Do  not  forget,"  said  a  Southern  Senator,  when  Mr. 
Seward  boasted  in  the  United  States  Senate  that  the  North  was 
about  to  take  control  at  Washington,. "  it  can  never  be  forgot 
ten — it  is  written  on  the  brightest  page  of  human  history — 
that  we,  the  slaveholders  of  the  South,  took  our  country  in  her 
infancy,  and,  after  ruling  her  for  sixty  out  of  the  seventy  years 
of  her  existence,  we  shall  surrender  her  to  you  without  a  stain 
upon  her  honor,  boundless  in  prosperity,  incalculable  in  her 
strength,  the  wonder  and  the  admiration  of  the  worl-  Time 
will  show  what  you  will  make  of  her;  but  no  time  can  ever 
diminish  our  glory  or  your  responsibility." 

But  there  is  one  conclusive  argument  which  we  may  apply 
to  the  common  European  opinion,  and  the  half-educated  notion 
of  this  country  that  the  State  institutions  of  America  were 
schools  of  provincialism  and  estrangement.  If  such  had  been 
the  case,  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  would  have  found  the 
States  that  composed  it  a  number  of  petty  principalities  op 
posed  to  each  other,  or,  at  least,  diverse  and  heterogeneous. 
But  this  war  has  found  no  such  thing.  It  has  found  the  people 
of  Virginia  and  Tennessee,'  the  people  of  Missouri  and  South 
Carolina,  entertaining  the  same  political  ideas,  pursuing  a 
single,  common  object  in  the  war,  and  baptizing  it  in  a  com 
mon  bloodshed  on  its  fields  of  contest  and  carnage.  The  States 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy  offer  to  the  world  the  example  of 
its  inhabitants  as  one  people,  homogeneous  in  their  social 
systems,  alike  in  their  ideas,  and  unanimous  in  their  resolves ; 
and  the  States  of  the  North  afford  similar  illustrations  ot 
national  unity.  The  war  has  found  not  discordant  States,  but 
two  distinct  nations,  in  the  attitude  of  belligerents,  differing  in 
blood,  in  race,  in  social  institutions,  in  systems  of  popular  in 
struction,  in  political  education  and  theories,  nn  ideas,  in  man 
ners  ;  and  the  whole  sharpened  by  a  long  ajid  fierce  politica 
controversy,  that  has  arrayed  them  at  last  as  belligerents. 


300  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  interposed  the  gage  of  armed  and  bloody  contest.  The 
development  of  America  has  been  a  North  and  a  South ; 
not  discordant  States,  but  hostile'  nations.  The  present  war 
is  not  for  paltry  theories  of  political  parties,  or  for  domestic 
institutions,  or  for  rival  administrations,  but  for  the  vital 
ideas  of  each  belligerent,  and  the  great  stakes  of  national 
existence. 

What  have  been  the  ideas  which  the  North  has  developed  or 
illustrated  in  this  war?  We  will  answer  briefly. 

The  North  presents  to  the  world  the  example  of  a  people 
corrupted  by  a  gross  material  prosperity;  their  ideas  of  gov 
ernment,  a  low  and  selfish  utilitarianism;  their  conceptions  of 
civilization,  prosperous  railroads,  penny  newspapers,  showy 
churches.  Their  own  estimates  of  their  civilization  never  pene 
trated  beyond  the  mere  surface  and  convenience  of  society; 
never  took  into  account  its  unseen  elements;  the  public  virtue, 
the  public  spirit,  the  conservative  principle,  the  love  of  order, 
the  reverence  of  the  past,  all  which  go  to  make  up  the  grand 
idea  of  human  civilization. 

It  is  amusing  to  the  student  of  history  to  hear  Mr.  Sumner 
of  Massachusetts,  asserting,  with  scholarly  flourishes,  that  tli 
South  is  barbarous,  because  she  has  no  free  schools :  the  sources 
of  that  half  education  in  the  North,  which  have  been  mirserie. 
of  insolence,  irreverence  of  the  past,  infidelity  in  religion,  and 
an  itch  for  every  new  idea  in  the  mad  calendar  of  social  re 
forms.  It  is  yet  more  amusing  to  hear  his  Senatorial  peer — 
"the  Natick  cobbler."  When,  on  the  eve  of  the  downfall  of 
the  government  at  Washington,  a  Southern  Senator  depicted 
the  wealth  that  the  South  had  poured  info  the  lap  of  the 
Union,  the  elements  it  had  contributed  to  its  civilization,  and 
the  virtues  it  had  brought  to  its  adornment,  Mr.  Wilson,  of 
Massachusetts,  had  this  reply:  " Massachusetts  has  more  re 
ligious  newspapers  than  all  the  slaveholding  States  of  the 
Union." 

The  people  of  the  North  have  never  studied  politics  as  a 
moral  science.  They  have  no  idea  of  government  as  an  inde 
pendent  principle  of  truth,  virtue  and  honor;  to  them  it  is 
merely  an  engine  of  material  prosperity — a  mere  auxiliary 
appendage  to  a  noisy,  clattering  world  of  trade,  and  steam,  and 
telegraphs.  It  is  this  low  commercial  sense  of  government 


THE    THIRD    YEAB.  301 

which  developed  all  the  old  Yankee  theories  of  tariffs,  uii 
bounties,  and  free  farms. 

Indeed,  the  most  fruitful  study  in  American  politics  is  the 
peculiar  materialistic  idea  of  the  Yankee.  Its  developments 
are  various,  but  all  held  together  by  the  same  leading  idea: 
superficial  notions  of  civilization;  agrarian  theories;  the  sub 
ordination  of  the  principles  of  government  to  trade;  mercantile 
"  statesmanship ;"  the  exclusion  of  moral  ideas  from  politics; 
the  reduction  of  the  whole  theory  of  society  to  the.  base  measure 
of  commercial  interests.  Such  are  some  of  the  developments 
of  the  materialistic  idea:  the  last  and  fullest  is  the  present 
war. 

This  war,  on  the  part  of  the  Yankee,  is  essentially  a  war  of 
interest:  hence  its  negation,  on  his  part,  of  all  principles  and 
morals ;  hence  its  adoption  of  that  coarse  maxim  of  commercial 
casuistry,  "the  end  justifies  the  means;"  hence  its  treachery, 
its  arts  of  bad  faith,  its  "  cuteness"  on  all  belligerent  questions  ; 
hence  its  atrocities  which  have  debased  the  rules  of  civilized 
warfare  to  a  code  of  assassins  and  brigands.  It  is  true  that  the 
IsTorth  has  affected  in  this  war  such  sentiments  as  love  of  the 
Union,  reverence  of  the  American  nationality,  a  romantic 
attachment  to  the  old  flag.  But  we  repeat  that  the  proof  that 
the  North  has  fought  for  coarse,  material  interests  in  this  war 
is  the  conduct  of  the  war  itself. 

War  is  horrible ;  but  it  has  its  laws  of  order  and  amelioration. 
Civilization  has  kindled  the  dark  cloud  of  horrors  with  the 
vestal  observances  of  honor ;  and  the  undying  lights  of  human 
ity  have  irradiated  its  aspects — softened  the  countenance  oi 
the  Giant  who 

"  On  the  mountain  stands, 
His  blood-red  tresses  deepening  in  the  sun, 
With  death-shot  glowing  in  his  fiery  hands." 

But  where,  in  this  war  of  the  Yankee,  shall  we  find  exhibi 
tions  of  the  chivalry  and  amenity  of  modern  belligerents.  A 
ghostly  echo  comes  shrieking  from  fields  blackened  by  fire, 
jind  scarred  and  tormented  by  the  endless  scourge  of  the  tyrant. 
The  characteristics  of  the  Yankee  war  are  precisely  those 
which  arise  out  of  the  materialistic  idea  :  treachery  dignified 
us  genius,  and  cruelty  set  up  to  gaze  as  the  grandeur  of  power. 


S02  SOUTHERN    HISTORF    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  crooked  woof  of  treachery — the  scarlet  thread  of  the  1!< 
have  been  woven  by  the  Yankee  into  every  part  of  this  war.* 
It  is  not  necessary  to  unravel  here  the  whole  story  of  Yankee 
falsehood.  One  instance  will  suffice.  The  government  which 
at  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  played  at  the  game  of  con 
ciliation  by  affecting  to  arrest  on  the  streets  of  its  capital, 
Washington,  fugitive  slaves,  and  to  return  them  to  their  mas 
ters  ;  which,  in  the  first  months  of  the  war,  declared  that  it 
"  repudiated  all  designs  whatever,  and  wherever  imputed  to  it, 
of  disturbing  the  system  of  slavery;"  that  any  such  effort 
would  be  "  unconstitutional;"  and  that  "all  acts  of  the  Pres 
ident  in  that  direction  would  be  prevented  by  the  judicial  au 
thority,  even  though  they  were  assented  to  by  Congress  and 
the  people  " — for  such  was  the  solemn  assurance  of  Mr.  Sew- 


*  It  is  a  curious  fact,  in  the  indisputable  records  of  American  History,  that 
Ihe  separation  of  the  Southern  States  from  the  Union,  is  defensible,  in  all  res 
pects  ;  that  is,  as  an  assertion  of  State  rights,  and,  again,  as  an  Assertion  of  the 
itill  higher  principle  of  self-government — on  grounds  taken  by  our  enemies, 
when  it  suited  them  to  take  those  grounds. 

With  reference  to  the  ground  of  State  Rights : 

At  the  third  session  of  the  Eleventh  Congress,  in  1811,  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union  was  spoken  of  for  the  first  time,  by  a  member  from  the  State  of  Massa- 
ihusetts.  The  bill  to  form  a  Constitution  and  State  Government  for  the  Terri 
tory  of  Orleans,  and  the  admission  of  such  State,  under  the  name  of  Louisiana, 
Into  the  Union,  was  under  consideration. 

•"  Mr.  Quincy,  of  Massachusetts,  in  opposition  to  the  bill,  said  :  '  I  am  com 
pelled  to  declare  it  as  my  deliberate  opinion,  that  if  this  bill  passes,  the  bonds 
of  this  Union  are  virtually  dissolved ;  that  the  States  which  compose  it  are  free 
from  their  obligations,  and  that,  as  it  will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be  the 
duty  of  some,  to  prepare  definitely  for  a  separation — amicably,  if  they  can ; 
violently,  if  they  must.' 

"  Mr.  Quincy  was  here  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Poindexter. 

"Mr.  Quincy  repeated  and  justified  the  remark  he  had  made,  which,  to  save 
all  misapprehension,  he  committed  to  writing  in  the  following  words :  'If 
this  bill  passes,  it  is  my  deliberate  opinion  that  it  is  virtually  a  dissolution  of 
this  Union  ;  that  it  will  free  the  States  from  their  moral  obligations,  and,  as  it 
will  be  the  right  of  all,  so  it  will  be  the  duty  of  some,  definitely  to  prepare  for 
a  separation— amicably,  if  they  can  ;  violently,  if  they  must.'  " 

In  1844,  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  resolved  that  the  annexation  oi 
Texas  would  be  cause  of  dissolution  of  the  Union. 

With  reference  to  the  other,  higher  ground  of  Self-Government : 

Abraham  Lincoln,  now  President  at  Washington  said  :  "Any  people,  any* 
where,  being  inclined  and  having  the  power,  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and 
shake  off  the  existing  Government,  and  form  a  new  one  that  suits  them  better 
Nor  is  this  right  confined  to  cases  wl-ere  the  people  of  an  existing  Government 


THE    THIED    YEAR.  303 

arcTs  diplomatic  circular  of  1861;  which  promised  the  Scuth 
"  the  Constitution  as  it  was,"  and  recited  poetry  in  Congress 
entreating  South  Carolina  to  return  to  the  bosom  of  the  Union 
is  to-day  found  making  the  boast — rather,  we  may  say,  indulg 
ing  the  fiendish   exultation — that  it  has  Abolitionized  ever) 
district  it  lias  invaded  ;  that  it  has  forced  into  military  service 
one  hundred  thousand  blacks,  stolen  from  their  masters;  that 
it  lias  forcibly  consigned  them  from  peaceful   occupations  to 
the  perils  of  the  battle-field  ;  and  that  it  has  whetted  their  ig- 
n^rant  and  savage  natures  with  an   appetite  for  the  blood  of 
the  white  man  of  the  Confederacy.     And  this  stupendous  lie  is 
called  the  genius  of  Yankee  statesmanship,  and  the  world  is 
asked  to  applaud  it. 

But  it  is  in  the  atrocious  warfare  of  the  enemy  that  we  find 
the  most  striking  instances  of  his  exclusion  of  that  noble 
spirituality  common  to  the  great  conflicts  of  civilized  nations, 
and  the  most  characteristic  evidence  of  the  brutal  selfishness 
of  his  hostilities.  The  Yankee  has  never  shown  mercy  in  this 
war,  and  not  one  touch  of  refinement  from  his  hand  has  re 
lieved  its  horrors.  The  track  oi  his  armies  has  been  marked 
by  the  devouring  flame,  or  by  the  insatiate  plunder  and  horrid 
orgies  of  a  savage  and  cowardly  foe.  The  weed-growth  of 
Louisiana,  where  once  flourished  the  richest  plantations  of  the 
South ;  the  desert  that  stretches  from  the  Big  Black  to  the 


may  choose  to  exercise  it.  Any  portion  of  such  people  that  can,  may  revolu 
tionize,  putting  clown  a  minority^intermingled  with  or  near  about  them,  who 
may  oppose  them." 

In  1860,  the  New  York  Tribune  declared:  "Whenever  a  portion  of  this 
Union  large  enough  to  form  an  independent,  self-sustaining  nation  shall  see  fit 
to  say  authentically  to  the  residue,  '  We  want  to  get  away  from  you,'  we  shall 
Bay — and  we  trust  self-respect,  if  not  regard  for  the  principle  of  self-govern 
ment,  will  constrain  the  residue  of  the  American  people  to  say — Go !  " 

At  the  beginning  of  the  secession  movements,  Secretary  Seward  used  the 
following  language  to  Mr.  Adams,  the  United  States  Minister  at  London 
"For  tlu-se  reasons  he  would  not  be  disposed  to  reject  a  cardinal  dogma  o 
theirs  (the  Secessionists),  namely  that  the  Federal  Government  could  not  re 
duce  the  seceding  States  to  obedience  by  conquest,  even  although  he  were  dis 
posed  to  question  that  proposition.     But  in  fact  the  President  willingly  accepts 
it  as  true.     Only  an  imperial  or  despotic  government  could  subjugate  thorough 
ly  disaffected  and  insurrectionary  members  of  the  State.   This  Federal.  Repub 
lican  system  of  ours  is,  of  all  forms  of  government,  the  very  one  most  unfitted, 
for  Buch  a  labor." 


304:  80UTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Mississippi,  once  a  beautiful  expanse  of  happy  homes ;  the 
black,  mangled  belt  of  territory  that,  commencing  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  extends  to  Fortress  Monroe,  bound  like  a  ghastly  pall 
with  the  silver  fringe  of  the  Potomac  ;  these  are  the  hideous 
monuments  of  partial  conquest  which  the  Yankee  has  com 
mitted  to  the  memory  of  the  world  and  to  the  inscriptions  of 
history.  What  has  been  safe  in  this  war  from  the  grasp  of  his 
plunder  or  the  touch  of  his  desecration  ?  In  the  districts  of  the 
Confederacy  where  his  soldiers  have  penetrated  they  have  ap 
propriated  or  destroyed  private  property  ;  they  have  stolen 
even  works  of  art  and  ornament ;  they  have  plundered  churches ; 
they  have,  desecrated  the  grave  and  despoiled  the  emblems 
which  love  has  consecrated  to  honor.  And  all  this  has  been 
done  according  to  a  peculiar  theory  of  hostilities  which  makes 
of  war  a  sensual  selfishness,  and  contemplates  its  objects  as  a 
savage  gain  of  blood  and  plunder.  This  is  the  true-and  char 
acteristic  conception  of  the  Yankee.  lie  is  taught  by  his  po 
litical  education,  by  his  long  training  in  the  crooked  paths  of 
thrift,  that  all  the  principles  of  civilized  usage  are  to  be  set  at 
nought,  when  convenience  and  present  policy  interfere  with 
their  fulfilment. 

It  is  in  this  sense  of  narrow,  materialistic  expediency  that 
the  Yankee  has  surrendered  his  liberties  in  this  war,  and  pro 
claimed  the  enormous  doctrine,  that  the  Constitution  under 
which  he  lives,  and  all  his  other  monuments  of  liberty,  are 
suspended  by  the  paramount  necessity  of  conquering  and  de 
spoiling  the  South.  He  has  carried  his  commercial  politics  into 
the  war,  and  trades  his  own  liberties  for  the  material  rewards 
of  an  otherwise  vain  and  fruitless  conquest. 

But  we  leave  the  subject  of  the  Yankee  to  turn  to  the  other 
side  of  the  question,  and  inquire  what  new  political  ideas  the 
South  has  developed  in  this  war.  Here  is  an  extraordinary 
blank.  In  the  new  government  of  the  Confederacy  we  do  not 
discover  any  statesmanship,  any  financial  genius,  any  ideas  be 
yond  what  are  copied  from  the  old  effete  systems  that,  it  was 
thought,  the  revolution  replaced.  There  must  be  some  expla 
nation  of  this  absence  of  new  ideas,  this  barren  negation  in  oui 
revolution. 

By  a  misfortune,  not  easily  avoided,  the  new  government  of  the 
Confederacy  fell  into  the  hands  of  certain  prominentpartisaiis,  but 


THE    THIRD     TEAR.  305 

mediocre  politicians,  who  made  a  servile  copy  of  the  o.  d  Yankee 
Constitution  ;  who  had  no  ideas  of  political  administration 
higher  than  the  Washington  routine  ;  and  who,  by  their  igno 
rance  and  conceit,  have  blindfolded  and  staggered  the  revolu 
tion  from  its  commencement.  This  observation  gives  the  key 
to  the  political  history  of  the  Confederacy  in  this  war.  A  ser 
vile  copy  of  old  political  ideas,  an  ape  of  the  Washington  ad 
ministration,  without  genius,  without  originality,  rejecting  the 
counsels  of  the  intelligent,  and  living  in  its  own  little  circle  of 
conceit,  the  Confederate  government  has  fallen  immeasurably 
below  the  occasion  of  this  revolution,  and  misrepresents  alike 
its  spirit  and  its  object. 

But  this  weak,  negative  government  of  the  Confederacy  is 
but  the  early  accident  of  this  revolution  ;  and  the  people  en 
dure  the  accident  of  their  present  rulers  merely  from  patriotic 
scruples  which  contemplate  immediate  exigencies.  We  stand 
but  on  the  threshold  of  this  revolution,  and  the  curtain  falls 
over  a  grand  future  of  new  ideas.  Those  who  expect  that  it 
will  terminate  with  the  mere  formality  of  a  treaty  with  the 
public  enemy,  and  that  we  shall  then  have  a  plodding  future 
of  peace,  a  repetition  of  old  political  ideas  and  manners,  have 
got  their  pleasant  philosophy  from  newspaper  articles  and 
street  talk ;  they  have  never  read  the  exalted  and  invariable 
lesson  of  history,  that,  on  commotions  as  immense  as  this  war — • 
no  matter  what  its  particular  occasion — there  are  reared  thosa 
new  political  structures  which  mark  the  ages  of  public  progress. 
If  it  was  true  that  this  war,  with  its  immense  expenditures  of 
blood  and  treasure,  was  merely  to  determine  the  status  of 
negroes  in  the  South — merely  to  settle  the  so-called  Slavery 
question — there  is  not  an  intelligent  man  in  the  Confederacy 
but  would  spit  upon  the  sacrifice.  If  it  was  true  that  this  ter 
rible  war  was  merely  to  decide  between  two  political  adminis 
trations  of  the  same  model,  then  the  people  of  the  Confederacy 
would  do  right  to  abandon  it. 

Political  novelty  will  come  soon  enough:  it  is  the  inevitable 
offspring  of  such  commotions  as  this  war.  We  repeat,  that  the 
Confederacy  is  now  barren  of  political  ideas,  because  those  who 
are  accidentally  its  rulers  are,  without  originality  or  force, 
copyists  of  old  rotten  systems,  and  the  apes  of  routine  ;  and 
because  the  public  mind  of  the  South  is  now  too  forcibly  en 

20 


306  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

grossed  with  the  publie  enemy,  either  to  replace  their  authority 
or  to  chastise  their  excesses.  It  is  under  these  peculiar  re 
straints  that  the  Confederacy  has  produced  such  little  political 
novelty  in  this  war. 

But  the  revolution  is  not  yet  past.  Those  exalted  historical 
inspirations,  which,  with  rapt  souls  and  kindled  blood,  we  read 
in  the  printed  pages  of  the  past,  are  this  day,  with  trumpet 
Bound,  at  our  doors.  We  live  in  great  times;  we  are  in  the 
presence  of  great  events ;  we  stand  in  the  august  theatre  of  a 
national  tragedy.  This  struggle  cannot  pass  away,  until  the 
great  ideas,  which  the  public  danger  alone  holds  in  abeyance, 
have  found  a  full  development  and  a  complete  realization ; 
until  the  South  vindicates  her  reputation  for  political  science 
and  eliminates  from  this  war  a  system  of  government  more 
ingenious  than  a  Chinese  copy  of  Washington. 

But  while  we  thus  reflect  upon  the  intellectual  barrenness  of 
this  war,  we  must  not  forget  that,  while  the  Confederacy  in 
this  time  has  produced  but  few  new  ideas,  it  has  brought  out 
troops  of  virtues.  In  this  respect,  the  moral  interest  of  the  war 
is  an  endless  theme  for  the  historian  ;  and  we  may  be  pardoned 
for  leaving  our  immediate  subject  to  say  a  few  words  of  those 
fields  of  grandeur  in  which  the  Confederacy  lias  found  com 
pensation  for  all  other  short-coinings,  and  stands  most  conspic 
uous  before  the  world. 

We  have  put  into  the  field  soldiers  such  as  the  world  has 
seldom  seen — men  who,  half-clothed  and  half-fed,  have,  against 
superior  numbers,  won  two-thirds  of  the  battles  of  this  war. 
The  material  of  the  Confederate  army,  in  social  worth,  is  sim 
ply  superior  to  all  that  is  related  in  the  military  annals  of  man 
kind.  Men  of  wealth,  men  accustomed  to  the  fashions  of  polite 
society,  men  who  had  devoted  their  lives  to  learned  professions 
and  polished  studies,  have  not  hesitated  to  shoulder  their  mus 
kets  and  fight  as  privates  in  the  ranks  with  the  hard-fisted  and 
uncouth  laborer,  no  less  a  patriot  than  themselves.  Our  army 
presents  to  the  world,  perhaps,  the  only  example  of  theoretical 
socialism  reduced  to  practice  it  has  ever  seen,  and  realizes,  at 
least  in  respect  of  defensive  arms,  the  philosophers  dream  of 
fraternal  and  sympathetic  equality. 

The  hero  of  this  war  is  the  private  soldier:  not  the  officer 
whose  dress  is  embroidered  with  lace,  and  whose  name  gar 


THE    THIRD    YEAR.  307 

nislies  the  gazette,  but  the  humble  and  honest  patriot  of  the 
South  in  his  dirt-stained  and  sweat-stained  clothes,  who  toils 
through  pain  and  hunger  and  peril ;  who  has  no  reward  but  in 
the  satisfaction  of  good  deeds ;  who  throws  his  poor,  unknown 
life  away  at  the  cannon's  mouth,  and  dies  in  that  single  flash 
of  glory.  How  many  of  these  heroes  have  been  laid  in  un 
marked  ground — the  nameless  graves  of  self-devotion.  But 
the  ground  where  they  rest  is  in  the  sight  of  Heaven.  Noth 
ing  kisses  their  graves  but  the  sunlight ;  nothing  mourns  for 
them  but  the  sobbing  wind  ;  nothing  adorns  their  dust  but  the 
wild  flowers  that  have  grown  on  the  bloody  crust  of  the  battle 
field.  But  not  a  Southern  soldier  has  fallen  in  this  war  with 
out  the  account  of  Heaven,  and  Death  makes  its  registry  of 
the  pure  and  the  brave  on  the  silver  pages  of  immortal  life. 

It  is  said  that  some  of  our  people* in  this  war  have  cringed 
beneath  disaster,  and  compromised  with  misfortune.  These 
are  exceptions :  they  may  be  sorrowful  ones.  But  in  this  war 
the  people  of  the  Confederacy,  in  the  mass,  have  shown  a  for 
titude,  an  elasticity  under  reverse,  a  temperance  in  victory,  a 
self-negation  in  misfortune,  a  heroic,  hopeful,  patient,  enduring, 
working  resolution,  which  challenge  the  admiration  of  the 
world.  It  is  not  only  material  evils  which  have  been  thus 
endured :  the  scourge  of  tyranny,  the  bitterness  of  exile,  the 
dregs  of  poverty.  But  the  most  beautiful  circumstance  of  all 
is  the  strange  resignation  of  our  people  in  that  worst  trial  and 
worst  agony  of  war — the  consignment  of  the  living  objects  of 
their  love  to  the  bloody  altars  of  sacrifice.  These  are  the  real 
horrors  of  war,  and  patriotism  has  no  higher  tribute  to  pay 
than  the  brave  and  uncomplaining  endurance  of  such  agony. 

How  have  we  been  resigned  in  this  war  to  the  loss  of  our 
loved  ones!  How  many  noble  sorrows  are  in  our  hearts! 
How  many  skeletons  are  in  our  closets!  War  may  ruin  and 
rifle  the  homestead  ;  may  scatter  as  chaff  in  the  wind  the  prop 
erty  of  years  ;  may  pronounce  the  doom  of  exile — but  all  these 
are  paltry  afflictions  in  comparison  with  the  bereavement  oi 
kindred,  whose  blood  has  been  left  on  the  furze  of  the  field  and 
the  leaves  of  the  forest,  and  whose  uncoffined  bones  are  scat 
tered  to  the  elements. 

The  virtues  and  passions  of  the  South  in  this  war  are  not 
idle  sentimentalisms.  They  are  the  precursors  of  new  and  illus- 


308  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

trious  ideas — the  sure  indications  of  a  new  political  growth 
In  the  warmth  of  such  passions  are  born  noble  and  robust  ideas 
Thus  we  await  the  development  of  this  war  in  ideas,  in  politi 
cal  structures,  in  laws,  which  will  honor  it,  and  for  which  we 
shall  not  unduly  pay  the  dreadful  price  of  blood. 

It  is  impossible  that  a  nation  should  have  suffered  as  the 
South  has  in  this  struggle ;  should  have  adorned  itself  with 
such  sacrifices ;  should  have  illustrated  such  virtues,  to  relapse, 
at  the  end,  into  the  old  routine  of  its  political  existence.  Wo 
have  not  pOured  out  our  tears — we  have  not  made  a  monu 
ment  of  broken  hearts — we  have  not  kneaded  the  ground  with 
human  flesh,  merely  for  the  poor  negative  of  a  peace,  with 
nought  higher  or  better  than  things  of  the  past.  Not  so  does 
nature  recompense  the  martyrdom  of  individuals  or  of  nations 
it  pronounces  the  triumph  of  resurrection. 

We  believe  that  a  new  name  is  to  be  inscribed  in  the  Pan  • 
theon  of  history  ;  not  that  of  an  old  idolatry.  All  now  is  ruin 
and  confusion,  but  from  the  scattered  elements  will  arise  a  new 
spirit  of  beauty  and  order.  All  now  is  dark,  but  the  cloud  will 
break,  and  in  its  purple  gates  will  stand  the  risen  Sun. 


THE    LAST  YEAR. 


OHAPTEE  XIV. 

Condition  of  the  Confederacy  in  the  early  summer  of  1864. — The  expectations  and 
hopes  of  the  South. — GRANT'S  "  ONTO  RICHMOND." — Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  his  com 
mand.— His  services  and  character. — THE  BATTLES  OF  THE  WILDERNESS. — A  heroia 
stand.— Heth's  and  Wilcox's  divisions. — A  critical  conjuncture. — Grant's  whole 
army  on  the  threshold  of  ruin. — Grant's  change  of  front  and  General  Lee's  new 
line. — The  Northern  newspapers  go  into  ecstasies. — THE  BATTLES  OF  SPOTTSYL- 
VANIA  COUKTHOUSK. — A  crisis. — A  thrilling  scene. — "General  Lee  to  the  rear!" — 
Six  days  of  battle.--  Grant's  obstinacy. — Sharidan's  expedition. — A  fight  at  Yellow 
Tavern. — Death  ol  General  "  Jeb"  Stuart. — Butler's  movement  up  the  James. — 
Beauregard  drives  him  to  Bermuda  Hundred. — "  The  Buzzard  and  the  Falcon." — 
THE  ENEMY'S  OPKKATIONS  IN  WESTERN  VIRGINIA. — The  combination  there. — Three 
movements. — Sigel's  defeat  at  Newmarket. — McCausland  checks  Crook  at  Dublin 
Depot. — Morgan  defeats  Averill  at  Wytheville.— Grant  moves  down  the  Valley  of 
the  Kappahannock. — Engagements  near  Hanover  Junction. — Grant  crosses  the  Pa- 
munkey. — He  is  within  a  few  miles  of  Richmond. — The  true  theory  of  his  move 
ments,  defeat,  not  victory. — His  immense  losses. — Lee's  admirable  movements 
and  positive  successes. — Nonsense  of  the  newspapers. 

THE  spirit  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  was  scarcely  ever 
more  buoyant  than  in  the  month  of  May,  1864.  The  confidence 
of  its  people  in  the  ultimate  accomplishment  of  their  independ 
ence  was  so  firm  and  universal,  that  any  other  conclusion  was 
but  seldom  referred  to  in  general  conversation  or  in  the  pre 
vision  of  one's  private  affairs  ;  and  in  Richmond  and  elsewhere 
the  hope  was  freely  indulged  that  the  campaign  of  1864  was 
to  be  decisive  of  the  war,  and  to  crown  the  efforts  of  the  South 
with  peace  and  independence. 

There  had  been  abundant  occasion  for  this  revival  of  confi 
dence  in  the  public  mind  of  the  Confederacy.  The  winter  just 
past  had  been  one  of  a  large  aggregate  of  success  to  the  Con 
federate  arms.  Several  brilliant,  expeditions  had  been  planned 
and  accomplished  by  them  ;  while  on  the  enemy's  side  all  the 
work  he  had  cut  out  for  the  winter  had  come  to  grief,  and 
every  one  of  his  elaborate  enterprises  in  that  season  had  failed, 


310  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

with  a  concurrence  of  disaster  most  remarkable  in  the  history 
of  the  war. 

The  invasion  of  Florida  had  been  a  shocking  failure.  Thomas 
had  been  repulsed  ?n  North  Georgia,  and  was  held  completely 
in  check  there.  Sherman's  grand  expedition  in  the  Southwest 
and  his  famous  experiment  of  "  the  strategic  triangle"  had 
come  to  the  most  absurd  arid  disastrous  conclusion — "  Half  oi 
his  army,"  said  this  chieftain,  "  went  to  Memphis  and  half 
went  to  h — 11."  Banks's  proposed  conquest  of  the  Trans- 
Mississippi  had  been  to  the  Confederates  the  occasion  of  that 
celebrated  Red  River  campaign,  the  most  glorious  in  the  pages 
of  their  history,  in  which  they  not  only  reclaimed  the  coast 
and  frontier  of  the  Trans-Mississippi,  but  left  the  Massachusetts 
hero  scarcely  more  of  Louisiana  than  was  covered  by  his 
pickets.  ,And  there  had  been  other  positive  successes  on  the 
Confederate  side.  Forrest,  by  long  and  rapid  marches,  had 
spread  terror  along  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  and  cut  a 
swath  across  the  State  of  Kentucky  ;  and  on  the  eastern  fron 
tier  the  expeditions  of  Pickett  and  of  Hoke  had  been  brilliant 
events  for  the  Confederacy,  leaving  the  enemy  only  two  places, 
Washington  and  Newbern,  on  the  coast  of  North  Carolina, 

No  wonder  that  the  events  of  this  winter  were  accepted  by 
the  Confederates  as  happy  auguries  for  the  ensuing  campaign, 
and  fresh  occasions  of  hope  and  confidence.  Their  internal 
affairs,  too,  had  improved  along  with  this  current  of  military 
success.  The  army  had  been  replenished  by  an  enlarged  con 
scription  ;  a  happy  revolution  was  already  going  on  in  the 
finances  under  the  operation  of  the  law  which  curtailed  the  cur 
rency  thirty-three  per  cent.;  supplies  had  been  accumulated 
during  the  winter,  and  the  storehouses  of  Richmond  were  filled 
to*  bursting  with  the  subsistence  that  had  been  gathered, 
through  the  course  of  several  months,  for  the  great  campaign 
in  Virginia. 

Such  were  the  extraordinary  prospects  with  which  the  Con 
federacy  entered  upon  the  summer  campaign  of  1864.  A  gen 
eral  opinion  had  taken  possession  of  the  public  mind  that  the 
North  would  make  its  grand  effort  in  this  year  for  the  conquest 
of  the  South;  and  that  even  negative  results  would  be  fatal  to 
the  enemy,  as  they  would  be  insufficient  to  appease  the  grow 
ing  popular  impatience  of  the  war  in  the  North,  or  sustain  any 


THE    LAST    TEAK.  311 

new  demand  of  the  government  at  Washington   for  men  and 
means. 

This  opinion  was  right,  at  least  so  far  as  it  contemplated  an 
extraordinary  exertion  on  the  part  of  the  North.  Two  grand 
campaigns  for  the  summer  of  1864  had  been  elaborately 
planned  at  Washington.  They  were  the  parallel  operations  oi 
Grant  and  Sherman  in  Virginia  and  in  Georgia. 


GRANT'S  "ox  TO  RICHMOND." 

General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  had  hitherto  been  known  in  the 
North  as  the  great  general  of  the  West,  and  the  Yankee  news 
papers  had  entitled  him  the  hero  of  Fort  Donelson  and  Vicks- 
burg.  He  was  now  to  answer  the  eager  expectation  of  the 
public  by  a  campaign  of  unrivalled  importance  in  Virginia. 
His  elevation  had  been  rapid.  Four  years  ago  the  man  who 
commanded  all  the  armies  of  the  North  had  been  occupied 
with  the  obscure  experiments  of  life  in  the  successive  callings 
of  farmer,  auctioneer,  and  tanner ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  having  at  first  been  refused  an  active  military  command 
by  Governor  Yates  of  Illinois,  he  was  accidentally  selected  to 
lead  a  regiment  of  raw  recruits. 

The  grade  of  lieutenant-general  in  the  armies  of  the  United 
States  had  been  conferred  by  brevet  only  on  General  Scott, 
but  as  an  actual  rank  in  time  of  war  ha'd  only  been  bestowed 
on  General  Washington.  It  was  revived  by  the  Federal  Con 
gress,  and  the  commission  conferred  on  General  Grant,  the 
hero  of  the  West,  who,  despite  the  gap  in  his  successes  at  Shi- 
loh  in  1862,  and  his  narrow  escape  on  that  occasion  from  being 
consigned  to  obscurity  by  the  ungenerous  and  characteristic 
changes  in  the  fickle  popular  idolatry  of  the  North,  had  had  a 
long  run  of  success,  and  was  in  advance  of  all  his  contempora 
ries  in  the  coarse  Yankee  measure  of  greatness.  The  commis 
sion  bore  date  March  2,  1864  ;  and  on  the  9th  of  that  month 
President  Lincoln  presented  to  Grant  in  person  this  commis 
sion,  assuring  him  of  his  own  cordial  personal  concurrence  in 
the  measure.  General  Hallcck,  hitherto  general-in-chief,  was 
relieved  from  duty  and  made  chief  of  staff  to  the  army  at 
Washington. 


312  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

The  armies  put  under  the  command  of  Grant  presented  one 
of  the  most  imposing  arrays  in  modern  histor}'.  They  dotted 
the  country  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  thence 
around  and  along  the  sea-coast,  and  back  to  the  Chesapeake. 
It  was  said  that  the  Yankee  lines  might  be  traced  by  the  smoke- 
of  camp-fires  through  a  zig-zag  journey  of  five  thousand  miles. 

A  few  words  may  be  bestowed  here  upon  the  character  of 
the  man,  the  designation  of  whom  as  the  military  idol  of  the 
North  was  not  extravagant.  General  Grant  had  but  little  educa 
tion,  and  was  a  man  of  not  much  more  than  ordinary  ability ; 
but  he  had  a  Scotch  pertinacity  of  character  which  was  a  con 
stant  and  valuable  assistance  in  his  military  campaigns.  Asa 
commander  he  possessed  a  rare  faculty  of  combination.  He 
was  a  man  who  gathered  his  forces,  who  could  "  afford  to 
wait,"  who  dealt  deliberate  and  heavy  strokes ;  but  he  lacked 
that  quickness  of  perception  which  decides  single  fields  and 
illustrates  military  genius.  His  heart  was  certainly  not  a  bad 
one,  and  his  disposition  was  above  most  of  the  little  tricks  of 
the  Yankee.  On  particular  occasions  he  did  some  noble  things, 
as  we  shall  see  in  other  parts  of  this  volume.  He  was  one  of 
the  few  Yankee  notabilities  who,  without  affectation  .and  in 
sincerity,  avoided  sensations  and  displays,  had  a  horror  of  be 
ing  "  lionized,"  and  lived  for  history  rather  than  for  the  gazette. 
He  had  an  imperturbable  good-humor.  In  his  appearance  anct 
manners  he  was  very  plain  ;  but  it  was  not  a  plebeian  plain 
ness  ;  it  was  the  plainness  of  a  man  trained  to  habits  of  self- 
reliance,  who  never  lost  the  dignity  and  self-poise  which  COIIIM 
from  a  consciousness  of  one's  merits  without  vanity. 

From  the  moment  of  receiving  his  commission  as  lieutenant 
general,  Grant  had  transferred  his  personal  presence  to  tht» 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  leaving  Sherman  as  his  vicegerent  to 
carry  out  the  Western  campaign.  Warren,  Sedgwick,  and 
Hancock  were  made  the  corps  commanders  of  this  a-rny,  and 
Burnside  was  given  a  separate  army  corps.  Bi.cJdr,  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  was  reinforced  by  the  Tenth  Corp;,  fro:n  Charleston 
under  Gillmore,  and  the  Eighteenth  froin  the  Y^est  under 
uBaldy"  Smith.  To  the  infamous  horo  of  "New  Orleans  was 
allotted  the  task  of  cutting  off  l"hc  city  of  .Richmond  fro  in  iu 
southern  lines  of  communication :  while  Sigel,  operating  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  was  to  cut  the  railroad  which  by  way  uf 


THE    LA.ST    YEAK.  313 

Gordonsville  connected  Lee's  army  with  hit  principal  base  of 
supplies  at  Lynch  burg. 

Thus  were  the  preparations  completed  for  the  most  moment 
ous  campaign  in  American  history.  On  Wednesday,  May  4, 
eight  weeks  from  the  day  Grant  received  his  commission,  his 
two  grand  columns  were  ready  to  move — the  one  well  in  hand 
on  the  north  bank  of  the  Rapidan,  seventy  miles  nprth  of 
Richmond;  and  the  other  at  Fortress  Monroe,  one  day's  sail 
from  Richmond  on  the  James. 


THE   BATTLES    OF   THE   WILDERNESS. 

At  dawn  on  the  5th  of  May,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
closely  succeeded  by  that  of  Burnside,  had  crossed  the  Rapidan 
River ;  the  Second  Corps  at  Ely's,  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  corps  at 
Germania  Ford.  Having  crossed  the  river,  the  first  demon 
stration  of  the  enemy  was  an  attempt  to  turn  the  right  flank 
of  Lee's  army  between  the  Orange  Courthouse  pike  and  the 
river. 

The  enemy's  attack  on  the  line  of  the  turnpike  was  sustained 
by  the  division  of  General  Edward  Johnson  of  Swell's  corps. 
After  a  brief  struggle  the  enemy  succeeded  in  forcing  back 
part  of  Jones's  brigade,  which  had  been  formed  across  the  turn 
pike;  but  the  gap  in  our  lines  was  speedily  closed  by  Stewart's 
brigade,  and  the  Yankees  driven  back  with  the  loss  of  some 
guns.  In  the  mean  time  Gordon's  gallant  brigade  of  Georgians 
crushed  through  the  enemy's  first  lines,  and  driving  furiously 
on,  struck  back  the  Yankee  front  in  confusion  upon  its  sup 
ports.  Another  advance  of  the  enemy  upon  Johnson's  left 
flank  was  gallantly  repulsed  by  Pegram's  Virginians  and 
Hays's  Louisianians  ;  and  the  day's  work  on  the  left  witnessed 
the  Confederates  still  hold:  ig  their  advanced  lines. 

Hill  had  been  ordered  to' inarch  from  Lee's  left,  and  with 
Ileth's  division  in  advance  had  moved  along  the  plank-road 
in  a  direction  somewhat  parallel  with  the  turnpike,  eventually 
effecting  a  junction  with  Gordon's  brigade,  on  Swell's  extreme 
right.  The  line  of  battle,  thus  completed,  presented  a  front  ot 
six  miles. 

About  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  attack  on  Ewell  having 


314  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

been  repulsed,  the  enemy  commenced  a  more  decided  demon 
stration  in  front  of  Hill.  Heth's  division  bore  at  first  the  whole 
brunt  of  the  attack,  but  about  four  o'clock  Wilcox's  division 
was  moved  up  from  Ewell's  right.  For  more  than  three  hours 
the  dreadful  conflict  continued,  the  enemy  attempting  to  force 
his  way  rather  by  constant  pressure  than  by  dashing  enterprise 
Never  was  a  more  gallant  spectacle  than  these  two  divisions 
of  Confederates  holding  at  bay  the  Yankee  onslaught  from 
three  o'clock  until  half-past  seven,  firm  and  unbroken  in  all 
that  long  and  dreadful  monotony  of  conflict.  Night  closed 
upon  the  Confederate  line  in  the  position  it  had  originally 
taken.  That  the  day  was  an  unsuccessful  one  for  the  Yankees 
even  their  own  accounts  did  not  hesitate  to  admit.  "  No  cheer 
of  victory,"  says  a  Northern  correspondent,  "  swelled  through 
the  Wilderness  that  night." 

During  the  day  Hancock,  Second  Corps,  had  come  up,  and 
the  Federal  forces  were  concentrated.  On  the  morning  of  the 
6th  their  lines  were  consolidated  and  freshly  posted  ;  the  three 
corps  sustaining  their  respective  positions — Warren  in  the 
centre,  Sedgwick  on  the  right,  and  Hancock  on  the  left. 

The  attack  was  made  by  the  Confederates,  Hill  and  Long 
street's  corps  attacking  both  of  Hancock's  flanks  with  sucl 
fury  that  the  whole  line  of  command  thus  assaulted  was  broken 
in  several  places.  The  effort,  however,  of  the  Confederates  to 
pierce  the  enemy's  centre  was  stayed,  the  Yankees  having  se 
cured  their  line  of  battle  behind  their  intrenchments. 

But  with  the  expiration  of  the  day  was  to  occur  a  thrilling 
and  critical  conjuncture.  Just  at  dusk  (the  Confederates'  fa 
vorite  hour  of  battle)  a  column  of  Lee's  army  attacked  the  en 
emy's  left,  captured  Seymour  and  a  large  portion  of  his  bri 
gade,  and  excited  a  panic  which  put  Grant's  whole  army  on 
the  verge  of  irretrievable  rout.  Unfortunately,  the  Confed- 
ed rates  had  no  idea  of  the  extent  of  their  success,  and  could 
not  imagine  how  fraught  with  vital  issue  were  those  few  mo 
ments  of  encounter.  The  Yankee  supply-trains  were  thought 
to  be  immediately  threatened,  and  artillery  was  posted  to  bear 
upon  the  Confederate  advance  in  that  direction.  But  the  Con 
federates  did  not  press  their  advantage.  As  it  was,  Generals 
Shaler  and  Seymour,  with  the  greater  part  of  their  commands, 
were  taken  prisoners. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  315 

Such  had  been  the  two  days'  battle  of  the  Wilderness — a 
marked  success  for  the  Confederates,  disputed  by  the  Northern 
newspapers,  of  course,  but  manifest  in  the  face  of  the  facts. 
The  enemy  confessed  to  a  loss  of  twelve  thousand.*  The  im 
mediate  consequence  of  these  engagements  was,  that  Grant, 
being  clearly  out-generalled  in  his  first  design  of  reaching  Lee's 
rear  and  compelling  him  to  fight  a  battle  with  his  communica 
tions  cut  off,  which  would  be  decisive  of  the  campaign,  was 
forced  to  change  his  plans,  and  with  it  his  position  ;  falling 
back  to  his  intrenched  line,  between  the  Wilderness  and  Trigg'a 
Mill,  nearly  coincident  with  the  Brock  road,  leading  from  the 
Wilderness  to  Spottsylvania  Courthouse. 

On  the  7th,  with  some  desultory  fighting,  Grant  continued 
his  movement  towards  Fredericksburg,  with  the  evident  view 
of  attempting  the  Fredericksburg  road  to  Richmond.  It  was 
in  consequence  of  this  change  of  front  that  General  Lee  took 
up  a  new  line  on  the  Po.  It  will  amuse  the  candid  reader  to 
find  how  this  movement  was  interpreted  by  the  mendacious 
press  of  the  North ;  for  in  the  newspapers  of  New  York  and 
Boston  it  was  entitled,  in  flaming  capitals,  "A  Waterloo  De 
feat  of  the  Confederates,"  "  The  Retreat  of  Lee  to  Richmond," 
&c.  For  a  few  days  the  North  was  vocal  with  exultation,  arid 
for  the  hundredth  time  it  had  the  rebellion  "  in  a  corner,"  to 
be  conveniently  strangled.  But, this  imagination  of  easy 
conquest  was  to  be  dissipated  as  the  many  that  had  pre 
ceded  it. 


*  A  correspondent  of  the  London  Herald,  who  witnessed  the  two  days'  battle, 
writes :  "  The  results  to  the  enemy  in  some  parts  of  the  field  cannot  be  described 
oy  any  word  less  forcible  than  massacre.  Eleven  hundred  and  twenty-five 
Federal  dead  were  buried  in  front  of  Ewell's  line,  lying  to  the  left  of  the  turn 
pike.  Five  hundred  more  were  buried  on  the  right  of  that  road  ;  and,  in  ad 
dition  to  about  one  hundred  dead  officers,  whose  bodies  must  have  been  re 
moved,  the  number  of  corpses  lying  on  the  field,  within  range  of  the  enemy'a 
sharpshooters,  is  estimated  at  fully  three  hundred.  The  Federal  killed  in  the 
struggle  on  the  right  may,  therefore,  be  declared  positively  to  number  as  many 
as  two  thousand.  I  have  no  data  on  which  to  estimate  the  breadth  of  the 
slaughter  in  the  fierce  conflicts  of  the  right ;  but  from  the  stubbornness  and 
volume  of  these,  feel  quite  confident  that  they  must  have  added  to  the  slaiu 
as  awful  an  account  as  that  rendered  in  front  of  Ewell.  With  three  thousand 
prisoners  and  four  thousand  dead,  the  usual  proportion  of  six  or  seven  to  ono 
for  the  wounded,  would  show  that  the  losses  of  Grant  in  the  battle  of  the  WU 
derness  cannot  have  been  less  than  thirty  thousand  men." 


316  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAB. 


THE   BATTLES    OB'   SPOTTSYAVAN1A    COURTHOUSE. 

On  the  8th  of  May  two  engagements  were  fought  at  Spott 
sylvania  Courthouse,  between  Longstreet's  corps,  under  An 
dersori  (General  Longstreet  having  been  wounded  in  the  battle 
of  the  6th)  and  the  Fifth  Corps,  under  Warren,  supported  by 
cavalry.  The  enemy  was  repulsed,  with  heavy  loss,  in  both 
instances. 

On  the  9th,  which  was  marked  by  some  skirmishing,  Gen-eral 
John  Sedgwick,  one  of  the  most  valuable  corps  commanders  in 
the  Yankee  army,  was  killed,  probably  by  a  stray  bullet.  He 
had  just  been  bantering  his  men  about  dodging  and  ducking 
their  heads  at  the  whistle  of  Confederate  bullets  in  the  distance. 
"  Why,"  said  he,  "  they  couldn't  hit  an  elephant  at  this  dis 
tance."  The  next  moment  a  ball  entered  his  face,  just  below 
the  left  eye,  and  pierced  his  brain,  causing  instant  death. 

On  Thursday,  the  17th  of  May,  occurred  what  may  be  en 
titled  as  the  great  battle  of  Spottsylvania  Courthouse.  The 
enemy  had  planned  an  attack  on  what  was  supposed  to  be  a 
vital  sectioti  of  the  Confederates,  a  salient  angle  of  earthworks 
held  by  Johnson's  division  of  Ewell's  corps.  The  storming 
column  advanced  silently,  and  without  tiring  a  shot,  np  to  the 
angle  of  the  breastworks,  over  which  they  rushed,  taking  the 
forces  within  in  flank,  surrounding  them,  capturing  nearly  the 
entire  division  of  Johnson's,  with  its  commander,  and  also  a 
brigade  or  two  of  other  troops,  Brigadier-General  George  II. 
Stusirr  in  command. 

But  the  surprise  was  only  momentary.  One  of  the  most 
thrilling  scenes  of  the  war  was  to  occur.  In  a  moment  when 
all  was  excitement,  and  when  it  could  be  easily  seen  that  un 
less  the  Confederates  could  check  the  enemy's  advance,  the 
consequence  would  be  disastrous  in  the  extreme,  General  Lee 
rode  forward  in  front  of  the  Confederate  line,  his  position  be 
ing  opposite  at  the  time  to  the  colors  of  the  Forty-ninth  regi 
ment  of  Pegram's  brigade.  Not  a  word  did  he  say.  lie 
simply  took  off  his  hat.  "  As  he  sat  on  his  charger,"  says 
a  near  eyewitness  of  him,  "I  never  saw  a  man  look  so  noble 
or  witnessed  a  spectacle  so  impressive." 

At  this  interesting  moment  General  Gordon,  spurring  hia 


THE    LAST    YEAJR,  317 

foaming  charger  to  the  front,  seized  the  reius  of  General  Lee's 
horse,  and  turning  him  around,  said,  "  General,  these  are  Vir 
ginians!  These  men  have  never  failed!  They  never  will! 
Will  you,  boys?"  Loud  cries  of  "No,  no!"  "General  Lee 
to  the  rear!"  "Go  back!"  "Go  back!"  "General  Lee  to 
the  rear!"  burst  from  along  the  lines;  and  as  one  led  the 
general's  horse  to  the  rear,  General  Gordon  gave  the  com 
mand,  "Forward,  charge!"  And  with  a  shout  and  yell  the 
brigades  dashed  on,  through  bog  and  swamp,  and  briers  and 
undergrowth,  to  the  breastworks.  For  long  hours  a  battle 
raged  over  the  intrenchments,  the  intense  fury,  heroism,  and 
horror  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  describe.  From  dawn  to 
dusk  the  roar  of  guns  was  ceaseless ;  a  tempest  of  shell  shrieked 
through  the  forest  and  ploughed  the  field.  Ewell's  corps  held 
the  critical  angle  with  a  courage  that  nothing  could  subdue. 
General  Hill  moved  down  from  the  right,  joined  Ewell,  and 
threw  his  divisions  into  the  struggle.  Longstreet  came  on  from 
the  extreme  left  of  the  Confederate  line.  Column  after  column 
of  the  enemy  was  stricken  down,  or  repulsed  and  sent  back  like 
a  broken  wave.  The  ground  in  front  of  the  Confederate  lines 
was  piled  with  his  slain. 

The  works  which  the  Yankees  had  captured  in  the  morning 
contained  an  angle  in  the  form  of  an  A,  with  the  point  towards 
the  enemy.  At  the  close  of  .the  day  the  enemy  maintained 
possession  of  about  three  hundred  yards  of  our  works  in  that 
quarter.  The  loss  in  Johnson's  division  was  probably  between 
3,000  and  3,500,  including  over  2,000  prisoners.  Our  whole 
loss,  during  the  day,  amounted  to  between  six  and  seven  thou 
sand.  The  enemy  stated  their  loss  at  from  18,000  to  25,000. 
They  captured  twenty  pieces  of  artillery.  This  was  their 
t;  great  victory." 

The  sixth  day  of  heavy  fighting  had  been  ended.  "  It 
would,"  says  an  intelligent  critic  of  this  period,  "  not  be  im 
possible  to  .match  the  results  of  any  one  day's  battle  with 
stories  from  the  wars  of  the  old  world ;  but  never,  we  should 
think,  in  the  history  of  man  were  five  such  battles  as  these 
compressed  into  six  days."  Grant  had  been  foiled ;  but  his 
obstinacy  was  apparently  untouched,  and  the  fierce  and  brutal 
consumption  of  human  life,  another  element  of  his  generalship, 
and  which  had  already  obtained  for  him  with  his  soldiers  the 


118  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Boubiiquet  of  "  the"  butcher,"  was  still  to  continue.  lie  tele 
graphed  to  Washington :  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this 
line,  if  it  takes  all  summer." 

But  we  must  turn  for  a  few  moments  from  this  dominant 
field  of  action  and  interest  to  notice  other  movements,  which 
were  parts  of  Grant's  combination,  and  of  the  great  military 
drama  in  Virginia. 

While  Grant  was  engaged  on  the  Rapidan,  a  cavalry  expe 
dition  of  the  enemy,  commanded  by  General  Sheridan,  moved 
around  Lee's  right  flank  to  the  North  Anna  "River ;  committed 
some  damage  at  Beaver  Dam  ;  moved  thence  to  the  South 
Anna  and  Ashland  Station,  where  the  railroad  wns  destnyyed  ; 
and  finally  found  its  way  to  the  James  at  Turkey  Island, 
where  it  joined  the  forces  of  Butler.  The  damage  inflicted  by 
this  raid  was  not  very  considerable;  but  it  was  the  occasion 
of  a  severe  fight,  on  the  10th  of  May,  at  Yellow  Tavern,  on  the 
road  to  Richmond,  where  Sheridan  encountered  a  Confederate 
cavalry  force,  in  which  engagement  was  lost  the  valuable  life 
of  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  the  brilliant  cavalry  commander, 
who  had  so  lono-  made  Virginia  the  threatre  of  his  daring;  arid 

C7  O  O 

chivalric  exploits. 

The  column  of  Butler,  the  important  correspondent  to 
Grant's  movement,  intended  to  operate  against  Richmond  on 
the  south  side,  had  raised  the  hopes  of  the  North  merely  to 
dash  them  by  a  failure  decisive  in  its  character,  and  ridiculous 
in  all  its  circumstances.  On  the  5th  of  May,  Butler  proceeded 
with  his  fleet  of  gunboats  and  transports,  and  the  Tenth  and 
Eighteenth  army  corps,  up  the  James  River,  landing  at  Wil 
son's  Wharf  a  regiment  of  Wild's  negro  troops,  and  two 
brigades  of  the  same  color  at  Fort  Powhatan  ;  thence  up  to 
City  Point,  where  Hinks's  division  was  landed  ;  and  at  Ber 
muda  Hundred,  just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Appomattox,  the 
entire  army  was  disembarked. 

On  the  7th,  five  brigades,  under  General  Brooks,  struck  for 
the  Petersburg  and  Richmond  Railroad,  and  succeeded  in 
destroying  a  bridge  seven  miles  north  of  Petersburg.  In  tho 
mean  time,  Butler,  after  intrenching  himself,  closed  about  the 
defences  of  Drury's  Bluff'.  The  Yankee  general  seemed  con 
fident  that  he  could  by  a  little  fighting,  in  conjunction  with 
the  powerful  flotilla  upon,  the  James,  easily  overcome  the  main 


THE    LAST    YEAE.  319 

barrier  to  his  approach  to  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  capital, 
presented  in  the  defences  of  Drury's  Bluff.  It  was  already 
announced  to  the  credulous  public  of  the  North  that  Butlei 
had  cut  Beanregard's  army  in  twain  ;  that  lie  had  carried  two 
lines  of  the  defences  of  Drury's  Bluff;  and  that  he  held  the 
ke}Ts  to  the  back-door  of  Richmond. 

On  Monday,  the  16th  of  May,  General  Beauregard  fell  upon 
the  insolent  enemy  in  a  fog,  drove  Butler  from  his  advanced 
positions  back  to  his  original  earthworks,  and  inflicted  upon 
him  a  loss  of  several  thousand  men  in  killed,  wounded,  and 
captured.  He  had  fallen  upon  the  right  of  the  Yankee  line 
of  battle  with  the  force  of  an  avalanche,  completely  crushing 
it  backward  and  turning  Butler's  flank.  The  action  was  de 
cisive.  No  result  but  that  of  victory  could  be  expected  in 
Richmond  when  Butler  was  the  combatant.  The  Richmond 
Examiner  designated  the  tight  as  that  of  "  the  Buzzard  and 
the  Falcon."  The  day's  operations  resulted  in  Butler's  entire 
army  being  ordered  to  return  from  its  advanced  position,  within 
ten  miles  of  Richmond,  to  the  line  of  defence  known  as  Ber 
muda  Hundred,  between  the  James  and  Appomattox  rivers 


While  Butler  had  thus  come  to  grief,  the  failure  of  Sigel, 
who  threatened  the  Yalley  of  Virginia  was  no  less  complete. 

Grant  had  made  an  extraordinary  combination  in  Virginia, 
His  plan  of  campaign  was  clearly  not  limited  to  the  capture 
of  Richmond.  He  might  capture  it  without  capturing  the 
government  machinery  and  without  overthrowing  Lee's  army. 
In  such  event  further  operations  were  necessary  ;  and  these  were 
already  provided  for  in  the  ambitious  and  sweeping  plan  of 
the  campaign. 

The  movement  of  Sigel  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley  towards 
Stannton  was  designed  with  the  view,  first,  of  taking  posses 
sion  of  the  Virginia  Central  Railroad,  and  ultimately  effecting 
a  lodgment  upon  the  Virginia  and  Tennessee  Railroad  at 
Lynchburg.  Averill  was  to  move  towards  the  same  great 
railroad  with  a  design  of  striking  it  at  Salem.  General  Crook 
was  to  move  with  a  strong  force  and  large  supplies  from  Charles- 


320  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAH. 

town  towards  Dublin  Depot;  and  a  fourth  movement— 
which,  however,  was  not  actively  developed  until  the  period, 
some  weeks  later,  of  the  second  combination  of  forces  in  this 
part  of  Virginia — was  designed  on  the  Virginia  side  of  the 
Big  Sandy  towards  Abingdon  on  the  same  railroad. 

The  invasion  thus  planned  for  Western  Virginia  compre 
hended  a  heavy  aggregate  of  forces.  There  were  the  six  thou 
sand  of  Crook,  which  came  from  the  Lower  Kanawha.  These 
last  were  joined  by  Averill,  with  twenty-five  hundred  cavalry, 
corning  from  Northwest  Virginia;  and  there  was  the  army  of 
Sigel,  whose  strength  was  variously  estimated,  but  was  not 
less  than  twelve  thousand.  The  design  was  that  these  different 
corps  should  strike  the  Lynchburg  and  Tennessee  and  the 
Central  railroads  simultaneously  at  Abingdon,  Wytheville, 
Dublin  Depot,  and  Stauriton,  and  should  afterwards  unite, 
west  of  Lynchlmrg,  and  march  against  that  city.  Grant  was 
strongly  impressed  with  the  importance  of  this  city.  In  sub 
sequent  attempts  against  it,  his  orders  were  that  it  should  be 
taken  and  held  at  any  loss  and  at  all  hazards. 

In  pursuance  of  the  phm  of  operations  in  Western  Virginia, 
at  the  very  moment  that  Grant  crossed  the  Rapidan  it  was 
announced  that  Sigel  was  in  motion  upon  Staunton,  Crook 
upon  Dublin  Depot,  and  Averill  upon  Wytheville,  with  de 
sign,  after  destroying  that  town  and  the  lead  mines,  to  unite 
with  Crook  at  Dublin  for  a  march  towards  Lynchburg  ;  but  no 
news  came  of  a  movement  at  that  early  day  of  Major-General 
Burbridge  upon  Abingdon  and  Saltville.  The  sequel  proved 
that  we  were  poorly  prepared  to  meet  this  concerted  assault. 
Breckinridge  had  been  ordered  away  from  Dublin  in  a  hurry, 
with  all  the  troops  he  could  collect  at  short  notice,  and  sent 
down  the  Valley  to  confront  Sigel,  leaving  nothing  but  a  few 
scattered  troops,  afterwards  collected  together  by  McCausland, 
to  oppose  Crook  at  Dublin. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  Sigel's  column  was  encountered  near 
Newmarket  by  General  Breckinridge,  who  drove  it  across  the 
Shenandoah,  captured  six  pieces  of  artillery  and  nearly  one 
thousand  stand  of  small-arms,  and  inflicted  upon  it  a  heavy 
loss,  Sigel  abandoning  his  hospitals  and  destroying  the  larger 
portion  of  his  train. 

But  while  Breckinridge  defeated  Sigel,  and  drove  him  back 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  321 

in  dismay  and  rout,  McCausland  was  left  at  Dublin  with  only 
1,500  men  to  resist  Crook's  6,000.  He  fought  bravely,  how 
ever,  and  so  shattered  Crook's  army  as  to  destroy  his  design  of 
proceeding  towards  Lynchburg,  and  compel  a  retreat  as  far  as 
Meadow  Bluff,  in  Greenbrier,  for  the  purpose  of  recruiting  his 
disorganized  army  and  repairing  damages.  Crook  left  several 
hundred  prisoners  and  all  bis  wounded,  but  succeeded,  before 
leaving  the  region  of  the  battle,  in  destroying  the  important 
bridge  over  New  River. 

It  so  happened  that  the  Confederates  had  a  larger  force  at 
that  time  in  the  extreme  Southwest  than  anywhere  else  on  the- 
line  of  the  Lynchburg  and  Tennessee  Railroad.  The  fact  was 
fortunate,  for  it  enabled  General  W.  E.  Jones,  then  command 
ing  there,  to  spare  General  Morgan's  command  for  services 
further  east.  Thus  it  happened  that  General  Morgan,  making 
a  forced  march  from  Saltville,  arrived  at  Wythevillo  with  his 
mounted  men  in  time  to  save  that  town  from  Averill,  and  to 
completely  defeat  that  boasted  cavalry  officer,  with  a  heavy 
loss  of  killed,  wounded,  prisoners,  and  horses.  This  defeat  was 
very  important,  for  it  prevented  Averill  from  joining  Crook 
before  the  battle  at  Dublin,  and  before  that  general  had  found 
it  necessary  to  fall  back  to  Meadow  Bluff.  Averill  arrived  in 
Dublin  two  days  after  Crook  had  gone.  It  was  still  further 
fortunate  that  General  Morgan,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
marched  from  Saltville  with  his  mounted  men  against  Averill, 
at  Wytheville,  was  able  to  send  his  dismounted  men  by  the 
railroad  to  Dublin,  which  force  arrived  there  just  in  time  to 
take  part  with  McCausland  in  the  fight  which  sent  Crook  back 
to  Meadow  Bluff. 

These  occurrences  took  place  in  the  early  part  of  May,  si 
multaneously  with  Grant's  operations  in  Spottsylvania.  Mor 
gan's  fight  at  Wytheville,  McCauslarid's  at  Dublin,  and  Breck- 
inridge's  at  Newmarket,  all  occurred  about  the  same  time  with 
each  other,  and  simultaneously  with  the  great  battles  of  the 
Wilderness  between  Lee  and  Grant. 

We  left  Grant  defeated  in  the  action  of  the  12th  in  front  of 
Spottsylvania  Courthouse.  On  the  14th  he  moved  his  lines 
by  his  left  flank,  taking  position  nearer  the  Richmond  and 
Fredericksburg  railroad.  On  the  18th  he  attempted  an  assault 
on'Ewells  line,  which  was  easily  repulsed.  It  was  admitted 

21 


322  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

by  the  enemy  that  the  object  of  this  attack  was  to  turn  Lee'a 
left  flank,  and  that  their  line  got  no  further  than  the  abattis, 
when  it  was  "  ordered"  back  to  its  original  position. 

A  new  movement  was  now  undertaken  by  Grant — to  pass 
his  army  from  the  line  of  the  Po,  down  the  valley  of  the  Rap- 
pahannock.  It  thus  became  necessary  for  General  Lee  to  evac 
uate  his  strong  position  on  the  line  of  the  Po  ;  and  by  an  ad 
mirable  movement  he  had  taken  a  new  position  between  the 
North  and  South  Anna,  before  Grant's  army  had  arrived  at  the 
former  stream.  Having  cut  loose  from  Fredericksburg  as  a 
base  and  established  depots  on  the  lower  Rappahannock,  on 
the  21st  Grant's  forces  occupied  Milford  Station  and  Bowling 
Green,  and  were  moving  on  the  well-known  high  roads  to 
Richmond.  But  they  were  again  intercepted  ;  for  Lee  had 
planted  himself  between  Grant  and  Richmond,  near  Hanover 
Junction. 

On  the  23d  and  on  the  25th  Grant  made  attempts  on  the 
Confederate  lines,  which  were  repulsed,  and  left  him  to  the 
last  alternative.  Another  flanking  operation  remained  for 
him,  by  which  he  swung  his  army  from  the  North  Anna 
around  and  across  the  Pamunkey.  On  the  27th,  Hanovertowa 
was  reported  to  be  occupied  by  the  Yankee  advance  unde 
General  Sheridan  ;  and  on  the  28th  Grant's  entire  army  was 
across  the  Pamunkey. 

In  the  mean  time,  General  Lee  also  reformed  his  line  of  bat 
tle,  north  and  south,  directly  in  front  of  the  Virginia  Central 
Railroad,  and  extending  from  Atlee's  Station  south  to  Shady 
Grove,  ten  miles  north  of  Richmond.  In  this  position  he  cov 
ered  both  the  Virginia  Central  and  the  Fredericksburc:  and 

O  O 

Richmond  railroads,  as  well  as  all  the  roads  leading  to  Rich 
mond,  west  of  and  including  the  Mechanicsville  pike. 

The  favorite  tactics  of  Grant  appear  to  have  been  to  develop 
the  left  flank ;  and  by  this  characteristic  manoeuvre  he  moved 
clown  the  Hanover  Courthouse  road,  and  on  the  first  day  of 
June  took  a  position  near  Cold  Harbor. 

Grant  was  now  within  a  few  miles  of  Richmond.  The  vul 
gar  mind  of  the  Noi'th  readily  seized  upon  the  cheap  circum 
stance  of  his  proximity  in  miles  to  the  Confederate  capital,  and 
exclaimed  its  triumph.  The  capture  of  Richmond  was  ac 
counted  as  an  event  of  the  next  week.  The  Yankee  period!- 


THE    LAST    YEAH.  3'23 

cals  were  adorned  with  all  those  illustrations  which  brutal 
triumph  could  suggest ;— Grant  drubbing  Lee  across  liis  knee 
the  genius  of  Yankee  Liberty  holding  aloft  an  impersonation  Oi 
the  Southern  Confederacy  by  the  seat  of  the  breeches,  marked 
"Richmond  ;"  Jefferson  Davis  playing  his  last  card,  ornamented 
with  a  crown  of  death's  heads,  and  with  his  legs  well  girt  with 
snakes  ;  and  a  hundred  other  caricatures  alike  characteristic  of' 
the  vulgar  thought  and  fiendish  temper  of  the  Yankee.  To 
such  foolish  extremity  did  this  premature  celebration  go,  that 
a  meeting  was  called  in  New  York  to  render  the  thanks  of  the 
nation  to  Grant,  and  twenty-five  thousand  persons  completed 
the  hasty  apotheosis. 

But  for  the  candid  and  intelligent,  the  situation  of  Grant 
was  one  of  sinister  import  to  him,  implied  much  of  disaster, 
anct  was  actually  a  consequence  of  his  repeated  disappointments. 
The  true  theory  of  it  was  defeat,  not  victory.  He  did  nothing 
more  than  hold  the  same  ground  as  that  occupied  by  General 
McClellan  in  his  first  peninsular  campaign.  This  position,  had 
lie  come  by  another  route,  a  day's  sail  from  Washington,  he 
could  have  occupied  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man.  But  he 
had  occupied  it  by  a  devious  route ;  with  a  loss  variously  esti 
mated  at  from  sixty  to  ninety  thousand  men  ;  with  the  con- 
Burnption  of  most  of  his  veteran  troops,  whom  he  had  put  in 
front ;  with  the  disconcert  and  failure  of  those  parts  of  the 
drama  which  Butler  and  Sigel  were  to  enact ;  and  with  that 
demoralization  which  must  unavoidably  obtain  in  an  army  put 
to  the  test  of  repeated  defeats  and  forced  marches. 

What  was  represented  by  the  enemy  as  the  retreat  of  Gen 
eral  Lee's  army  to  Richmond  was  simply  its  movement  from 
a  position  which  its  adversary  had  abandoned,  to  place  itself 
full  before  him  across  the  new  road  on  which  he  had  deter 
mined  to  travel.  In  this  sense,  it  was  Grant  who  was  pursued. 
He  had  set  out  to  accomplish  Mr.  Lincoln's  plan  of  an  overland 
march  upon  Richmond.  Mr.  Lincoln's  scheme,  as  detailed  by 
himself  in  his  famous  letter  to  General  McClellan,  was  to 
march  by  the  way  of  the  Manassas  Railroad.  The  first  move 
ment  of  General  Grant  was  to  give  up  that  route,  and  fall  back 
upon  the  line  by  which  Generals  Burnside  and  Hooker  at 
tempted  to  reach  the  Confederate  capital — that  is,  the  Freder- 
icksburg  and  Richmond  line.  But,  repulsed  at  Spottsylvania, 


324  SO Ul BEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

this  route  proved  untenable,  and  General  Grant  was  forced 
east  and  south,  and  adopted  a  new  base  at  Port  Royal  and 
Tappahannock,  on  the  Rappahannock  River,  which  conformed 
in  a  measure  to  General  McClellan's  first  plan  of  a  inarch  upon 
Richmond  by  way  of  Urbana.  The  next  change  Grant  was 
compelled  to  make  was,  after  finding  how  strong  the  Confed 
erates  were,  as  posted  on  the  South  Anna,  to  cross  the  Pamun- 
key  and  make  his  base  at  the  White  House,  bearing  thereafter 
still  further  east  and  south  to  the  precise  ground  of  McClellan's 
operations. 

The  significance  of  all  these  movements  was,  that  Grant  had 
utterly  failed  in  his  design  of  defeating  Lee's  army  far  from 
its  base,  and  pushing  the  fragments  before  him  down  to  Rich 
mond,  and  had  been  forced  to  cover  up  his  failure  by  adopting 
the  derided  scheme  of  McClellan.  The  event  of  the  12th  x>f 
May  at  Spottsylvania  Courthouse  had  settled  the  question 
whether  he  could  beat  Lee  in  the  field  and  put  him  in  a  dis 
astrous  retreat.  Unable  to  remove  the  obstacle  on  the  thresh 
old  of  his  proposed  campaign,  nothing  was  left  but  to  abandon 
it.  Grant  makes  his  way  down  the  valley  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock  ;  turns  aside  to  Hanover  Junction,  to  find  a  repetition  of 
Spottsylvania  Courthouse ;  deflects  to  the  head-waters  of  the 
York ;  and  at  last,  by  a  monstrous  circuit,  reaches  a  point 
where  he  might  have  landed  on  the  1st  of  May,  without  loss 
or  opposition.  We  may  appreciate  the  amount  of  gaseous  non 
sense  and  truculent  blackguardism  of  Yankee  journals,  when 
we  find  them  declaring  that  these  movements  were  a  foot-race 
for  Richmond,  that  Grant  was  across  the  last  ditch,  and  that 
the  end  of  the  rebellion  was  immediately  at  hand. 


THE    LAST    YEAR  325 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Grant  essays  tho  passage  of  the  Chickahominy. — BATTLE  o?  COLD  HARBOR. — A  liil- 
liant  and  extraordinary  victory  for  the  Confederates,— Grant's  stock  of  expedients. 
— He  decides  to  move  to  the  south  side  of  the  James. — OPERATIONS  IN  WESTERN 
VIRGINIA. — Shocking1  improvidence  of  the  Richmond  authorities. — Hunter  cap 
tures  Stun n toil.— Death  of  General  Jones.— Grant's  new  combination.— Hunter's 
part.— Sheridan's  part. — THE  BATTLES  OF  PETERSBURG. — Butler  attempts  to  steal 
a  march  upon  "  the  Cockade  City."— Engagements  of  the  16th,  17th,  and  18th  ot 
June.— Port  Walthal  Junction.— Defeat  of  Sheridan  at  Trevillian  Station.— Defeat 
of  Hunter  near  Lynchburg. — Morgan  draws  Burbridge  into  Kentucky. — Two  af 
fairs  on  the  Petersburg  and  Weldon  Railroad. — THE  GREAT  MINE  EXPLOSION. — A 
scene  of  infernal  horror. — Yankee  comments  on  Grant's  failures. — Great  de 
pression  in  the  North. — Mr.  Chase's  declarations.— General  Lee's  sense  of  success. 
— His  singular  behavior. — THE  SINKING  OF  THE  PRIVATEER  ALABAMA. — A  Yan 
kee  trick  of  concealed  armor. — The  privateer  service  of  the  Confederates. — In 
teresting  statistics. 

WK  return  to  the  events  on  the  Richmond  lines.  The  posi 
tion  occupied  by  Grant,  on  Wednesday,  June  1st,  had  been 
obtained  after  some  fighting,  and,  by  the  enemy's  own  admis 
sion,  had  cost  him  two  thousand  men  in  killed  and  wounded.  An 
important  and  critical  struggle  was  now  to  ensue.  Grant  had 
secured  a  position,  the  importance  of  which  was  that  it  was  the 
point  of  convergence  of  all  the  roads  radiating,  whether  to 
Richmond,  his  objective  point,  or  to  White  House,  his  base 
of  supplies.  He  was  now  to  essay  the  passage  of  the  Chicka 
hominy,  and  we  were  to  have  another  decisive  battle  of  Cold 
Harbor. 


THE    BATTLE   OF  COLD   HARBOR. 

There  is  good  evidence  that  Grant's  intention  was  to  make 
it  the  decisive  battle  of  the  campaign.  The  movements  of  the 
preceding  days,  culminating  in  the  possession  of  Cold  Harbor 
• — an  important  strategic  point — had  drawn  the  enemy's  lines 
close  in  front  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  reduced  the  military 
problem  to  the  forcing  of  the  passage  of  that  river — a  problem 
which,  if  solved  in  Grant's  favor,  would  decide  whether  Rich- 
tnorid  could  be  carried  by  a  coup  de  main^  if  a  decisive  victory 


326  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

should  attend  his  arms,  or,  whether  he  should  betake  himself 
to  siege  operations  or  some  other  recourse. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  June  3d,  the  assault  was 
made,  Hancock  commanding  the  left  of  the  Yankee  line  of 
battle,  and  leading  the  attack.  The  first  Confederate  line  was 
held  by  Breckinridge's  troops,  and  was  carried.  The  reverse 
was  but  momentary,  for  the  troops  of  Milligan's  brigade,  and 
the  Maryland  battalion,  soon  dashed  forward  to  retrieve  the 
honors  which  the  Yankees  had  snatched. 

This  engagement  was  on  the  right ;  Breckinridge's  division, 
with  Field's,  constituting  a  part  of  Longstreet's  corps.  On  the 
left,  General  Early  engaged  the  enemy.  On  every  part  of  the 
line  the  enemy  was  repulsed  by  the  quick  and  decisive  blows 
of  the  Confederates.  Hancock's  corps,  the  only  portion  of  the 
Yankee  army  that  had  come  in  contact  with  the  Confederate 
works,  had  been  hurled  back  in  a  storm  of  fire ;  the  Sixth 
Corps  had  not  been  able  to  get  up  further  than  within  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the  main  works  ;  while  Warren  and 
Burnside,  on  the  enemy's  right  arid  right  centre,  were  stag 
gered  on  the  lines  of  our  rifle-pits.  The  decisive  work  of  the 
day  was  done  in  a  few  minutes.  Never  were  there  such  signal 
strokes  of  valor,  such  dispatch  of  victory.  It  was  stated  in  the 
accounts  of  the  Confederates,  that  fourteen  distinct  assaults  of 
the  enemy  were  repulsed,  and  that  his  loss  was  from  six  to 
seven  thousand.*  No  wonder  that  the  insolent  assurance  of 
the  capture  of  Richmond  was  displaced  in  the  Yankee  news 
papers  by  the  ominous  calculation,  that  Grant  could  not  af 
ford  many  such  experiments  on  the  intrenched  line  of  the 
Chickahominy,  and  would  have  to  make  some  other  resort  to 
victory. 

The  battle  of  Cold  Harbor  was  sufficient  to  dispel  the  delu 
sion  of  weakness  and  demoralization  in  Lee's  army ;  for  thia 
derided  army,  almost  in  the  time  it  takes  to  tell  the  story,  had 


*  The  lowest  estimate  of  their  own  loss,  in  the  Yankee  newspapers,  was  five 
thousand ;  and  the  report  of  the  adjutant-general  at  Washington  stated 
the  loss  in  three  days'  operations  on  the  Chickahominy  at  seven  thousand 
five  hundred.  Yet  Grant  dispatched  to  Washington  :  "  Our  loss  was  not  st> 
vere,  nor  do  I  suppose  the  enemy  to  have  lost  heavily.  We  captured  over 
throe  hundred  prisoners,  mostly  from  Breckinridge." 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  327 

repulsed  at  every  point  the  most  determined  assault  of  the 
enemy,  and,  in  a  few  brief  moments  of  a  single  morning,  had 
achieved  an  unbroken  circuit  of  victories.  Grant  and  his 
friends  were  alike  dismayed.  The  latter  insisted  that  he  should 
have  half  a  million  more  of  men  to  accomplish  his  work. 
"We  should,"  said  a  Boston  paper,  "have  a  vigorous  and 
overwhelming  war,  or  else  peace  without  further  effusion  of 
blood."  A  certain  portion  of  the  Yankee  press  maintained  the 
unbroken  lie,  and  told  the  story  of  an  uninterrupted  series  of 
victories. 

An  object  of  most  curious  arid  constant  interest  in  the  war 
was  the  rivalry  of  the  different  routes  to  Richmond.  MeClel- 
lan  had  chosen  the  peninsular  approach,  while  Mr.  Lincoln 
dissented  in  favor  of  an  advance  from  the  Lower  Rappahan- 
nock ;  'Burnside  had  chosen  Fredericksburg  as  his  base ; 
Hooker  had  acted  on  the  same  choice.  Meade  had  selected 
the  Rapidan,  as  Pope  had  done  before  him.  Grant  came  to 
his  command,  unembarrassed  and  untrammelled  by  the  prece 
dents  and  comments  of  others.  He  had  hunted  up  the  roads 
to  Richmond,  through  the  Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania 
Court-house,  and  avowed  his  unchangeable  purpose  to  adhere 
to  that  as  his  true  line.  He  had  now  wandered  around  to 
McClellan's  old  base.  But  the  battle  of  July  3d  decided  that 
Richmond  could  no  longer  be  approached  with  advantage 
from  the  north,  and  the  disconcerted,  shifting  commander, 
with  his  stock  of  expedients  well-nigh  exhausted,  found  noth 
ing  now  left  for  him  but  to  transfer  his  entire  army  to  the 
south  side  of  the  James  River.* 

* 

*  A  Richmond  paper  (the  DispatcJi)  made  the  following  estimate  of  Grant's 
enormous  losses  up  to  the  time  of  crossing  the  James ;  still  leaving  him,  how 
ever,  a  tremendous  force  in  hand,  compared  with  Lee's  numbers :  "  Grant  had 
had  first  his  own  original  army,  150,000;  second,  25,000  veteran  reinforce 
ments  ;  third,  40,000  hundred  days'  men  ;  fourth,  20,000  from  Butler — total, 
225,000  men,  under  his  own  eye.  Of  these,  he  had  lost  125,000  before  he  left 
Cold  Harbor.  He  crossed  the  river  with  110,000  men,  and  there  united  his 
operations  with  those  of  Butler,  who  had  with  him  about  20,000  men,  besides 
those  he  had  sent  to  Grant." 


328  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 


OPERATIONS    IN    WESTERN    VIRGINIA. 

We  have  already  referred  to  the  failure  in  May  of  the  ( pera. 
tions  in  Western  Virginia.  They  were  to  be  enlarged  by  the 
augmentation  of  the  Yankee  forces  by  several  thousand  troops, 
drawn  from  the  extreme  Northwestern  States,  and  by  the 
appointment  of  General  Hunter,  an  officer  of  higher  rank,  to 
command — the  same  Hunter,  by  the  by,  who  inaugurated 
negro  enlistments  and  miscegenation  in  the  department  of 
Beaufort,  South  Carolina,  as  early  as  Ihe  first  winter  of  the 
war. 

This  second  combination  in  Western  Virginia  was  imposing 
enough.  Crook  and  Averill  were  refitting  and  preparing  at 
Meadow  Bluff  for  an  advance  on  Staunton  and  Lynchburg; 
Hunter  was  organizing  at  Winchester  heavy  reinforcements 
for  a  second  advance  upon  Lynchburg  by  way  of  Staunton ; 
and  Burbridge,  in  Kentucky,  was  getting  ready  to  descend 
upon  extreme  Southwestern  Virginia,  so  as  to  prevent  any 
advance  from  that  direction  upon  the  rear  of  the  combined 
armies  about  to  move  on  Lynchburg. 

It  is  almost  incredible  how  inadequate  the  preparations  of 
the  Confederates  were  to  meet  these  formidable  enterprises  of 
the  enemy.  Breckiriridge,  with  the  only  army  that  could  be 
called  such,  which  we  had  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  was  ordered 
elsewhere,  leaving  nothing  to  confront  some  twenty-seven 
thousand  troops  but  a  few  small  brigades  of  inferior  cavalry, 
about,  two  regiments  of  infantry,  and  a  small  brigade 
(Vanghan's)  of  dismounted  troops  acting  as  infantry.  To 
supply  the  place  of  Breckinridge,  McCauslarid's  little  force, 
from  Dublin,  was  sent  to  the  front  of  Staunton,  and  General 
William  E.  Jones  was  ordered  to  take  all  the  troops  he  could 
move  from  Southwestern  Virginia  to  the  same  position  in  the 
lower  valley.  Accordingly,  General  Jones  not  only  got  to 
gether  all  the  infantry  west  of  the  New  River,  but  dismounted 
Vaughan's  brigade  of  cavalry  also,  and  took  all  to  Staunton, 
leaving  nothing  in  the  extreme  southwest  but  a  few  disjointed 
bodies  of  cavalry  and  Morgan's  command  to  meet  Burbridge 
coming  in  from  Kentucky. 


THE     ^AST    YEAR. 

On  the  5 til  of  June,  Hunter  had  obtained  a  success  at  Pied 
mont,  in  Western  Virginia,  and  had  effected  tb«  capture  of 
Staunton  ;  the  saddest  circumstance  of  which  affair  was  the 
loss  of  General  Jones,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  cavalry 
commanders  of  the  Confederacy.* 

After  occupying  Staunton,  Hunter  had  formed  a  junction 
with  the  combined  forces  of  Crook  and  Averill,  and  on  the 
13th  of  June  was  reported  to  be  moving  with  his  whole  com 
mand  against  Lynch  burg.  On  the  7th,  Sheridan  had  crossed 
the  Pamunkey,  and  was  moving  eastward  in  the  direction  ot 
the  Gordonsville  Eailroad.  The  main  movement  of  the  new 
combination — that  of  Grant  across  the  James — commenced 
Sunday  night  the  12th  of  June. 

The  first  plan  of  the  enemy  had  comprehended  the  advance 
of  Sigel  down  the  Shenandoah,  and  the  capture  of  Petersburg, 
if  nothing  more,  by  Butler,  while  General  Grant  engaged  Lee'a 
army  between  the  Rapidan  and  Richmond.  That  plan  having 
Bignally  failed,  the  second  comprised  the  capture  of  Lynchburg 
by  Hunter,  of  Gordonsville  and  Charlottesville  by  Sheridan, 
and  of  Petersburg  by  Meade.  It  was  thus  hoped  to  isolate 
the  Confederate  capital  by  cutting  off  its  communications  on 
every  side. 

It  was,  perhaps,  not  Grant's  design  to  cross  the  river  until 
he  had  made  some  attempt  on  the  Central  and  New  Market 
roads,  leading  into  Richmond  from  the  direction  of  Malvern 


*  A  correspondent  thus  writes  of  this  officer — whose  eccentricities  were 
almost  as  well-known  to  Virginians  as  those  of  Stonewall  Jackson  :  "  General 
Jones  was  a  captain  in  the  United  States  Army,  ranking  Stuart.  A  small,  thin, 
black-eyed  arid  whiskered  man,  he  dressed  very  plainly,  bordering  on  shabbi- 
ness ;  never  shaved,  never  in  uniform,  no  insignia  of  office.  He  had  a  line, 
squeaking  voice;  was  misanthropic,  despising  parade  and  every  man  that 
indulged  in  it ;  never  courting  any  man's  favor  ;  never,  perhaps,  speaking  to  a 
congressman  or  the  President,  since  the  war  commenced ;  fearing  no  man — 
reverencing  no  mail  ;  speaking  freely,  if  not  curtly,  to  and  of  everybody.  He  was 
a  widower.  When  stationed  in  Texas  he  ]ost  his  wife,  an  accomplished  lady,  by 
shipwreck  in  Galveston  Bay ;  since  which  he  has  never  married  again,  and 
has  seemed,  if  not  to  wish  for  death,  at  least  to  hold  his  life  very  cheaply.  He 
was  cool  in  a  fight,  and  the  bravest  of  the  brave.  With  hat  in  hand,  he  was 
cheering  his  men  when  he  fell,  pierced  through  his  head  by  a  minnie  ball. 
The  enemy  refused  his  body.  Some  citizens  buried  him  in  a  neat  coffin,  and 
marked  the  spot." 


33C  SOUTHEKN    HISTOEY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Hill.  On  the  13th  of  June  he  caused  a  reconnoissance  in  foice 
to  be  made  from  the  Long  Bridge  towards  the  Quaker  road, 
and  in  an  affair,  near  the  intersection  of  this  road  with  tho 
Charles  City  road,  was  repulsed,  and  drew  off  his  force,  well 
satisfied  that  the  Confederates  held,  with  heavy  forces,  all  the 
roads  by  which  Richmond  could  be  reached  from  the  southeast. 
The  Eighteenth  Yankee  corps  had  proceeded  by  water  to 
Bermuda  Hundred.  The  remaining  corps  had  crossed  the 
Chickahominy  at  James  Bridge  and  Long  Bridge ;  and  after 
the  reconnoissance  of  the  13th,  proceeded  down  the  James,  and 
crossed  it  in  the  neighborhood  of  City  Point. 


THE   BATTLES   OF   PETERSBURG. 

Petersburg  had  already  sustained  a  considerable  attack  of 
the  enemy.  An  expedition  from  Butler's  lines  had  essayed  ita 
capture  on  the  9th  of  June. 

Approaching  with  nine  regiments  of  infantry  and  cavalry, 
and  at  least  four  pieces  of  artillery,  the  enemy  searched  our 
lines  a  distance  of  nearly  six  miles.  Hood's  and  Battles'  bat 
talions,  the  Forty-sixth  Virginia,  one  company  of  the  Twenty- 
third  South  Carolina,  with  Sturdevant's  battery,  and  a  fe\v 
guns  in  position,  and  Talliaferro's  cavalry,  kept  them  at  bay. 
The  Yankees  were  twice  repulsed,  but  succeeded,  at  last,  in 
penetrating  a  gap  in  our  line  ;  when  reinforcements  coming  up 
drove  back  the  insolent  foe  from  approaches  which  their  foot 
steps  for  the  first  time  polluted. 

The  fortunate  issue  of  this  first  attack  on  Petersburg  encour 
aged  the  raw  troops  and  militia  who  had  been  put  under  arms 
for  the  defence  of  "  the  Cockade  City."  General  Wise  ad 
dressed  the  troops  of  his  command  in  a  memorable  and  thrill 
ing  order.  "  Petersburg,"  said  he,  "  is  to  be,  and  shall  be,  de 
fended  on  her  outer  walls,  on  her  inner  lines,  at  l^er  corporation 
bounds,  in  every  street,  and  around  every  temple  of  God  and 
altar  of  man." 

The  resolution  of  the  gallant  city — with  its  defences  rein 
forced  by  the  fortunate  Beauregard — was  now  to  be  put  to  a 
much  more  severe  test,  for  it  was  to  encounter  the  shock  of  the 
bulk  of  Grant's  army. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  331 

Smith's  corps,  having  disembarked  at  Bermuda  Hundred  on 
the  14th,  moved  rapidly  upon  Petersburg,  and  made  an  assault 
on  the  batteries  covering  the  approaches  to  the  city  on  the 
northeast.  Having  got  possession  of  this  line  of  works,  held 
principally  by  Confederate  militia,  Smith  waited  the  coming 
up  of  the  Second  Corps. 

On  the  evening  of  the  16th  an  attack  was  ordered  on  the 
Confederate  line  of  works  in  front  of  Petersburg,  Smith's  corps 
being  on  the  right,  on  the  Petersburg  and  City  Point  road, 
west  of  the  railroad,  the  Second  Corps  in  the  centre,  and  Burn- 
side  on  the  left,  reaching  the  Prince  George  Courthouse  road. 
The  assault  was  not  only  repulsed  at  every  point,  but  our 
troops,  assuming  the  aggressive,  drove  the  Yankees  from  their 
breastworks  at  Hewlett's  House,  captured  some  of  their  guns, 
and  opened  upon  them  an  enfilading  fire,  under  which  they  fied 
precipitately. 

The  most  furious  assault  of  the  enemy  had  been  made  on 
General  Hoke's  front,  whose  division  occupied  a  position  facing 
batteries  from  Nine  to  Twelve  inclusive.  Three  different 
charges  were  repulsed  by  these  heroic  troops.  In  the  final  re 
pulse  of  the  enemy,  a  large  portion  of  a  Yankee  brigade,  being 
exposed  to  an  enfilading  artillery  fire  from  our  guns,  sought 
shelter  in  a  ravine,  and  surrendered  to  the  Sixty -fourth  Georgia 
regiment. 

On  Friday,  June  17th,  fighting  was  renewed  without  result. 
The  next  day  it  was  resolved  by  the  enemy  to  make  an  assault' 
along  the  whole  line  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  the  town.  It 
was  thus  that  the  action  of  the  18th  was  designed  to  be  decisive 
of  operations  in  the  present  position. 

Three  different  assaults  were  made  by  the  enemy  during  the 
day — at  four  in  the  morning,  at  noon,  and  at  four  in  the  after 
noon.  Each  one  was  repulsed.  Hancock  and  Burnside  in  the 
centre  suffered  severely. 

After  severe  losses  on  the  part  of  all  the  Tankee  corps,  night 
f  >und  the  Confederates  still  in  possession  of  their  works  cover 
ing  Petersburg. 

The  disaster  of  this  day  left  Grant  without  hope  of  making 
any  impression  on  the  works  in  his  front,  and  placed  him  under 
the  necessity  of  yet  another  change  of  operations.  The  series 
of  engagements  before  Petersburg  had  cost  him  at  least  ten 


332  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

thousand  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  had  culminated  >n 
another  decisive  defeat. 

The  misfortune  of  the  enemy  appeared,  indeed,  to  be  over 
whelming.  Pickett's  division  had  given  him  another  lesson  at 
Port  Walthal  Junction.  It  was  here  the  heroes  of  Gettysburg 
repulsed  a  force  under  Gillmore  engaged  in  destroying  the  rail 
road,  took  two  lines  of  his  breastworks,  and  put  him  to  disas 
trous  flight. 

Nor  was  there  any  compensation  to  be  found  in  the  auxiliary 
parts  of  Grant's  second  grand  combination.  Sheridan  had 
failed  to  perform  his  part.  He  was  intercepted  by  Hampton's 
cavalry  at  Trevillian  Station  on  the  Gordonsville  road,  defeated 
in  an  engagement  on  the  10th,  and  compelled  to  withdraw  his 
command  across  the  North  Anna.  Hunter  had  come  to  similar 
grief,  and  his  repulse  at  Lynchburg  involved  consequences  of 
the  gravest  disaster  to  the  enemy. 

On  the  18th  of  June,  Hunter  made  an  attack  upon  Lynch 
burg  from  the  south  side,  which  was  repulsed  by  troops  that 
had  arrived  from  General  Lee's  lines.  The  next  day,  more  re 
inforcements  having  come  up,  preparations  were  made  to  attack 
the  enemy,  when  he  retreated  in  confusion.  The  Confederates 
took  thirteen  of  his  guns,  pursued  him  to  Salem,  and  forced  him 
to  a  line  of  retreat  into  the  mountains  of  Western  Virginia.  The 
attempt  of  the  Yankees  to  whitewash  the  infamous  and  cow 
ardly  denouement  was  more  than  usually  refreshing.  Hunter 
officially  announced  that  his  expedition  had  been  u  extremely 
successful ;"  that  he  had  left  Lynchburg  Because  "  his  ammu 
nition  was  running  short ;"  and  that  as  to  the  singular  line  he 
had  taken  up,  he  was  now  "  ready  for  a  move  in  any  di 
rection." 

In  the  mean  time  General  Morgan  had  done  his  part  in 
breaking  up  the  enemy's  combination  in  Western  Virginia. 
General  Jones  being  ordered  from  the  extreme  Southwest,  to 
gether  with  all  the  troops  he  could  transport,  to  Staunton  at 
the  very  time  that  Southwest  Virginia  was  about  to  be  in 
vaded  by  Burbridge,  General  Morgan  held  a  brief  and  hasty 
conference  with  him  on  the  eve  of  his  departure,  in  which  it 
was  agreed  b}T  both  generals  that  it  would  be  in  vain  to  meet 
Burbridge  in  front,  and  that,  as  the  enemy  had  much  more  to 
lose  in  Kentucky  than  we  had  in  Virginia,  the  only  chance  of 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  333 

paving  the  Southwest  was  by  Morgan's  dashing  be  Idly  into  the 
heart  of  Kentucky,  and  in  that  way  drawing  Burb  ridge  away, 
This  plan  was  carried  into  effect,  and  completely  succeeded. 
Burbridge  was  lured  back,  his  army  scattered  and  crippled, 
Southwest  Virginia  saved  for  the  time,  and  the  discomfited 
general  set  to  reorganizing  liis  command, — a  task  which  occu 
pied  him  until  the  necessities  of  General  Sherman  rendered  all 
available  reinforcements  from  Kentucky  neeSful  at  Chattanooga. 

These  latter  movements  all  took  place  in  the  iirst  part  of 
June,  after  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor.  They  were 
designed  by  Grant  as  auxiliary  to  his  own  movement  upon. 
Petersburg,  and  were  a  material  part  of  the  comprehensive 
plan  he  had  formed  for  completely  isolating  Richmond.  When 
these  important  movements  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  which  had 
their  focus  at  Lynchburg,  are  considered  in  connection  with 
Sheridan's  great  raid  in  the  same  central  direction,  and  with 
the  enterprises  of  Wilson  and  Kautz  against  the  Danville  and 
Weldon  railroads,  all  of  them  auxiliary  to  Grant's  attempt 
upon  Petersburg,  we  are  obliged  to  accord  to  the  enemy's  plan 
of  campaign  for  June,  the  merit  of  unusual  grasp  and  ability. 
Thanks  to  the  miracles  of  Providence  wrought  for  us  on  the 
west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  to  the  valor  of  our  soldiers  and 
skill  of  our  generals,  so  eminently  displayed  on  the  east,  these 
formidable  movements,  to  encircle  and  overwhelm  the  capital 
of  the  Confederacy  and  the  State  of  Virginia,  had  completely 
failed. 

And  yet  the  measure  of  misfortune  in  Grant's  distracted 
campaign  appea/ed  to  be  not  yet  full.  On  the  22d  of  June  he 
made  a  movement  on  his  left  to  get  possession  of  the  Weldon 
Railroad,  but  found  the  Confederates  had  extended  their  right 
to  meet  him.  While  the  Second  and  the  Sixth  corps  of  Grant's 
army  were  attempting  to  communicate  in  this  movement,  the 
Confederates,  under  General  Anderson,  pierced  the  centre, 
captured  a  battery  of  four  guns,  and  took  prisoners  one  entire 
brigade,  General  Pearce's,  and  part  of  another. 

Another  attempt  or  raid  on  the  railroad,  by  Wilson's  and 
Kautz's  divisions  of  cavalry,  terminated  in  disaster.  In  the 
neighborhood  of  Spottswood  River,  twenty-five  miles  south 
of  Petersburg,  on  the  28th,  the  expedition  was  attacked,  cut  in 
two,  the  greater  part  of  its  artillery  abandoned,  and  its  wagon- 


334:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE'  WAR. 

trains  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederates.  The  enemy  had 
been  encountered  by  Hampton's  cavalry,  and  Finnegan's  and 
Mahone's  infantry  brigades ;  and  the  results  of  the  various 
conflicts  were  enumerated  as  one  thousand  prisoners,  thirteen 
pieces  of  artillery,  thirty  wagons  and  ambulances,  anil  many 
small-arms. 

THE    GREAT   MINE   EXPLOSION. 

But  some  weeks  later  another  remarkable  and  desperate 
attempt  was  to  be  made  by  Grant  upon  Petersburg,  the  arti 
fice  and  elaboration  of  which  were  among  the  greatest  curiosi 
ties  of  his  campaign.  A  citizen  of  Petersburg  had,  early  in 
July,  printed  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  crazy  letter,  stating 
that  he  had  certain  information,  at  which  General  Lee  would 
probably  laugh,  and  which  he  preferred  to  communicate  tc 
the  more  credulous  quarter  of  the  newspapers,  to  the  effect 
that  Grant  designed  to  mine  the  city  of  Petersburg,  blow  it 
into  the  air,  and  thus  accomplish  its  destruction. 

Although  the  scheme  of  the  Yankees  was  not  quite  so  ex 
tensive,  it  was  elaborate  and  formidable  enough.  For  six  weeks 
Grant  had  been  preparing  a  mine  on  the  slopes  of  Cemetery 
Hill,  with  the  view  of  opening  the  way  to  an  assault  on  the 
second  line  of  works  that  crowned  its  crest.  From  day  to  day, 
by  the  aid  of  the  shovel  and  the  pick,  the  Yankee  lines 
had  been  insidiously  advanced  by  zigzags  and  covered  ways, 
until  the  outlying  pickets  of  both  armies  scarcely  averaged 
500  yards'  distance  between  them.  Along  portions  of  the  line, 
the  interval  between  the  rifle-pits  was  scarcely  150  yards. 
The  crest  of  Cemetery  Hill  frowning  with  guns  was  not  more 
than  800  yards  distant  from  the  advanced  works  of  the 
Yankees,  and  its  gently  sloping  sides  were  welted  with  long 
rows  of  earthworks,  pitted  with  redoubts  and  redans,  and 
ridged  with  serried  salients  and  curtains,  and  other  skilful 
defences. 

To  draw  off  the  attention  of  the  Confederates  from  his  real 
business,  Grant  had  ordered  the  Second  corps  to  cross  to  the 
north  side  of  the  James ;  and  at  the  same  time  an  empty  train 
of  four  hundred  wagons  crossed  the  Appomattox  in  view  of 
the  Confederate  signal  stations. 


THE    LAST    YEAE.  335 

it  was  appointed  that  the  mine,  which  contained  eight  tons 
of  powder,  should  be  exploded  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning 
of  the  30th  July,  and  that  thereupon  Bnrnside,  who  com 
manded  the  Yankee  centre,  should  pierce  the  works  in  front  ot 
him.  Simultaneously  with  the  advance  of  the  infantry,  every 
piece  of  siege  artillery  posted  along  the  line  was  ordered  to 
open  upon  the  Confederates ;  and  all  the  field  artillery  which 
could  be  got  into  position,  after  the  opening  of  the  battle,  was 
to  advance,  as  opportunity  offered,  and  bring  their  batteries 
into  play.  It  was  naturally  expected  that  the  shock  of  the  ex 
plosion,  and  of  the  suddenness  of  this  awful  fire,  would  have  a 
demoralizing  effect,  anfl  so  make  the  way  of  the  infantry  easier. 

The  mine  was  not  exploded  until  half-past  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  The  earth  was  rent  along  the  entire  course  of  the  ex 
cavation,  exhibiting  a  yawning  chasm  ;  in  some  places  it  heaved 
slowly  and  majestically  to  the  surface;  in  others,  where  the 
charge  in  the  burrow  was  heaviest,  immense  masses  of  dull, 
red  earth  were  thrown  high  in  air,  and  human  forms,  and  gun- 
carriages,  and  small-arms,  might  be  seen  shooting  up  in  this 
fountain  of  horror. 

But  the  explosion  had  only  demolished  a  six-gun  battery 
It  was  followed  immediately  by  such  a  thunder  of  artillery  as 
had  seldom  been  heard  before.  Ninety-five  pieces  niched  in 
every  hill-side,  commanding  the  position  of  the  Confederates, 
belched  out  their  sheets  of  flame  and  milk-white  smoke,  while 
screeching  and  howling  shell  sped  forward  in  their  work  of 
destruction.  But  the  Confederates  were  not  dismayed.  In  a 
few  moments  their  own  pieces  were  replying,  and  banks  of 
angry  smoke  partially  veiled  the  field  from  both  sides. 

In  the  midst  of  the  shock  of  artillery,  through  the  dense 
clouds  of  flying  dust,  the  assaulting  column  of  the  Yankees 
passed  through  the  crater,  fifty  feet  in  length,  and  half  as  many 
wide,  in  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  easy  attempt  of  carrying 
the  second  line  of  Confederate  works.  But  there  were  men 
there  ready  to  receive  them  who  had  never  flinched  from 
death,  and  who  were  not  to  be  alarmed  by  loud  and  furious 
noises.  Some  col  \red  troops,  under  General  White's  com 
mand,  were  pushed  forward,  but  the  poor  creatures,  unwilling 
to  be  thus  sacrificed,  were  soon  panic-stricken  and  past  con 
trol.  They  crushed  into  the  ranks  of  the  white  troops  and 


336  SOUTHERN    HISTOKY    OF    THE     WAR. 

broke  through  to  the  rear.  The  demoralization  was  rapid. 
The  whole  mass  of  Yankees,  broken  and  shattered,  swept  back 
like  a  torrent  into  the  crater,  which  was  soon  choked  with  the 
flying  and  the  dead.  An  order  was  given  to  retreat  to  the  old 
lines,  but  to  do  this  an  open  space  had  to  be  traversed,  and 
this  again  was  closely  dotted  with  Yankee  dead. 

The  action  was  very  brief,  very  terrible,  very  decisive. 
Nothing  in  the  war  exceeded  it  in  point  of  severity,  and  prob 
ably  no  conflict  had  ever  been  attended  with  all  the  appoint 
ments  of  war  displayed  in  sucli  graphic  prominence.  The 
explosion  of  the  mine,  the  tremendous  peals  of  artillery  and 
musketry,  'the  effort  of  the  attacking  •column,  the  carnage, 
and  finally  the  retreat  of  the  Yankees  to  their  old  lines,  all 
composed  a  scene  of  terrible  and  thrilling  interest. 

The  Yankee  loss  was  quite  five  thousand  ;  that  of  the 
Confederates  was  trivial  in  comparison.  It  was  thus  stated  in 
detail :  Mahone's  division,  four  hundred  and  fifty  ;  Elliot's  South 
Carolina  brigade,  which  was  in  the  blown  up  fort,  three  hun 
dred  ;  Ransom,  Clingrnan,  and  Wise,  whose  commands  were 
under  musketry  and  artillery  firing  for  some  time,  three  hundred. 

The  ghastly  failure  of  this  last  of  Grant's  attempts  upon 
Petersburg  appeared  to  be  almost  sufiicient  to  persuade  the 
Yankee  public  that  his  whole  campaign  had  been  a  failure. 
Some  intelligent  Yankee  newspapers  made  peculiar  comments 
upon  it.  The  Intelligencer,  published  in  Washington,  said  : 
u  After  a  loss  of  more  than  five  thousand  men,  the  army  haa 
made  no  advance  towards  the  capture  of  that  city,  which  is 
itself  only  an  outpost  of  the  city  of  Richmond.  The  delay  in 
springing  the  mine,  the  want  of  concert  and  promptitude  in 
following  up'  the  explosion  with  a  dash  by  our  assaulting 
column,  and  the  inaptitude  which  ordered  that  this  assaulting 
column  should  be  selected  from  the  least  trustworthy  and 
homogeneous  corps  in  the.  army,  are  a  sufficient  explanation 
perhaps  of  this  calamity."  The  New  York  Times  was  yet 
more  querulous  and  explicit.  It  said  :  "  Under  the  most  favor 
able  circumstances,  with  the  rebel  force  reduced  by  two  great 
detachments,  we  failed  to  carry  their  lines.  Will  they  not 
conclude  that  the  twenty-five  thousand  men  that  held  Grant 
in  check  are  sufficient  to  garrison  the  works  of  Petersburg  ? 
Will  they  not  conclude  that,  if  they  were  able  thus  to 


4 
THE    LAST    YEAR.  337 

hold  their  own  with  the  force  of  from  eighteen  to  twenty  tliou 
sand  men  sent  to  the  north  side  of  the  James  River  neutral 
ized,  this  force  is  available  for  active  operations  elsewhere  ?" 

It  was  evident  that  the  spirit  of  the  North  had  commenced 
to  stagger  under  this  accumulation  of  disaster.  Gold  had  al 
ready  nearly  touched  three  hundred.  The  uneasy  whispers  in 
Washington  of  another  draft  gave  new  suggestions  to  popular 
discontent.  The  Confederate  Congress  had  adjourned,  after  the 
publication  of  an  address  referring  to  recent  military  events 
and  the  confirmed  resolution  of  the  Southland  deprecating  the 
enemy's  continuance  of  the  war.  These  declarations  were 
eagerly  seized  upon  by  Northern  journals,  who  insisted  that 
no  time  should  be  lost  in  determining  whether  they  might  not 
possibly  signify  a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  South  to  make 
peace  on  the  basis  of  new  constitutional  guaranties.  The 
finances  at  Washington  were  becoming  desperate.  Mr.  Chase, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  peremptorily  resigned.  His 
last  \vords  of  official  counsel  were,  that  nothing  could  save  the 
finances  but  a  series  of  military  successes  of  undoubted  mag 
nitude. 

The  brilliant  and  so  far  successful  campaign  of  General  Lea 
in  Virginia  added,  if  that  were  possible,  to  the  popular  confi 
dence  and  devotion  which  were  concentrated  upon  liiiri  more 
than  any  other  man  of  the  South.  lie  had  indulged  in  no 
terms  of  exultation.  He  had  written  the  history  of  his  great 
summer  campaign  of  186i,  in  brief  telegrams  in  which  there 
was  never  a  stray  word,  and  the  fullest  expressions  of  which 
were  ascriptions  of  success  to  the  providence  of  God.  Now  in 
the  highest  moments  of  Confederate  confidence  and  expectation, 
when  indeed  the  people  of  the  South  had  reason  to  suppose 
that  they  stood  on  the  threshold  of  peace,  and  were  about  to 
crown  their  hopes  with  triumph,  General  Lee  was  still  the 
modest  and  reserved  commander,  never  raising  his  voice  in  a 
note  of  triumph,  or  spending  a  comment  upon  the  situation  of 
affairs. 

A  newspaper  printed  in  Virginia  complained  that  "  General 
Lee  never  speaks,"  and  with  playful  but  sagacious  comment 
continued  :  "  What  does  he  think  about?  None  of  us  can  read 
the  thoughts  of  that  impenetrable  bosom.  It  is  appropriate 
that  the  hero  of  this  story  should  not  be  garrulous ;  the  sadneea 


* 
£.38  SOUTHERN     HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

of  the  time  renders  it  fitting  that  the  helmsman  should  guido 
the  ship  with  few  words  spoken.  Perhaps  it  is  by  his  very 
reserve  that  General  Lee  has  contributed,  as  much  as  by  any 
other  quality,  to  make  the  impression  he  has  made  on  his  fel 
low-citizens.  He  came  before  them  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  by  no  means  the  American  ideal  of  a  great  man.  That 
personage  was  expected  to  appear  with  a  hullabaloo  ;  hp.  was 
to  descend  in  a  shower  of  fireworks,  and  environed  by  a  myriad 
of  bursting  lights  and  crackling  explosions.  For  a  quiet,  un 
demonstrative  gentleman  to  step  upon  the  scenes  was  not  at  all 
to  their  liking ;  and  therefore  in  the  beginning,  General  Lee 
was  not  popular." 

"  Here  comes  a  man  bred  in  the  army.  He  had  been  reared 
a  gentleman.  He  despised  humbug.  He  loved  order,  and 
every  thing  and  everybody  in  his  place.  He  told  the  ladies 
at  Culpepper  Courthouse,  in  1861,  who  came  out  to  greet 
him,  to  '  go  home.'  In  Richmond  they  said  he  had  no  man 
ners  ;  he  attended  to  his  business,  and  spoke  little.  They  sent 
him  to  Western  Virginia — a  small  theatre,  when  Beauregard 
was  at  Manassas  and  Johnston,  was  at  Winchester ;  he  went, 
and  made  no  comment.  The  campaign  failed — they  called 
him  Turveydrop — he  did  not  attempt  to  excuse  himself.  Soo 
we  find  him  in  a  blaze  of  glory,  the  hero  of  the  battles  around 
Richmond.  He  is  still  silent.  He  marches  to  Manassas,  and 
achieves  another  great  victory.  Not  a  word  escapes  him.  He 
takes  Winchester,  is  foiled  at  Sharpsburg  for  the  want  of  men — 
defeats  Burnside  at  Fredericksbnrsr — Hooker  at  Chancellors- 

O 

ville — but  he  breaks  not  his  silence.  He  has  the  terrible  trial 
of  Gettysburg — he  only  remarked, '  It  was  my  fault' — and  then 
in  the  present  year  he  has  conducted  this  greatest  of  all  his 
campaigns — undoubtedly  one  of  the  finest  in  the  war.  Silent 
still.  When  will  he  speak  ?  Has  he  nothing  to  say  ?  What 
does  he  think  of  our  affairs  ?  Should  he  speak,  how  the  country 
w  aid  hang  upon  every  word  that  fell  f'om  him  !" 

THE    SINKING    OF    THE    PKIVATEER    ALABAMA. 

We  must  note  here,  as  belonging  to  the  period  of  Confederate 
ET  ijcesses  we  have  narrated,  an  event  of  the  war  which  con 
siderably  qualified  the  general  exultation  of  the  South. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  339 

While  tne  general  situation  on  land,  especially  in  Virginia, 
was  so  advantageous  for  the  Confederacy,  and  the  grand  events 
of  tho  campaign  of  1864  had  so  far  been  decided  in  its  favor, 
there  occurred  an  incident  of  disaster,  which,  though  distant 
in  point  of  space,  and  of  but  little  real  importance  in  the  de 
cision  of  the  general  fortune  of  the  war,  was  yet  the  subject  of 
keen  and  peculiar  regret  to  the  Confederates. 

This  incident  was  the  loss  of  the  famous  privateer  Alabama. 
She  had  eluded  the  Yankee  naval  vessels  at  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  and  Straits  of  Sunda,  and  returning  westward  had  pro 
ceeded  to  the  French  port  of  Cherbourg.  Here  Captain  Semmes 
of  the  Alabama  was  strongly  persuaded — probably  by  those 
who  valued  the  eclat  abroad  of  the  Southern  arms  more  than 
the  substantial  interests  of  the  Confederacy,  so  unequally 
matched  in  the  war,  especially  in  point  of  naval  power — to 
risk  his  vessel  in  a  gratuitous  fight  with  a  Yankee  steamer 
lying  off  the  harbor — the  Kearsarge.  The  o'nly  object  of  such 
a  naval  duel  could  be  the  desire  of  a  certain  glory  on  the  part 
of  Captain  Semmes,  for  which  he  took  the  unwarrantable  risk 
of  sacrificing  the  only  really  formidable  naval  structure  of  the 
Confederates.  It  should  have  occurred  to  him  that,  even  in 
the  event  of  success,  he  would  inflict  no  appreciable  injury 
upon  the  enemy's  naval  power,  and  would  secure  nothing  more 
than  some  of  that  idle  glory  which  was  already  cheap  with  his 
countrymen. 

The  ships  were  about  equal  in  match,  the  tonnage  being 
about  the  same — the  Alabama  carrying  one  7-inch  Blakely 
rifled  gun,  one  8-inch  smooth-bore  pivot  gun,  and  six  32- 
pounders,  smooth-bore,  in  broadside  ;  the  Kearsarge  carrying 
four  broadside  32-pounders,  two  11-inch  and  one  28-pound 
rifle.  On  the  morning  of  the  19th  of  June,  the  Alabama  steamed 
out  of  the  harbor  of  Cherbourg,  for  the  purpose  of  engaging 
the  Kearsarge,  which  had  been  lying  off-and-on  the  port  for 
several  days  previously.  She  came  up  with  the  latter  at  a  dis 
tance  of  about  seven  miles  from  the  shore.  The  vessels  were 
about  one  mile  from  each  other,  when  the  Alabama  opened 
with  solid  shot  upon  the  enemy,  to  which  he  replied  in  a  few 
minutes. 

To  prevent  passing  each  other  too  speedily,  and  to  maintain 
their  respective  broadsides  bearing,  it  became  necessary  to  fight 


340  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

in  a  circle,  the  two  ships  steaming  around  a  common  centre, 
and  preserving  a  distance  from  each  other  of  from  a  quarter  to 
half  a  mile.  The  enemy's  shot  and  shell  began  to  tell  upon 
the  hull  of  the  Alabama.  Captain  Semmes  remarked  that  hia 
shell,  though  apparently  exploding  against  the  sides  of  tho 
Kearsarge,  were  doing  her  but  little  damage,  and  returned  to 
solid  shot  firing,  afterwards  alternating  with  shot  and  shell. 

In  little  more  than  an  hour,  the  Alabama  was  ascertained 
to  be  in  a  sinking  condition,  the  enemy's  shell  having  exploded 
in  her  sides  and  between  decks,  opening  large  apertures, 
through  which  the  water  rushed  with  great  rapidity.  For 
some  few  minutes  Captain  Semmes  had  hopes  of  being  able  to 
reach  the  French  coast,  for  which  purpose  he  gave  the  ship  all 
steam,  and  set  such  of  the  fore  and  aft  sails  as  were  available. 
The  ship  filled  so  rapidly,  however,  that  before  she  had  made 
much  progress  the  fires  were  extinguished  in  the  furnaces,  and 
she  was  evidently  on  the  point  of  sinking. 

Captain  Semmes  hauled  down  his  colors,  when  the  Kearsargo 
was  within  four  hundred  yards  of  him.  Yet  the  enemy  fired 
upon  the  Alabama  five  times  after  her  colors  had  been  struck. 
"It  is  charitable  to  suppose,"  says  Captain  Sernmes,  "  that  a 
ship  of  war  of  a  Christian  nation  could  not  have  done  this  in 
tentionally." 

As  the  Alabama  was  on  the  point  of  settling,  every  man,  in 
obedience  to  a  previous  order  which  had  been  given  the  crew, 
jumped  overboard  and  endeavored  to  save  himself.  There 
was  no  appearance  of  any  boat  corning  from  the  enemy  after 
the  Alabama  went  down.  Fortunately,  however,  the  steam- 
yacht  Deerhound,  owned  by  a  gentleman  of  Lancashire,  Eng 
land,  Mr.  John  Lancaster,  who  was  himself  on  board,  steamed 
up  in  the  midst  of  the  drowning  men,  and  rescued  a  number 
of  both  officers  and  men  from  the  water,  among  them  Captain 
Semmes  himself. 

The  ]oss  of  the  Alabama  in  killed  and  wounded  was  thirty. 
There  was  no  life  lost  on  the  Kearsarge ;  and  although  she  had 
received  thirteen  or  fourteen  shots  in  and  about  the  hull,  and 
sixteen  or  seventeen  about  the  masts  and  risking,  she  was  not 

OO         O ' 

materially  damaged.  In  his  official  report  of  the  fight,  Captain 
Semmes  said :  "  At  the  end  of  the  engagement,  it  was  discovered 
by  those  of  our  officers  who  went  alongside  the  enemy's  ship  with 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  311 

the  wounded,  that  her  midship  section,  on  both  sides,  was  thor 
oughly  iron- coated;  this  having  been  done  with  chain  con 
structed  for  fhe  purpose,  placed  perpendicularly  from  the  rail 
to  the  waters  edge,  the  whole  covered  over  by  a  thin  outer 
planking,  which  gave  no  indication  of  the  armor  beneath. 
This  planking  had  been  ripped  off  in  every  direction  by  our 
shot  and  shell,  the  chain  broken  and  indented  in  many  places, 
and  forced  partly  into  the  ship's  side.  She  was  most  effectually 
guarded,  however,  in  this  section  from  penetration." 

The  loss  of  the  Alabama  was  a  most  'severe  blow  to  the  pri 
vateer  service  of  the  South.  That  service  had  already  caused 
nearly  a  thousand  Yankee  vessels  to  be  sold  to  foreign  shipping 
merchants ;  and  it  was  officially  reported  at  Washington  that 
478,665  tons  of  American  shipping  were  flying  other  flags.  Such 
had  been  the  terror  inspired  by  Confederate  privateers,  of 
which  the  Alabama  had  been,  by  far,  the  most  formidable. 
She  alone  had  accomplished  a  work  of  destruction  estimated 
at  from  eight  to  ten  millions  of  dollars.  It  was  reported  that 
the  news  of  her  loss  was  received  on  the  exchanges  of  New  York 
and  Boston  with  a  joy  far  livelier  than  would  have  been  con 
ceived  by  these  commercial  patriots,  if  they  had  heard  of  a 
great  victory  over  Lee's  army  in  Virginia. 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTEK  XYI. 

Sherman's  campaign  in  Georgia.— How  parallel  with  that  in  Virginia.— The  t;  sir* 
of  Grant  and  Sherman  compared. — Numerical  inferiority  of  General  Johnston's 
forces.— His  proposition  to  the  Richmond  authorities.— Pragmatism  of  President 
Davis  and  his  secretary.— Engagement  in  Kesaca  Valley.— General  Johnston'* 
designs.— Why  Le  retreated.— His  disappointment  of  a  battle  at  Cassville,— E.\- 
OAGEMENT  AT  NEW  HOPE  CHURCH.— True  theory  of  the  retrograde  movement  oi 
Johnston. —BATTLE  OF  KENESAW  MOUNTAIN.— Sherman's  confession.— Sherman- 
master  of  the  Chattahoochee.— Johnston  falls  back  to  Atlanta.— The  vexed  ques 
tion  of  Johnston's  retreat,— What  it  surrendered.— What  it  secured.— Its  strategic 
advantages. — The  enemy's  movements  in  Virginia  and  Georgia  both  in  check.— 
Disappointment  of  the  enemy.— Statistics  of  Yankee  recruiting.— Another  Con 
federate  success.— Defeat  of  Sturgis.— "  The  Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow."— Barbar 
ities  of  the  enemy's  summer  campaign.— Augmentation  of  Yankee  ferocity.— Its 
effect  on  the  Confederates.— Offensive  operation  of  the  Confederates. --Three 
projects  of  invasion.— EARLY'S  INVASION  OF  MARYLAND,  &c.— Sigel's  retreat.-- 
BATTLE  OF  MONOCACY  BRIDGE.— Early  loses  the  great  opportunity  of  1864.—  Res  nit* 
of  his  expedition.— Engagement  at  Kernstown.— MORGAN'S  INVASION  OF  KSN- 
TCCKY.— Rid  failure.— PRICE'S  INVASION  OF  MISSOURI.— Pilot  Knob.— General  Ew 
ing's  retreat. — Price  retires. 

PARALLEL  and  concurrent  with  Grant's  summer  campaign 
in  Virginia,  wag  the  more  difficult  but  less  deadly  campaign 
of  Sherman  in  Georgia.  Grant's  point  d'appui  was  on  the 
Kapidan,  while  Sherman's  was  at  Chattanooga,  in  Tennessee. 
The  Alleghany  Mountains  separated  these  grand  movements; 
a  thousand  miJos  of  distance  intervened  between  them ;  com 
munication  between  them  was  rare,  and,  to  a  certant  extent, 
impossible.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Sherman  had  the  more 
difficult  tasl:  to  accomplish.  He  had  but  a  single  line  of  rail 
way  to  reac7i  his  objective  point,  Atlanta,  and  this  traversed  a 
wild  and  mountainous  country.  Grant  could  change  his  baso 
at  pleasure,  or  as  circumstances  required  it;  he  had  water 
eommuir>,tttion  y/ith  the  North,  and  transports  within  hailing 
distance;  he  could  run  no  danger  from  lack  of  subsistence  or 
munitions  of  war.  Again,  Sherman,  passing  through  a  broken 
and  intricate  country,  had  to  guard  his  flanks  and  rear,  at 
every  step,  from  cavalry.  Grant  had  only  to  put  an  army  of 
occupation  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  to  close  the  single  defilo 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  343 

fjetweeu   the   great   mountain  ridges   of  Virginia,   and    thus 
securely  protect  his  rear  from  even  the  possibility  of  danger. 

It  appears  from  the  official  report  of  General  Sherman's  oper 
ations,  that  he  had  estimated  the  force  required  to  reach  and 
capture  Atlanta,  at  one  hundred  thousand  men  and  two  hundred 
and  fifty  pieces  of  artillery  :  he  started  with  ninety-eight  thon 
sand  seven  hundred  and  ninety-seven  men  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty-four  guns.  This  force  was  divided  as  follows : — Army  of 
the  Cumberland,  Major-General  Thomas,  sixr/  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-three  men,  one  hundred  and  thirty  guns; 
Army  of  the  Tennessee,  Major-General  McPherson,  twenty- 
four  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty-five  men,  ninety-six 
guns ;  Army  of  the  Ohio,  Major-General  Schofield,  thirteen 
thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty-nine  men,  twenty-eight  guns. 
Sherman's  intention  was  to  make  these  proportions  fifty  thou 
sand,  thirty-five  thousand,  and  fifteen  thousand,  but  that 
wretched  fiasco  known  as  the  Red  River  Expedition  kept  back 
some  of  McPherson's  troops,  and,  besides  ruining  itself,  did  as 
much  as  possible  towards  impeding  Sherman.  It  will  be  seen 
he  was  furnished  within  twelve  hundred  of  the  number  of  men 
he  asked  for. 

Here  again  we  have  the  repetition  of  the  story  of  fearful 
odds  against  the  Confederates.  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
who  had  taken  command  of  the  Army  of  Tennessee,  had  held 
the  Confederate  lines  in  North  Georgia,  during  the  winter, 
with  thirty  odd  thousand  men.  On  the  1st  of  December,  1864t 
he  enumerated  the  effective  total  of  the  infantry  and  artillery 
of  the  army,  including  two  brigades  belonging  to  the  depart 
ment  of  Mississippi,  as  36,826.  The  effective  total  of  the 
cavalry,  including  Roddy's  command  at  Tuscumbia,  was 
5,613. 

In  the  last  weeks  of  February,  1865,  General  Johnston  .had 
proposed  to  the  government  at  Richmond  an  offensive  move 
ment  against  the  enemy,  on  the  just  ground  that  he  was  in 
creasing  the  disproportion  of  numbers,  and  would  take  the 
Confederates  at  greater  disadvantage  than  if  they  were  to 
essay  at  once  a  forward  movement  and  try  issues  with  him. 
The  proposition  lingered  in  the  War  Department  from  Feb 
ruary  to  May.  General  Bragg  and  President  Davis  had  their 
own  plan  of  offensive  operations.  General  Johnston  in  vain 


344  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

telegraphed  to  Richmond:  "I  expressly  accept  taking  the 
offensive ;  I  only  differ  with  yon  as  to  details."  But  "  the 
details"  dictated  at  Richmond  were  insisted  upon  ;  and  when 
eventually,  in  the  latter  part  of  April,  President  Davis  sent  an 
officer  to  Georgia  to  explain  his  wishes  to  Johnston,  the  enemy 
had  already  prepared  to  make  his  long-meditated  and  for  mi 
dahle  movement. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  General  Johnston  reported  the  enemy 
ready  to  advance.  The  effective  artillery  and  infantry  of  the 
Army  of  Tennessee  amounted  then  to  40,900 ;  the  effective 
cavalry  to  about  four  thousand.  With  this  force  Johnston 
had  to  fight  more  than  twice  his  numbers,  and  had  no  other 
prospect  of  compensation  but  in  superior  skill  and  strategy. 

Sherman  moved  on  Dalton  in  three  columns  ;  Thomas  in 
front,  Schofield  from  Cleveland  on  the  northeast,  while  Mc- 
Pherson  threw  himself  on  the  line  of  communication  southwest 
at  Resaca,  fifteen  miles  south  of  Dalton.  On  the  7th  of  May 
Thomas  occupied  Tunnel  Hill,  ten  miles  northwest  of  Dalton, 
and  took  up  a  strong  position  at  Buzzard's  Roost.  By  the 
flank  movement  on  Resaca,  Johnston  was  forced  to  evacuate 
Dalton. 

On  the  14th  the  first  important  engagement  of  the  campaign 
took  place  in  Resaca  valley.  Two  efforts  were  made  to  carry 
the  breastworks  of  the  Confederates,  without  success,  when 
Johnston,  in  the  afternoon,  assumed  the  offensive,  and  drove 
the  enemy  some  distance,  with  a  loss  which  his  own  bulletins 
stated  to  be  two  thousand. 

On  the  15th  there  was  desultory  fighting,  and  on  the  16th 
General  Johnston  took  up,  at  leisure,  his  line  of  retrograde 
movement  in  the  direction  of  the  Etowah  River,  passing 
through  Kingston  and  Cassville. 

It  was  clear,  in  General  Johnston's  mind,  that  the  great  nu 
inerical  superiority  of  the  Yankee  army  made  it  expedient  to 
risk  battle  only  when  position,  or  some  blunder  of  the  enemy, 
might  give  him  counter-balancing  advantages.  He  therefore 
determined  to  fall  back  slowly,  until  circumstances  should  put 
the  chances  of  battle  in  his  favor,  keeping  so  near  the  Yankee 
army  as  to  prevent  its  sending  reinforcements  to  Grant,  and 
hoping,  by  taking  advantage  of  positions  and  opportunities,  to 
reduce  the  odds  against  him  by  partial  engagements.  He  also 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  ,345 

expected  it  to  be  materially  reduced,  before  the  end  of  Jinn;,  by 
the  expiration  of  the  terms  of  service  of  many  of  the  regiments 
which  had  not  re-enlisted.  In  this  way  he  fell  back  to  Cassville 
in  two  marches. 

Expecting  to  be  attacked,  Johnston  had  drawn  up  his  troops 
in  an  excellent  position  on  a  bold  ridge  immediately  in  rear 
of  Cassville,  with  an  open  valley  before  it.  But  there  appears 
to  have  been  some  doubts  among  his  officers  as  to  the  value  of 
the  position.  Lieutenant-Generals  Polk  and  Hood  together 
expressed  the  Opinion,  very  decidedly,  that  the  Yankee  artillery 
would  drive  them,  the  next  day,  from  their  positions,  and  urged 
General  Johnston  to  abandon  the  ground  immediately,  and 
cross  the  Etowah.  Lieutenant-General  Hardee  was  confident 
that  he  could  hold  his  position.  Of  this  dilemma,  General 
Johnston  writes  in  his  official  report :  "  The  other  two  officers, 
however,  were  so  earnest  and  unwilling  to  depend  on  the  ability 
of  their  corps  to  defend  the  ground,  that  I  yielded,  and  the 
army  crossed  the  Etowah  on  the  20th  of  May,  a  step  which  J 
have  regretted  ever  since" 


ENGAGEMENT  AT  NEW  HOPE  CHURCH. 

On  the  25th  the  enemy  was  found  to  be  intrenched  near  and 
east  of  Dallas.  Hood's  corps  was  placed  with  its  centre  near 
New  Hope  Church,  and  Folk's  and  Hardee's  ordered  between 
it  and  the  Atlanta  road,  which  Hardee's  left  was  to  cover. 
An  hour  before  sunset  Stewart's  division,  at  New  Hope  Church, 
was  fiercely  attacked  b}^  Hooker's  corps,  which  it  repulsed 
after  a  hot  engagement  of  two  hours.  Skirmishing  was  kept 
up  on  the  26th  and  27th.  At  half  past  five,  P.  M.,  on  the  27th, 
Howard's  corps  assailed  Cleburne's  division,  and  was  driven 
back,  about  dark,  with  great  slaughter.  In  these  two  actions 
the  Confederates  were  not  intrenched.  Their  loss  in  each  was 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty  in  killed  and  wounded.  On  the 
27th  the  enemy's  dead,  except  those  borne  off,  were  counted 
six  hundred,  and  a  reasonable  estimate  of  their  entire  loss  may, 
therefore,  be  stated  as  certainly  not  less  than  three  thousand 

So  far,  the  retrograde  movement  of  Johnston  was,  in  some 
respects,  a  success.  It  had  been  attended  with  at  least  two 


34:6  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

considerable  victories — Resaca  and  New  Hope  ;  it  had  bu-n 
executed  deliberately,  being  scarcely  ever  under  the  immediate 
pressure  of  the  enemy's  advance  ;  and  it  had  now  nearly  ap 
proached  the  decisive  line  of  the  Chattahoochee,  or  whatever 
other  line  he,  who  was  supposed  to  be  the  great  strategist  of 
the  Confederacy,  should  select  for  the  cover  of  Atlanta.  The 
events  of  the  campaign,  so  far,  were  recounted  with  character 
istic  modesty  by  General  Johnston.  On  the  1st  of  June  he 
telegraphed  to  Richmond  of  his  army  :  "  In  partial  engage 
ments  it  has  had  great  advantages,  and  the  sum  of  all  the  com 
bats  amounts  to  a  battle." 

The  two  armies  continued  to  manoeuvre  for  position.  Skir 
mishing  was  kept  up  until  the  4th  of  June,  the  enemy  gradu 
ally  extending  his  intrenched  line  towards  the  railroad  and 
Ackworth.  On  the  morning  of  the  5th  the  army  was  formed 
with  its  left  at  Lost  Mountain,  its  centre  near  Gilgath  Church, 
and  its  right  near  the  railroad.  On  the  7th,  the  right,  covered 
by  Noonday  Creek,  was  extended  across  the  Ackworth  and 
Marietta  road.  The  enemy  approached  under  cover  of  succes 
sive  lines  of  iutrenchments.  On  the  19th  a  new  line  was  taken 
by  Johnston  ;  Hood's  corps  with  its  right  on  the  Marietta  and 
Canton  road,  Loring's  on  the  Kenesaw  Mountain,  and  Hardee's 
with  its  left  extending  across  the  Lost  Mountain  and  Marietta 
road.  The  enemy  approached,  as  usual,  under  cover  of  in 
trench  ment.  In  this  position  there  was  incessant  lighting  and 
skirmishing  until  July  3d,  the  enemy  gradually  extending  hia 
intrenched  right  towards  Atlanta. 


BATTLE   OF    KENK8AW    MOUNTAIN. 

On  the  27th  of  June,  General  Sherman  directed  an  attack  on 
Johnston's  position  at  Keuesaw  Mountain.  This  mountain 
was  the  apex  of  Johnston's  lines.  Both  armies  were  in  strong 
works,  the  opposite  salients  being  so  near,  in  some  places,  that 
skirmishers  could  not  be  thrown  out.  The  assault  of  the  en 
emy  was  made  in  three  columns,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  It  was  repulsed  on  every  part  of  the  Confederate 
line.  The  assaults  were  most  vigorous  on  Cheatham's  and 
Clebu.ne's  divisions  of  Hardee's  corps,  and  French's  and 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  347 

featherstone's  of  Loring's.  Lieutenant-General  Hardee  re 
ported  that  Cheatham's  division  lost  in  killed,  wounded,  and 
missing,  one  hundred  and  ninety-five.  The  enemy  opposed  to 
*t,  by  the  statement  of  staff-officers  subsequently  captured,  lost 
two  thousand.  The  loss  of  Cleburne's  division  was  eleven, 
that  of  the  enemy  in  his  front,  one  thousand  ;  and  Major-Gen 
end  Loring  reported  two  hundred  and  thirty-six  of  his  corps 
killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  The  loss  of  the  enemy,  by  their 
own  estimates,  was  between  twenty-five  hundred  and  three 
thousand.  Of  this  affair  General  Sherman  wrote,  with  rare 
candor,  or  with  peculiar  recklessness,  that  it  was  a  failure ; 
but  that  it  demonstrated  to  General  Johnston  the  enemy's 
courage — that  it  "  would  assault,  and  that  boldly." 

Sherman,  on  the  failure  of  the  Kenesaw  assault,  again  re 
sorted  to  manoeuvring.  McPherson's  whole  army  was  thrown 
rapidly  to  the  Chattahoochee.  On  the  22d  of  July,  Johnston 
finding  the  enemy's  right  nearer  to  Atlanta,  by  several  rniles, 
than  our  left,  the  army  fell  back,  during  the  night,  to  Smyrna 
Church.  On  the  4th,  Major-General  Smith  reported  that  he 
should  be  compelled  to  withdraw,  on  the  morning  of  the  5th, 
to  the  line  of  intrenchments  covering  the  railroad  bridge  arid 
Turner's  Ferry.  The  army  was,  therefore,  ordered  to  retire  at 
the  same  time  to  that  line,  to  secure  our  bridges.  The  cavalry 
crossed  the  Chattahoochee — Wheeler  observing  it  for  some 
twenty  miles  above,  and  Jackson  as  far  below. 

Sherman  was  left  master  of  the  Chattahoochee,  and  Atlanta 
lay  but  eight  miles  distant.  Peach-tree  Creek,  and  the  river 
below  its  mouth,  was  now  taken  by  Johnston  for  his  line  of 
defence.  _  A  position  on  the  high  ground  south  of  the  creek 
was  selected  for  the  army,  from  which  to  attack  the  enemy 
while  crossing.  The  engineer  officers,  with  a  large  force  of 
negroes,  were  set  to  work  to  strengthen  the  fortifications  of 
Atlanta  ;  and  the  two  armies  confronted  each  other  in  what 
was  unmistakably  the  crisis  of  the  Georgia  campaign. 

We  can  easily  state  the  just  and  historical  merits  of  that 
question  so  much  discussed  in  Confederate  prints — the  retreat 
of  Johnston  to  Atlanta.  Something  may  always  be  said  on 
both  sides  of  a  question  which  has  divided  the  public  mind, 
and  been  a  topic  of  a  certain  censure  as  well  as  of  approbation. 

It  is  true  that,  in  some  respects,  Johnston's  retreat  to  At- 


3i8  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

lanta  was  a  sore  disappointment  to  the  Confederate  public ; 
for  it  had  given  up  to  the  Yankees  half  of  Georgia,  abandoned 
one  of  the  finest  wheat  districts  of  the  Confederacy,  almost 
ripe  for  harvest;  and  at  Rome  and  on  the  Etowah  River,  had 
surrendered  to  the  enemy  iron-rolling  mills,  and  government 
works  of  great  value. 

In  other  respects,  however,  the  retreat  had  been  a  master 
piece  of  strategy,  and  a  solid  as  well  as  a  splendid  success. 
The  loss  of  our  infantry  and  artillery,  from  the  5th  of  May,  had 
been  about  ten  thousand  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  four 
thousand  seven  hundred  from  all  ojther  causes.  According  to 
the  opinions  of  our  most  experienced  officers,  daily  reports  of 
prisoners,  and  statements  of  Northern  papers,  the  enemy's  loss 
in  action  could  not  have  been  less  than  five  times  as  great 
as  ours. 

The  strategic  advantages  which  Johnston  had  secured  in  hia 
retreat  were  indisputable.  "  At  Dalton,"  writes  Johnston, 
"  the  great  numerical  superiority  of  the  enemy  made  the 
chances  of  battle  much  against  us  ;  and,  even  if  beaten,  they 
had  a  safe  refuge  behind  the  fortified  pass  of  Ringgold  and  in  the 
fortress  of  Chattanooga.  Our  refuge,  in  case  of  defeat,  was  in 
Atlanta,  one  hundred  miles  off,  with  three  rivers  intervening. 
Therefore,  victory  for  us  could  have  been  decisive,  while 
defeat  would  have  been  utterly  disastrous.  Between  Dalton 
and  the  Chattahoochee  we  could  have  given  battle  only  by 
attacking  the  enemy  intrenched,  or  so  near  intrenchments  that 
the  only  result  of  success  to  us  would  have  been  his  falling 
back  into  them;  while  defeat  would  have  been  our  ruin.  In 
the  course  pursued,  our  troops,  always  fighting  under  cover, 
had  very  trifling  losses,  compared  with  those  they  inflicted  ; 
so  that  the  enemy's  numerical  superiority  was  reduced  daily 
and  rapidly,  and  we  could  reasonably  have  expected  to  cope 
with  the  Federal  army  on  equal  ground  by  the  time  the  Chat 
tahoochee  was  passed.  Defeat  on  this  side  of  the  river  would 
have  been  its  destruction.  We,  if  beaten,  had  a  place  of 
refuge  in  Atlanta,  too  strong  to  be  assaulted,  and  too  extensive 
to  be  invested." 

It  was  clear,  in  the  month  of  July,  that  a  pause  had  been 
given  to  the  parallel  operations  of  the  enemy  in  Virginia  and 
Georgia;  aimed,  the  one  at  Richmond,  which  the  Yankees 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  349 

entitled  the  heart  and  brains  of  the  Confederacy ;  and  tho 
other  at  Atlanta,  the  centre  of  important  manufacturing  eu 
terprises,  and  the  door  to  the  great  granary  of  the  Gulf  States. 
Both  movements  were  for  the  time  unmistakably  in  check; 
and  the  interlude  of  indecision  afforded  a  curious  commentary 
on  the  boastful  confidence  that  had  recorded  the  fall  of  Rich 
mond  and  the  capture  of  Atlanta  as  the  expectations  of  eacli 
twenty-four  hours. 

There  was  reason,  indeed,  for  the  North  to  be  depressed. 
The  disappointment  of  the  Yankees  was  with  particular  ref 
erence  to  the,  campaign  of  Grant  in  Virginia,  The  advance 
from  the  Rapidan,  which  we  have  followed  to  its  recoil  before 
Petersburg,  had  been  made  under  conditions  of  success  which 
had  attended  no  other  movement  of  the  enemy.  It  was  made 
after  eight  months'  deliberate  preparation.  In  the  Congress 
at  Washington  it  was  stated  that,  in  these  eight  months,  the 
Government  had  actually  raised  seven  hundred  thousand  men, 
an  extent  of  preparation}  which  indicated  an  intention  to 
overwhelm  and  crush  the  Confederacy  by  a  resistless  combined 
attack.  Nor  was  this  all.  One  hundred  thousand  three 
months'  men  were  accepted  from  Ohio  and  other  States,  for 
defensive  service,  in  order  that  General  Grant  might  avail 
himself  of  the  whole  force  of  trained  soldiers.  The  result  of 
the  campaign,  so  far,  did  not  justify  the  expectations  on 
which  it  had  been  planned.  The  Yankee  Government  which, 
since  the  commencement  of  the  war,  had  called  for  a  grand 
total  of  twenty-three  hundred  thousand  men,  and  had  actually 
raised  eighteen  hundred  thousand  men,  of  an  average  term  of 
service  of  three  years,  to  crush  the  Confederacy,  saw,  in  the 
fourth  year  of  the  war,  the  Confederacy  erect  and  defiant,  and 
Richmond  shielded  by  an  army  which  had  so  far  set  at  naught 
the  largest  preparations  and  most  tremendous  exertions  of 
the  North. 

There  had  been  successes,  too,  in  other  parts  of  the  Con 
federacy  than  Virginia  and  Georgia.  While  the  movements 
we  have  just  been  relating  were 'taking  place  in  Georgia,  an 
important  event  had  taken  place  in  the  Southwest — the  defeat 
of  the  Yankee  expedition  under  Sturgis  on  its  way  from 
Memphis  to  operate  in  Sherman's  rear.  In  this  action,  at 
Guntown  (13th  June),  Sturgis  lost  most  of  his  infantry  and  all 


odO  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

of  his  artillery  and  trains,  and  the  Confederates,  under  Forrest, 
achieved  a  victory  that  had  an  important  influence  on  the 
campaign  in  Georgia.  Forrest  took  two  thousand  prisoners, 
and  killed  and  wounded  an  equal  number. 

This  expedition,  so  severely  punished,  was  one  of  peculiai 
atrocity.  Its  crimes  were  enough  to  sicken  the  ear.  I 
flourished  the  title  of  the  "Avengers  of  Fort  Pillow."  "  Be 
fore  the  battle,"  says  a  correspondent,  "  fugitives  from  the 
counties  through  which  Sturgis  and  his  troops  were  advan 
cing  came  into  camp,  detailing  incidents  which  made  men 
shudder,  who  are  accustomed  to  scenes  of  violence  and  blood 
shed.  I  cannot  relate  the  stories  of  these  poor  frightened 
people.  Rude  unlettered  men,  who  had  fought  at  Shiloh,  and 
in  many  subsequent  battles,  wept  like  children  when  they 
heard  of  the  enormities  to  which  their  mothers,  sisters,  and 
wives  had  been  subjected  by  the  negro  mercenaries  of  Sturgis." 

Indeed,  we  may  state  here,  that  the  enemy's  summer  cam 
paign  in  Virginia  and  in  the  West  was,  more  than  any  other, 
marked  by  the  barbarities  of  the  enemy.  These  barbarities 
had,  by  regular  augmentation,  become  more  atrocious  as  the 
war  had  progressed.  In  this  year,  they  exceeded  all  that  was 
already  known  of  the  brutality  of  our  enraged  enemy. 

General  Sherman  illustrated  the  campaign  in  the  West  by  a 
letter  of  instructions  to  General  Burbridge,  commanding  in  the 
Department  of  Kentucky,  charging  him  to  treat  all  partisans 
of  the  Confederates  in  that  State  as  "wild  beasts"  It  was  the 
invariable  and  convenient  practice  of  the  Yankees  to  designate 
as  "guerillas"  whatever  troops  of  the  Confederates  were  par 
ticularly  troublesome  to  them ;  and  the  opprobrious  term  was 
made,  by  General  Sherman,  to  include  the  regularly  commis 
sioned  soldiers  of  General  Morgan's  command,  and  whatever 
bodies  of  Confederate  cavalry  chose  to  roam  over  territory 
which  the  enemy  disputed.* 

*  Burbridge  was  not  slow  to  cany  out  the  suggestions  or  instructions  of  liia 
masters.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  a  section  of  one  of  his  orders. 

HEADQUARTERS  DISTRICT  KENTUCKY, 
FIFTH  DIVISION,  TWENTY-THIRD  ARMY  CORPS, 

Lexington,  Kentucky,  July  16,  1864. 

Rebel  sympathizers  living  within  five  miles  of  any  scene  of  outrage  coin 
mitted  by  armed  men,  not  recognized  as  public  enemies  by  the  rules  and 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  351 

Some  expressions  in  the  orders  referred  to  were  cliaiajter 
istic  of  the  Yankee,  and  indicated  those  notions  of  constitu 
tional  law  which  had  rapidly  demoralized  the  North.  General 
Sherman  declared  that  be  had  already  recommended  to  Gov 
ernor  Brainle'ite  of  Kentucky,  "  at  one  dash  to  arrest  every 
man  in  the  country  who  was  dangerous  to  it."  "The  fact  is,'' 
said  this  military  Solomon,  "  in  our  country  personal  liberty 
has  been  so  well  secured,  that  public  safety  is. lost  sight  of  in 
our  laws  and  institutions;  and  the  fact  is,  we  are  thrown  back 
one  hundred  years  in  civilization,  laws,  and  every  thing  else, 
and  will  go  right  straight  to  anarchy  and  the  devil,  if  some 
body  don't  arrest  our  downward  progress.  "We,  the  military, 

must  do  it,  and  we  have  right  and  law  on  our  side 

Under  this  law,  everybody  can  be  made  to  stay  at  home  and 
mind  his  or  her  own  business,  and,  if  they  won't  do  that,  can 
be  sent  away."  These  sage  remarks  on  American  liberty  were 
concluded  with  the  recommendation  that  all  males  and  females, 
in  sympathy  with  so-called  "  guerillas,"  should  be  arrested  and 
sent  clown  the  Mississippi  to  some  foreign  land,  where  they 
should  be  doomed  to  perpetual  exile. 

As  Sherman  advanced  into  the  interior  of  Georgia  he  laid 
waste  the  country,  fired  the  houses,  and  even  did  not  hesitate 
at  the  infamous  expedient  of  destroying  the  agricultural  imple 
ments  of  all  those  who  produced  from  the  soil  subsistence  for 
man.  He  declared  to  the  persecuted  people  that  this  time  he 
would  have  their  property,  but,  if  the  war  continued,  next 
year  he  would  have  their  lives.  Four  hundred  factory  girls 
whom  he  captured  in  Georgia  he  bundled  into  army  wagons, 


usages  bf  war,  will  be  arrested  and  sent  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United 
States. 

In  accordance  with  instructions  from  the  major-general  commanding  tht 
military  district  of  the  Mississippi,  so  much  of  the  property  of  rebel  sympathiz 
ers  as  may  be  necessary  to  indemnify  the  Government  or  loyal  citizens  for 
losses  incurred  by  the  acts  of  such  lawless  men,  will  be  seized  and  appropriated 
for  this  purpose. 

Whenever  an  unarmed  Union  citizen  is  murdered,  four  guerillas  will  be 
selected  from  the  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  military  authorities,  and  pub. 
licly  shot  to  death  in  the  most  convenient  place  near  the  scene  of  outra,ge.  B> 
command  of 

Brevet  Major-Qeneral  S.  G.  BUKBRIDGE. 

J.  B.  DICE.SON,  Captain  and  A  A.  General. 


852  SOUTHEEN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  ordered  them  to  be  transported  beyond  the  Ohio,  where 
the  poor  girls  were  put  adrift,  far  from  home  and  friends,  in  a 
strange  land.* 

From  Chattanooga  to  Marietta  there  was  presented  to  the 
eye  one  vast  scene  of  misery.  The  fugitives  from  ruined  vil 
lages  or  deserted  fields  sought  shelter  in  the  mountains.  Cities 
were  sacked,  towns  burnt,  populations  decimated.  All  along 
the  roads  were  great  wheat-fields,  and  crops  sufficient  to  feed 
all  New  England,  which  were  to  be  lost  for  want  of  laborers. 
The  country  had  been  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Con 
federacy.  One  looked  upon  the  gentle  undulations  of  the  val 
leys,  terminating  in  the  windings  of  the  rivers,  and  flanked  by 
the  majestic  barriers  of  the  mountains.  This  beautiful  country 
had  been  trodden  over  by  both  armies.  In  every  town  the 
more  public  buildings  and  the  more  conspicuous  residences  had 
been  devoured  by  fire,  or  riddled  with  shot  and  shell.  Every 
house  used  as  headquarters,  or  for  Confederate  commissary 
stores,  or  occupied  by  prominent  citizens,  hud  been  singled  out 
by  the  enemy  for  destruction.  In  some  instances  chureh'es 


*  The  following  announcement  appeared  in  tlie  Louisville  newspapers  : 

u  ARRIVAL  OF  WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  FROM  THE  SOUTH. — The  train  which  arrived 
from  Nashville  last  evening  brought  up  from  the  South  two  hundred  and  forty-nina 
women  and  children,  who  are  sent  here  by  order  of  General  Sherman,  to  be  trans 
ferred  north  of  the  Ohio  "River,  there  to  remain  during  the  war.  We  understand 
that  thore  are  now  at  Nashville  fifteen  hundred  women  and  children,  who  are  in  a 
very  destitute  condition,  and  who  are  to  be  sent  to  this  place  to  be  sent  North.  A 
number  of  them  were  engaged  in  the  manufactories  at  Sweet  Water  at  the  time  that 
place  was  captured  by  our  forces.  These  people  are  mostly  in  a  destitute  condition, 
having  no  means  to  provide  for  themselves  a  support.  Why  they  should  be  sent 
here  to  be  transferred  North  is  more  than  we  can  understand." 

It  was  also  stated  in  these  same  papers  that,  when  these  women  and  children 
arrived  at  Louisville,  they  were  detained  there  and  advertised  to  be  hired  out 
as  servants,  to  take  the  place  of  the  large  number  of  negroes  who  had  been 
liberated  by  the  military  authorities  and  were  now  gathered  in  large  campa 
throughout  Kentucky,  where  they  were  fed  and  supported  in  idleness  and 
viciousness  at  the  expense  of  the  loyal  taxpayers.  Thus,  while  these  negro 
women  were  rioting  and  luxuriating  in  the  Federal  camps,  on  the  bounty  ol 
the  Government,  the  white  women  and  children  of  the  South  were  arrested  at 
their  homes,  and  sent  off  as  prisoners  to  a  distant  country,  to  be  sold  in  bond 
age,  as  the  following  advertisement  fully  attests : 

"  NOTICE. — Families  residing  in  the  city  or  the  country,  wishing  seamstresses  or 
servants,  can  be  suited  by  applying  at  the  refugee  quarters  on  Broadway,  betwecc 
Ninth  a;id  Tenth.  This  is  sav.ctioned  by  Captain  Jones,  provost-marshal." 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  353 

had  not  escaped.  They  had  been  stripped  for  fire-wood  or  con 
verted  into  barracks  and  hospitals.  Fences  were  demolished, 
and  here  and  there  a  lordly  mansion  stood  an  unsightly  ruin. 

The  vandalism  of  Hunter  in  Virginia  drew  upon  him  the 
censure  of  the  few  journals  in  the  North  which  made  any  pre 
tension  to  the  decencies  of  humanity.  At  Lexington,  he  had 
burned  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  with  its  valuable  library, 
philosophical  arid  chemical  apparatus,  relics  and  geological 
specimens ;  sacked  Washington  College,  and  burned  the  house 
of  ex-Governor  Letches,  giving  his  wife  only  ten  minutes  to 
save  a  few  articles  of  clothing. 

Such  enormities  were  monstrous  enough  ;  they  shocked  the 
moral  sentiment  of  the  age;  yet  they  did  not  affright  the  soul 
of  the  South.  The  outrages  practised  upon  helpless  women, 
more  helpless  old  age,  arid  hopeless  poverty,  assured  the  people 
of  the  Confederacy  of  the  character  of  their  enemies,  and  the 
designs  of  the  war,  and  awakened  resolution  to  oppose  to  the 
last  extremity  the  mob  of  murderers  and  lawless  miscreants 
who  desecrated  their  soil  and  invaded  their  homes. 

We  turn  from  the  dominant  and  controlling  events  of  the 

O 

campaign  of  1864,  in  Virginia  and  Georgia,  to  other  fields  ol 
the  war,  which  were  within,  or  close  upon  the  period  which 
our  narrative  so  far  has  traversed. 

There  properly  belonged  to  the  campaign  of  the  summer 
and  early  fall  of  1864  three  projects  of  the  Confederate  inva 
sion  of  the  territory  held  or  disputed  by  the  enemy.  Theso 
were  Early's  invasion  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  Mor 
gan's  invasion  of  Kentucky,  and  Price's  invasion  of  Missouri. 
Their  results  were  small;  opportunities  were  badly  used  ;  in 
brief,  the  Confederate  attempts  of  1864  at  invasion  did  not 
differ  from  the  former  weak  experiments  of  the  kind. 


EAKLY'S  INVASION  OF  MARYLAND,  ETC. 

The  Confederates  had  planned  a  series  of  offensive  opera 
tions  on  a  small  scale,  the  object  of  which  was  to  interrupt  the 
main  campaigns  in  '  the  East  and  West.  This  line  of  opera 
tions  began  with  Early's  invasion  of  Maryland.  About  the 
same  time  the  enemy  was  startled  by  the  news  of  an  invasion 

88 


354  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF  .THE    WAR. 

of  Kentucky  by  a  considerable  body  of  Confederates,  moving 
into  that  State  through  Pound  Gap.  But  Early's  movement 
was  the  superior  one,  and  commands  attention  first. 

After  the  engagement  at  Lynchburg,  June  18,  Hunter 
found  no  way  of  escape  so  convenient  as  through  the  Blue 
Ridge  to  Gauley.  This  left  the  way  open  for  Early  to  move 
i.p  the  valley.  He  did  so,  accompanied  by  a  cavalry  force 
under  Hansom,  and  reached  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad, 
July  3,  at  a  point  just  above  Harper's  Ferry,  threatening 
Martinsburg.  Sigel,  holding  the  latter  place,  fell  back  towards 
Sharpsburg.  The  Confederates  immediately  occupied  Mar 
tinsburg,  where  they  captured  valuable  stores.  The  same  day 
a  fight  occurred  at  Leetown,  south  of  the  railroad,  in  which 
General  Mulligan,  covering  Sigel's  retreat,  was  finally  forced 
back  to  Sharpsburg,  where  he  joined  Sigel,  and  another  en 
gagement  occurred.  The  Yankee  forces  being  overpowered, 
fell  back  to  Maryland  Heights.  Max  "Weber,  evacuating 
Harper's  Ferry,  joined  Sigel.  In  the  mean  time,  General  E. 
B.  Tyler,  protecting  the  railroad  from  Baltimore  to  the  Mono- 
cacy,  prepared  for  resisting  the  Confederates  and  to  reinforce 
Sigel.  General  Lew  Wallace  joined  him  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  3d. 

On  Saturday,  July  9,  the  Confederates  disappeared  from 
Greencastle,  Hagerstown,  and  from  other  points  threatened ; 
but  this  was  only  for  the  purpose  of  concentration.  The 
Yankee  forces  had  evacuated  Frederick  the  previous  night, 
and  fallen  back  to  Monocacy  Bridge. 


BATTLE    OF   MONOCACY   BRIDGE. 

The  bridge  is  four  miles  from  Frederick  City.  The  river 
runs  due  north  and  south.  The  railroad  and  national  road 
cross  the  river  at  very  nearly  the  same  point.  As  our  troops 
advanced  towards  the  river  from  Frederick  it  became  apparent 
that  some  forces  of  the  enemy,  supposed  at  the  time  to  be  cav 
alry,  were  holding  the  east  bank.  A  couple  of  our  batteries 
opened  on  them  from  the  front,  while  our  cavalry  were  ordered 
to  go  up  the  stream  and  cross  over  the  bridge  At  the  same 
time  a  considerable  force  of  our  infantry  moved  down  the 


THE    LAST    YEAR,  355 

stream,  and  crossing  south  of  the  bridge,  formed  in  a  piece  of 
woods  on  the  high  ground.  It  was  still  believed  that  the  en 
emy  had  nothing  but  cavalry  on  the  ground,  but  our  infantry 
being  ordered  forward,  emerged  into  an  open  field  and  dis 
covered  the  enemy's  infantry  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle  along 
the  railroad  at  the  further  end  of  the  field.  The  railroad  being 
several  feet  lower  than  the  field,  the  enemy  had  all  the  advan 
tages  of  an  intrenched  position.  Evans's  brigade  charged 
across  this  field  under  a  heavy  fire  of  musketry.  When  within 
fifty  yards  of  the  enemy's  position,  another  body  of  the  enemy 
emerged  from  the  woods  on  our  right  and  attacked  the  brigade 
in  flank,  and  rendered  its  position  critical ;  but  other  of  our 
forces  coming  up,  the  enemy's  flank  movement  was  coun 
teracted.  A  simultaneous  charge  was  then  made  by  our  whole 
line,  when  the  enemy  broke  and  fled,  leaving  between  a  thou 
sand  and  twelve  hundred  dead  and  wounded,  and  seven  hun 
dred  prisoners  in  our  hands.  The  enemy  left  the  railroad  and 
national  pike  and  fled  north  in  the  direction  of  Gettysburg. 

In  this  action,  which  lasted  about  two  hours  from  the  time 
of  firing  the  first  shot,  we  lost  in  killed  and  wounded  between 
five  and  six  hundred  men  and  some  valuable  officers. 

Our  forces  did  not  follow  the  enemy,  but  proceeded  directly 
towards  Washington  and  Baltimore,  making  rapid  marches, 
but  collecting  cattle  and  horses  along  the  route. 

The  Yankee  capital  was  in  imminent  peril,  and  the  whisper 
ran  through  the  North  that  it  was  already  lost  or  surely 
doomed.  General  Early  might  have  taken  it  by  assault. 
There  were  only  a  few  regiments  to  man  its  defences,  and  the 
advance  of  the  Confederates  was  waited  hourly  by  a  popula 
tion  thrown  into  pitiable  consternation.  But  General  Early 
did  not  seize  the  great  opportunity  of  1864.  He  passed  the 
time  in  which  he  might  have  struck  the  decisive  blow  in  weak 
hesitation ;  he  reconnoitred  the  defences  of  Washington ;  he 
scattered  his  forces  into  expeditions  to  destroy  telegraphs  and 
intercept  trains ;  but  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  attack 
the  Yankee  capital,  and  with  that  characteristic  Confederate 
stupidity  which  never  completed  its  victories,  and  was  easily 
pleased  with  half-way  successes,  he  was  satisfied  with  the  re 
sults  of  a  raid,  where,  with  more  enterprise  and  persistence,  he 
might  have  achieved  the  most  decisive  and  brilliant  success  of 


I 

356  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

tlie  war — marched  into  Washington,  and  made  his  name  as 
illustrious  as  that  of  Stonewall  Jackson. 

About  the  middle  of  July  the  Confederates  began  to  disap 
pear  across  the  Potomac  fords,  carrying  with  them  many  ui 
the  fruits  of  their  expedition.  It  was  reported  by  General 
Early  that  he  brought  south  of  the  Potomac  five  thousand 
horses  and  twenty-five  hundred  beef  cattle.  Besides  this,  his 
cavalry  and  artillery  were  all  supplied  with  new  and  valuable 
horses.  He  had  also* created  a  useful  diversion,  and  compelled 
Grant  to  weaken  his  army  materially  before  Petersburg.  But 
it  must  be  confessed  that  the  results  of  his  expedition  fell  be 
low  public  expectation  in  the  South,  and  that  he  was  justly 
charged  with  not  having  made  full  use  of  his  opportunities. 

After  crossing  the  Potomac,  General  Early  had  occasion  to 
give  another  sharp  lesson  to  the  enemy.  He  turned  back 
upon  Crook,  who  was  pursuing  him  with  about  15,000  infantry 
and  cavalry.  The  fight  commenced  between  Bartonsville  ana 
Kernestown,  about  five  miles  from  Winchester.  Our  forces 
ran  the  enemy  to  Bunker's  Hill,  twelve  miles  beyond  Win 
chester,  and  thoroughly  routed  them.  General  Crook  con 
fessed  to  a  loss  of  one  thousand  in  killed  and  wounded.  Oui 
entire  loss  was  sixty.  After  this  General  Early  occupied  Mar- 
tinsburg,  and  a  pause  ensued  in  the  campaign  in  the  "Valley 
nothing  of  any  importance  occurring  for  some  weeks,  except 
the  raid  of  a  few  hundred  Confederate  cavalry  to  Chambers- 
burg,  Pennsylvania,  who  burned  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
town. 


General  John  Morgan's  expedition  into  Kentucky  was,  o?'. 
the  whole,  a  failure.  In  the  early  part  of  June,  with  some 
2,500  men,  he  entered  Kentucky  by  Pound  Gap,  and  by  swift 
movements  got  possession  of  Paris,  Georgetown,  Cynthia, 
Williainstown,  Mount  Sterling,  and  other  towns.  A  passenger 
train  on  the  Louisville  and  Lexington  Railroad,  near  Smith- 
fluid,  was  attacked,  and  two  passenger  cars  and  a  baggage  car 
burned.  Other  trains  were  attacked,  and  railroad  communi 
cation  was  for  some  days  interrupted.  On  the  9th  of  June 
General  Burbridge,  who  followed  Morgan  from  Pound  Gap. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  357 

came  np  with  him  at  Mount  Sterling,  and  Lad  an  indecisive 
engagement.  A  portion  of  Morgan's  command  entered  Lex 
ingtoii  at  two  o'clock  the  next  morning,  burned  the  Kentucky 
Central  Railroad  depot,  and  left  at  ten  o'clock,  in  the  direction 
of  Georgetown  and  Frankfort.  Part  of  the  town  of  Cynthia 
was  also  burned.  Two  Ohio  regiments  stationed  there  were 
captured.  On  the  12th  June,  General  Bin-bridge  fell  upon 
Morgan's  forces  while  at  breakfast  near  Cynthia,  and  after  an 
hour's  hard  fighting  defeated  him,  killing  three  hundred, 
wounding  nearly  as  many,  and  capturing  nearly  four  hundred, 
besides  recapturing  nearly  one  hundred  of  the  Ohio  troops, 
and  over  one  thousand  horses. 


It  was  late  in  September  when  offensive  operations  were 
essayed  in  the  distant  and  obscure  country  west  of  the  Mis 
sissippi.  In  that  month,  General  Price  moved  into  Missouri 
with  a  force  estimated  at  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  men. 
A  great  excitement  was  produced,  and  it  was  thought  that  a 
raid  was  contemplated  on  St.  Louis. 

Price's  main  army  moved  against  the  village  of  Pilot  Knob, 
86  miles  south  of  St.  Louis,  the  terminus  of  the  railroad,  and 
the  depot  for  supply  of  the  lower  outposts.  Several  desperate 
assaults  were  made  on  this  strongly  fortified  position  of  the 
enemy.  Under  cover  of  the  night,  General  Ewing,  the  Yankee 
in  command,  evacuated  Pilot  Knob,  and  effected  a  disastrous 
retreat  to  Rolla.  In  his  official  report  he  said  :  "The  refugees, 
men,  women,  and  children,  white  and  black,  who  clung  to  the 
command,  nearly  sacrificed  it  by  their  panics.  I  had  to  throw 
out  the  available  fighting  force,  infantry  and  cavalry,  as  ad 
vance  and  rear  guards  and  flankers,  leaving  in  the  body  of  the 
column  the  affrighted  non-combatants  and  two  sections  of  ar 
tillery,  not  often  brought  into  action  on  the  retreat.  Repeated 
and  stubborn  efforts  were  made  to  bring  us  to  a  stand,  and 
could  they  have  forced  a  halt  of  an  hour  they  would  have  en 
veloped  and  taken  us ;  but  our  halts,  though  frequent,  were 
brief,  and  were  only  to  unlimber  the  artillery,  stagger  the  pur« 
with  a  few  rounds,  and  move  on." 


358  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

General  Price  stopped  short  of  Holla.  For  some  cause— 
probably  the  demoralization  of  his  army  and  their  disappoint 
ment  of  active  sympathy  in  the  country  they  had  penetrated— 
he  seems  to  have  abandoned  at  this  stage  the  original  designs 
of  his  expedition.  He  subsequently  went  into  winter-quarter? 
in  the  vicinity  of  Washington.  He  collected  but  few  supplies, 
and  his  men  were  reported  to  be  in  worse  plight  than  when 
they  left  Arkansas. 


THE    LAST    YEAE.  359 


CHAPTEE  XYli. 

itreat  revulsion  in  the  public  mind  of  the  North  in  the  summer  of  1864. — A  genera 
outcry  for  pei.ee. — Spirit  of  Yankee  newspapers. — The  Niagara  Falls  "Commis 
sion." — The  Jacques-Gilmore  Affair.— Sorry  figure  of  the  Confederacy  in  thesa 
negotiations. — The  question  of  peace  negotiations  in  the  Confederacy. — True 
method  of  peace. — Manifesto  of  the  Confederate  Congress. — Position  of  President 
Davis — His  letter  to  Governor  Vance,  of  North  Carolina. — The  CHICAGO  CONVEN 
TION,  etc. — Speeches,  etc. — The  real  programme  of  the  Democratic  party. —  Why 
it  broke  down. — No  virtue  in  public  opinion  in  the  North. — The  true  peace  men 
of  the  North. — Their  Convention  at  Cincinnati. — A  reaffirmation  of  Jeffersonian 
Democracy. — A  masterpiece  of  statesmanship. — The  Presidential  campaign  of 
18fi4. — The  RIVAL  ADMINISTRATIONS  AT  RICHMOND  AND  WASHINGTON. — A  COMPARA 
TIVE  VIEW  OF  NORTHERN  DESPOTISM. — The  conscription  and  impressment  laws  of  the 
Confederacy. — The  offerings  of  Southern  patriotism. — The  Yankee  record  in  the 
matter  of  slavery. — "  Military  necessity." — The  Yankee  record  in  the  matter  oi 
civil  liberty. — An  outrage  upon  history. 

GRANT'S  complete  failure  in  the  Virginia  campaign,  and  Sher 
man's  dead-lock  at  Atlanta — the  first  marked  by  the  most 
frightful  slaughter — had  produced  an  evident  and  great  re 
vulsion  in  the  public  mind  of  the  North.  The  masses  in  that 
country  appeared  to  have  become  at  last  thoroughly  aroused 
to  a  true  sense  of  their  condition.  ,On  every  side  arose  the 
demand  for  peace.  Popular  demonstrations  had  already  taken 
place  in  several  localities,  showing  that  the  people  of  the 
North  were  growing  tired  of  the  war,  and  demanded  that  it 
should  be  stopped.  Yankee  newspapers,  that  were  at  one 
time  earnest  advocates  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
were  now  still  more  earnestly  in  favor  of  a  vigorous  prosecu 
tion  of  peace.  They  no  longer  spoke  with  bated  breath  and 
whispering  humbleness.  They  said  what  they  meant.* 

*  As  a  most  interesting  evidence  of  the  extent  of  this  disposition  to  peace  in 
the  Northern  mind,  we  collate  the  following  extracts  from  "  the  peace  press," 
ES  well  as  from  papers  that  had  given  a  quasi  support  to  the  war : 

From  the  New  York  Tribune. 

We  feel  certain  that  two-thirds  of  the  American  people  on  either  side  of  the 
dividing  line  anxiously,  absorbingly,  desire  peace,  and  are  ready  to  make  all 
needful  sacrifices  t^  insure  it.  Then  why  shall  it  be  long  withheld?  Let  us 


360  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

In  the  summer  of  1864  there  were  certain  movements  loot 
ing  to  a  special  negotiation  for  peace,  which  drew  no  little  oi 
the  public  attention.  These  movements  were  fruitless — in 
some  respects  they  were  unworthy  and  absurd  ;  but  they  are 
interesting  as  indicating,  at  the  time  they  took  place,  a  general 
popular  disposition  to  peace,  proceeding  from  the  Northern, 
despondency  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  consequent  hopes  of  the 
South. 

know,  as  soon  as  may  be,  the  most  that  the  rebel  chiefs  will  do  to  secure  peace ; 
let  us  know  what  is  the  "  ultimatum"  on  our  side.  We  have  no  sympathy 
with  the  shuddering  dread  that  our  Government  may,  by  listening  to  propo 
sitions  from  the.  rebels,  virtually  acknowledge  their  independence.  Etiquette 
is  the  disease  of  little  minds,  great  souls  are  never  troubled  by  it. 

Washington  Constitutional  Union. 

The  cry  for  peace  is  rung  into  our  ears  from  every  section  of  the  country — 
from  all  divisions  and  parties.  Even  the  fanatics  have  cooled  down,  in  meas 
ure,  from  their  fury  for  blood,  have  lost  the  vampire  instincts;  and,  horrified 
at  the  tales  of  slaughter  they  read,  and  shocked  at  the  sights  of  hospital  suf 
fering,  and  of  the  maimed  and  crippled  crawling  about  our  streets,  they  even 
wish  the  termination  of  strife  which,  unprocreative  of  benefit  to  either  party, 
even  to  the  medius  terminus,  the  negro,  is  crushing  the  vital  and  social  exist 
ence  of  both.  Physical  calamity  constantly  displayed  before  their  vision,  and 
high  prices  crushing  out  the  means  of  comfortable  subsistence,  has  at  length 
softened  the  heart  qf  the  hardened  abolitionist  into'a  lurking  yearning  for  the 

cassation  of  arms. 

Dayton.  (Ohio)  Daily  Empire. 

We  can  have  no  peace  so  long  as  the  men  are  allowed  to  prescribe  its  terms. 
Let  the  people,  in  their  sovereign  might,  command  that  this  cruel  war  be, 
ended,  and  all  differences  between  the  States  be  submitted  to  the  arbitrament 

of  a  convention. 

Troy  Daily  Pitss. 

To-day,  the  people  of  the  "  loyal"  and  seceded  States  would  be  able  to  agree 
upon  conditions  of  peace  and  stop  the  war.  And  it  is  the  duty  of  the  hour  to 
hasten  an  opportunity  for  this,  by  shoving  aside  extreme  men  and  placing  in 
power  those  who  believe  that,  in  a  government  like  ours,  concession,  concilia 
tion  and  compromise,  are  better  remedies  for  differences  than  eternal  strife 

and  war. 

Chicago  Times. 

The  necessity  for  peace  upon  honorable  terms  is  too  imperative  to  prrmit 
Its  sacrifice  to  a  blind,  selfish,  or  corrupt  partnership.  The  alternatives  now 
presented  to  the  nation  are  peace  with  honor,  and  war  with  dishonor  ;  peace 
with  preservation  of  life,  and  war  with  its  extended  and  murderous  conflicts ; 
peace  with  national  and  individual  solvency,  and  war  with  national  and  indi 
vidual  bankruptcy. 

From  the  World. 

The  new  President,  to  be  nominated  at  Chicago,  and  elected  in  November, 
a  man  ready  and  willing  to  meet  any  and  every  overture  for  peacs,  a 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  361 

In  the  month  of  July  the  whole  Northern  public  was  aroused 
by  a  sudden  statement  in  the  newspapers,  that  Messrs.  0.  G. 
Clay  and  Jacob  Thompson,  Southern  Commissioners  to  nego 
tiate  a  peace,  and  who  had  associated  with  them  George 
Saunders,  and  also  obtained  the  intermediate  services  of 
Horace  Greeley,  were  at  Niagara  Falls  soliciting  a  safe  con 
duct  to  Washington,  and  that  "  terms  of  peace  were  already 
passing  over  the  wires." 

There  was  the  usual  Yankee  exaggeration  in  this  news. 
Messrs.  Clay  and  Thompson  had  sought  a  safe  conduct  to 
Washington,  for  an  informal  conference  to  ascertain  if  there 
was  any  possible  com  icon  ground  on  which  negotiations  for 
peace  might  be  initiated  ;  and  they  had  been  unmercifully 
snubbed  by  the  authorities,  after  the  usual  Yankee  fashion  of 
treating  all  the  humble  and  begging  attempts  of  the  Confed 
erates  to  reach  the  back-door  of  Washington.  Mr.  Lincoln  dis 
patched  a  reply,  addressed  "  To  whom  it  may  concern"  de 
claring  that  the  Union,  with  the  additional  and  positive  con 
dition  of  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  was  the  sine  qua  non  of 
peace. 

Almost  contemporary  with  the  Niagara  Falls  affair  there 
was  an  incident  in  Richmond,  which  put  in  striking  contrast 
the  sturdy  indifference  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  the  simplicity  and 
pliancy  of  the  Confederate  authorities. 

In  the  same  month  of  July  a  letter  was  received  from  Gen 
eral  Grant,  asking  permission  of  the  Confederate  authorities 
for  Colonel  Jacques,  of  the  73d  Illinois  infantry,  and  one  J.  R. 
Gilmore,  to  meet  Colonel  Quid,  the  Confederate  Commissioner 
of  Exchange,  between  the  lines  of  the  two  armies.  Ould 
brought  the  two  Yankees  to  Richmond  for  the  purpose  of  see 
ing  President  Davis.  It  appeared  that  they  came  with  the 
knowledge  and  approval  of  President  Lincoln,  and  under  his 

man  who  shall  represent  truly  the  dignity  and  power  of  the  nation,  and  who 
•will  not  be  unwilling  even  to  tender  an  armistice  suggesting  a  National  Con 
vention  of  all  the  States. 

From  the  Neio  York  yews. 

The  peace  Democracy  will  indorse  a  nomination  that  faithfully  represents 
he  sentiments  herein  stated.  They  are  willing  to  trust  to  the  good  sense  and 
patriotism  of  the  people  for  the  realization  of  a  definite  peace  as  the  sequel  of 
»n  armistice  and  National  Convention. 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

pass ;  and,  while  they  disclaimed  the  character  of  authorised 
commissioners,  they  professed  to  be  directly  acquainted  with 
the  views  of  the  Washington  authorities,  and  plainly  tinted 
that  their  business  was  to  pave  the  way  for  a  meeting  of  formal 
commissioners  authorized  to  negotiate  for  peace. 

These  two  obscure  Yankees  were  treated  with  silly  distinc 
tion  in  Richmond.  They  were  admitted  to  a  personal  inter 
view  with  President  Davis,  who  "  grasped  the  hand  of  one  of 
them  with  effusion,"  and  entertained  them  with  a  long  disqui 
sition  on  State  Rights,  Secession,  etc.  There  was,  of  course, 
some  Yankee  dramatization  in  the  interview.  Jacques  had 
arrived  in  Richmond  attired  in  a  large  linen  duster  ;  but  no 
sooner  had  he  confronted  the  Confederate  President  than  he 
threw  off  the  garment,  disclosing  the  military  uniform  and  in  • 
signia  of  a  Yankee  colonel. 

It  appears  that  these  parties  had  not  a  single  definite 
proposition  to  make,  and  that  they  sounded  Mr.  Davis  thor 
oughly,  and,  easily  approaching  his  vanity,  induced  him  to 
make  a  very  elaborate  and  rhetorical  exposition  of  his  views 
and  designs.  They  carried  a  long  story  back  to  the  Yankee 
newspapers,  and  made  no  little  capital  out  of  their  visit  to  Rich 
mond  by  "  sensations"  in  the  Northern  pictorials  and  itine 
rant  "  lectures"  at  twenty-five  cents  a  head. 

The  more  intelligent  and  worthy  portion  of  the  Confederate 
public  were  greatly  wounded  in  their  pride  by  the  behavior  of 
their  authorities  on  the  peace  question.  Many  of  these  per 
sons  had,  since  the  very  commencement  of  the  war,  insisted  on 
the  futility  and  impropriety  of  essaying  to  open  any  special  ne 
gotiations  with  the  enemy  on  peace.  There  were  the  many 
distinct  avowals  of  the  purpose  of  the  war  on  our  side,  in  the 
declarations  and  acts  of  the  Government,  invariably  protesting 
our  simple  desire  "  to  be  let  alone,"  which  were  already  a  clear 
and  standing  tender  of  peace.  The  issues  could  not  be  made 
more  distinct  or  more  urgent  than  in  the  official  record.  Why, 
they  argued,  should  we  go  beyond  it  by  attempts  at  kitchen  con 
ferences,  which  might  not  only  be  insolently  rebuffed  by  the  en 
emy,  to  the  damage  of  our  self-respect,  but  which,  as  our  experi 
ences  had  so  far  shown,  were  invariably  misinterpreted,  and  not 
without  plausibility,  as  signs  of  decadence  and  weakness  in  our 
military  affairs.  True,  the  proud  and  intelligent  persons  in 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  363 

the  Coi  federacy  were  as  anxious  for  peace  as  those  who  were 
constantly  professing  their  devotion  to  this  end.  But  they 
considered  that  the  honor  and  self-respect  of  their  countrymen 
had  been  lowered  by  devious  and  unworthy  attempts  at  nego 
tiation.  Having  once  announced  the  terms  of  peace  sufficiently, 
they  judged  they  would  do  right,  while  awaiting  the  overtures 
of  the  enemy,  not  to  betray  their  anxiety,  or  open  any  unne 
cessary  discussions  on  the  subject.  And  there  could  be  no 
doubt  of  the  sufficiency  of  these  announcements. 

A  few  weeks  before  the  Jacques-Gilmore  "  mission"  the 
Confederate  Congress  had  published  a  manifesto  naming  the 
terms  of  peace,  sufficiently  explaining  to  the  enemy  the  de 
mands  of  the  Richmond  Government,  and  certainly  leaving 
no  occasion  for  discussing  the  matter  with  Yankee  intermed- 
dlers,  who  might  choose  to  visit  the  Confederate  capital  on  the 
errands  of  curiosity,  or  perhaps  in  the  office  of  spies.  The 
principles,  sentiments,  and  purposes  by  which  these  States  had 
been  actuated,  were  set  forth  in  that  paper  with  all  the  author 
ity  due  to  the  solemn  declaration  of  the  legislative  and  execu 
tive  departments  of  the  Government,  and  with  a  clearness 
which  left  no  room  for  comment  or  explanation.  In  a  few 
sentences  it  was  pointed  out  that  all  we  asked  was  immunity 
from  interference  with  our  internal  peace  and  prosperity, 
"  and  to  be  left  in  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  those  inalien 
able  rights  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  which 
our  common  ancestors  declared  to  be  the  equal  heritage  of  all 
parties  to  the  social  compact.  Let  them  forbear  aggressions 
upon  us,  and  the  war  is  at  an  end.  If  there  be  questions 
which  require  adjustment  by  negotiation,  we  have  ever  been 
willing,  and  are  still  willing,  to  enter  into  communication 
with  our  adversaries,  in  a  spirit  of  peace,  of  equity,  and  manly 
frankness." 

President  Davis  himself  had  even  more  explicitly  indicated 
the  methods  of  peace,  excluded  special  efforts  at  negotiation 
with  the  enemy,  and  taken  a  position  to  which  his  conduct  a 
few  months  subsequently  was  absurdly  and  inexplicably  op 
posite. 

Governor  Vance  of  North  Carolina  had  written  to  him,  re 
ferring  to  certain  political  discontent  in  that  State,  and  pro 
posing  an  effort  at  negotiation  with  the  enemy,  which  would 


36-1  SOCTHEEN    HISTOftY    OF    .HE    WAR. 

appease  the  malcontents,  and,  if  unsuccessful,  would  strengthen 
and  intensify  the  war  feeling. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  1864,  President  Davis  wrote  a  long 
letter  in  reply.  Some  passages  of  this  letter  are  of  sufficient 
interest  to  be  reproduced  by  the  side  of  the  events  of  the  sum 
mer  of  the  same  year.  The  President  wrote  : 

"  We  have  made  three  distinct  efforts  to  communicate  with 
the  authorities  at  Washington,  arid  have  been  invariably  un 
successful.  Commissioners  were  sent  before  hostilities  were 
begun,  and  the  Washington  Government  refused  to  receive 
them  or  hear  what  they  had  to  say.  A  second  time  I  sent  a 
military  officer  with  a  communication  addressed  by  myself  to 
President  Lincoln.  The  letter  was  received  by  General  Scott5 
who  did  not  permit  the  officer  to  see  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  promised 
that  an  answer  would  be  sent.  No  answer  has  ever  been  re 
ceived.  The  third  time,  a  few  months  ago,  a  gentleman  was 
sent,  whose  position,  character,  and  reputation  were  such  as 
to  insure  his  reception,  if  the  enemy  were  not  determined  to 
receive  no  proposals  whatever  from  the  Government.  Yice- 
President  Stephens  made  a  patriotic  tender  of  his  services,  in 
the  hope  of  being  able  to  promote  the  cause  of  humanity  ;  and 
although  little  belief  was  entertained  of  his  success,  I  cheerfully 
yielded  to  his  suggestion,  that  the  experiment  should  be  tried. 
The  enemy  refused  to  let  him  pass  through  their  lines  or  to  hold 
any  conference  with  them.  He  was  stopped  before  he  reached 
Fortress  Monroe,  on  his  way  to  Washington.  To  attempt  again 
(in  the  face  of  these  repeated  rejections  of  all  conference  with 
us)  to  send  commissioners  or  agents  to  propose  peace,  is  to  in 
vite  insult  and  contumely,  and  to  subject  ourselves  to  indig 
nity  without  the  slightest  chance  of  being  listened  to.  .  .  . 

u  I  cannot  recall  at  this  time  one  instance  in  which  I  have 
failed  to  announce  that  our  only  desire  was  peace,  and  the  only 
terms  which  formed  a  sine  qua  ~ion  were  precisely  those  that 
you  suggested,  namely,  'a  demand  only  to  be  let  alone.'  But 
suppose  it  were  practicable  to  obtain  a  conference  through 
commissioners  with  the  Government  of  President  Lincoln,  is 
it  at  this  moment  that  we  are  to  consider  it  desirable,  or  even 
at  all  admissible?  Have  we  not  just  been  apprized  by  that 
despot  that  we  can  only  expect  his  gracious  pardon  by  einan 
cipating  all  our  slaves,  swearing  allegiance  and  obedience  ta 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  365 

him  and  his  proclamation,  and  becoming  in  point  of  fact  the 
slaves  of  our  own  negroes?" 

But  the  peace  movements  in  the  North,  to  which  we  have 
referred,  were  to  take  a  more  practical  direction,  in  view  01 
the  approaching  Presidential  election  in  that  .country. 


THE   CHICAGO    CONVENTION,    ETC. 

The  Democratic  National  Convention  met  at  Chicago  on  the 
29th  of  August.  The  Convention  was  called  to  order  by  Mr. 
August  Belmont,  who  said  that  "  four  years  of  misrule  by  a 
sectional,  fanatical,  and  corrupt  party  had  brought  our  country 
to  the  verge  of  ruin.  The  past  and  present  are  sufficient 
warnings  of  the  disastrous  consequences  which  would  befall  us 
if  Mr.  Lincoln's  re-election  should  be  made  possible  by  our 
want  of  patriotism  and  unity." 

Mr.  Bigler,  formerly  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Senator 
in  Congress,  was  chosen  as  temporary  chairman.  lie  said  : 
"  The  termination  of  democratic  rule  in  this  country  was  the 
end  of  the  peaceful  relations  between  the  States  and  the  people. 
The  men  now  in  authority,  through  a  feud  which  they  have 
long  maintained  with  violent  and  unwise  men  at  the  South, 
because  of  a  blind  fanaticism  about  an  institution  in  some  of 
the  States,  in  relation  to  which  they  have  110  duties  to  perform 
and  no  responsibilities  to  bear,  are  utterly  incapable  of  adopt 
ing  the  proper  means  to  rescue  our  country  from  its  present 
lamentable  condition." 

The  Convention  was  permanently  organized  by  appointing 
as  chairman,  Horatio  Seymour,  the  Governor  of  New  York. 
In  his  speech,  upon  assuming  the  chair,  he  inveighed  bitterly 
against  the  Lincoln  Administration  and  the  party  in  power. 
''They  were,"  he  said,  "animated  by  intolerance  and  fanati 
cism,  and  blinded  by  an  ignorance  of  the  spirit  of  our  institu 
tions,  the  character  of  our  people,  and  the  condition  of  our 
land.  Step  by  step  they  have  marched  on  to  results  from 
which  at  the  onset  they  would  have  shrunk  with  horror ;  and 
even  now,  when  war  has  desolated  our  land,  has  laid  its  heavy 
burdens  upon  labor,  and,  when  bankruptcy  and  ruin  overhang 
us,  they  will  not  have  the  Union  restored  unless  upon  condi- 


366  SOUTHERN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAR. 

tions  unknown  to  the  Constitution.  They  will  not  let  the 
shedding  of  blood  cease,  even  for  a  little  time,  to  see  if  Chris 
tian  charity,  or  the  wisdom  of  statesmanship,  may  not  work 
out  a  method  to  save  our  country.  They  will  not  even  listen 
to  a  proposal  for  peace  which  does  not  offer  what  this  Govern* 
ment  has  no  right  to  ask.  This  Administration  cannot  now 
save  the  country  if  it  would.  It  has  placed  obstacles  in  its 
pathway  which  it  cannot  overcome.  It  has  hampered  its  own 
freedom  of  action  by  unconstitutionalities."  "  The  failure  of 
the  policy  of  the  Administration,"  he  said,  "  was  not  due  to 
any  want  of  courage  or  devotion  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers : 
they  had  done  all  that  arms  could  do  ;  and  had  wise  states 
manship  secured  the  fruits  of  their  victories,  there  would  to-day 
have  been  peace  in  the  land."  "This  Administration,"  he 
continued,  "  cannot  save  the  Union.  We  can.  We  demand 
no  conditions  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  We  are 
shackled  with  no  hates,  no  prejudices,  no  passions.  We  wish 
for  fraternal  relations  with  the  people  of  the  South.  We  de 
mand  for  them  what  we  demand  for  ourselves,  the  full  recog 
nition  of  the  rights  of  the  States." 

x  The  platform  of  the  Convention  consisted  of  a  series  of  six 
resolutions  drawn  up  by  a  committee  appointed  for  that  pur 
pose,  consisting  of  one  member  from  each  State,  chosen  by  the 
respective  delegations.  The  two  most  important  resolutions 
were  as  follows : 

"  Resolved,  That  this  Convention  does  explicitly  declare,  as  the  sense  of  the 
American  people,  that  after  four  years  of  failure  to  restore  the  Union  by  the 
experiment  of  war,  during  which,  under  the  pretence  of  a  military  necessity, 
or  war  power  higher  than  the  Constitution,  the  Constitution  itself  has  been 
disregarded  in  every  part,  and  public  liberty  and  private  right  alike  trod~den 
down,  and  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country  essentially  impaired,  justice, 
humanity,  liberty,  and  the  public  welfare  demand  that  immediate  efforts  be 
made  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  with  a  view  to  an  ultimate  convention  of 
all  the  States,  or  other  peaceable  means,  to  the  end  that,  at  the  earliest  practi 
cable  moment,  peace  may  be  restored  on  the  basis  of  the  federal  Union  of  the 
States." 

"  Resolved,  That  the  aim  and  object  of  the  Democratic  party  is  to  preserve 
the  Federal  Union  and  the  rights  of  the  States  unimpaired,  and  they  hereby 
declare  that  they  consider  the  administrative  usurpation  of  extraordinary  and 
dangerous  powers  not  granted  by  the  Constitution,  the  subversion  of  the  civil 
by  military  law  in  States  not  in  insurrection,  the  arbitrary  military  arrest,  im 
prisonment,  trial,  and  sentence  of  American  citizens  in  States  where  civil  law 
exists  in  full  force,  the  suppression  of  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  the 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  367 

denial  of  the  right  of  asylum,  the  open  and  avowed  disregard  of  Slate  rights, 
the  employment  of  unusual  test-oaths,  and  the  interference  with  and  denial  of 
the  right  of  the  people  to  bear  arms,  as  calculated  to  prevent  a  restoration  o 
the  Union,  and  the  perpetuation  of  a  government  deriving  its  just  powers  frcn 
the  consent  of  the  governed." 

The  platform  was  adopted  with  but  four  dissenting  votes. 

On  the  31st  the  Convention  proceeded  to  ballot  for  candi 
dates.  Governor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  peremptorily  refused 
to  allow  his  name  to  be  used.  The  vote  at  first  stood  one 
hundred  and  sixty-two  for  McClellan,  and  sixty-four  for  all 
others.  Several  delegations  then  changed  their  votes,  and  the 
result  was  two  hundred  and  two  and  a  half  for  George  B.  Mc 
Clellan,  and  twenty-three  and  a  half  for  Thomas  H.  Seymour. 
Delaware  and  Maryland  voted  for  Seymour,  who  also  received 
nearly  half  the  votes  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Missouri.  The  re 
maining  eighteen  States  voted  unanimously  for  McClellan, 
whose  nomination,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Yallandigham,  was  made 
unanimous. 

Despite  the  protestations  of  attachment  to  the  Union  by  the 
Chicago  Convention,  there  is  but  little  doubt  that  the  real  pro 
gramme  of  its  operations  had,  for  its  final  conclusion,  the  ac 
knowledgrnent  of  the  independence  of  the  Confederate  States. 

It  was  proposed,  perhaps,  to  get  to  this  conclusion  by  distinct 
and  successive  steps,  so  as  not  to  alarm  too  much  the  Union 
sentiment  of  the  country.  The  first  step  was  to  be  the  propo 
sition  of  the  "  Union  as  it  was,"  in  a  convention  of  the  States  ; 
if  that  was  voted  down,  then  the  proposition  of  a  new  princi 
ple  of  federation,  limited  to  the  foreign  relations  and  to  the 
revenue  ;  if  that  was  rejected,  then  the  proposition  of  an  Inter- 
Confederate  Union,  to  preserve,  as  far  as  possible,  by  an  extra 
ordinary  league,  the  American  prestige  ;  and,  if  all  these  prop 
ositions,  intended  as  successive  tests  of  the  spirit  of  the  South, 
were  to  fail,  then,  at  last,  the  independence  of  the  Confederate 
States,  made  the  sine  quanon,  was  to  be  conceded  by  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  of  the  North,  as  the  last  resort  of  pacification, 
and  the  one  of  two  alternatives  where  their  choice  could  no 
longer  hesitate.  In  short,  it  appeared  to  be  the  design  of  the 
Democratic  party  to  get  the  North  on  the  naked  issue  of  war 
and  separation. 

Why  this  programme  brc'se  down  is  explained  almost  in  a 


\ 


3G8  SOUTHERN     HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

word.  The  military  events  which  took  place  between  the  date 
of  the  Chicago  Convention  and  election-day  put  upon  the  war 
«,  more  encouraging  aspect  for  the  North,  and  with  these 
changes  the  Democratic  party  abandoned  ground  which  they 
took  professedly  on  principle,  but  really  on  the  mean  consid 
orations  of  expediency  arid  time-serving.  The  fact  was  that 
all  party  changes  in  the  North,  since  the  war,  might  be  said 
to  be  constantly  accommodating  themselves  to  the  course  of 
military  events ;  so  little  was  there  of  virtue  or  of  principle  in 
the  public  opinion  of  the  Yankee.  After  the  Chicago  Conven 
tion,  the  peace  party  moved  inversely  with  the  scale  of  military 
success  ;  and,  as  that  mounted  in  Northern  opinion,  it  fell  until, 
as  we  shall  see  months  later,  it,  almost  approached  zero. 

It  was  to  be  expected,  by  those  acquainted  with  the  true 
springs  of  action  in  Yankee  politics,  that  the  changes  in  the 
military  situation,  during  the  fall  months  of  1864:,  to  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  North,  would  induce  the  Democratic  party  and 
their  candidate,  McClellan,  to  swerve  from  the  resolutions  ot 
the  Chicago  Convention,  and  to  adopt  shifting  and  equivocal 
grounds  with  reference  to  the  war.  This  shameful  departure 
from  the  former  professions  and  recorded  principles  of  the  so- 
called  Democratic  party  of  the  4 North  was  the  occasion  of  the 
secession  of  that  portion  of  it  which,  declaring  for  peace  on 
principle  and  disdaining  time-serving,  attempted  the  organiza 
tion  of  a  peace  party  upon  "  State  Rights  JefFersonian  Demo 
cratic  principles."  A  convention  of  the  true  "peace  men" 
was  called  at  Cincinnati  on  the  18th  of  October.  It  nominated 
no  candidates ;  its  actual  political  influence  had  become  very 
small;  but  it  had  the  merit  of  placing  on  record  one  of  the 
most  perspicuous  and  complete  expositions  of  the  American 
system  of  government  that  had  ever  come  from  any  modern 
pen.  As  a  reaffirmation  of  the  old  and  true  doctrine  of  that 
once  great  organization  in  America  known  as  the  Democratic 
party,  applied  to  the  conduct  of  the  existing  war,  the  platform 
of  the  Cincinnati  Convention  has  a  noble  and  permanent  in 
terest;  it  deserves  to  be  studied,  both  as  a  declaration  of  states 
manship  and  as  a  piece  of  history.  There  was  scarcely  any 
thing  that  could  exceed  in  luminous,  compact,  and  forcible 
style  the  two  following  resolutions  of  this  body  : 

*•  1.  Resolved^  That  the  several  States  composing  the  United 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  309 

States  are  not  united  on  the  principle  of  unlimited  submission 
to  their  General  Government,  but  that  by  a  compact,  under  the 
style  and  title  of  a  Constitution  for  the  United  States,  and  of 
amendments  thereto,  they  constituted  a  General  Government 
for  special  purposes — delegated  to  the  Government  certain 
definite  powers,  reserving  each  State  to  itself  the  residuary 
mass  of  right  to  their  self-government ;  and  that  whenever  the 
General  Government  assumes  undelegated  power,  its  acts  are 
unauthoritative,  void,  and  of  no  force ;  that  to  this  compact 
each  State  acceded  as  a  State,  and  as  an  integral  party,  its  co- 
States  forming,  as  to  itself,  the  other  party ;  that  the  Govern 
ment  created  by  this  compact  was  not  made  the  exclusive  or 
final  judge  of  the  extent  of  the  powers  delegated  to  itself,  since 
that  would  have  made  its  discretion,  and  not  the  Constitution, 
the  measure  of  its  powers ;  but^  that,  as  in  all  other  cases  of 
compact  among  powers  having  no  common  judge,  each  party 
has  an  equal  right  to  judge  for  itself,  as  well  ot  infractions  as 
of  the  mode  and  measure  of  redress. 

"2.  IZesolved,  That  as  Jefferson  made  the  rugged  issue  o» 
doctrine  with  Adams,  so  must  we  make  it  with  the  Federal 
Administration,  if  we  would  resist  effectually  the  infinitely 
greater  dangers  which  surround  us.  We  do,  consequently, 
declare  THE  WAR  WHOLLY  UNCONSTITUTIONAL,  and  on  that  ground 
we  hold  it  should  be  stopped.  If  a  majority  of  the  copartner 
ship  States  can  retain  a  member  by  force,  they  may  expel  one 
by  force,  which  has  not  yet  been  pretended  by  anybody.  The 
Federal  agency  at  Washington,  backed  up  by  a  majority  of 
the  States  in  Congress,  without  right,  in  the  vain  attempt  to 
subjugate  the  minority  of  the  States,  is  destroying  their  liberty, 
and  crushing  the  federal  system  to  atoms  by  thus  attacking 
the  Constitution.  The  Administration,  and  that  majority,  are 
the  real  enemies  of  the  Union,  which  cannot  and  ought  not  to 
exist  after  its  conditions  are  destroyed.  The  Chicago  platform, 
and  General  McClellan  and  his  war-record  letter,  which  he  has 
laid  over  it,  must  all  be  repudiated  by  Democrats  for  the  same 
reason.  If  we  admit  that  the  war  is  constitutional,  we  must 
not  murmur  at  the  monstrous  abuses  which  attend  it,  for  they 
all  naturally  grow  out  of  the  original  atrocity. 

"The  evils  of  paper  money,  of  a  protective  tariff,  of  the  public 
debt;  the  military  draft;  the  military  governors ;  the  arbitrary 

24 


370  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THL     WAR. 

arrests  ;  the  provost-marshals  ;  the  fifteen  bastiles  ;  the  drum 
head  courts-martial ;  the  bayonet  elections ;  the  padlocked  lips  ; 
the  fettered  press;  the  wholesale  confiscation  ;  the  constructive 
treason ;  our  immense  armies  and  navies,  are  mere  incidents  of 
the  war  itself;  and  so  are  President  Lincoln's  futile  proclama 
tions  of  slave  emancipation,  and  his  general  amnesties.  Half 
truths  and  narrow  issues  have  been  the  bane  of  Democracy  for 
many  years,  and  they  have  so  contracted  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  Democrats,  that  all  sense  of  justice,  and  all  knowledge  of 
constitutional  law  which  sat  there  so  long  enthroned,  have  de 
parted,  and  left  us  an  easy  prey  to  the  violence  of  President 
Lincoln's  Administration,  and  to  corrupt  managers  of  our  own 
party  in  State  and  national  conventions." 

We  shall  not  undertake  here  to  follow  the  course,  or  enu 
merate  the  details  of  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1864.  We 
may  anticipate  our  narrative  generally  to  say,  that  that  cam 
paign  resulted  in  the  signal  triumph  of  fanaticism  and  violence 
in  the  North,  and  in  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  by  the 
vote  of  every  Northern  State  except  Delaware,  Kentucky,  and 
New  Jersey. 

• 

THK    RIVAL    ADMINISTRATIONS   AT    RICHMOND    AND   WASHINGTON. 

A  COMPARATIVE  VIEW  OF  NORTHERN  DESPOTISM. 

While  on  political  subjects  in  the  war,  it  will  not  be  amiss 
here  to  put  in  comparison  the  internal  administrations  of  the 
rival  governments  at  Washington  and  Richmond.  We  have, 
on  other  occasions,  developed  some  points  of  this  comparison. 
It  is  fruitful  of  many  considerations;  it  is  after  all  the  most 
interesting  inquiry  in  the  war ;  and  it  comes  up  naturally  and 
conveniently  for  another  review  at  the  date  of  the  Northern 
election  which  approved  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy,  and  bestowed 
upon  him  a  second  term  of  office. 

There  were  many  persons  to  be  found  in  the  North,  who, 
admitting  the  rapid  decline,  since  the  commencement  of  the 
war,  of  their  government  to  despotism,  attempted  a  consola 
tion  by  the  assertion  that  a  similar  lapse  of  liberty  had  taken 
place  in  the  Confederate  States.  This  opinion  obtained  to  a 
remarkable  extent,  even  among  those  who  were  not  unfriendly 
to  the  South,  and  certainly  were  not  disposed  to  do  her  in- 


THE    LAST    YEAE.  371 

mstice.  It  is  to  be  largely  ascribed  to  the  very  prevalent 
ignorance  in  the  North,  even  among  men  otherwise  well  in 
formed  and  intelligent,  of  the  internal  policy  of  the  Con  fed 
crate  States,  and  of  the  true  spirit  of  their  peculiar  legislation 
with  reference  to  the  war.  It  was  not  only  the  Black  Repub 
lican  party  that  circulated  the  idea  of  an  iron-handed  tyranny 
in  the  Confederate  States ;  but  that  idea  was  admitted  to  a 
large  extent  in  the  minds  of  those  who  were  disposed  to  think 
well  of  the  Southern  experiment,  but  were  not  proof  against 
the  impressions  derived  from  such  peremptory  laws  as  required 
men  to  take  up  arms  in  mass,  to  devote  certain  property  to  the 
government,  and  to  hold  themselves,  generally,  in  subjection 
to  the  necessities  of  the  war.  These  measures  wore  the  ap 
pearance  of  the  machinery  of  despotism  to  them,  simply  be 
cause  they  did  not  understand  their  true  nature;  while  they 
added  to  their  ignorance  the  mistake  of  viewing  them  from  a 
Btand-point  which  put  the  North  and  the  South  in  the  same 
circumstances. 

It  is  quite  true  that  the  conscription  and  impressment  laws 
of  the  Confederacy  were  apparently  harsh  measures.  Yet 
there  is  something  to  be  said  of  them  beyond  the  justification 
of  necessity ;  and  this  is,  that  they  were  really  nothing  more 
than  the  organized  expressions  of  the  popular  devotion  of  the 
South  in  the  war ;  intended  only  to  give  effect  and  uniformity 
to  it.  They  were  not  instances  of  violent  legislation  imposed 
upon  the  people ; .  they  were  merely  the  formulas  of  willing 
and  patriotic  contributions  of  men  and  means  to  a  war,  in 
which  not  only  a  nation  fought  for  its  very  existence,  but  each 
individual  for  the  practical  stake  of  his  own  fortune.  It  was 
difficult  to  make  Northern  men  understand  this :  that,  while 
they  had  a  mortal  terror  of  the  draft  and  other  demands  of 
the  war,  the  people  of  the  South  were  cheerfully  willing  to 
take  up  arms,  and  to  devote  their  substance  to  the  government. 
It  is  thus  that  the  conscription  and  impressment  laws,  which, 
m  the  North,  would  have  been  the  essence  of  despotism,  were 
really  in  the  South  not  edicts  of  violence,  but  mere  conven 
tionalisms  of  the  war,  through  which  the  patriotism  of  the 
people  acted  with  effect  and  regularity. 

But,  beyond  these  laws,  even  the  appearance  of  despotism 
stopped  in  the  Southern  Confederacy.  We  have  only  to  coin- 


372  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

pare  the  established  routine  there  with  what  was  constantly 
observed  in  .the  North,  to  show  how  divergent,  since  the  first 
gun  was  fired  at  Fort  Sumter,  had  been  the  histories  of  tha 
belligerents  on  all  questions  affecting  political  and  civil  liberty 
There  were  no  military  governors  in  the  Confederacy  ;  there 
was  no  martial  law  there  ;  there  was,  properly  called,  no  po 
litical  police  there — the  police  establishment  being  limited  to  a 
mere  detective  force  to  apprehend,  in  the  communities  in  which 
they  were  placed,  spies  and  emissaries  of  the  enemy.  At  no 
time  in  the  war  had  soldiers  ever  been  placed  at  a  polling- 
place  in  the  Confederacy  ;  at  no  time  had  newspapers  ever 
been  suppressed  ;  and  at  no  time  had  a  single  instance  of  arbi 
trary  arrest,  or  of  imprisonment  without  distinct  charges  and 
the  opportunity  to  reply,  occurred  within  the  Confederate  ju 
risdiction.  These  are  facts  which  carry  their  own  comment  on 
the  base  reflection  that  in  the  war  the  South  had  declined, 
along  with  the  North,  in  its  civil  administration,  and  had  kept 
company  with  it  on  its  road  to  despotism. 

When  we  speak  of  the  despotism  at  Washington,  we  do  not 
design  a  figure  or  an  exaggeration  of  rhetoric.  We  merely 
name  a  clearly  defined  species  of  human  government,  as  we 
would  any  other  fact  in  history.  The  Presidential  election  ot 
lS6i  gave  occasion  for  a  full  review  of  the  acts  of  the  Wash 
ington  authorities.  We  may  sum  up  that  review  in  some 
brief  paragraphs,  dividing  it  into  two  branches :  First,  Mr. 
Lincoln's  unconstitutional  course  on  the  rights  of  the  States  on 
the  slavery  question ;  second,  his  course  on  the  rights  of  his 
own  people  in  all  matters  of  civil  liberty  ; — these  two  classes  of 
outrage  being  a  convenient  division  of  his  Administration, 
viewed  both  as  to  its  intentions  upon  the  South  and  its  effects 
upon  the  North. 

As  to  the  slavery  question,  it  is  only  necessary  to  state  the 
record. 

1.  The  convention  which  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  Pues- 
ident  of  the  United  States  in  i860,  passed  a  resolution  affirm 
ing  "  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights  of  the  States,  and 
especially  the  right  of  each  State  to  order  and  control  its  own 
domestic  institutions  according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively? 

2.  Mr.  Lincoln,  in   his  inaugural  of  March,  1861,  inserted 
this  resolution  at  length,  and  declared  that  to  him  it  would  be 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  373 

ua  law,"  and  added,  "I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments  ;"  i,nd 
"in  doing  so,  I  only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most 
conclusive  evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that  th& 
property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  not  to  be  in  any 
wise  endangered  by  the  now  in-coming  administration  "  In  the 
same  State  paper  he  had  before  said,  quoting  approvingly  from 
one  of  his  own  speeches,  "  I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indi 
rectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States 
where  it  now  exists  ;"  and  subjoined,  "7  believe  I  have  no  law 
ful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so" 

3.  In  Secretary  Seward's  famous  letter  to  the  minister  of  the 
United  States,  resident  at  Paris,  designed  as  a  diplomatic  cir 
cular  to  the  European  courts,  and  written  "  by  direction  of  the 
President,"  occurs  the  following  paragraph  :  u  The  condition 
of  slavery  in  the  several  States  will  remain  jnst  the  same, 
whether  it  ('  the  rebellion')  succeeds  or  fails.     The  rights  of  the 
States,  and  the  condition  of  every  human  being  in  them,  will 
remain  subject  to  exactly  the  same  laws  and  forms  of  adminis 
tration,  whether  the  revolution  shall  succeed,  or  whether  it  shall 
fail.     Their  constitutions,  and  laws,  and  customs,  habits  and 
institutions,  in  either  case,  will  remain  the  same.     It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  add,  to  this  incontestable  statement,  the  further 
fact  that  the  new  President,  as  well  as  the  citizens  through 
whose   suffrages   he  has   come   into  the   administration,  has 
always  repudiated  all  designs  whatever,  and  wherever  imputed 
to  him  and  them,  of  disturbing  the  system  of  slavery  as  it  is 
existing  under  the  Constitution  and  the  laws.    The  case,  how 
ever,  would  not  be  fully  presented  were  I  to  omit  to  say  that 
any  such  effort  on  his  part  would  be  unconstitutional,  and  all 
his  acts  in  that  direction  would  be  prevented  by  the  judicial 
authorities,  even  though  they  were  assented  to  by  Congress 
and  the  people." 

4.  In  his  message  to  Congress  of  the  6th  of  March,  1862, 
known  as  his  emancipation  message,  after  recommending  to 
that  body  that  they  should  pass  a  resolution  that  the  United 
States  ought  to  co-operate  with  the  States  by  means  of  pecuni 
ary  aid  in  effecting  the  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  Mr. 
Lincoln  expressly  disavowed,  for  the  Government,  any  author 
ity  over  the  subject,  except  with  State  assent.     His  language 
was,  that  his  proposition  "  sets  up  no  claim  of  a  right,  by  Fed- 


374:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

eral  authority,  to  interfere  with  shivery  within  State  limits, 
referring,  as  it  does,  the  absolute  control  of  the  subject  in 
each  case  to  the  State,  and  its  people  immediately  interested.' 

5.  The  act  of  Congress  of  the  6th  of  August,  1861,  emanci 
pated  only  the  slaves  of  "  rebels"  employed  in  the  "  rebellion/ 
and  submitted  the  decision  of  such  cases   exclusively  to  the 
courts.     Major-General  Fremont,  on  the  30th  of  that  month, 
being  then  in  command  in  Missouri,  by  proclamation  declared 
free  all  the  slaves  within  the  State.     This,  as  soon  as  it  came 
to  Mr.  Lincoln's  knowledge,  he  disapproved,  and  declared  it, 
in  a  formal  order  of  llth  of  Septemberr  to  be  void  as  far  as  it 
transcended  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  Congress.     And  in  a 
letter  of  Mr.  Joseph  Holt  to  President  Lincoln,  of  the  22d  of 
the  month,  that  person,  being  alarmed  for  the  effect  of  Fre 
mont's  order,  stated  that  "  the  act  of  Congress  was  believed  to 
embody  the  conservative  policy  of  your  administration."     This 
statement  Mr.  Lincoln  never  denied. 

6.  On  the  9th  of  May,  1862,  Major-General  Hunter,  military 
commander  of  the  department  of  the  South,  embracing  Geor 
gia,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina,  by  an  order  of  that  date, 
declared  all  slaves  within  such  States  free.     On  the  19th  of  the 
month,  even  before  he  was  officially  advised  of  the  measure, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  by  proclamation,  declared  the  same  "  whether 
genuine  o1*  false,"  to  be  "  altogether  void."      In  neither  of 
these  instances  was  there  the  slightest  intimation  of  a  change 
of  opinion  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  either  on  the  question  of  policy  or 
of  power.     As  to  both,  he  then  entertained  the  same  opinion 
that  he  had  announced  in  his  inaugural. 

7.  On  the  22d  of  July,  1862,  Mr.  Crittenden  proposed,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  at  Washington,  a  resolution  which, 
after  stating  that  the  war  was  u  forced  upon  the  country  by 
the  disunionists"  of  the  Southern  States,  declared  that  it  "  is 
not  waged,  on  our  part,  in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  or  for  any 
purpose  of  conquest  or  subjugation,  or  purpose  of  overthrowing 
or  interfering  with  the  rights  of  the  established  institution  of 
these  States  (the  seceded),  but  to  defend  and  maintain  the  su 
premacy  of  the  Constitution  and  the   rights  of  the  several 
States  unimpaired  ;  and  that  as  soon  as  these  objects  are  accom 
plished  the  war  ought  to  cease."     In  the  House  only  two  votes 
were  cast  against  it,  and  in   the  Senate  but  one  Republican 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  375 

vote,  and  it  was  at  once  and  without  hesitation  approved  by 
the  President.  No  pretence  was  here  suggested  that  slavery 
was  to  be  abolished,  or  that  any  of  the  rights  of  the  States  in 
regard  to  it  were  to  be  interfered  with. 

t? 

Yet,  in  the  face  of  all  this  accumulation  of  precedents,  we 
find  Emancipation  proclamations  put  forward  under  the  claim 
of  executive  power — the  first  on  the  22d  of  September,  1862, 
and  the  second  on  the  first  day  of  the  succeeding  year.  In  the 
last,  all  slaves  in  certain  States  or  parts  of  States  were  declared 
free  :  it  mattered  not  whether  the  territory  or  the  slaves  should 
fall  within  the  military  occupation  of  the  United  States  or 
not. 

But  it  has  been  said  that  the  emancipation  proclamation  was 
a  military  measure,  and  to  be  justified  as  such  from  necessities 
outside  of  the  Constitution.  It  is  difficult  to  find  patience  to 
reply  to  such  nonsense.  •  The  plea  is  the  most  absurd  stuff 
that  was  ever  put  in  the  mouth  of  fool  or  knave,  to  brazen  out 
against  the  good  sense  and  conscience  of  the  world  his  fraud 
and  outrage.  Absurd,  because  we  know,  and  all  the  world 
knows,  that  it  was  at  the  dictation  and  under  the  influence  of 
a  purely  political  party  that  the  emancipation  proclamation 
was  issued  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  Absurd,  because  we  knew,  and 
had  had  recent  assurance  from  Mr.  Lincoln  himself,  that  ha 
did  not  intend  emancipation  of  the  negro  to  end  with  the  war, 
which  it  would  do  ipso  facto  if  a  mere  military  measure,  but 
had  made  the  abandonment  or  extirpation  of  slavery  the  pre 
liminary  condition  for  peace,  and  thus,  therefore,  a  primary 
object  of  the  war. 

It  was  this  same  dogma  of  "  military  necessity,"  applied  to 
the  slavery  question,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  used  to  fasten  upon 
the  necks  of  the  white  citizens  of  the  North  a  heavy  yoke  of 
intolerance.  It  was  only  necessary  to  look  upon  what  was 
every  day  passing  before  the  eyes. 

There  was  seen  this  despotism  in  the  unreasonable  searches 
and  seizures  of  persons  and  papers,  in  direct  violation  of  the 
Constitution. 

It  was  seen  in  arrests  of  obnoxious  individuals,  and  their 
imprisonment  without  warrant  or  charges  preferred,  and  in 
some  instances  cut  off  from  all  communication  with  family 
friends,  or  counsel. 


376  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

It  was  seen  in  the  suppression  of  newspapers,  and  wanton 
arrest  of  editors. 

It  was  seen  in  the  assumption,  by  the  President,  of  the 
power  to  regulate  the  right  of  suffrage  in  the  States,  and  estab 
lish  minority  and  aristocratic  governments  under  the  pretext 
of  guaranteeing  republican  governments. 

These  are  not  fancy  sketches,  or  the  exaggerations  of  a  nar 
rative  written  with  passion.  It  was  notorious  that  such  things 
had  occurred  in  Missouri,  Indiana,  "West  Virginia,  Maryland, 
Delaware,  and  New  York ;  and  yet  even  to  question  their  le 
gality  was  deemed  disloyal,  and  men  who  maintained  their 
inherited  freedom  in  doing  so,  were  designated  by  scurrilous 
abuse,  and  threatened  with  the  penalties  of  a  despot's  all-pow 
erful  displeasure. 

To  compare  the  falsehoods  and  crimes  of  the  Washington 
record  with  that  rigor  of  measures  in  the  Confederacy,  which 
was  really  nothing  more  than  the  logical  incident  and  the 
proper  expression  of  resolute  patriotism,  is  an  outrage  upon 
history.  The  noble  memorials  of  self-sacrificing  patriotism  are 
very  different  from  the  scarlet  record  of  ruthless  despotism. 


THE    LAST    TEAK.  3  77 


CHAPTER  XYIH. 

The  business  of  blockade-running.— Its  risks.— Interesting  statistics.— Value  of  tha 
port  of  Mobile. — NAVAL  FIGHT  AND  CAPTURE  OF  THE  Fours  IN  MOBILE  BAY. — A 
frightful  disparity  of  force.— Heroic  fight  of  the  rain  Tennessee. — Absurd  boasts 
of  the  Yankees. — Surrender  of  Fort  Gaines.— Fall  of  Fort  Morgan. — THE  GEORGIA 
CAMPAIGN. — Its  importance. — Johnston's  situation  at  Atlanta. — His  removal  by 
President  Davis.— A  fatal  error.— Lieutenant-General  Hood.— THE  BATTLKS  OF 
ATLANTA.— THE  FALL  OF  "T.IE  GATE  CITY."— Reckless  and  desperate  fighting— 
Yankee  raid  on  the  Macon  road. — Hood's  "  magnificent  advance." — Bombard 
ment  of  Atlanta. — Hood's  fatal  mistake. — Sherman's  new  movement. — He  "cuts 
the  Confederates  in  two." — The  Yankees  in  Atlanta.— Sherman's  cruelties. — His 
depopulation  of  Atlanta. — Enormity  of  the  order.— Sherman  as  a  pacificator. — 
Governor  Brown's  letter. — Position  of  Vice-President  Stephens.— Effects  of  the 
fall  of  Atlanta. — President  Davis's  Macon  speech. — Its  swollen  tone. — CAPTUKE  OF 
THE  CONFEDERATE  PKIVATEER  FLORIDA. — Its  cowardice  and  outrage. — Yankee  idea 
of  glory. — THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  RAM  ALBKMARLE. — Yankee  es 
timation  of  the  exploit. — The  North  Carolina  Sounds. — THE  ST.  ALBANS  RAID. — 
Stories  of  the  savage  vengeance  of  the  Confederates. — How  much  truth  there  was  in 
them. 

A  LARGE  capital  in*  the  Confederacy  was  engaged  in  running 
the  blockade.  The  risks  of  this  business  were  by  no  means  so 
great  as  generally  supposed ;  and  it  had  made  a  steady  and 
valuable  contribution  to  the  war.  The  London  insurance 
offices  had  been  in  the  habit  of  charging  sixty  per  cent,  pre 
mium  for  policies  on  vessels  and  goods  running  the  blockade. 
This  was  a  rate  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  before 
any  facts  had  been  developed  to  establish  the  real  average  of 
risk.  But  persons  engaged  in  the  business  soon  found  that 
the  real  risk  was  by  no  means  commensurate  with  the  nominal 
risk  as  established  by  the  London  offices,  and  they  conse 
quently  ceased  to  insure  ;  or,  in  other  words,  adopted  the  plan 
of  being  their  own  insurers..  This  is  naturally  the  case  when 
the  true  risk  is  much  below  the  nominal  risk.  That  such  was 
the  case  in  the  blockade-running  business  was  clear  from  the 
fact  that  those  engaged  in  it  no  longer  insured. 

A  correspondent  of  the  London  Index  gave  a  list  of  vessels 
employed  in  running  the  blockade  from  the  port  of  Nassau, 
between  November,  1861,  and  March  10, 1864.  The  list  com 


378  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    VFAB. 

prised  eighty-four  vessels.  Of  these,  thirty-seven  had  been 
captured,  twenty-five  had  been  lost  or  beached,  one  foundered 
at  sea,  one  condemned,  two  converted  into  Confederate  gun 
boats,  and  the  rest  were  supposed  to  be  still  in  the  business  or 
aid  up.  The  total  number  of  losses  which  can  b6  ascribed  to 
causes  connected  with  blockade-running  was  sixty-two.  The 
number  of  successful  round  trips  made  by  these  vessels  wa» 
two  hundred  and  fourteen.  Thus  the  risk  to  the  vessels  on  the 
round  trip  was  twenty-nine  per  cent.  The  percentage  on 
goods  was  not  by  any  means  so  great.  If  the  risks  out  and  in 
had  been  equal,  it  would  have  been  fourteen  and  a  half  per 
cent,  each  way.  But  the  inward  risk  was  much  greater  than 
the  outward.  We  are  perhaps  justified  in  assuming,  on  the 
whole,  that  the  real  risk  on  goods  imported  into  the  Confederacy 
through  the  blockade  was  not  higher  than  twenty  per  cent. 

Mobile  was  one  of  the  principal  ports  for  the  blockade-run 
ning  trade.  It  was  guarded  at  its  entrance  by  two  imposing 
fortifications ;  it  was  difficult  to  blockade  ;  it  was  a  nursery  oi 
the  Confederate  navy ;  and  vessels  were  already  being  con 
structed  there  with  a  view  of  raising  the  blockade.  It  had 
been  the  steady  purpose  of  the  Yankees  to  get  possession  01 
Mobile  Bay  as  soon  as  operations  on  the  Mississippi  would  per 
mit  the  detachment  of  a  sufficient  co-operating  military  force 
for  the  expedition. 


NAVAL   FIGHT   AND    CAPTURE   OF   THE   FORTS    IN   MOBILE   BAY. 

In  the  early  part  of  August,  Admiral  Farragut,  who  com* 
manded  the  Yankee  fleet  off  Mobile,  secured  the  military  co 
operation  of  General  Canby  for  attacking  and  investing  the 
forts  in  the  harbor  of  Mobile.  On  the  morning  of  the  5th 
of  August,  the  Yankee  fleet,  numbering  fourteen  steamers  and 
four  monitors,  carrying  in  all  more  than  two  hundred  guns, 
and  manned  by  twenty-eight  hundred  men,  made  their  entree 
into  Mobile  Bay.  The  entire  Confederate  naval  force  that  was 
to  encounter  this  huge  armada  was  composed  of  one  iron-clad 
and  three  wooden  vessels.  Such  was  the  frightful  disparity  of 
force  in  a  fight  which  the  Yankees  afterwards  claimed  to  tako 
rank  with  the  victories  of  Nelson  ! 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  379 

In  the  early  light  of  the  morning  the  attacking  fleet  moved 
steadily  up  the  main  ship  channel,  when  Fort  Morgan  opened 
upon  them,  and  was  replied  to  by  a  gun  from  the  Brooklyn 
A  moment  later,  and  the  Yankee  iron-clad  Tecnmseh,  struck 
by  a  torpedo,  disappeared  instantaneously  beneath  the  waves 
carrying  with  her  her  commander,  T.  A.  M.  Craven,  and  nearly 
all  her  crew.  The  Yankee  flag-ship  Hartford  now  took  the 
lead,  and  had  scarcely  passed  the  fort,  when  the  Confederate 
ram  Tennessee  dashed  out  at  her.  The  three  Confederate 
gunboats,  the  Morgan,  the  Gaines,  and  the  Selma,  were  ahead. 
After  a  desperate  struggle  between  the  fleets,  the  Gaines  re 
tired  to  Fort  Morgan  in  a  sinking  condition ;  the  Selma,  cut 
off,  surrendered  ;  and  the  Morgan  escaped  to  Fort  Morgan. 

Having  passed  the  forts  and  dispersed  the  gunboats,  Farra- 
gut  ordered  most  of  the  vessels  to  anchor,  when  about  nine 
o'clock  he  perceived  the  Confederate  ram  Tennessee  standing 
up  for  the  Hartford.  He  immediately  ordered  all  the  Yankee 
monitors,  and  such  of  his  wooden  ships  as  were  adapted  for  the 
purpose,  to  attack  the  ram,  not  only  with  their  guns,  but  bows 
on  at  full  speed.  And  then  began  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
naval  conflicts  of  the  war.  A  single  vessel  was  beset  by  a 
whole  fleet.  She  was  struck  three  times,  and  as  the  Hartford, 
the  third  vessel  which  struck  her,  rasped  along  her  side,  tha 
Yankee  poured  a  whole  broadside  of  nine-inch  solid  shot  within 
ten  feet  of  her  casement.  The  Chiekasaw  was  pounding  away 
at  her  stern ;  the  Hartford  and  three  others  of  the  fleet  were 
again  heaving  down  upon  her,  determined  upon  her  destruc 
tion  ;  her  smoke-stack  had  been  shot  away,  her  steering  chains 
were  gone,  and  she  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  enemy.  It  was 
not  until  resistance  was  hopeless  that  Admiral  Buchanan,  him 
self  wounded  on  the  Tennessee,  surrendered  the  vessel,  and 
ordered  the  white  flag  to  be  hoisted  just  as  she  was  about  be 
ing  struck  by  the  vessels  converging  upon  her,  and  when  she 
was  already  disabled,  and  her  crew  almost  in  a  smothering 
condition. 

Such  was  the  naval  fight  in  Mobile  Bay,  which  the  Yankees 
ranked  among  their  most  brilliant  victories;  exalting  Farragut 
above  Nelson;  apostrophizing  their  hero  after  the  modern 
New  York  fashion  of  big  dinners,  and  having  hired  poets  to 
recite  to  him  in  public  "  masterly  ballads."  The  Confederates 


380  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

had  a  very  different  and  very  plain  estimation  of  the  affair 
Their  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  had  been  only  twenty-two. 
That  of  the  enemy  was  near  three  hundred,  not  including  tha 
one  hundred  and  twenty-three  who  went  down  in  the  Te- 
cumseh.  The  Richmond  Examiner  gave  a  list  of  the  twenty- 
eight  Yankee  vessels  engaged,  having  two  hundred  and  twelve 
guns,  with  the  four  Confederates  having  twenty-two  guns.  It 
said :  "  It  was  a  most  unequal  contest  in  which  our  gallant 
little  navy  was  engaged  ;  and  we  lost  the  battle,  but  our  ensign 
went  down  in  a  blaze  of  glory." 

But  although  our  little  fleet  in  the  bay  of  Mobile  had  been 
destroyed  or  dispersed,  the  forts  were  still  held,  and  the 
Yankee  success  was  incomplete.  The  fall  of  these,  however, 
was  to  follow  unexpectedly  to  the  South,  and  not  without  some 
circumstances  of  humiliation. 

On  the  6rh  of  August,  one  of  the  Yankee  iron-clads  com 
menced  shelling  Fort  Gaines.  This  was  a  powerful  work  ;  it 
was  provisioned  for  six  months,  and  had  a  garrison  of  600 
men.  Colonel  Anderson,  in  command,  communicated  with 
the  enemy's  fleet  by  flag  of  truce,  without  the  sanction  of  Gen 
eral  Page,  who  was  in  command  at  Fort  Morgan.  General 
Page  inquired  by  signals  what  his  purpose  was,  but  received 
no  answer.  His  attention  was  attracted  by  signal-guns.  Gen 
eral  Page  repeatedly  telegraphed,  "  Hold  on  to  your  fort." 
The  same  night  he  visited  Fort  Gaines,  and  found  Anderson 
on  board  the  Yankee  fleet,  arranging  terms  of  capitulation. 
He  left  peremptory  orders  for  Anderson,  on  his  return,  not  to 
surrender  the  fort,  and  relieved  him  of  his  command.  Fort 
Morgan  signalled  the  next  morning,  but  no  answer  was  re 
ceived,  except  the  hoisting  of  the  Yankee  flag  over  the  ram- 
parts  of  Fort  Gaines. 

From  this  time  onward,  movements  of  the  enemy  were  in 
progress  for  capturing  Fort  Morgan  ;  and  on  the  22d  of  August, 
at  day-dawn,  a  bombardment  was  opened  from  the  shore  bat 
teries,  the  monitors  and  ships  inside,  and  the  vessels  outside 
the  bay.  At  6  A.  M.  of  the  23d,  a  white  flag  was  displayed  by 
the  Confederates,  and  at  2  o'clock  P.  M.  tne  fort  was  surren 
dered. 

Fort  Powell  had  been  already  attacked  on  the  night  of  the 
5th,  and  blown  up,  the  guns  falling  into  the  enemy's  hands. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  381 

The  capture  of  Forts  Powell,  Gaines.  and  Morgan,  arid  the 
destruction  of  the  Confederate  fleet,  gave  the  Yankees  posses 
sion  of  the  bay,  and  closed  the  port  to  all  ingress  or  egress  of 
blockade-runners.  The  city  of  Mobile  was  still  in  possession 
of  the  Confederates,  and  months  were  to  elapse  before  the  ene 
my  were  to  make  any  demonstration  upon  it,  and  then  only 
with  the  co-operation  of  a  land  force.  The  Yankee  success,  so 
far,  although  the  occasion  of  a  brief  blaze  of  excitement  in  the 
North,  was  not  of  any  great  importance ;  and  it  had  been 
dearly  purchased. 


THE   GEORGIA    CAMPAIGN. 

We  return  to  more  important  events — those  of  the  Georgia 
campaign — which  indeed  were  to  put  a  new  aspect  on  the 
war ;  to  annihilate  the  peace  party  in  the  North  ;  to  give  a 
new  hope  and  impetus  to  the  enemy;  and  to  date  the  serious 
and  rapid  decline  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy. 

When  we  last  left  off  the  story  of  this  campaign,  Johnston 
was  holding  Atlanta,  and  busied  in  strengthening  its  defences.* 
His  position  in  Atlanta  was  not  less  secure  than  that  of 'Lee 
in  Petersburg;  and  judging  prospective  by  past  events,  it  was 
impossible  to  doubt  that  he  would  have  held  Sherman  as  well 
as  Lee  held  Grant.  He  could  at  least  have  done  that ;  and  if 
he  succeeded  in  destroying  his  land  communications — very 
much  more  easy  to  reach  than  that  of  Grant  over  water — he 
might  have  forced  the  enemy  into  disastrous  retreat  on  Ten 
nessee. 

At  midsummer,  therefore,  the  two  campaigns,  for  which  the 
enemy  had  surrendered  the  Trans-Mississippi  and  North  Caro 
lina,  were  both  failures.  That  military  success  which  would 

*  In  an  official  report,  General  Johnston  said  :  "  The  proofs  that  I  intended 
to  hold  Atlanta  are,  the  fact  that  under  my  orders  the  work  of  strengthening 
Its  defences  was  going  on  vigorously,  the  communication  on  the  subject  made 
by  me  to  General  Hood,  and  the  fact  that  my  family  was  in  the  town.  That 
the  public  workshops  were  removed,  and  no  large  supplies  deposited  in  the 
town,  as  alleged  by  General  Bragg,  wore  measures  of  common  prudence,  and 
no  more  indicated  the  intention  to  abandon  the  place  than  the  sending  the 
wagons  of  an  army  to  the  rear,  on  a  day  of  battle,  proves  a  foregone  determine 
ation  to  abandon  the  field." 


882  SOUTHEEN    HISTOEY     OF    THE    WAR. 

alone  bring  him  money,  and  by  which  alone  could  the  Lincoln 
government  retain  power,  was  not  forthcoming,  or  even  dimly 
visible  in  the  future.  Had  the  campaign  of  Georgia  pursued 
its  parallel  with  that  of  Virginia,  McClellan  or  some  other  man 
capable  of  negotiation  would  have  been  elected,  and  perhaps 
an  honorable  peace  could  have  been  attained.  If  no  peace,  at 
least  the  invasion  would  have  lost  its  venom  with  its  hope — 
the  enemy  would  be  a  bankrupt,  his  army  impotent,  and  hi? 
people  indisposed  to  further  exactions. 

These  bright  prospects  were  changed  in  a  day.  President 
Davis,  moved  not  so  much  by  popular  clamor  as  by  a  persist 
ent  personal  dislike  of  Johnston,  who  resented  his  catechising 
interference  with  his  campaign,  took  occasion  to  remove  from 
the  command  of  what  had  become  the  most  important  army 
in  the  Confederacy  a  first-rate  military  man,  who  had  never 
lost  a  battle  or  a  regiment  in  his  whole  career;  who  was  exe 
cuting  the  masterpiece  of  his  professional  life  with  a  perfection 
of  design  and  detail  which  delighted  his  own  troops  and  filled 
his  adversary  with  involuntary  admiration  ;  who  had  done  the 
wonderful  thing  of  conducting  an  armv  in  retreat  over  three 

O  O  M 

hundred  miles  of  intricate  country,  absolutely  without  any 
loss  in  material  or  prisoners.  Johnston  was  removed,  and 
Lieu  ten  ant- General  Hood  put  in  command  of  the  army — Pres 
ident  Davis  declaring  that  if  the  people  wanted  "  a  fighting 
general"  they  should  have  such  in  this  man,  who  was  brave, 
headstrong,  incompetent ;  who  had  the  heart  of  a  lion,  but, 
unfortunately,  with  it  a  head  of  wood. 


THE  BATTLES  OF  ATLANTA. THE  FALL  OF  "  THE  GATE  CITY." 

The  effective  force  which  General  Johnston  transferred  to 
General  Hood  was  about  forty-one  thousand  infantry  and  ar 
tillery,  and  ten  thousand  cavalry.  It  constituted  one  of  the 
largest  armies  the  Confederacy  had  ever  put  in  a  single  field, 
and  was  only  a  little  less  numerous  than  that  with  which  Gen 
eral  Lee  had  fought  the  campaign  of  the  Rapidan. 

On  the  20th  of  July,  Hood  attacked  the  enemy's  right  on 
Peach-tree  Creek,  near  the  Chattahoochee,  gaining  some  tem 
porary  advantage,  and  capturing  colors  and  prisoners. 


G  f N .    HOOD 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  383 

It  was  one  of  the  most  reckless,  massive,  and  headlong 
charges  of  the  war.  A  little  past  three  in  the  evening,  and 
with  the  celerity  of  lightning,  the  bulk  of  Hood's  army  massed 
in  enormous  columns  against  Newton's  division,  came  on 
without  skirmishing,  and  with  yells  whose  volume  exceeded 
any  battle-shout  that  had  yet  been  heard.  It  was  the  aim  of 
Hood  to  take  advantage  of  a  gap  between  Newton's  division 
and  another  division  of  Palmer's  corps,  to  strike  the  enemy  at 
a  vital  point,  and  to  destroy  his  forces  on  the  right.  The 
charge  was  gallantly  led  by  Walker's  and  Bates'  divisions  ot 
Hardee's  corps.  The  column  poured  down  an  open  but  rocky 
series  of  fields  towards  Newton's  left,  evidently  aiming  at  his 
bridges.  At  this  point,  however,  the  enemy  succeeded,  with 
admirable  quickness,  in  massing  their  artillery,  and  pouring  a 
terrible  lire  upon  the  Confederates.  The  Yankee  gunner 
worked  with  frantic  energy  ;  the  Confederate  columns  slack 
ened  pace,  and  began  to  waver  an-d  lose  their  careful  arrange 
ment ;  and  in  less  than  half  an  hour  the  attack  was  drawn  ofl 
in  good  order,  but  having  plainly  and  unquestionably  failed  to 
accomplish  its  object. 

On  the  22d  of  July,  Hood's  army  shifted  its  position,  form 
ing  on  Peach-tree  Creek,  and  Stewart's  and  Cheatham's  corps 
formed  line  of  battle  around  the  city.  Hardee's  corps  made  a 
night  march,  and  attacked  the  enemy's  extreme  left  at  one 
o'clock  on  the  22d,  and  drove  him  from  his  works,  capturing 
sixteen  pieces  of  artillery  and  five  stands  of  colors.  Cheatham 
attacked  the  enemy  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  with  a 
portion  of  his  command,  and  drove  the  enemy,  capturing  six 
pieces  of  artillery.  During  the  engagement  we  captured  about 
two  thousand  prisoners. 

After  the  battle  of  the  22d,  Sherman's  army  was  transferred 
from  its  position  on  the  east  side  of  Atlanta  to  the  extreme 
right  of  Hood's  army,  on  the  west  side,  threatening  the  Macon 
road.  He  slowly  and  gradually  drew  his  lines  about  Atlanta, 
feeling  for  the  railroads  which  supplied  Hood's  army  and  mado 
Atlanta  a  place  of  importance. 

It  remained  to  break  the  Macon  road.  For  this  purpose 
Stoneman  was  sent  with  five  thousand  cavalry,  and  McCook 
with  four  thousand  men,  to  meet  on  the  railroad  near  Lovejoy'a 
and  to  tear  it  up,  and  also  to  attack  and  drive  Wheeler.  Stono 


384  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAS. 

man  did  not  go  to  Lovcjoy's.  He  tore  np  mud  of  the  railroad, 
find  got  down  in  front  of  Macon  ;  and  on  his  retreat  was 
hemmed  in  by  Iverson,  and  was  himself  captured,  together 
\vith  one  thousand  of  his  men  and  two  guns,  besides  losing 
many  in  killed  and  wounded.  McCook  cut  his  way  out, 
losing  about  five  hundred  men  as  prisoners.  "  On  the  whole,'* 
Shennan  reported,  "  the  cavalry  raid  is  not  deemed  a  suc 
cess." 

On  the  28th  of  July,  Hood  made  another  grand  attack  on 
Sherman.  Coming  out  of  Atlanta  by  the  Bell's  Ferry  road, 
he  advanced  in  parallel  lines  directly  against  the  Fifteenth 
Corps,  expecting  to  catch  that  flank  in  air.  Of  this  movement 
General  Sherman  said:  "His  advance  was  magnificent,  but 
founded  on  an  error  that  cost  him  sadly  ;  for  our  men  coolly 
and  deliberately  cut  down  his  men,  and,  spite  of  the  efforts  of 
the  rebel  officers,  his  ranks  broke  and  fled.  But  they  were 
rallied  again  and  again,  as  often  as  six  times  at  some  points; 
and  ajew  of  the  rebel  officers  and  men  reached  our  lines  of 
rail-piles  only  to  be  killed  or  hauled  over  as  prisoners."  The 
Yankee  accounts  claimed  a  loss  on  the  Confederate  side  in  this 
engagement  of  six  thousand  men.  General  Hood  stated  hig 
loss  at  fifteen  hundred  killed  and  wounded.  The  excellent  in- 
trenchmcnts  of  the  Yankees  and  the  skilful  formation  of  tlieh 
lines  saved  them  from  any  considerable  loss,  and  secured  them 
the  fortune  of  the  day. 

General  Sherman  now  extended  his  lines  sou  t  Invest  ward 
towards  East  Point,  in  the  hope  of  drawing  the  Confederates 
out,  from  the  fear  of  having  their  communications  severed ; 
but  Hood  extended  his  fortified  line  accordingly,  and  refused 
'to  abandon  his  works.  For  several  weeks  Sherman  continued 
the  siege  of  Atlanta,  bombarding  it  with  but  little  effect.  lie 
had  satisfied  himself  that  to  take  Atlanta  he  must  resort  to 
new  means,  and  had  concluded  to  plant  his  armies  away  below 
on  the  Macon  road,  Hood's  main  line  of  supply.  The  grand 
movement  was  assigned  for  the  18th  of  August. 

But  at  this  time  Hood  made  the  fatal  mistake.  He  sent  off 
Wheeler  and  his  entire  cavalry  to  raid  on  Sherman's  line  of 
communications.  "At  last,"  wrote  Sherman,  "he  made  the 
mistake  we  had  waited  for  so  long,  and  sent  his  cavalry  to  our 
rear,  far  beyond  the  reach  of  recall." 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  385 

Instantly  the  Yankee  cavalry  was  on  the  Macon  road.    Sher 
man  followed  quickly  with  his  principal  army.     On  the  31st 
of  August,  Howard,  on    the  right,  had   reached  Jonesboro' 
Thomas,  in  the  centre,  was  at  Couch's;   and  Schon'eld,  on  the 
left,  was  near  Rough  and  Ready. 

The  Confederate  forces  were  at  this  time  in  a  most  singular 
position.  They  had  been  divided  into  two  main  armies,  sep 
arated  by  an  interval  of  twenty-two  miles.  One  part  of  the 
army  was  intrenched  at  Atlanta,  and  the  other  was  at  Jonesboro', 
under  General  Hardee,  and  was  also  intrenched.  The  cause 
of  this  separation  of  the  forces  arose  from  the  fact  that  Hood 
had  found  out,  by  Kilpatrick's  raid,  that  it  was  necessary  he 
should  protect  his  communication^  at  that  point  by  a  large 
force.  Sherman's  army  was  therefore  between  Hood's  forces, 
and  had  literally  divided  the  Confederates  in  two. 

On  the  evening  of  the  30th  of  August,  the  enemy  made  a 
lodgment  across  Flint  River,  near  Jonesboro'.  The  Confed 
erates  attacked  them  there  on  the  evening  of  the  31st,  with  two 
corps,  but  -failed  to  dislodge  them.  Of  this  event,  General 
Hood  telegraphed  to  Richmond  :  "  This  made  it  necessary  to 
abandon  Atlanta,  which  was  done  on  the  night  of  the  1st  ot 
September." 

On  the  evening  of  the  1st  of  September,  General  Hardee'f 
corps,  in  position  at  Jonesboro',  was  assaulted  by  a  snperioi 
force  of  the  enemy;  and  being  outflanked,  was  compelled  tc 
withdraw  during  the  night,  with  the  loss  of  eight  guns. 

The  sum  of  Hood's  disasters  was  now  complete.  He  had 
remained  in  Atlanta  to  find  that  he  was  outflanked,  his  line  of 
supply  cut  offrand  the  Yankee  troops  between  him  and  a  large 
portion  of  his  army.  In  order  to  save  that  portion  of  his  com 
mand  then  with  him,  he  determined  to  evacuate  the  fortified 
city ;  and  on  the  night  of  September  1st  he  blew  up  his  maga 
zines,  destroyed  all  his  supplies  that  he  could  not  remove,  con 
sisting  of  seven  locomotives  and  eighty-one  cars  loaded  with 
ammunition,  small-arms,  and  stores,  and  left  the  place  by  the 
turnpike  roads. 

Sherman  dispatched  to  Washington  :  "  Atlanta  is  ours,  and 
fairly  won.  Since  the  5th  of  May  we  have  been  in  one  con 
tinued  battle  or  skirmish,  and  need  rest."  The  pause  in  mil 
itary  operations  afforded  him  the  opportunity  of  launching 

25 


386  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

measures  of  the  most  extraordinary  cruelty  against  the  non 
combatant  people  of  Atlanta.  He  ordered  the  entiie  depopu 
lation  of  the  city,  and  proceeded  to  drive  from  their  homes 
thousands  of  helpless  women  and  children.  General  Hood 
protested  against  the  measure  as  "  unprecedented,  studied,  and 
ungenerous  cruelty."  Sherman  wrote  diffuse  replies  to  him 
and  to  the  Mayor  of  Atlanta.  This  Yankee  general  wrote  a 
sort  of  tangled  English,  interlarded  with  slang  phrases,  which 
the  North  accepted  as  a  model  of  forcible  and  elegant  style. 
He  replied  to  Hood,  "  Talk  thus  to  the  marines^  and  not  to 
me ;"  and  gave  to  the  mayor  this  bit  of  military  philosophy  : 
"  War  is  cruelty,  and  you  Cannot  refine  it"  He  continued: 
"  You  might  as  well  appeal  against  the  thunder-storm  as  against 
these  terrible  hardships  of  war.  They  are  inevitable  ;  and  the 
only  way  the  people  of  Atlanta  can  hope  once  more  to  live  in 
peace  and  quiet  at  home  is  to  stop  this  war." 

It  appears  that  the  Yankee  general  had  shut  his  eyes  to 
every  element  and  law  of  civilization  in  wrar.  He  ordered 
into  exile  the  whole  population  of  a  city,  drove  men,  women, 
and  children  from  their  homes  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet, 
under  the  plea  that  it  was  to  the  interest  of  his  Government, 
and  on  the  claim  that  it  was  an  act  of  "  kindness  to  these  fam 
ilies  of  Atlanta,"  Butler  only  banished  from  New  Orleans  the 
registered  enemies  of  his  Government,  and  acknowledged  that 
he  did  it  as  a  punishment.  Sherman  issued  a  sweeping  edict 
covering  all  the  inhabitants  of  a  city,  and  added  insult  to  the 
injury  heaped  upon  the  defenceless  by  assuming  that  he  had 
done  them  a  kindness. 

Shortly  after  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  it  was  affirmed  that  many 
of  the  leading  men  of  Georgia,  including  Governor  Brown  and 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  were  in  favor  of  that  State  withdraw' 
ing  from  the  Confederacy  and  making  a  separate  peace  ;  and 
that  negotiations  to  that  effect  had  been  opened  with  General 
Sherman.  The  facts  were  these  :  A  Mr.  King  had  brought  to 
Governor  Brown  a  message  to  the  effect  that  he  would  be 
pleased  to  confer  with  him  and  others  upon  the  state  of  the 
country,  with  a  view  to  a  settlement  of  the  difficulties,  and 
would  give  him  a  pass  through  the  Federal  lines,  going  and 
returning,  for  that  purpose.  To  this  the  governor  replied,  that 
l.e,  as  governor  of  a  State,  and  General  Sherman,  as  a  com 


THE    LAS1    YEAR.  387 

minder  of  an  army  in  the  field,  had  no  authority  to  enter  upon 
negotiations  for  peace.  Georgia  might  perhaps  be  overrun, 
but  could  not  be  subjugated,  and  would  never  treat  with  a- 
conqueror  upon  her  soil.  That  while  Georgia  possessed  the 
sovereign  power  to  act  separately,  her  faith  had  been  pledged 
by  implication  to  her  Southern  sisters,  and  she  would  not  ex 
ercise  this  power  without  their  consent  and  co-operation.  She 
had  entered  into  the  contest  knowing  all  the  responsibilities 
which  it  involved,  and  would  never  withdraw  from  it  with 
dishonor.  "She  will  never,"  he  says,  "make  separate  terms 
with  the  enemy,  which  may  free  her  territory  from  invasion 
and  leave  her  confederates  in  the  lurch.  Whatever  may  be 
the  opinion  of  her  people  as  to  the  injustice  done  her  by  the 
Confederate  Administration,  she  will  triumph  with  her  con 
federate  sisters,  or  she  will  sink  with  them  in  common  ruin.  .  . 
The  independent  expression  of  condemnation  of  the  measures 
of  the  Administration  is  one  thing,  and  disloyalty  to  our  sacred 
cause  is  another  and  quite  a  different  thing."  "  If  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  stop  the  war,  let  him,"  said  Governor  Brown,  "  recognize 
the  sovereignty  of  the  States,  and  leave  to  each  to  determine 
for  herself  whether  she  will  return  to  the  old  Union  or  remain 
in  her  present  league." 

About  the  same  time  Yice-President  Stephens  explained  his 
own  position  in  an  elaborate  letter,  in  which  he  declared  that 
the  only  solution  for  present  and  prospective  troubles  was  "  the 
simple  recognition  of  the  fundamental  principle  and  truth  upon 
which  all  American  constitutional  liberty  is  founded,  and  upon 
the  maintenance  of  which  alone  it  can  be  preserved — that  is, 
the  sovereignty — the  ultimate,  absolute  sovereignty — of  the 
States."  He  concluded  :  "  All  questions  of  boundaries,  con 
federacies,  and  union  or  unions  would  naturally  and  easily  ad 
just  themselves,  according  to  the  interests  of  parties  and  the 
exigencies  of  the  times.  Herein  lies  the  true  law  of  balance 
of  the  power  and  the  harmony  of  States." 

The  fall  of  Atlanta  was  a  serious  blow  to  the  Confederacy. 
"  On  that  day,"  said  the  Richmond  Examiner,  "  McClellan's 
nomination  fell  still-born,  and  an  heir  was  born  to  the  Abolition 
dynasty.  On  that  day,  peace  waved  those  '  white  wings,'  and 
fled  to  the  ends  of  the  morning.  On  that,  day,  calculations  of  tlio 
torar's  duration  ceased  to  be  the  amusements  even  of  the  idle," 


388  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


The  catastrophe  moved  President  Davis  in  Kichmoml.  To 
wards  the  close  of  September,  he  made  a  journey  to  Georgia. 
He  delivered  an  elaborate  and  ill-tempered  speech  at  Macon. 
He  said  that  it  would  have  gladdened  his  heart  to  have  met 
his  auditors  in  prosperity  instead  of  adversity.  Still,  though 
misfortune  had  befallen  the  Confederates  from  Decatur  to 
Jonesboro',  the  cause  was  not  lost.  Sooner  or  later  Sherman 
must  retreat,  and  then  he  would  meet  the  fate  that  befell  Na 
poleon  in  the  retreat  from  Moscow.  He  knew  the  deep  dis 
grace  felt  by  Georgia  at  the  army  falling  back  from  Dalton  to 
the  interior  of  the  State ;  but  he  was  not  one  who  felt  that  At 
lanta  was  lost  when  the  army  crossed  the  Chattahoochee,  and 
he  had  put  a  man  at  the  head  of  the  army  who  would  strike  a 
manly  blow  for  the  city.  It  did  not  become  him  to  revert  t-> 
disaster.  Hood's  army  must  be  replenished.  He  had  been 
asked  to  send  reinforcements  from  Virginia  to  Georgia,  but 
the  disparity  in  numbers  was  as  great  in  Virginia  as  in  Georgia. 
The  army  under  Early  had  been  sent  to  the  valley  of  the  Shen- 
andoah,  instead  of  to  Georgia,  because  the  enemy  had  pene* 
trated  to  Lynchburg;  and  now,  if  Early  was  withdrawn,  thera 
was  nothing  to  prevent  the  Federal  troops  from  putting  a  com 
plete  cordon  of  men  around  Eichmond.  He  had  counselled 
with  General  Lee  upon  all  these  points ;  his  mind  had  roamed 
over  the  whole  field,  and  his  conclusion  was,  that  "  if  one-haL 
of  the  men  now  absent  from  the  field  would  return  to  duty, 
we  can  defeat  the  enemy.  With  that  hope,  I  am  now  going 
to  the  front.  I  may  not  realize  this  hope,  but  I  know  that 
there  are  men  there  who  have  looked  death  too  often  in  the 
face  to  despond  now." 

The  swollen  tone  of  the  Confederate  President  was  not  with 
out  effect  upon  the  public  mind.  Confidence  was  in  a  measure 
revived  ;  and  expectation  stood  on  tiptoe  for  the  results  of  that 
wonderful  strategy  which  President  Davis  had  counselled  with 
Hood,  and  which  he  promised  his  Macon  audience  was  to  re 
cover  Atlanta,  and  bring  Sherman  to  a  grief  unparalleled  in 
the  war.  The  President's  vivid  hint  of  such  a  campaign  was 
the  occasion  of  new  hopes  with  some  people  of  the  Confederacy 
But  they  had  forgotten  of  what  ill  omen  had  been  his  former 
visits  to  the  Western  army ;  how  disaster  had  followed  on  hi 
hoels ;  and  how  his  former  plans  of  campaign  in  this  depart* 


THE    LAST    YEAR. 

ment,  attended  with  like  vapors,  had  turned  out  to  be  the 
veriest  clap-traps  in  military  science.  But  the  sequel  of  the 
Macon  speech  belongs  to  another  period  of  time,  and  must  be 
reserved  for  another  chapter. 

"We  turn  here,  at  this  period,  to  the  narration  of  some  naval 
arid  military  incidents  which  belong  to  it,  and  which,  although 
of  no  great  importance  in  themselves,  are  of  considerable  in 
terest,  either  on  account  of  the  principles  they  involved  or  the 
spirit  they  illustrated. 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   CONFEDERATE   PRIVATEER   FLORIDA. 

The  Florida  had  originally  sailed  from  England  under  the 
name  of  Oreto,  and  under  that  name  she  was,  on  reaching 
Nassau,  brought  before  the  court  through  the  efforts  of  the 
Yankee  consul.  The  neutral  authorities  decided  in  favor  of 
the  vessel,  which  was  permitted  to  proceed.  Leaving  Nas 
sau  she  went  to  Green  Bay,  where  she  received  on  board  her 
armament,  ran  into  Mobile,  changed  her  name  to  that  of 
Florida,  and  had  since  carried  on  an  effective  war  on  Yankee 
commerce. 

In  February,  1864,  availing  herself  of  a  dark  night,  she  es 
caped  from  Brest,  eluding  the  Kearsarge,  which  was  off  that 
port.  In  June,  she  visited  the  neutral  port  of  St.  Georges, 
Bermuda,  and  remained  there  nine  days.  Leaving  St.  Georges 
on  the  27th  of  that  month,  she  remained  outside,  but  in  sight, 
for  thr.ee  or  four  days,  boarding  all  vessels  that  approached  the 
island.  On  the  10th  of  July  she  captured  the  Electric  Spark, 
near  the  coast,  while  several  vessels  were  cruizing  for  her  ;  but 
she  escaped,  and  was  next  heard  from  at  Teneriffe,  on  the  4th 
of  August.  Subsequently  she  entered  the  bay  of  San  Salvador, 
Brazil. 

While  the  Florida  was  at  her  anchorage  in  this  neutral  port, 
and  a  portion  of  her  crew,  with  her  commander,  were  ashore, 
not  dreaming  of  danger,  Captain  Napoleon  Collins,  of  the 
Yankee  steamer  Wachusett,  had  conceived  the  extraordinary 
and  outrageous  design  of  stealing  upon  the  Confederate  vessel, 
and  destroying  or  capturing  her  by  a  cowardly  stratagem  in  a 
neutral  port. 


390  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

About  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  7th  .f  October 
the  cables  were  slipped,  and  the  Wachusett  bore  down  upon 
the  Confederate  vessel  under  a  full  head  of  steam.  So  little  ex 
pectation  was  there  of  such  a  proceeding,  that  one-half  the 
officers  and  crew  of  the  Florida,  seventy  in  number,  and  includ 
ing  Captain  Morris,  were  on  shore.  The  Florida's  officer  on 
deck  supposed  the  collision,  which  he  saw  to  be  imminent,  to 
be  merely  accidental,  and  cried  out :  u  You  will  run  into  us  if 
you  don't  look  out."  The  design  of  Captain  Collins  was  to 
strike  the  Florida  amidships,  with  full  steam  on,  crushing  he? 
side,  and  send  her  at  once  to  the  bottom.  The  Wachusett, 
however,  did  not  strike  her  adversary  fairly,  but  hit  her  in.  the 
stern,  carrying  away  the  mizen-mast  and  main-yard.  The 
Florida  was  not  seriously  injured  by  the  collision;  but  the 
broken  spar  fell  across  the  awning  over  her  hatchway  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  prevent  her  crew  from  getting  on  deck  from 
below.  The  recoil  which  followed  the  shock  carried  the  Wa- 
chusett  back  several  yards.  In  the  confusion  which  ensued, 
several  pistol  shots  were  fired  from  both  vessels,  chiefly  at 
random  and  entirely  without  effect.  Two  of  the  guns  of  the 
Wachusett  were  also  discharged,  but  the  shots  did  not  strike 
the  Florida. 

Captain  Collins,  of  the  Wachusett,  immediately  called  out : 
"  Surrender,  or  I  will  blow  you  out  of  the  water  !"  The  lieu 
tenant  in  charge  of  the  Florida  replied  :  "  Under  the  circum 
stances,  I  surrender."  Without  the  delay  of  an  instant,  dozens 
of  Yankee  sailors  boarded  the  prize,  and  made  fast  a  hawser, 
connecting  her  with  their  own  vessel,  and  the  Wachusett 
turned  her  course  seaward,  moving  at  the  top  of  her  speed, 
and  towing  the  Florida  in  her  wake. 

The  fleet  of  Brazilian  vessels  was  so  situated,  that  the  two 
steamers  were  obliged  to  pass  under  the  stern  of  one  of  the 
largest  in  order  to  penetrate  their  line.  The  Wachusett  was 
challenged,  but  did  not  deign  a  word  of  reply,  and  the  Florida, 
when  hailed  and  commanded  to  halt  a  moment  after,  replied 
that  a  pause  was  impossible,  as  she  was  towed  by  the  vessel  in 
front.  The  Brazilians  soon  divined  the  state  of  affairs,  and  in 
another  moment  or  two  the  her.vy  guns  of  tho  fort,  under  the 
muzzles  of  which  the  capture  had  been  made,  opened  fire  on 
the  Wachusett  as  she  disappeared  in  the  darkness.  Three 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  391 

shots  were  fired  after  her,  all  passing  harmlessly  far  atove  her 
pennant  and  striking  the  water. 

To  those  familiar  with  the  Yankee  disposition  to  misrepre 
sent  and  boast,  it  will  not  appear  strange  that  this  stroke  of 
Napoleon  Collins'  genius — a  piece  of  cowardice  and  outrage 
for  which  Mr.  Seward  was  afterwards  compelled  to  apologize  , 
to  the  Brazilian  government — should  have  been  generally 
thought,  in  the  North,  very  commendable  and  admirable. 
But  what  shall  be  said  of  this  sentiment  in  a  New  York  news 
paper  :  "  Certainly  no  page  of  history  can  show  a  more  daring 
achievement,  or  one  executed  with  more  brilliant  rapidity  or 
more  complete  success  /" 


THE   DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   CONFEDERATE   RAM   ALBEMARLE. 

A  few  weeks  later,  and  another  naval  exploit  of  the  Yankees 
was  heralded  to  the  public.  This  was  the  destruction  of  the 
formidable  ram  Albemarle,  in  the  Roanoke  River.  With  four 
teen  officers  and  men,  Lieutenant  Gushing,  of  the  Yankee  navy, 
on  the  night  of  the  27th  October,  ascended  the  Roanoke  to 
Plymouth,  in  a  torpedo  boat,  crept  upon  the  ram  at  her  wharf, 
and  sunk  her  by  the  explosion  of  the  torpedo. 

The  exploit  was  a  most  dastardly  one — a  rare  exhibition  of 
cowardice ;  for  no  sooner  had  the  Yankees  exploded  the  Albe 
marle  than,  instead  of  making  fight,  they  cried  out,  "  We  sur- 
der,  we  surrender !"  and  while  the  vessel  was  sinking,  called 
for  quarter  from  those  upon  whom  they  had  stolen  under  the 
cover  of  darkness. 

The  Confederates  would  have  been  justifiable  in  dispatching 
these  men  on  the  spot.  The  Yankees  had,  in  more  than  one 
instance,  executed  in  cold  blood  members  of  the  torpedo  corps 
of  the  Confederate  States ;  and  when  Butler  ascended  the  James 
River,  in  May,  1864:,  the  story  was  grimly  told  in  the  New 
York  papers,  that  certain  torpedo-men  captured  on  that  occa 
sion  "  would  never  give  any  more  trouble."  But  in  the  case 
of  the  Albemarle,  the  Confederates,  with  characteristic  softness 
and  simplicity  of  heart,  took  and  treated  as  prisoners  of  war 
the  dastardly  creatures,  whose  enterprise  had  bet>i  of  no  more 
peril  than  that  of  the  assassin  who  stabs  in  the  back,  and,  as 


892  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

his  victim  turns  to  revenge  himself,  throws  up  his  hamls  for 
mercy. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  Yankee  that  the  success  of  an  in 
genious  device  of  cowardice  is  more  highly  extolled  than  any 
exhibition  of  real  courage.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  affair 
of  the  Albemarle  was  exploited  as  one  of  the  sensations  of  the 
day  ;  and  that  Lieutenant  Gushing,  the  commander  of  the 
Yankee  party,  was  dubbed  "  hero,"  and  his  physiognomy  re 
corded  on  the  first  pages  of  the  New  York  pictorials. 

The  destruction  of  the  Albemarle  removed  the  reliable  de 
fence  of  Plymouth.  On  the  31st  of  October  the  Yankees  took 
possession  of  the  place,  capturing  some  prisoners  and  cannon, 
and  re-establishing  their  supremacy  in  the  sounds  of  North 
Carolina. 

THE   ST.    ALBAN8    KAID. 

In  the  month  of  October,  a  great  and  undue  excitement  was 
created  in  the  North  by  an  expedition  of  twenty-five  Confed 
erates  from  the  Canadian  frontier  into  the  town  of  St.  Albans, 
Vermont.  The  raid  occurred  on  the  18th  of  October.  The 
banks  were  robbed  of  over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 
a  citizen  was  shot ;  the  raiders  declaring  that  they  "  intended 
retaliation  for  Sherman's  cruelties  in  Atlanta."  They  escaped 
across  the  frontier,  but  were  arrested  by  the  Canadian  author 
ities.  The  raid  was  followed  by  great  excitement,  and  in  a 
few  hours  the  whole  frontier  was  under  arms. 

The  apparent  complicity  of  the  Confederate  authorities  in 
the  St.  A] bans  raid  furnished  the  Yankees  with  the  occasion 
of  connecting  the  Government  at  [Richmond  with  all  sorts  of 
real  and  pretended  schemes,  concocted  on  the  Canadian  fron 
tier,  to  execute  savage  justice  upon  the  North.  These  stories 
are  familiar  to  the  world.  It  was  declared  on  affidavit,  on 
different  occasions,  that  Confederate  agents,  on  neutral  terri 
tory,  had  plotted  the  burning  of  Northern  cities,  the  conflagra 
tion  of  hotels,  the  destruction  of  railroad  trains,  the  infection 
of  the  Northern  people  with  pestilence,  and  all  manner  of  sa\ 
age  and  inhuman  retribution. 

The  slight  element  of  truth  in  these  libels  is  easily  indicated. 
No  human  creature  is  more  ingenious  and  industrious  in  mis- 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  393 

repiesentation  than  the  Yankee;  and  his  unscrupulous  and 
busy  attempt  to  hand  down  the  Confederates  to  history  as  a 
savage  foe,  is  to  be  constantly  met  in  the  history  of  the  war. 

It  is  true  that  President  Davis  was  a  credulous  man,  and 
very  accessible  to  the  claims  of  foreign  adventurers,  to  the  pro 
positions  of  "  blowers,"  and  the  game  of  "  confidence-men." 
It  is  quite  possible  that  he  may  have  given  countenance  to 
some  of  these  plausible  creatures,  who  afterwards  exceeded 
their  instructions ;  and  having  been  designated  for  legitimate 
"  secret  service,"  assumed,  on  their  own  account,  the  part  of 
highwaymen  and  incendiaries.  But  it  is  an  incontestable  fact 
in  history,  that  the  Confederates,  so  far  from  being  savage 
avengers,  were  deficient  in  the  policy  and  tame  in  the  spirit 
of  retaliation  ;  that  they  moderated  their  warfare  with  an  ex 
cess  of  chivalry  and  sentirnentalism  that  was  more  than  once 
laughed  at  by  the  enemy,  or  seriously  censured  by  the  more 
intelligent  and  just  persons  of  the  South;  and  that  in  their 
general  temper  in  the  war,  and  its  well-attested  facts  of  his 
tory,  they  give  the  conclusive  and  unmistakable  contradiction 
to  the  multitudinous  Yankee  stories  of  "rebel  barbarities"'  ill 
the  episodes  of  the  war. 


394:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

The  Richmond  lines. — THE  FALL  OF  FORT  HARRISON,  ETC. — The  attempt  to  icUfce  it, 
—Why  it  failed.— ENGAGEMENT  ON  THE  CHARLES  CITY  ROAD.— Death  of  General 
Gregg.— ENGAGEMENT  ON  THE  WILLIAMSBUIJG  AND  BOYDTON  ROADS.— ANOTFIEH 
GRAND  ATTEMPT  ON  RICHMOND. — A  shameful  failure. — The  "electoral  necessity"  at 
Washington.— THE  CAMPAIGN  IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  VIRGINIA.— Early's  mission  in  the 
Valley; — How  a  part  of  the  combination  to  protect  Richmond. — Sheridan's  com 
mand. — His  strategy. — BATTLE  NEAR  WINCHESTER. — A  critical  moment. — The  en 
emy's  centre  broken. — He  recovers. — Misconduct  of  the  Confederate  cavalry. — 
Early  retreats  to  Fisher's  Hill.— THE  BATTLE  OF  FISHER'S  HILL.— A  most  unex 
pected  reverse  to  the  Confederates. — Misgivings  and  alarm  in  Richmond. — The 
capture  of  Staunton. — Sheridan's  devastations  of  the  Valley. — "Barn-burning." — 
An  affair  of  Rosser's  cavalry.—"  The  Saviour  of  the  Valley." — BATTLE  OF  CEDAB 
CREEK. — Two-thirds  of  Sheridan's  army  completely  routed. — Early's  awkward 
pause. — Plunder  of  the  Yankee  camp.— The  enemy  regains  the  day. — Shameful 
rout  of  the  Confederates. — The  Valley  campaign  virtually  ended. — SOUTHWESTERN 
VIRGINIA. — Breckinridge's  campaign. — The  Yankees  capture  the  salt-works  at 
Saltville. — Destruction  of  the  works. 

THE  events  on  the  Richmond  lines  in  the  fall  months  of  1864: 
were  not  without  importance. 


THE   FALL   OF   FORT   HARRISON,  ETC. 

Early  on  the  night  of  the  28th  of  September  it  was  dlscov* 
ered  that  the  enemy  was  crossing  a  force  to  the  north  side  oi 
the  Jarnes,  at  Deep  Bottom,  and  in  a  few  hours  developed  the 
fact  that  he  was  crossing  infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery  in 
heavy  columns.  General  Gregg,  who  was  in  command  at  that 
point,  after  notifying  General  Ewell  of  the  situation,  placed 
two  brigades  of  Field's  division  in  readiness  to  meet  an  attack. 

At  daybreak  on  the  29th,  our  pickets  were  driven  in  at  sev 
eral  points,  showing  that  a  formidable  advance  was  being  made, 
and  that  the  force  to  oppose  it  was  inadequate  to  cover  all  the 
ground  threatened.  The  best  disposition  possible,  however, 
was  made  of  the  small  force  present.  The  first  determined  as 
sault  was  made  near  the  Phillips  House,  on  both  sides  of  tha 
Four  Mile  Run.  The  Texas  brigade  was  hastened  in  double- 


THE    LAST    TEAK.  395 

quick  to  that  point,  and  placed  in  position  just  in  time  to  repel 
the  attack.  The  enemy,  in  very  heavy  force,  had  reached  the 
'abattis,  thirty  or  forty  yards  in  front,  but  were  there  met  by 
a  most  terrific  and  galling  fire,  which  mowed  them  down  with 
terrible  slaughter.  The  white  troops  fled  in  great  confusion, 
but,  the  entangled  brush  greatly  impeding  their  speed,  many 
of  them  fell  under  the  fire  of  the  well-aimed  rifles  of  the 
Tex  an  s. 

The  negroes,  who  were  driven  up  at  the  point  of  the  bay 
onet,  lay  flat  upon  the  ground,  just  in  rear  of  the  abattis,  hop 
ing  thereby  to  shield  themselves  from  the  sad  havoc  in  their 
ranks,  but  the  Texans,  mounting  the  works,  shot  them  like 
sheep  led  to  the  shambles.  The  New  York  Herald  said  one 
hundred  and  ninety-four  negroes  were  buried  upon  that  spot. 
Counting  the  wounded  at  five  times  as  great,  which  is  a  low 
estimate,  at  least  twelve  hundred  killed  and  wounded  cum 
bered  the  ground  in  front  of  that  little  brigade. 

Beaten  back  at  this  point,  the  enemy  immediately  hurled 
another  column  of  white  troops  against  General  Geary,  near  the 
Drill  House,  on  New  Market  Heights,  and  met  a  like  bloodj 
repulse. 

Beaten  back  with  terrible  slaughter  from  the  heights  of  Ne\v 
Market,  the  Yankees  determined  to  accomplish,  by  flank 
movements  and  overwhelming  numbers,  what  their  courage 
failed  to  do. 

A  heavy  column  moved  up  the  river  for  the  purpose  of  at 
tacking  the  works  on  Chaffiri's  farm,  while  others  moved  up 
the  Darby  town  and  New  Market  roads.  A  force  of  Confederates 
was  hastened  off  in  double-quick  to  reinforce  Fort  Harrison 
and  adjacent  works;  but  before  they  could  reach  them  the  en 
emy  assaulted  the  fort,  which,  after  a  very  feeble  resistance  ort 
the  part  of  the  artillery  and  a  portion  of  Colonel  Maury's  com 
mand,  was  abandoned  to  the  enemy.  This  fort  occupied  a 
commanding  position  below  Drury's  Muff,  and  constituted 
the  main  defence  at  that  point. 

In  the  mean  time  the  1*  rce  that  moved  up  New  Market  road 
had  massed  in  a  ravine  on  Taylor's  farm,  northwest  of  Forfc 

*\ 

Gilmer,  and  were  moving  in  two  heavy  columns  upon  it  and 
the  works  to  the  left.  Law's  brigade  of  Field's  division  (under 
Colonel  Bowls),  which  had  just  arrived,  opened  a  destructive 


896  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

fire  on  the  line  advancing  upon  the  works  to  the  left  and  re 
pulsed  them.  The  whole  force  was  then  hurled,  with  great  im 
petuosity,  against  Fort  Gilraer. 

The  open  plateau  in  front  gave  the  Confederates,  in  and 
to  the  left  of  the  fort,  an  opportunity  to  pour  a  galling  arid 
destructive  fire  into  the  enemy's  front  and  flank  for  several 
hundred  yards  before  they  could  reach  the  goal  at  which  they 
aimed.  The  negroes,  as  usual,  were  in  front,  and  rushed  for 
ward  frantically,  under  dread  of  the  bayonets  at  their  backs, 
shooting  but  seldom,  and  wide  of  their  mark.  Their  only 
object  seemed  to  be  to  gain  the  ditch,  and  save  themselves 
from  slaughter.  The  white  soldiers  never  reached  the  ditch. 
They  were  repulsed,  and  fell  back  in  confusion. 

The  total  sum  of  the  day's  labor  was  six  battle-flags,  two 
guidons,  and  about  five  hundred  prisoners,  besides  at  least 
seven  hundred  of  the  enemy  killed,  and  three  thousand  five 
hundred  wounded. 

General  Field  arrived  just  prior  to  the  assault  upon  Fort 
Gilrner,  and,  after  a  careful  survey  of  the  situation,  favored  an 
attack  upon  Fort  Harrison  that  evening,  before  the  enemy 
could  strengthen  the  position.  But  his  superior  officers 
thought  it  best  to  defer  it  until  the  next  day.  The  sequel 
shows  that  General  Field  was  right.  Twenty-four  hours 
elapsed,  during  which  time  the  enemy  greatly  improved  and 
strengthened  his  position.  The  plan  determined  upon  was  to 
attack  at  two  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the  30th.  Generals 
Anderson's,  Bratton's,  and  Law's  brigades,  of  Field's  division, 
were  to  make  the  assault  in  front,  while  Hoke  attacked  at  the 
same  time  the  side  next  to  the  Bluff.  By  means  of  a  ravine 
the  latter  was  enabled  to  form  within  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  of  the  fort,  while  Field  was  probably  three  times 
that  distance.  At  the  expiration  of  a  certain  time,  after  a 
given  signal,  the  assault  was  to  commence.  As  soon  as  Gen 
eral  Field's  line  moved  up,  on  a  line  opposite  to  General  Hoke, 
he  was  to  advance,  and  the  attack  was  to  be  made  simultane 
ous.  In  accordance  with  this  arrangement,  the  assaulting 
columns  were  put  in  readiness,  and  the  signal  given.  In  order 
to  cause  no  delay,  and  to  make  sure  of  getting  all  the  men  out 
of  the  trenches,  a  short  while  before  the  time  expired,  General 
Field  ordered  General  Anderson  to  move  his  brigade  in  front 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  397 

of  the  works  he  then  occupied,  adjust  his  line,  and  make  the 
men  lie  down  until  the  other  two  brigades  could  form  upon  it. 
General   Anderson  failing  to  give  his  men  the  necessary  in 
struction  as  to  his  object,  as  soon  as  they  leaped   the  breast 
works  they  rushed  forward  with  a  yell,  and  he  was  unable  to 
control  them.     This  necessitated  rapid  movement  on  the  part 
of  the  other  brigades.     General  Hoke,  awaiting  the  expiration 
of  the  time,  did  not  move  forward  as  was  designed,  in  concert 
with  the  brigades  of  Field's  division,  and  thus  the  enemy  was 
enabled  to  concentrate  his  lire  upon  both  assaults.  ^ 

The  troops  did  not  attack  with  their  usual  impetuosity. 
Law's  brigade  accomplished  its  object,  in  sweeping  up  the  old 
works,  retaking  a  redan  to  the  left  of  the  fort,  and  thus  pro 
tecting  our  left  flank.  But  the  main  attack  failed.  Iloke  met 
a  like  repulse.  Had  General  Field's  plan  to  attack  the  even 
ing  before  been  adopted,  in  all  human  probability  the  fort 
would  have  been  recaptured,  and  the  enemy  driven  back  acros? 
the  river. 


ENGAGEMENT  ON  THE  CHARLES  CITY  ROAD. 

On  the  morning  of  the  6th  of  October,  the  Yankee  host 
forty  thousand  strong,  lay  encamped  on  the  north  side  of  James 
River,  the  main  body  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fort  Harrison, 
ten  miles  southeast  of  Richmond,  the  Tenth  (Birney's)  army 
corps  and  Kantz's  cavalry  being  five  and  a  half  miles  nearer 
the  city,  and  in  position  between  the  Darbytown  and  Charles 
City  roads. 

With  the  first  early  light,  General  Geary's  brigade  of  cavalry 
and  a  considerable  force  of  our  infantry  struck  the  enemy's 
right,  resting  on  the  Charles  City  road,  at  a  point  from  four 
and  a  half  to  five  miles  from  the  city.  The  Yankees  were  com 
pletely  surprised,  and  with  little  resistance  fled  into  their  in- 
trenchments,  a  short  distance  in  their  rear.  Here  they  were 
in  strong  force,  and  prepared  for  a  desperate  resistance ;  but 
our  troops,  following  up  their  first  blow  with  great  impetuosity, 
carried  the  works  and  drove  the  Yankees  out,  capturing  nine 
pieces  of  cannon,  one  hundred  artillery  horses,  and 
hundred  prisoners. 


398  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

General  Geary,  by  this  time,  had  Kautz  on  the  run,  and  was 
driving  him  ahead  of  the  infantry. 

Our  infantry  continued  to  press  the  Tenth  Corps  hack.  Our 
troops  then  pressed  forward  towards  a  second  line  of  the  ene 
my's  intrenchments,  which  were  carried  after  a  sharp  contest, 
and  the  enemy  routed  and  pursued  some  distance  towrards  Fort 
Harrison,  when  our  men  were  withdrawn  from  the  pursuit  to 
the  enemy's  line  of  intrenchments  just  taken. 

The  enemy,  in  the  course  of  an  hour  or  two,  having  heen 
rapidly  reinforced  from  the  grand  army  at  Fort  Harrison,  ad 
vanced  with  confidence  to  the  recapture  of  their  former  posi 
tion.  They  were,  after  a  long  and  desperate  light,  repulsed 
with  great  slaughter,  and  as  night  closed  in  we  held  all  the 
ground  we  had  taken. 

In  this  light  the  brave  and  chivalrous  General  Gregg,  com 
manding  the  Texan  brigade,  fell  at  the  head  of  his  troops, 
pierced  through  the  neck  by  a  minie  ball. 


ENGAGEMENT   ON   THE    WILLIAMSBURG    AND   BOYDTON   ROADS — 
ANOTHER   GRAND    ATTEMPT   ON    RICHMOND. 

On  the  27th  of  October,  General  Grant  moved  against  the 
Confederate  right  and  left  flank.  An  interval  of  a  month  had 
occurred  since  his  capture  of  Fort  Harrison,  and  the  extension 
of  his  right  to  the  Darbytown  road.  The  armies  of  the  James 
and  the  Potomac  moved  simultaneous^. 

It  was  soon  ascertained  that  the  Eighteenth  Corps  had  made 
a  detour  around  White  Oak  swamp,  and  was  advancing  in 
heavy  columns  up  the  "Williamsburg  and  Nine  Mile  roads. 
The  object  of  this  movement  was  to  find,  and  if  possible  turn, 
Lee's  left  flank.  General  Longstreet  at  once  ordered  General 

O 

Field  to  take  position  on  the  Nine  Mile  road. 

He  moved  the  division  with  great  celerity,  and  gained  the 
Williamsburg  road  just  in  time  to  repel  an  assault  and  save 
the  fort  and  guns  immediately  on  the  road. 

On  his  arrival,  he  found  that  the  enemy's  heaviest  .^orcc  was 
massed  upon  that  road,  and  that  would  be  the  point  cf  main 
attack. 

Two  or  three  brigades  of  negroes  had  been  sent  up  the  Nine 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  399 

Mile  road,  and  had  charged  and  carried  the  works,  and  cap 
tured  one  piece  of  artillery,  just  as  the  Hampton  Legion,  of 
Geary's  cavalry,  was  going  into  position.  But  the  Twenty-fourth 
Virginia  cavalry  coming  up,  they,  in  conjunction  with  the 
legion,  charged  and  regained  the  works  and  artillery,  and 
drove  the  negroes  back  with  heavy  slaughter. 

Severe  skirmishing  and  artillery  duels  were  being  waged,  on 
the  Darbytown  and  Charles  City  roads ;  and  one  or  two  deter 
mined  assaults  had  been  made  upon  Hoke's  line,  but  had  been 
handsomely  repulsed. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  enemy  had  planted  two  heavy  field- 
batteries  near  the  Wiliiamsburg  road,  and  were  shelling  our 
works  most  furiously.  Their  artillery  was  handled  with  great 
skill  and  precision.  Our  batteries  did  not  respond,  because 
they  desired  to  hold  their  fire  for  the  advance  of  the  infantry. 
Their  silence  misled  the  enemy.  Soon  a  line  of  battle  de 
bouched  from  the  woods  on  the  left  of  the  Wiliiamsburg  road, 
evidently  bent  upon  the  capture  of  the  fort.  This  time  the 
uegroes  were  in  the  rear,  perhaps  because  the  white  soldiers, 
believing  that  the  fort  and  its  guns  were  but  feebly  manned, 
expected  to  make  easy  and  quick  work  of  it,  and  get  all  the 
glory.  In  this  they  were  disastrously  deceived.  They  had  to 
advance  through  an  open  and  level  field  for  half  a  mile.  The 
fort  opened  upon  them  with  grape  and  canister ;  and  when 
within  five  hundred  yards,  Anderson's,  the  Texas,  and  Brat- 
ton's  brigades  poured  terrible  volleys  of  minies  from  their  En- 
deld  rifles  into  their  wavering  ranks ;  and  by  the  time  they 
arrived  within  two  hundred  yards,  the  fire  from  the  artillery 
and  musketry  had  become  so  destructive  that  they  broke  in 
every  direction,  and  were  charged  by  our  skirmishers.  The 
result,  in  addition  to  one  hundred  dead  and  many  wounded, 
was  the  capture  of  500  prisoners. 

On  the  Boydton  plank-road  the  day  had  been  no  less  de 
cisive.  The  main  attack  of  the  enemy  here  was  directed 
against  the  Southside  Railroad.  The  enemy  was  encountered 
here  by  three  brigades  under  General  Mahone  in  front,  and 
General  Hampton  in  the  rear.  Mahone  captured  four  hundred 
prisoners,  three  stand  of  colors,  and  six  pieces  of  artillery.  The 
latter  could  not  be  brought  off,  the  enemy  having  possession 
of  the  bridge. 


4:00  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

In  the  attack  subsequently  made  by  the  enemy,  General 
Mahone  broke  three  lines  of  battle,  and  during  the  night  tho 
enemy  retreated  from  the  Boydton  road,  leaving  his  wounded 
and  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  dead  on  the  field. * 

Thus  failed,  almost  shamefully  >  Grant's  ambitious  movement 
of  October.  It  had  been  easily  repulsed  at  all  points.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  Grant  had  designed,  at  this  season,  an  "  On 
to  Richmond,"  which  was  to  electrify  the  North  antf  carry  for 
Lincoln  the  approaching  Presidential  election,  only  a  few  days 
distant.  But  he  had  utterly  failed  to  respond  to  the  "  electoral 
necessity"  at  Washington  ;  although  it  must  be  admitted  that 
events,  to  which  we  shall  presently  refer,  in  other  parts  of  Vir 
ginia,  had  amply  supplied  it,  and  adorned  the  Yankee  arms 
with  no  mean  success. 


THE   CAMPAIGN   IN   THE   VALLEY   OF   VIRGINIA. 

These  Yankee  successes  were  to  occur  in  a  quarter  where 
they  were  least  expected — in  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  a  district 
heretofore  illuminated  by  brilliant  Confederate  victories,  and 
associated  with  heroic  names. 

Early 's  army  in  the  Valley,  first  designed  to  threaten  Wash- 
ington,  and  to  do  a  not  less  important  service  in  saving  the 
harvests  of  the  Shenandoah,  had  become,  in  other  respects,  a 
most  necessary  part  of  General  Lee's  combination  to  protect 
Richmond. 

Of  the  four  railroads  which  enter  Richmond,  two — the  Frcdcr- 
icksburg  and  the  York  River  railroads — had  become  of  but 
little  account ;  they  drained  a  country  already  exhausted.  But 
the  Gordonsville  road,  connecting  Richmond  with  the  fertile 


*  In  the  series  of  engagements  on  the  Richmond  lines  just  narrated.  Field's 
division  had  borne  a  conspicuous  part,  and  deserves  a  distinct  meniion.  A 
correspondent  wrote  :  "  For  thirty  days  this  division  has  stood  at  the  gates  of 
the  capital  against  overwhelming  odds  ;  and,  almost  unaided,  has  beaten  back, 
with  sad  havoc,  five  of  Grant's  grand  '  Ons  to  Richmond.'  It  has  lost,  in 
killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  about  twelve  hundred  men  ;  and  yet  is  stronger 
to-day  than  it  was  a  month  ago.  It  has  killed  more  than  one  thousand  of  the 
enemy,  wounded  five  times  that  number,  captured  over  1,200  prisoners,  several 
hundrjd  stands  of  a»rns,  five  guidons,  and  fifteen  battle-flags.*' 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  401 

Valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  was  of  great  importance.  It  was  a 
part  of  Early 's  mission  to  guard  this  communication,  but  » 
more  important  part  of  that  mission  was  to  cover  the  approach 
to  Lynchburg.  After  the  occupation  of  the  Weldon  road  by 
Grant,  the  safety  of  Lynchburg  became  absolutely  essential  to 
the  maintenance  by  Lee  of  any  defensive  position  in  Virginia, 
For  Lynchburg  was  then  the  key  to  all  the  communications 
left  to  his  army  ;  and  if  once  captured  by  the  Yankee  forces 
arid  made  a  military  station,  it  could  be  held  by  a  small  army, 
and  made  the  centre  of  a  new  system  of  operations  on  the  west 
side  of  Richmond. 

On  the  8th  of  August,  General  Sheridan  was  placed  in  com 
mand  of  what  was  called  the  Middle  Military  Division,  super 
seding  General  Hunter,  his  force  consisting  at  that  time  of  the 
Sixth,  Eighth,  and  Nineteenth  Corps,  together  with  Crook's, 
Averill's,  and  Kelly's  commands  On  receiving  his  command, 
Sheridan  established  his  headquarters  at  Harper's  Ferry. 

Concentrating  his  troops  at  once  along  the  Potomac,  in  tho 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  whither  General 
Early,  now  in  command  of  the  Confederate  forces,  had  with 
drawn,  Sheridan  gradually  advanced  upon  the  important  posi 
tions  of  Martinsburg,  Williamsport,  etc.,  garrisoning  these  as 
fast  as  they  were  relinquished,  and  establishing  complete  and 
prompt  communications  between  his  headquarters  and  the  ad 
vanced  posts.  Early  fell  back  gradually,  for  the  purpose  of 
luring  Sheridan  on.  As  Early  retired,  Sheridan  took  the  op 
portunity  of  seizing  and  securing-  Winchester  on  the  12th  of 
August,  throwing  out  a  cavalry  detachment  to  Front  Royal. 
This  accomplished,  he  fell  back  in  turn,  abandoning  Winches 
ter,  and  awaiting  at  Harper's  Ferry  and  its  vicinity  the  concen 
tration  of  his  forces. 

On  the  18th  of  September,  General  Early,  with  compara 
tively  a  small  force,  was  confronting  Sheridan  north  of  Win 
chester.  Sheridan  attacked  him  on  Opequan  Creek,  and 
captured  fifty  men  belonging  to  the  Eighth  South  Carolina 
regiment,  who  were  on  picket.  Immediately  Sheridan  tele 
graphed  to  Stan  ton,  "  I  have  captured  one  entire  regiment, 
oilicers  included." 

26 


4:02  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


BATTLE    NEAE    WINCHESTER. 

On  the  morning  of  the  19th  of  September,  the  enemy  a(>» 
vanced  upon  Winchester,  near  which  place  General  Early  met 
his  attack.  About  daylight  the  enemy  advanced,  by  the  Ber- 
r}Tville  road,  on  Rarnseur,  who  was  posted  at  the  Spout  Spring, 
on  the  same  road,  some  four  miles  east  of  Winchester.  Gen 
eral  Gordon  was  at  Bunker  Hill,  twelve  miles  from  Winchester, 
and  ten  miles  from  Martineburg,  on  a  reconnoissance.  General 
Rhodes  was  at  Hopewell  Church,  near  Whitehall,  to  the  left  ot 
the  Martirisburg  road,  and  about  eight  miles  below  Winchester. 
Gordon  commenced  moving  back  to  the  point  of  attack  about 
daylight,  and  Rhodes  moved  in  the  same  direction  about  seven 
o'clock.  Wharton,  meanwhile,  remained  on  the  extreme  left, 
on  the  Martinsburg  road,  a  short  distance  below  Winchester. 
Between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  all  of  our  troops  were  in  posi 
tion  on  the  field,  our  line  facing  towards  the  east,  the  enemy's 
towards  the  west.  The  situation  was  as  follows  :  Ramseur's 
troops  stretched  from  Abraham  Creek  to  the  Berryvilje  pike  ; 
Rhodes  had  taken  position  between  Ramseur  and  Gordon  ;  and 
Wharton,  as  above  stated,  held  the  left.  The  battle  now 
raged  heavily,  and  bore  strongly  towards  our  left.  It  was 
about  half-past  twelve  when  General  Rhodes,  while  placing  a 
Dattery  in  the  gap  between  himself  and  Gordon,  was  struck  in 
the  head  by  a  ball,  and  borne  from  the  field.  He  was  carried 
to  Winchester,  where  he  died  in  about  half  an  hour  after 
reaching  the  place. 

In  some  battles  there  is  a  marked  crisis,  when  the  fortune  of 
the  day  is  visibly  and  instantly  decided.  As  the  enemy  pressed 
forward  in  the  attack,  a  brigade,  in  G rover's  division  of  the 
Nineteenth  Corps,  was  forced  to  retire  ;  another  was  thrown 
into  confusion,  and  the  entire  left  of  the  division  subsequently 
gave  way.  A  Confederate  battery  opened  upon  the  flying 
troops.  Their  shells,  descending  among  the  broken  columns  of 
Grover,  demoralized  and  shattered  them  still  more.  The  entire 
infantry  of  the  Confederates  charged  in  turn,  pouring  in  severo 
and  rapid  volleys  towards  the  point  of  breakage. 

"  The  moment,"  says  a  Yankee  correspondent,  "  was  a  fearful 


THE    LAST    TEAK.  4:03 

one.  Such  a  sight  rarely  occurs  more  than  once  in  any  battle, 
as  was  presented  on  the  open  space  between  two  pieces  of 
woodland,  into  which  the  cheering  enemy  poured,  in  their 
eagerness.  Thefr  whole  line,  reckless  of  bullets,  reckless  even 
of  the  shells  of  our  batteries,  constantly  advanced.  Captain 
Steven's  battery,  posted  immediately  in  their  front,  poured  its 
fire  unflinchingly  into  their  columns  to  the  last.  The  men  of 
the  battery  kept  it  at  work  in  the  face  of  the  foe,  who  advanced 
at  least  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  muzzles  of  the  guns. 
General  Rickett's  division,  pressed  heavily  in  flank,  gradually 
broke,  and  commenced  falling  back.  General  Getty's  division, 
on  the  left,  partially  fell  back  likewise.  The  day,  had  such  a 
situation  been  suffered  to  continue  fifteen  minutes  longer, 
would  certainly  have  been  lost  to  us." 

The  enemy  ordered  up  his  reserves  in  the  rear  of  his  broken 
centre.  His  columns  were  gradually  reformed,  and  the  battle 
raged  with  renewed  fury. 

The  Yankees  now  continued  to  push  their  line  around  our 
left,  and  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  their  cavalry,  on 
the  extreme  right,  made  a  charge  upon  our  cavalry,  completely 
routing  it.  Up  to  this  time  the  battle  had  been  progressing 
very  favorably ;  but  the  stampede  of  our  cavalry  enabled  the 
enemy  to  pass  on  our  flank  and  in  our  rear,  and  made  it  neces 
sary  for  our  infantry  to  fall  back,  which  it  did,  reaching  Win 
chester  about  sundown.  The  same  evening  our  whole  army 
retired  to  Newtown,  and  the  next  morning  to  Fisher's  Hill. 
This  position,  pronounced  by  military  men  to  be  the  strongest 
in  the  Valley,  was  eighteen  miles  from  Winchester,  and 
seventy-two  from  Staunton.  It  was  overlooked,  from  the  east, 
by  the  Massanutton  Mountain,  from  which  it  was  separated  by 
the  north  branch  of  the  Shenandoah  River,  while  on  the  west 
it  was  protected  by  the  North  Mountain,  and  along  its  front 
base  flowed  a  small  branch  called  Cumberland  Run. 

The  disaster  of  this  defeat  was  painfully  recognized  by  the- 
Confederate  public.  In  the  fight,  General  Early  lost  three 
thousand  men,  from  all  causes,  and  three  cannon.  The  misbe 
havior  of  our  cavalry  was  an  especial  subject  of  mortification. 
It  had  undoubtedly  lost  the  day.  Though  outnumbered  four 
to  one  our  troops  had  met  the  attack  nobly,  and  actually  beat 
Sheridan's  infantry,  and  were  driving  them  back  at  all  points, 


4:04:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

when  our  cavalry,  who  were  relied  upon  to  protect  our  flanks, 
gave  way  on  our  right.  The  enemy's  cavalry  immediately  as 
saulted  the  right  of  our  victorious  columns,  and  the  fortunes  of 
the  day  were  changed,  and  a  defeat  of  the  Confederates  ensued. 
iret  it  was  at  least  hoped  that  Early  would  be  able  to  hold  the 
immensely  strong  position  of  Fisher's  Hill  against  all  comers, 
and  that  there  the  tide  of  disaster  would  be  stayed.  But  in 
this  the  Confederate  public  was  to  be  infinitely  disappointed. 


On  the  22d  of  September,  Sheridan  brought  up  his  entire 
force  to  assault  the  strong  position  of  the  Confederates  on 
Fisher's  Hill.     The  works  were  too  formidable  to  be  carried 
by  an  attack  in  front  alone,  and  therefore,  while  keeping  up  a 
feint  of  a  front  attack,  the  Eighth  Corps  was  sent  far  to  thn 
right,  and,  sweeping  about  Early's  left,  flanked  him,  and  at 
tacked  him  in  the  rear,  driving  him  out  of  his  intrenchments 
while  the  Sixth  Corps  attacked  at  the  same  time  in  the  centre 
front,  and  the  Nineteenth  Corps  on  the  left.     Confused  and  di? 
organized  by  attacks  at  so  many  different  points,  the  Confed 
erates  broke  at  the  centre,  and  fled,  in  disorganization,  toward? 
Woodstock.     Artillery,  horses,  wagons,  rifles,  knapsacks,  and 
canteens  were  abandoned,  and  strewn  along  the  road.     Several 
hundred  prisoners  and  twelve  pieces  of  artillery  were  captured. 
The  pursuit  was  continued  until  the  25th,  and  did  not  conclude 
until  Early  had  been  driven  below  Port  Republic- 

This  second  most  unexpected  reverse  of  Early  was  the  occa 
sion  of  no  little  despondency  in  Richmond.  The  total  of  his 
losses  in  men  and  material  was  considerable ;  and  although  the 
story  of  the  Yankees,  that  in  one  week  ten  thousand  of  his 
men  had  been  put  out  of  combat,  was  absurdly  false,  enough 
was  known  in  Richmond  of  the  extent  of  the  disaster  to  occa 
sion  the  most  serious  misgivings  and  alarm.  The  harvests  of 
the  Shenandoah  "Valley  had  been  lost ;  the  most  productive 
districts  of  Virginia  were  opened  to  the  waste  of  the  enemy  ; 
and  the  second  capture  of  Staunton,  that  was  to  ensue,  was  to 
be  the  signal  of  another  alarm  for  the  safety  of  Lynchburg. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  405 

While  Sheridan  made  his  headquarters  at  Port  Republic,  he 
sent  his  cavahy,  under  Torbert,  forward  to  Staunton ;  which 
place  the}^  captured,  and  destroyed  all  the  storehouses,  machine- 
shops,  and  other  buildings,  owned  or  occupied  by  the  Confed 
erate  government,  and  also  the  saddles,  small-arms,  hard-bread, 
and  other  military  stores  found  in  the  place.  They  then  pro 
ceeded'  to  Waynesboro',  also  on  the  Virginia  Central  Railroad  ; 
tore  up  seven  miles  of  the  railroad  track,  destroyed  the  depot, 
the  iron  bridge  over  the  Shenandoah,  a  government  tannery, 
and  other  stores.  General  Sheridan  also  improved  the  time  of 
holding  possession  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley  to  destroy  all  the 
grain,  hay  and  forage  to  be  found  there,  excepting  what  was 
necessary  for  the  subsistence  of  his  own  army.  The  whole 
valley  being  thus  devastated,  General  Sheridan  moved  leisurely 
northward,  and  on  the  6th  of  October  made  his  headquarters 
at  Woodstock.  South  of  this  point  over  two  thousand  barns 
filled  with  wheat  and  hay,  and  over  seventy  mills  stocked  with 
wheat  and  flour  had  been  destroyed  ;  and  a  vast  herd  of  stock, 
and  more  than  three  thousand  sheep  had  been  reserved  for  the 
supply  of  the  army.  The  Luray  Valley,  as  well  as  the  Little 
Fort  Valley,  were  subjected  to  the  same  devastation.  In  the 
marauding  expedition  into  the  former  valley,  sixty-live  hundred 
head  of  cattle,  and  five  hundred  horses  were  captured,  and 
thirty-two  large  flouring  mills,  thirty  distilleries,  four  blast-fur 
naces,  and  over  fifty  barns  were  destroyed. 

The  horror  and  crime  of  this  devastation  was  remarkable 
oven  in  Yankee  warfare.  They  impoverished  a  whole  popula 
tion  ;  they  reduced  women  and  children  to  beggary  and  star 
vation  ;  they  left  the  black  monuments  of  Yankee  atrocity  all 
rhe  way  from  the  Blue  Ridge  to  the  North  Mountain.  It  is 
remarkable  that  the  worst  of  Yankee  atrocities  were  always 
done  in  the  intoxication  of  unexpected  success,  when  no  longer 
the  fears  of  previous  disasters  held  in  check  their  cruel  coward 
ice,  and  intimidated  their  native  ferocity. 

On  the  9th  of  October,  Sheridan  had  an  affair  with  Rosser's 
cavalry,  which  had  hung  on  his  rear.  One  division  of  the 
Yankee  cavalry  charged  along  the  Strasburg  pike,  while 
another,  moving  by  a  back  road,  took  Rosser  in  flank.  Sher 
idan  claimed  in  this  affair  to  have  taken  eleven  pieces  of  ar 
tillery,  and  over  three  hundred  prisoners.  He  wrote  to  the 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE 


War  Department,  at  "Washington,  a  dispatch  in  which  profan 
ity  and  slang  marked  his  lively  sense  of  victory.  lie  had 
"  finished  '  the  Savior  of  the  Valley,'  "  and  the  worsted  Con 
^ederates  he  had  pursued  "  on  the  jump"  for  twenty-six  miles 


THE    BATTLE    OF    CEDAR    CREEK. 

The  most  important  battle  of  the  campaign  in  the  Vallej 
was  yet  to  take  place. 

On  the  18th  of  October,  Early  lay  at  Fisher's  Hill  with  two 
corps  of  Sheridan's  army  in  his  front,  on  the  north  side  of 
Cedar  Creek.  Another  corps,  the  Sixth,  was  between  Middle- 
town  and  Newtown.  Sheridan  himself  was  at  Winchester, 
and  his  cavalry  a  little  withdrawn  from  the  front.  The  two 
corps  on  Cedar  Creek  were  heavily  fortified  on  the  left  (look 
ing  towards  Middletown)  of  the  turnpike,  but  their  works  on 
the  right  of  the  road  were  complete. 

This  being  the  situation,  Early  determined  to  attack  and,  it 
possible,  to  surprise  the  force  at  Cedar  Creek.  Accordingly, 
at  nightfall  of  the  18th,  he  marched  out  of  his  works  at  Fisher's 
Hill  to  the  stone  bridge  which  crosses  the  little  stream  at  the 
foot  of  the  hill.  Here  his  army  was  divided,  the  larger  column 
moving  to  the  right  of  the  turnpike,  the  lesser  to  the  left — the 
object  being  simultaneous  attack  on  both  flanks  of  the  enemy. 
In  order  to  flank  the  enemy's  works  on  the  right  of  the  road, 
it  was  necessary  to  move  the  larger  column  through  a  narrow 
pass  in  the  mountains,  where  two  men  could  not  walk  abreast. 
Thus,  marching  in  single  file,  the  whole  night  was  consumed 
before  the  large  column  found  itself  in  a  proper  position  to 
make  the  attack.  Seven  miles  of  rugged  country  was  to  be 
marched  along  the  mountain  eide,  and  down  hills  so  steep 
that  horses  could  hardly  travel,  the  men  holding  by  bushes, 
and  moving  in  single  rank.  The  Shenandoah  had  to  be  crossed 
twice,  the  last  time  in  the  face  of  the  enemy's  pickets.  Can 
teens  had  been  left  at  camp,  and  the  men  required  to  keep 
silent. 

Everybody  was  up  to  time;  every  thing  ready.  Payne 
charged  across  the  river,  driving  in  the  pickets  at  a  gallop, 
and  pressing  in  the  direction  of  Sheridan's  headquarters,  and 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  407 

towards  Middletown.  The  infantry  was  then  rushed  across, 
Gordon's  division  in  front,  next  Ramseur's — Pegram's  in  re 
serve.  Nothing  was  to  be  done  but  close  up  ranks,  face  to  the 
front,  and  fight  rapidly.  The  firing  began  at  all  points,  Ker 
shaw  charging  in  front,  and  with  great  success. 

The  enemy  was  struck  by  a  fatal  and  terrible  surprise.  The 
Eighth  and  Nineteenth  Corps  were  entirely  routed.  Great 
numbers  of  the  Yankees  were  slain  in  their  camps.  Eighteen 
pieces  of  artillery  were  captured,  fifteen  hundred  prisoners, 
small  arms  without  number,  wagons  and  camps,  every  thing  on 
the  ground.  Two-thirds  of  Sheridan's  army  was  routed  ;  noth 
ing  was  left  to  cover  their  disorderly  retreat  but  the  Sixth 
Corps  and  their  cavalry,  which  had  not  as  yet  been  brought 
into  action.  It  was  now  ten  in  the  morning.  Had  our  victo 
rious  fo-rces  pressed  on  in  hot  and  vigorous  pursuit  and  struck 
the  Sixth  Corps,  they  would  have  involved  the  whole  of  Sher 
idan's  army  in  complete  rout,  and  achieved  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  successes  of  the  war. 

But  our  troops  stopped.  There  was  no  more  rushing,  no 
more  charging.  They  had  betaken  themselves  to  plundering 
the  enemy's  camp  ;  demoralization  was  fast  ensuing ;  the  fire 
and  flush  of  their  victorious  charge  was  quendied  ;  the  fighting 
was  now  at  long  range  ;  the  infantry  was  pushed  forward  at  a 
snail's  pace  ;  there  was  no  longer  any  ardor  or  enthusiasm. 

For  four  or  five  hours  there  was  comparative  quiet ;  the 
Confederates  ranging  the  camps  of  the  enemy  for  plunder,  and 
taking  no  further  notice  of  his  forces  in  the  distance,  beyond 
some  skirmishing  and  desultory  firing. 

The  enemy,  in  the  mean  time,  were  not  idle.  Sheridan  had 
slept  at  Winchester  the  previous  night,  but,  hearing  the  can 
nonade  in  the  morning,  he  took  his  horse  and  pushed  on 
towards  Strasburg  at  full  gallop,  arriving  on  the  field  at  ten 
o'clock  A.  M.,  just  as  the  army  had  taken  up  its  position  north 
of  Middletown.  On  his  way  he  had  met  the  throng  of  wounded 
and  stragglers.  He  immediately  ordered  a  new  line  of  battle  : 
the  Nineteenth  Corps  on  the  right,  the  Sixth  in  the  centre, 
and  the  recovered  Eighth  Corps  on  the  left.  Custer's  cavalry 
was  on  the  extreme  right,  and  Merritt's  on  the  left.  At  three 
o'clock  Sheridan  assumed  the  offensive,  and  attacked  with 
vigor. 


408  SOUTHEEN    HISTOHY     OF    THE    WAR. 

Gordon's  division,  notwithstanding  his  efforts,  soon  broke* 
Kershaw's  and  Ramsenr's  divisions  were  lighting  well,  bul 
soon  followed  the  example  of  Gordon's  division.  Five  or  six 
guns  in  the  rear  were  immediately  driven  back  when  the  lino 
broke,  and  placed  on  a  high  hill,  where,  with  no  aid  from  the 
infantry,  who  were  flying  in  every  direction,  they  kept  the 
enemy  at  bay  for  an  hour  or  more.  Having  exhausted  their 
ammunition,  they  were  compelled  to  withdraw. 

By  this  time  Wharton's  and  Pegram's  men  had  caught  the 
panic,  and  the  field  became  covered  with  flying  men.  The 
artillery  retired,  firing  slowly,  and  sustained  only  by  Pegram's 
old  brigade  and  Evans'  brigade.  After  the  creek  was  crossed, 
Pegram's  and  Evans'  brigades  participated  in  the  demoraliza 
tion — the  road  was  filled  with  fugitives.  The  enemy's  cavalry 
charged  again  in  the  rear  of  our  train,  and  not  a  gun  was  fired 
in  its  defence.  Many  ordnance  and  medical  stores,  and  twenty- 
three  pieces  of  artillery,  besides  those  taken  by  us  in  the  morn 
ing,  were  captured. 

It  was  a  shameful  rout.  Our  troops  behaved  as  they  never 
behaved  before.  Our  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners 
was,  perhaps,  not  greater  than  three  thousand  ;  but  the  route 
of  the  retreat  was  strewn  with  abandoned  wagons,  ambulances, 
and  small  arms  thrown  away  by  the  panic-stricken  fugitives. 
Early  had  lost  nearly  all  of  his  artillery.  He  had,  in  fact, 
received  a  stunning  defeat  from  which  his  army  never  re 
covered.* 


*  The  following  address  of  General  Early  to  his  troops,  on  the  occasion  of 
this  disaster,  testifies  to  its  causes,  and  is  one  of  the  most  candid  and  memor 
able  papers  of  the  war  : 

HEADQUAUTERS  VALLEY  DISTRICT,  October  22,  1864. 
{Soldiers  of  the  Army  of  the  Valley : 

I  had  hoped  to  have  congratulated  you  on  the  splendid  victory  won  by  you 
on  the  morning  of  the  19th,  at  Belle  Grove,  on  Cedar  Creek,  when  you  sur 
prised  and  routed  two  corps  of  Sheridan's  army,  and  drove  back  several  miles 
the  remaining  corps,  capturing  eighteen  pieces  of  artillery,  one  thousand  five 
hundred  prisoners,  a  number  of  colors,  a  large  quantity  of  small  arms,  and 
many  wagons  and  ambulances,  with  the  entire  camps  of  the  two  routed  corps  ; 
but  I  have  the  mortification  of  announcing  to  you  that,  by  your  subsequent 
misconduct,  all  the  benefits  of  that  victory  were  lost,  and  a  serious  disaster 
Incurred.  Had  you  remained  steadfast  to  your  duty  and  your  colors,  the  vie* 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  409 

From  this  point  the  Valley  campaign  ceased  to  engage  much 
of  the  public  attention  ;  and  with  the  withdrawal  of  the  bulk 
of  the  opposing  forces  to  the  Richmond  lines,  the  interest  in 
military  events  was  again  transferred  to  that  quarter. 

For  six  weeks  after  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek,  there  were 
occasional  skirmishes  of  greater  or  less  severity  between  Tor- 


tory  would  have  been  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  decisive  of  tta  war  ;  you 
would  have  gloriously  retrieved  the  reverses  at  Winchester  and  Fisher's  Hill, 
and  entitled  yourselves  to  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  your  country.  But 
many  of  you,  including  some  commissioned  officers,  yielding  to  a  disgraceful 
propensity  for  plunder,  deserted  your  colors  to  appropriate  to  yourselves  the 
abandoned  property  of  the  enemy  ;  and,  subsequently,  those  who  had  previously 
remained  at  their  posts,  seeing  their  ranks  thinned  by  the  absence  of  the  plun 
derers,  when  the  enemy,  late  in  rhe  afternoon,  with  his  shattered  columns, 
made  but  a  feeble  effort  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  the  day,  yielded  to  a  needless 
panic,  and  fled  the  field  in  confusion,  thereby  converting  a  splendid  victory 
into  a  disaster. 

Had  any  respectable  number  of  you  listened  to  the  appeals  made  to  you, 
and  made  a  stand,  even  at  the  last  moment,  the  disaster  would  have  been 
averted,  and  the  substantial  fruits  of  victory  secured.  But  under  the  insane 
dread  of  being  flanked,  and  a  panic-stricken  terror  of  the  enemy's  cavalry,  you 
would  listen  to  no  appeal,  threat,  or  order,  and  allowed  a  small  body  of  cavalry 
to  penetrate  to  our  train,  and  carry  off  a  number  of  pieces  of  artillery  an 
wagons  which  your  disorder  left  unprotected.  You  have  thus  obscured  the 
glorious  fame  won  in  conjunction  with  the  gallant  men  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia,  who  still  remain  proudly  defiant  in  the  trenches  around  Richmond 
and  Petersburg.  Before  you  can  again  claim  them  as  comrades,  you  will  have 
to  erase  from  your  escutcheons  tho  blemishes  which  now  obscure  them.  And 
this  you  can  do  if  you  will  but  be  true  to  your  former  reputation,  your  country, 
and  your  homes.  You  who  have  fought  at  Manassas,  Richmond,  Sharpsburg, 
Fredericksburg,  Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg,  and  from  the  Wilderness  to  tho 
banks  of  James  River ;  and  especially  you  who  were  with  the  immortal  Jackson 
in  all  his  triumphs  are  capable  of  better  things. 

Arouse  yourselves,  then,  to  a  sense  of  your  manhood,  and  appreciation  of 
the  sacred  cause  in  which  you  are  engaged  !  Yield  to  the  mandates  of  disci 
pline  ;  resolve  to  stand  by  your  colors  in  future  at  all  hazards,  and  you  can  yet 
retrieve  your  reputation,  and  strike  effective  'blows  for  your  country  and  the 
cause.  Let  every  man  spurn  from  him  the  vile  plunder  gathered  on  the  field 
of  the  19th  ;  and  let  no  man,  whatever  his  rank,  whether  combatant  or  non- 
combatant,  dare  exhibit  his  spoils  of  that  day.  They  will  be  badges  of  his 
dishonor  ;  the  insignia  of  his  disgrace.  The  officer  who  pauses  in  the  career  of 
victory  to  place  a  guard  over  a  sutler's  wagon,  for  his  private  use,  is  as  bad  aa 
the  soldier  who  halts  to  secure  for  himself  the  abandoned  clothing  or  money 
of  a  flying  foe ;  and  they  both  soil  the  honor  of  the  army,  and  the  blood  of 
their  country  for  a  paltry  price.  He  who  follows  his  colors  into  the  ranks  of 
the  enemy  in  pursuit  of  victory,  disdaining  the  miserable  passion  for  gathering 
booty,  comes  out  of  the  battle  with  his  honor  untarnished  ;  and  thongh  bare* 


410  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

bert's  cavalry,  or  some  portion  of  it,  and  the  Confederate  v,-av. 
airy  officers  Rosser  and  Lomax ;  but  Early,  though  moving 
uneasily  up  and  down  the  Yalley  from  Mount  Jackson  or  New 
Market  to  Fisher's  Hill,  carefully  avoided  any  thing  like  a 
general  engagement,  and  in  December  sent  a  part  of  his  forces 
to  strengthen  General  Lee. 

SOUTHWESTERN    VIRGINIA. 

In  Southwestern  Virginia,  during  the  period  we  have  tra 
versed  and  the  early  winter  of  1864,  there  was  a  desultory  cam 
paign,  to  which  we  should  briefly  refer. 

footed  and  ragged,  is  far  more  to  be  envied  than  he  that  is  laden  with  rich 
spoils  gathered  in  the  trail  of  his  victorious  comrades.  There  were  some  ex 
ceptions  to  the  general  misconduct  on  the  afternoon  of  the  19th,  but  it  would 
be  difficult  to  specify  them  all.  Let  those  who  did  their  duty  be  satisfied  with 
the  consciousness  of  having  done  it,  and  mourn  that  their  efforts  were  para 
lyzed  by  the  misbehavior  of  others.  Let  them  be  consoled,  to  some  extent,  by 
the  reflection  that  the  enemy  has  nothing  to  boast  of  on  his  part. 

The  artillery  and  wagons  taken  were  not  won  by  his  valor.  His  camps 
were  destroyed ;  his  army  terribly  shattered  and  demoralized ;  his  losses  far 
heavier  than  ours,  even  in  proportion  to  the  relative  strength  of  the  armies 
his  plans  materially  impeded ;  and  he  was  unable  to  pursue  by  reason  of  hia 
crippled  condition.  Soldiers  of  the  Army  of  the  Valley,  I  do  not  speak  to  you 
in  anger  ;  I  wish  to  speak  in  kindness,  though  in  sorrow.  My  purpose  is  to 
show  you  the  cause  of  our  late  misfortune,  and  point  out  the  way  to  avoid 
similar  ones  in  future,  and  insure  success  to  our  arms.  Success  can  only  be 
secured  by  the  enforcement  and  observance  of  the  most  rigid  discipline.  Offi 
cers,  whatever  their  rank,  must  not  only  give  orders,  but  set  the  example  of 
obeying  them,  and  the  men  must  follow  that  example. 

Fellow-soldiers,  I  am  ready  to  lead  you  again  in  defence  of  our  common 
cause  ;  and  I  appeal  to  you  by  the  remembrance  of  the  glorious  career  ia 
which  you  have  formerly  participated,  by  the  woes  of  your  bleeding  country, 
the  ruined  homes  and  devastated  fields  you  see  around  you,  the  cries  of  an- 
guish  which  come  up  from  the  widows  and  orphans  of  your  dead  comrades, 
the  horrors  which  await  you  and  all  that  is  yours  in  the  future,  if  your  coun 
try  is  subjugated,  and  your  hopes  of  freedom  for  yourselves  and  your  posterity, 
to  render  a  cheerful  and  willing  obedience  to  the  rules  of  discipline,  and  to 
shoulder  your  musket  again  with  the  determination  never  more  to  turn  your 
bucks  upon  the  foe,  but  to  do  battle  like  men  and  soldiers  until  the  last  vestigo 
of  the  footsteps  of  our  barbarous  and  cruel  enemies  is  erased  from  the  soil  they 
desecrate,  and  the  independence  of  our  country  is  firmly  established.  If  you 
will  do  this,  and  rely  upon  the  protecting  care  of  a  just  and  merciful  God,  all 
will  be  well ;  you  will  a,gain  be  what  you  once  were,  and  I  will  be  proud  to 
lead  you  once  more  to  battle. 

J.  A.  EARLY.  Lieutenant-Genera  I. 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  411 

On  the  2d  of  October,  General  Breckinridge,  who  had  re 
lieved  Echols  in  Southwestern  Virginia,  encountered  Bur 
bridge,  who  was  advancing  on  the  salt-works  at  Saltville,  Vir 
ginia,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Holtston  River  defeated  him, 
giving  him  a  severe  lesson.  In  November,  Breckinridge,  hav 
ing  joined  Vaughn  in  East  Tennessee,  defeated  the  Yankeo 
General  Gillem,  at  Morristown,  taking  four  hundred  prisoners ; 
and  on  the  18th  of  the  month,  engaged  and  defeated  the  enemy 
again  at  Strawberry  Plains. 

On  the  20th  of  December,  the  salt-works  at  Saltville  were 
captured  by  the  Yankees,  who  in  the  early  part  of  the  month 
had  been  raiding  on  the  Tennessee  road.  Our  forces  there 
were  attacked  by  the  whole  force  of  Burbridge,  numbering 
about  five  thousand.  The  fight  was  kept  up  all  the  evening, 
mainly  with  artillery,  our  forces  being  commanded  by  Colonel 
Preston,  and  numbering,  it  is  said,  not  more  than  three  hun 
dred  and  fifty.  When  night  fell  they  still  held  their  own ; 
but,  under  cover  of  the  darkness,  the  Yankees  succeeded  in. 
reaching  Fort  Breckinridge,  one  of  the  main  defences  of  the 
place,  in  overpowering  numbers,  and  captured  it.  Colonel 
Preston,  deeming  it  impractible  to  hold  the  works  longer,  then 
ordered  the  evacuation.  The  works  were  fired  the  next  morn 
ing.  The  Yankees  did  not  remain  long,  and  left  for  East  Ten 
nessee.  At  Abingdon,  they  destroyed  two  entire  blocks  of 
buildings. 


4:12  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  extraordinary  triumph.  —  Reassembling  of  the  Richmond  CongMe?.— 
President  Davis'  review  of  the  situation.  —  A  memorable  boast.  —  New  demands  of 
the  Confederate  conscription.  —  Military  resources  of  the  North  and  South  com 
pared.  —  Plethoric  wealth  of  the  North.—  "  Twenty  against  one."  —  Two  advantages 
the  South  had  in  the  Avar.—  Its  conditions  of  success.  —  The  value  of  endurance  on 
the  part  of  the  South.  —  THE  HOOD-SHERMAN  CAMPAIGN.  —  Speeches  at  headquarters. 
—Hood  commences  his  march.  —  Capture  of  Dalton.—  Sherman  follows  as  far  as 
Gaylesville.  —  He  turns  back.  —  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  "  at  his  mercv."  —  An 

•  extraordinary  campaign.—  Hood  and  Sherman  marching  away  from  each  other.  — 
Hood  crosses  into  Tennessee.  —  The  Yankee  retreat  to  Franklin.  —  THE  BATTLK  OF 
FKANKLIN.—  Great  loss  in  Confederate  officers.  —  The  enemy  retreats  to  Nashville.  — 
BATTLE  OF  NASHVILLE.  —  The  giving  way  of  Bates'  division.  —  A  shameful  stampede. 
—  Hood's  losses.  —  The  whole  scheme  of  Confederate  defence  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghunies  broken  down.  —  The  errors  of  Hood's  campaign. 


have  already  stated  that  the  military  successes  of  the 
two  or  three  preceding  months  secured  the  re-election  of  Pres 
ident  Lincoln  on  the  8th  of  November.  His  re-election  was 
singularly  triumphant.  General  McClellan  received  only  the 
electoral  vote  of  Delaware  (3),  Kentucky  (11),  and  New  Jersey 
(7),  21  in  all.  Mr.  Lincoln  received  that  of  the  remaining  22 
States,  213  in  all.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  the  vote  of  all  the  States 
which  he  received  in  1860,  with  the  exception  of  the  half  vote 
of  New  Jersey,  which  was  cast  for  him  in  consequence  of  a 
division  in  the  opposition  party.  Besides  these,  he  received 
the  7  electoral  votes  of  Maryland,  which  in  1860  were  cast  for 
Mr.  Breckinridge  ;  the  11  votes  of  Missouri,  cast  for  Douglas  ; 
and  the  11  votes  of  the  new  States  of  Kansas,  West  Virginia, 
and  Nevada.  In  the  States  which  voted  at  this  election,  there 
was  in  1860  a,  popular  majority  of  about  100,000  against  Mr. 
Lincoln  ;  t)/>e  popular  majority  in  his  favor  now  was  ahout 
330,000. 

A  few  flays  before  this  election,  the  Confederate  Congress 
had  reassembled  in  Richmond.  The  message  of  President 
Davis  opened  with  an  ingenious  review  of  the  campaign  of 
1864.  "  At  the  beginning  of  the  year,"  he  said,  ''Texas  was  par 
tially  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy  ;  now  no  Federal  soldiers 


THE    LAST    YE.iR.  413 

were  in  the  State,  except  as  prisoners.  In  Northwestern 
Louisiana,  a  large  Federal  army  and  fleet  had  been  defeated, 
and  had  only  escaped  with  a  loss  of  one-third  of  its  numbers, 
and  a  large  part  of  its  munitions  and  vessels.  Arkansas  had 
been  nearly  recovered  ;  and  the  Confederate  forces  had  pene 
trated  into  Missouri.  On  the  east  of  the  Mississippi,  in  spito 
of  some  reverses,  the  Confederates  had  been  on  the  whole  suc 
cessful  ;  Northern  and  Western  Mississippi,  Northern  Ala 
bama,  and  Western  Tennessee  were  in  their  possession.  On 
the  seacoast,  the  successes  of  the  Federals  had  been  confined 
to  the  capture  of  the  outer  defences  of  Mobile  Bay.  Their 
armies  had  been  defeated  indifferent  parts  of  Virginia ;  and 
after  a  series  of  defeats  around  Richmond,  they  were  still  en 
gaged  in  the  effort,  commenced  four  months  before,  to  capture 
Petersburg.  The  army  of  Sherman,  though  it  had  captured 
Atlanta,  had  gained  no  real  advantage  beyond  the  possession 
of  a  few  fortified  points  which  could  be  held  only  by  large 
garrisons,  and  were  menaced  with  recapture." 

President  Davis  concluded  his  review  with  a  memorable 
boast.  "The  Confederacy,"  he  declared,  "  had  no  vital  poinfo. 
If  Richmond,  and  Wilmington,  and  Charleston,  and  Savannah, 
and  Mohile  were  all  captured,  the  Confederacy  would  remain 
as  defiant  as  ever,  and  no  peace  would  be  made  which  did  not 
recognize  its  independence." 

The  Confederate  President,  while  professing  to  see  no  cause 
for  despondency  in  the  military  situation,  took  occasion  to  re 
commend  the  repeal  of  all  laws  granting  exemption  from  mili 
tary  service.  He  said  that  "  no  position  or  pursuit  should 
relieve -any  one  who  is  able  to  do  active  duty  from  the  enrol 
ment  in  the  arm}r,"  unless  he  could  be  more  useful  in  another 
sphere,  and  this  could  not  be  the  case  with  entire  classes.  The 
military  authorities  should  have  the  power  to  exempt  individ 
uals  only,  whose  services  may  be  more  valuable  in  than  out 
oi  the  army.  In  regard  to  the  question  of  the  employment  of 
slaves  in  the  army,  Mr.  Davis  recommended  that  slaves  to  the 
number  of  40,000  should  be  '•  acquired"  by  the  general  gov 
ernment,  who  should  be  employed  not  merely  as  ordinary 
laborers,  cooks,  and  teamsters,  but  as  engineer  and  pioneer 
laborers.  He  recommended  that  these  slaves  should  be  liber 
ated  on  their  discharge,  after  faithful  service,  rather  than  that 


414  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

they  should  be  manumitted  at  once,  or  retained  in  servitude 
He  was  opposed,  under  present  circumstances,  to  arming 'the 
slaves;  but  he  added:  "The  subject  is  to  be  viewed  solely  in 
the  light  of  policy  and  our  social  economy.  Should  the  alter 
native  ever  be  presented  of  subjugation  or  of  the  employment 
of  the  slave  as  a  soldier,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  doubt 
what  then  should  be  our  decision." 

We  have,  at  different  periods  in  the  history  of  the  war,  in 
stituted  a  comparison  between  the  material  resources  of  the 
belligerents.  They  were  terribly  unequal  at  this  period.  Mr. 
Lincoln,  in  his  message  to  Congress,  referred  to  a  fact  which 
could  not  be  denied :  that  the  steady  expansion  of  popula 
tion,  improvement,  and  governmental  institutions  over  the 
new  and  unoccupied  portion  of  the  North  had  scarcely  been 
checked,  much  less  impeded  or  destroyed  by  the  war.  New 
and  immense  resources  had  been  recently  developed  by  the 
enemy  ;  and  it  seemed,  indeed,  that  providential  circumstances 
had  come  to  his  aid  in  the  war.  The  discovery  and  develop 
ment  of  petroleum  had  added  immensely  to  the  national  wealth, 
and  it  was  calculated  that  in  a  few  years  it  would  become  an 
article  of  export  to  the  extent  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
of  dollars.  Mineral  resources,  almost  fabulous,  had  been 
brought  to  light.  What  once  seemed  a  barren  and  uninhabit 
able  waste,  between  the  Atlantic  States  and  those  which  had 
grown  up  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  had  proved  a  new  El  Dorado. 
It  was  estimated  that  the  products  of  the  mines  of  gold,  silver, 
and  cinnabar  in  that  region  had,  in  the  past  year,  exceeded  one 
hundred  millions  of  dollars.  It  was  discovered  that  a  vast 
belt  of  some  one  or  two  hundred  miles  in  width  and  eight  or 
nine  hundred  in  length,  embracing  portions  of  Idaho,  Nevada, 
acd  Arizona,  was  rich  in  silver  ore.  The  North  had  be 
come  suddenly  plethoric  with  wealth ;  and  for  men  and  ma 
terial  for  the  purposes  of  war,  it  had  the  whole  world  to  draw 
upon. 

A  Yankee  newspaper  said  :  "  We  have  now  over  twenty-six 
millions  of  people  within  the  Union  lines,  against  less  than  five 
millions  (over  one-half  negro  slaves)  within  the  lines  of  Davis. 
All  things  considered,  the  actual,  positive  available  strength 
of  Lincoln  against  Davis  is  more  than  twenty  against  one. 
The  war,  then,  should  be,  at  the  furthest,  brought  to  an  end 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  4:15 

within  six  mu.ths,  and  with  becoming  energy  on  the  part  of 
the  administration  it  might  be  finished  in  three." 

But  there  was  one  element  which  the  newspaper  did  not 
take  into  its  calculation  ;  and  which,  despite  the  almost  appall 
ing  disparity  of  resources  between  the  belligerents,  insured, 
on  certain  conditions,  the  final  success  of  the  South.  It  waa 
the  vast  extent  of  territory  which  the  North  proposed  to  sub 
jugate,  and  which  never  yet,  in  the  history  of  wars,  was 
brought  to  such  a  fate,  on  the  single  condition  that  its  people 
remained  firm  in  their  resolution  and  purpose.  Against  the 
inequality  of  resources  between  the  North  and  the  South,  we 
may  put  these  considerations,  in  which  the  latter  had  immense 
advantages  :  that  the  South  was  fighting  on  the  defensive,  and 
had,  therefore,  no  need  of  positive  victories;  that  she  only 
sought  a  negative  conclusion,  and  might  win  by  endurance; 
and  that  her  territory  was  so  extensive  that  it  would  take 
several  millions  of  men  to  garrison  it,  as  long  as  its  people 
were  firmly  disposed  to  dispute  the  authority  of  the  in- 
raders. 

With  reflecting  persons  in  the  North,  the  real  question 
touching  the  war  had  come  to  be  the  measure  of  Southern  en 
durance  ;  and  this  virtue  had  obtained  a  new  and  vital  value 
in  the  stages  through  which  the  war  was  now  passing.  It  was 
fashionable  for  Yankees  to  laugh  at  Confederate  expectations 
of  political  revolutions  or  financial  rupture  in  the  North ;  they 
concluded  that  the  time  was  past  when  the  Confederates  could 
expect  to  win  their  independence  by  a  grand  military  coup  or 
force  of  military  successes.  All  these  calculations  were  lightly 
or  insolently  regarded  by  Northern  men.  Their  real  anxiety 
was,  the  measure  of  endurance  on  the  part  of  the  South.  The 
great  curiosity  of  Northern  politicians  was  as  to  the  real  spirit 
of  the  South,  and  the  questions  of  thinking  men  among  them 
invariably  went  to  the  point  of  the  probable  term  of  Southern 
endurance.  This  quality  had  assumed  a  new  value  in  Northern 
eyes.  It  had  become  mcrally  certain  that  by  force  of  it  alone 
the  South  would  obtain  her  independence.  Such  was  the  silent 
but  general  concession  of  the  Northern  mind.  There  was  but 
one  condition  to  assure  the  independence  of  the  South  :  that 
the  spirit  of  the  people  and  the  army  would  not  break  by  some 
unworthy  impatience,  or  not  be  deliberately  broken  down  by 


4:16  SOUTHERN    BISTORT  OF     THE    WAR. 

insane  persistence  in  felly  on  tlie  part  of  Davis  and  his  clique 
of  toadies  and  encouragers. 

There  were  two  parties  in  the  North,  perhaps  equally  intel 
ligent,  and  each  claiming  to  draw  their  opinions  from  Southern 
sources  of  information,  which  differed  as  to  the  real  spirit  o. 
the  South:  one  claiming  that  it  was  resolute,  and  even  in  the 
last  necessity  desperate;  the  other  contending  that  it  was  fast 
being  broken  by  reverses,  and  would  end  in  submission.  One 
found  this  question  in  every  circle  in  the  North.  Reliable  in 
formation  upon  it  was  far  more  valuable  to  the  Washington 
Government  than  maps  of  all  the  fortifications  in  the  Confed 
erate  States.  To  convince  the  North  of  the  spirit  of  the 
Southern  people  was  more  important  than  half-a-dozen  vic 
tories;  for  it  was  to  convince  them  of  the  hopelessness  of  \\ar, 
and  to  put  before  their  eyes  the  immediate  necessity  of  con 
scription. 

President  Davis  said  rightly  that  the  Confederacy  "  had  no 
vital  points  ;"  but  the  declaration  implied  the  condition  that 
the  spirit  of  the  people,  despite  of  temporary  disasters,  was  to 
remain  erect  and  unbroken.  And  a  period  of  the  war  was 
now  approaching  when  precisely  that  condition  was  to  be 
tested,  and  the  spirit  of  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  was  to 
be  tried,  as  it  had  never  before  been,  by  the  tire  and  sword  of 
the  invader.  To  the  events  of  this  remarkable  period  we  must 
now  draw  the  attention  of  the  reader. 

THE    HOOD-SHEKMAN    CAMPAIGN. 

The  public  did  not  have  long  to  wait  for  the  development 
of  that  curious  strategy  which  President  Davis  had  planned 
with  Hood  for  the  compensation  of  the  loss  of  Atlanta.  In 
deed,  no  secret  was  made  of  its  general  movement  and  designs. 

On  the  18th  of  September,  President  Davis  arrived  at  Gen 
eral  Hood's  headquarters,  and  the  following  day  reviewed  tho 
whole  army.  In  the  evening,  the  President  addressed  the  sol 
diers  in  hopeful  and  encouraging  tones.  Turning  to  Cheat- 
ham's  division  of  Tennesseeans,  he  said  :  uBe  of  good  cheer, 
for  within  a  short  while  your  faces  will  be  turned  homeward, 
and  your  feet  pressing  Tenrcssee  soil." 

General  Hood  was  enthusiastically  called  for.      He 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  417 

l<  Soldiers,  it  is  not  my  province  to  make  speeches  :  I  was  not 
born  for  such  work ;  that  I  leave  to  other  men.  Within  a  few 
days  I  expect  to  give  the  command  '  Forward  !'  and  I  believe 
you  are,  like  myself,  willing  to  go  forward,  even  if  we  live  on 
parched  corn  and  beef.  1  am  ready  to  give  the  command 
4  Forward  !'  this  very  night.  Good-night." 

On  the  29th  of  September,  Hood  began  his  march,  getting 
well  in  the  rear  of  Sherman,  and  next  day  encamping  near  the, 
old  battle-ground  of  New  Hope  Church.  His  first  movement 
attracted  but  little  attention.  The  incautious  language  ol 
President  Davis  first  led  the  enemy  to  suppose  that  this  move 
ment  was  preliminary  to  something  more  extensive,  and  Gen 
eral  Sherman's  suspicions  also  were  apparently  aroused  by  it; 
for  we  find  him  about  this  time  sending  his  spare  forces  to  the 
rear,  under  General  Thomas,  and  distributing  strong  detach 
ments,  under  Newton,  Corse,  and  Schofield,  at  different  points 
immediately  in  the  rear  of  Atlanta.  He  also  ordered  frequent 
reconnoissances  of  the  enemy  in  his  position  near  Newrian. 
The  Yankee  cavalry  reported,  on  September  27,  further  move 
ments  of  Hood  towards  the  Chattahoochee.  On  October  1, 
Generals  Fuller  and  Ransom  made  a  reconnoissance  towards 
Ne\vnan,  and  discovered  that  the  Confederates  had  crossed  the 
Chattahoochee  River  on  September  29  and  30,  and  had  con 
centrated  in  the  vicinity  of  Powder  Springs,  Ga.  On  the  3d 
of  October,  General  Sherman,  with  the  bulk  of  his  army, 
moved  in  pursuit,  vowing  his  intention  to  destroy  Hood. 

On  the  5th  of  October,  when  Hood's  advance  assaulted  Al- 
latoona,  Sherman  was  on  Kenesaw  Mountain,  signalling  to  the 
garrison  at  Allatoona,  over  the  heads  of  the  Confederates,  to 
hold  out  until  he  relieved  them.  Hood  moved  westward,  and 
crossing  the  Etowah  and  Oostananla  rivers  by  forced  marches, 
attacked  Dalton  on  the  12th,  which  was  surrendered. 

After  obstructing  Snake  Creek  Gap  as  much  as  possible,  in 
order  to  delay  Sherman,  who  continued  to  press  him,  Hood 
moved  west,  passing  through  the  gap  of  Pigeon  Mountain,  and 
entered  Lafayette  on  the  15th  of  October.  He  had  now  ad 
vanced  as  far  north  as  it  was  thought  possible  to  do  without 
fighting,  and  a  battle  appeared  to  be  imminent  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  old  battle-field  of  Chickamauga.  But  Hood,  after  hold 
ing  the  gaps  of  Pigeon  Mountain  as  long  as  possible,  suddenly 

37 


4:18  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

moved  south  from  Lafayette  to  Gadsden,  Alabama,  closely  fol 
lowed  as  far  as  Gaylesville  by  General  Sherman.  This  move 
ment  was  looked  upon  as  a  retreat,  and  as  the  end  of  the  great 
raid  of  which  Hood  and  Davis  had  promised  and  boasted  so 
much.  But  it  soon  became  apparent  that  Hood  was  not  yet 
at  the  end  of  his  strategy,  and  that  the  campaign  was  only 
about  to  begin  in  earnest. 

On  October  23,  Hood  moved  from  Gadsden,  through  Look 
out  Mountain,  towards  Gunter's  Landing  and  Decatnr,  on  the 
Tennessee  Kiver,  near  the  last  of  which  places  he  formed  a 
junction  with  a  portion  of  General  Dick  Taylor's  army,  which 
had  meantime  quietly  moved  up  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  Kail- 
road  to  Corinth,  and  thence  to  Tuscumbia,  the  new  base  of 
supplies.  He  thus  placed  himself  far  in  General  Sherman's 
rear  before  that  officer  could  take  steps  to  transfer  his  army  to 
the  new  front  of  the  Confederates  on  the  Tennessee.  Hood's 
advance  had  probably  reached  the  Tennessee  before  Sherman 
positively  knew  that  he  had  abandoned  Gadsden.  Undoubt 
edly  it  was  much  to  his  surprise  when,  on  October  25,  he  tried 
the  gap  and  found  it  abandoned  by  Hood.  The  position  was 
certainly  startling.  He  dared  not  follow,  thus  abandoning  his 
line  of  supplies  to  venture  in  a  mountainous  country,  through 
which  a  large  army  had  just  passed.  It  was  impossible  to 
transfer  his  entire  army  to  Hood's  front  in  time  to  meet  him 
and  thus  hold  his  communications  intact.  The  position  de 
manded  resolution  and  action. 

Genera]  Sherman  seems  here  to  have  comprehended  Hood's 
designs.  On  the  junction  of  Taylor's  army  with  him,  he  rea 
soned  that  the  two  would  strike  a  blow  for  the  recovery  of 
Middle  Tennessee  ;  and,  if  successful,  then  for  East  Tennessee 
also.  But  he  calculated  that  Tennessee  would  be  safe  in  charge 
of  General  Thomas,  to  whom  he  could  assign  a  force  sufficient 
to  grapple  with  Hood,  Taylor,  or  Beauregard  ;  while  for  him 
self  he  had  projected  another  campaign.  Turning  eastward, 
then,  from  Gaylesville,  he  announced  to  his  army  that  he 
should  follow  Hood  no  longer,  but  let  him  go  north  as  far  as 
he  pleased.  "  If  he  will  go  to  the  river,"  he  said,  "I  will  give 
him  his  rations."  Giving  his  instructions  to  General  Thomas, 
and  dividing  his  army  so  as  to  spare  him  a  part  of  the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland  and  the  Army  of  the  Ohn,  he  moved 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  4:19 

southeast  towards  Atlanta  by  the  1st  of  November,  causing 
the  railroad  track  to  be  removed  from  Atlanta  to  Chattanooga, 
and  sent  to  the  latter  city.  On  the  4th  of  November,  he  be 
gan  his  preparations  for  his  new  movement;  and  the  same  day 
telegraphed  his  intentions  to  Washington,  in  the  following 
words:  "Hood  has  crossed  the  Tennessee.  Thomas  will  take 
care  of  him  and  Nashville,  while  Schon'eld  will  not  let  him 
into  Chattanooga  or  Knoxville.  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
are  at  my  mercy — and  I -shall  strike.  Do  not  be  anxious 
about  me.  I  am  all  right."  The  campaign  he  had  projected 
was  neither  more  nor  less  than  this :  with  the  four  corps,  and 
the  cavalry  force  still  under  his  immediate  command,  an  army 
of  not  far  from  sixty  thousand  infantry  and  artillery,  and  about 
five  thousand  cavalry,  he  purposed,  cutting  loose  from  all  bases, 
and  constituting  a  strictly  movable  column,  with  thirty  or 
forty  days'  rations,  and  his  train  reduced  to  the  smallest  pos 
sible  dimensions,  to  move  southeastward,  through  the  heart  of 
the  country,  upon  Savannah  ;  and  thence,  should  circumstances 
favor,  northward  through  South  Carolina  and  North  Carolina, 
to  compel  the  surrender  or  evacuation  of  Richmond. 

And  now  commenced  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  cam 
paigns  of  any  war — presenting  the  singular  spectacle  of  two 
great  antagonistic  chieftains  'both  at  once  acting  on  the  offen 
sive,  day  after  day  marching  away  from  each  other,  and  mov 
ing  diametrically  apart. 

On  the  20th  of  November,  General  Hood  commenced  to 
move  his  army  from  Northern  Alabama  to  Tennessee.  His 
line  of  march  from  Florence  followed  two  parallel  roads  to 
die  chief  town  of  Wayne  County,  in  Tennessee — Waynesboro'. 
Simultaneously  with  this  advance,  the  Yankees  evacuated  or 
surrendered  Decatur  and  Huntsville.  The  Fourth  Army 
Corps,  under  General  Stanley,  two  divisions  of  the  Twenty- 
third  Corps,  under  General  Schon'eld,  and  an  aggregation  of 
fort-garrisons  from  the  surrounding  country,  under  General 
Richard  W.  Johnson,  concentrated  at  Pulaski.  Hood,  imme 
diately  after  his  arrival  at  Waynesboro',  changed  front  to  the 
northwest ;  and,  while  marching  directly  upon  Columbia, 
threatened,  with  Forrest's  cavalry,  to  cut  off  the  Yankee  re 
treat  from  Pulaski.  That  position,  about  to  be  flanked,  was  at 
once  abandoned.  Schon'eld,  with  the  force  that  had  been  con- 


420  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

centrated  there,  retreated  on  the  23d  ;  and,  while  his  cavalrj 
were  being  pressed  in  upon  his  rear  by  those  of  Hoody  at 
tempted,  by  a  forced  march,  to  reach  Columbia.  Forrest  had, 
however,  fallen  upon  the  Yankee  base,  and,  having  forced 
them  back  rapidly,  had  advanced  within  four  miles  of  Colum- 
lu'a.  Schofield's  infantry  had,  however,  come  up  in  time  to- 
sa-,e  the  place  from  capture,  and  to  hold  back  the  Confederates 
until  the  works  covering  the  place  had  been  made  impassable 
by  a  chevaux  defrize  of  Yankee  bayonets. 

Hood's  infantry  marched  on.  On  the  25th,  they  had  com 
menced  a  movement  for  flanking  Columbia  on  the  eastward,  in 
conjunction  with  an  attempt  of  Forrest  to  cut  that  place  ofJ 
from  railroad  communication  with  Nashville.  Under  heavy 
skirmishing  and  cannonading,  Forrest  succeeded  in  extending 
his  flank  to  Duck  River,  and  in  throwing  a  large  force  of  his 
cavalry  to  the  opposite  bank.  The  Confederate  infantry,  filing 
at  the  same  time  around  the  place  on  the  east,  the  state  of  af 
fairs  became  critical,  and  compelled  Schofield  to  fall  bac1* 
hurriedly,  with  a  loss  of  stores,  on  the  night  of  the  26rh. 

The  retreat  to  Franklin  was  one  of  constant  fighting.  Slur 
mishing  of  the  very  heaviest  and  deadliest  character  wag 
maintained  all  the  way.  Forrest  hung  like  a  raging  tiger  upon 
the  rear,  and  occasionally  pressing  Wilson  back,  brought  face 
to  face  the  retreating  and  the  pursuing  infantry.  On  the  29th, 
General  Cox,  commanding  Schofield's  rear,  was  brought  to  bay 
at  Spring  Hill,  midway  between  Columbia  and  Franklin,  and. 
after  a  struggle  to  delay  the  advance,  retreated  successfully  to 
the  main  body  at  Franklin. 

The  Confederates  pressed  on,  Forrest  leading,  Stewart  next, 
and  Cheatham  following.  Lee  was  still  in  the  rear,  but  coming 
up.  The  enemy  were  closely  pushed,  retreated  rapidly,  and 
left  evidences  of  their  haste  on  every  side  ;  wagons  half  burned 
or  with  wheels  cut,  and  animals,  weltering  in  their  own  fresh 
blood,  were  strewn  along  the  road.  After  travelling  in  this 
manner  for  about  seven  miles,  Stewart  sent  word  to  the  rear 
that  he  had  brought  the  Yankees  to  bay,  and  they  were  two 
miles  in  his  front,  in  line  of  battle,  occupying  a  ridge  of  hills. 

By  the  time  a  disposition  of  our  forces  was  made  for  an  as- 
gault,  the  Yankee  columns  broke  into  marching  order,  and 
moved  on  as  before.  A  short  distance  ahead  the  Yankees 


THE    LAST    YEAR. 

Bgain  made  a  stand.  The  Confederates  prepared,  as  before,  to 
attack.  No  sooner  were  the  preparations  complete,  however, 
than  the  Yankees  resumed  their  march,  and  thus  gained  time 
for  their  wagon  trains  and  artillery.  On  reaching  the  last 
bridge  on  which  the  enemy  had  halted,  Hood  saw  before  him 
the  town  of  Franklin,  and  in  front  of  it  three  strong  lines  o* 
battle,  in  three  heavy  series  of  breastworks. 


THE   BATTLE  OF   FRANKLIN. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  of  the  30th  of  November,  when 
the  Confederate  army  approached  Franklin.  General  Hood 
resolved  to  attack  at  once.  Had  he  waited  till  the  next  morn 
ing,  a  new  and  formidable  line  of  works  would  have  confronted 
him,  and  the  second  and  inner  line  would  have  been  so  greatly 
strengthened,  that,  it  would  have  been  madness  to  have  attacked. 
General  Hood  knew  that  Thomas  would  endeavor  to  hold 
the  old  line  of  Nashville,  Murfreesboro',  and  Franklin  ;  and  he 
felt  that  if  he  could  fight  the  battle  of  Nashville  at  Franklin, 
and  be  successful,  that  Nashville  would  fall,  Tennessee  be 
given  up,  and  the  war  transferred  to  the  Ohio. 

Stewart  and  Forrest  made  a  detour  to  the  right,  and  by  five 
o'clock  had  struck  the  enemy  a  stunning  blow  on  his  left  flank. 
Cheatham  now  moved  up,  and  joining  his  right,  as  near  as 
practicable,  to  Stewart's  left,  the  battle  was  joined,  and  waged 
with  fierceness  on  both  sides. 

Thousands  of  our  soldiers  were  standing  once  more  on  their 
own  native  soil,  and  some  in  sight  of  their  own  homes ;  and 
they  fought  with  every  incentive  in  their  hearts  that  can  urge 
manhood  to  noble  deeds.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  troops  was 
glorious  ;  the  country  a  vast,  unbroken  plain,  as  level  as  a 
table ;  and  the  sight  of  those  long  dark  lines,  fringed  with  fire 
and  smoke,  with  twenty  thousand  rifles  mingling  their  sharp 
notes  with  the  deeper  thunders  of  the  artillery,  was  well  cal 
culated  to  inspire  the  heroism  which  impelled  our  army  on  to 
victory.  Major-generals,  brigadiers,  and  colonels  rode  in  front 
of  their  commands,  waving  hats,  and  urging  on  the  troops. 
Men  fell  wounded  and  dead — o-reat  rents  were  torn — but,  with 


422  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAE. 

I 

the  steadiness  of  veterans,  the  gaps  were  filled  by  the  living 
and  the  column  moved  on. 

The  first  line  of  breastworks  was  swept  clean.  Our  loss  had 
been  great.  General  Pat.  Cleburne,  the  "  Stonewall  Jackson' 
of  the  West,  fell,  shot  through  the  head  with  four  balls,  and 
died  on  the  ramparts.  General  Gist,  previously  wounded  in 
the  leg,  had  refused  to  leave  the  field,  limping  along  on  foot, 
cheering  his  men,  and  finally  received  a  ball  through  the 
breast,  killing  him  instantly.  Brown,  Manigault,  Johnson, 
Strahl,  and  scores  of  field  and  staff  officers,  who  had  ex 
posed  themselves  at  the  head  of  their  troops,  were  either 
killed  or  wounded.  Still  our  men  faltered  not.  Dashing  on, 
they  reached  the  second  line.  The  Yankees  were  stubborn. 
On  the  right  they  had  charged  Bates'  division,  and  gained  a 
momentary  advantage  ;  but  recovering,  that  gallant  officer 
was  again  at  the  front,  and,  with  his  brave  Tennesseeans,  doing 
splendid  service. 

For  a  time  the  Yankees  held  their  breastworks,  and  the 
fighting  was  hand  to  hand  between  those  in  the  ditch  on  the 
outside,  and  those  behind  the  intrenchments.  But  the  struggle 
was  not  long,  and  again  the  foe  was  flying  across  the  field. 
It  was  night,  however,  and  the  difficulties  of  continuing  the 
battle  so  great,  that  at  two  o'clock  A.  M.,  save  the  occasional 
spattering  of  musketry,  the  grand  chorus  of  battle  was  at  an  end. 
The  next  morning  it  was  discovered  that  the  Yankees  had 
evacuated  the  position,  and  were  in  full  retreat  to  Nashville. 
It  was  likewise  discovered  that  Thomas  had  been  largely  rein 
forced,  and  thus  enabled  to  make  the  stubborn  resistance 
which  had  not  been  anticipated  by  General  Hood. 

Just  before  the  battle  of  Franklin  had  been  joined,  Hood 
had  ridden  along  the  lines  of  his  arm}7,  telling  his  men  that  the 
Yankee  lines  were  weak,  and  that  once  broken,  the  army 
would  be  driven  out  of  Tennessee.  He  had  been  extravagant 
in  his  promises.  The  Yankee  General  Thomas  lay  at  Nashville 
with  his  main  force. 

Hood  now  advanced  upon  Nashville,  and  laid  siege  t3  it  on 
the  2d  of  December,  closely  investing  it  for  a  fortnight. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  4-23 


THE   BATTLE   OF   NASHVILLE. 

While  Hood  was  intrenching  before  Nashville,  Thomas  wa 
preparing  for  an  assault  on  the  Confederate  position.  Rein 
forcements  were  received  from  several  sources,  until  by  the 
12th  the  Yankee  ranks  were  swelled  to  an  extent  which  war 
ranted  Thomas  to  advance  to  the  attack  whenever  his  arrange 
ments  were  completed.  A  consultation  of  the  Yankee  com 
manders  was  held  on  the  12th,  and  it  was  determined  to  attack 
the  Confederate  lines  on  the  following  day.  This  plan  was 
frustrated  by  Hood,  who  fell  back  to  a  stronger  position,  two 
miles  south  of  that  held  by  him  on  the  12th.  Another  council 
was  held  on  the  14th,  and  all  things  being  in  readiness,  it  was 
agreed  to  make  the  attack  next  morning. 

On  the  morning  of  the  15th  of  October,  the  enemy  attacked 
both  flanks  of  Hood's  army.  They  were  repulsed  on  the  right 
with  heavy  loss ;  but  towards  evening  they  drove  in  the  Con 
federate  infantry  outposts  on  the  left  flank. 

The  next  day  the  enemy  made  a  general  attack  on  Hood'a 
entire  line.  The  battle  raged  furiously  from  dawn  till  dark. 
Thomas'  overwhelming  numbers  enabled  him  to  throw  heavy 
columns  against  Hood's  left  and  centre.  All  the  enemy's  as 
saults  were  repulsed  until  about  half-past  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  When  it  was  supposed  by  General  Hood  that  lie 
had  in  his  grasp  a  splendid  victory,  a  stampede  suddenly  took 
place  in  one  of  his  divisions,  and  the  day  was  lost  in  a  moment. 

Bates'  division  was  to  the  left  of  the  Confederate  centre.  It 
had  repulsed  the  enemy  in  the  morning.  He  advanced  again 
late  in  the  evening,  and  was  repulsed  again  from  the  other 
points  of  the  line  fronting  Bates'  division,  but  rushed  over  this 
point,  and  by  sheer  force  of  numbers  beat  down  and  run  over, 
killing,  wounding,  and  capturing,  in  the  ditches,  nearly  every 
man  holding  them.  Support  had  been  asked  for  by  General 
Bates  and  General  Walthall,  as  is  understood  ;  both  of  them 
were  within  forty  yards  of  this  point  all  the  day.  Instead  of 
getting  support  at  this,  the  only  salient  point  in  the  whole 
Confederate  line,  one  brigade  was  taken  from  the  right  and 
another  from  the  left  of  this  point,  to  save  the  extreme  left  01 


424  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  line.  "When  this  was  done,  so  confident  was  General  Batea 
of  the  coming  disaster,  that  he  ordered  his  artillery  back  on 
the  Franklin  pike,  which  was  then  its  only  exit. 

The  break  in  Bates'  division  was  the  signal  for  a  general 
panic  in  Hood's  army.  The  moment  a  small  break  was  made 
in  his  lines,  the  whole  of  two  corps  unaccountably  and  in 
stantly  fled  from  their  ditches,  most  of.  them  without  firing  a 
gun.  It  was  a  disgraceful  retreat.  Fifty  pieces  of  artillery 
and  nearly  all  of  Hood's  ordnance  wagons  were  left  to  the 
enemy.  Our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  disgracefully 
small ;  and  it  was  only  through  want  of  vigor  in  Thomas'  pur 
suit  that  Hood's  shattered  and  demoralized  army  effected  itp 
retreat.  • 

He  finally  made  his  escape  across  the  Tennessee  River  with 
the  remnant  of  his  army,  having  lost  from  various  causes  more 
than  ten  thousand  men,  half  of  his  generals,  and  nearly  all  of 
his  artillery.  Such  was  the  disastrous  issue  of  the  Tennessee 
campaign,  which  put  out  of  existence,  as  it  were,  the  splendid 
army  that  Johnston  had  given  up  at  Atlanta,  and  terminated 
forever  the  whole  scheme  of  Confederate  defence  west  of  the 
Alleghanies. 

General  Hood  recrossed  the  Tennessee  at  Florence,  General 
Forrest  covering  his  retreat,  and  was  at  Tupelo  on  the  6th  of 
January,  1865,  where,  on  the  23d,  he  took  leave  of  the  army 
in  the  following  order : 

"  HEADQUAKTERS  ARMY  OP  THE  TENNESSEE, 
TUPELO,  Miss.,  Jan.  23,  1805. 

"  SOLDIERS — At  my  request,  I  have  this  day  been  relieved 
from  the  command  of  the  army.  In  taking  leave  of  you,  ac 
cept  my  thanks  for  the  patience  with  which  you  have  endured 
your  hardships  during  the  recent  campaign.  I  am  alone  re 
sponsible  for  its  conception,  and  strove  hard  to  do  my  duty  in 
its  execution.  I  urge  upon  you  the  importance  of  giving  your 
entire  support  to  the  distinguished  soldier  who  now  assumes 
command,  and  shall  look  with  deep  interest  on  all  your  future 
operations,  and  rejoice  at  your  success. 

"J.  B.  HOOD." 

The  complete  and  disastrous  failure  of  General  Hood  was 
freely  acknowledged  in  the  Confederacy  ;  and  the  glaring 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  4:25 

errors  in  his  campaign  did  not  escape  the  savage  criticisms  rf 
the  Richmond  newspapers.  It  was  said,  with  obvious  justice, 
that  his  greatest  mistake  had  been  at  Nashville.  He  had  sat 
down  before  that  city  for  a  fortnight,  and  proceeded  to  invest 
it  on  the  south.  Had  he  struck  boldly  across  the  Cumberland, 
and  settled  himself  on  the  Yankee  communications,  he  would 
have  forced  Thomas  to  evacuate  Nashville  and  fall  back  to 
wards  Kentucky.  But  he  adopted  another  plan,  and  paid  tho 
penalty  of  his  error  in  defeat  and  heavy  loss. 

While  at  one  end  of  the  line  of  the  Tennessee-Georgia  cam 
paign  the  Confederates  had  thus  come  to  grief,  at  the  other 
end,  stretching  towards  the  sea,  there  were  other  more  import 
ant  disasters  and  occasions  of  peculiar  trial,  such  as  the  spirit 
of  the  Confederacy  had  never  before  experienced.  The  effect 
of  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea  on  the  morale  of  the  Confed 
eracy  dates  the  first  chapter  of  its  subjugation. 


426  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Sherman's  march  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea. — Yankee  boasts. — Easy  nature  11 
Sherrna  j's  enterprise. — "  Grand"  mistake  of  the  Confederates. — The  burning  o/ 
Atlanta. — Five  thousand  houses  in  ruins.— Sherman's  route  to  Millcdgcville.— 
Second  stage  of  the  inarch  to  Millen.— Last  stage  of  the  march. — Wheeler's  cavalry. 
— THE  FALL  OF  SAVANNAH. — Capture  of  Fort  McAllister. — Probable  surprise  of 
Hardee. — The  Confederates  evacuate  Sav-annah. — Sherman's  Christmas-gift  to  Mr. 
Lincoln. — The  true  value  of  Sherman's  exploit. — His  own  estimation  of  it. — De 
spondency  in  the  South. — Depletion  of  the  Confederate  armies. — THE  EXCHANGE  OF 
PRISONERS,  etc.— Bad  faith  of  the  Yankees. — Their  misrepresentations. — The  ques 
tion  of  recaptured  slaves. — A  Yankee  calculation. — The  Washington  Government 
responsible  for  the  sufferings  of  Yankee  prisoners. — How  capital  was  made  out  of 
their  sufferings. — A  game  with  "  sick"  prisoners. — How  "  rebel  barbarities"  were 
manufactured. — Noble  conduct  of  General  Grant. — Its  commentary  on  the  Wash 
ington  cabinet. — His  *'  victory"  over  that  body. 

THERE  was  scarcely  a  Yankee  newspaper  that  did  not  find 
more  or  less  frequent  occupation  in  extolling  the  genius  of  tho 
march  which  Sherman  had  undertaken  from  the  mountains  oi 
Georgia  to  the  sea,  and  placing  it  above  the  achievements  ol 
Hannibal,  Napoleon,  and  Marlborough.  But  the  simple  fact 
was,  that  the  Davis-Hood  strategy  was  a  grand  mistake,  and 
Sherman's  advantage  of  it  proportionally  grand.  By  this 
strategy  Georgia  was  uncovered,  and  Sherman  had  plain  march 
ing  to  the  sea.  There  was  no  considerable  force  to  opposo 
him.  The  whole  plan,  which 'Tiad  originated  in  the  brain  of 
President  Davis,  to  compensate  for  the  enemy's  offensive 
movement  in  Georgia  by  penetrating  Tennessee  was  outrage 
ously  foolish,  from  the  simple  consideration  that  the  two  inva 
sions  were  necessarily  unequal:  for  that  into  the  enemy's 
country  could  not  seriously  affect  his  superabundant  resources, 
while  that  into  the  Southern  interior  went  right  into  the  heart 
of  the  Confederacy ;  and  having  once  passed  the  frontiers,  on 
which  the  South  had  necessarily  thrown  out  all  its  resources  in 
men,  was  destined  to  realize  General  Grant's  assertion,  that  the 
Confederacy  was  merely  a  shell. 

Before  undertaking  his  great  campaign  towards  Savannah, 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  427 

Sherman  ordered  the  destruction  of  most  of  the  inhabitable 
part  of  Atlanta.  He  destroyed,  in  all,  nearly  live  thousand 
houses  here,  and  left  behind  him  a  picture  of  ruin  and  desola 
tion,  such  as  is  seldom  to  be  found  in  the  ravages  of  war.* 

On  the  15th  day  of  November,  Sherman  began  his  march  to 
the  sea.  He  moved  forward  in  two  columns,  General  Howard 
commanding  the  right  and  General  Slocum  the  left,  while  his 
cavalry  covered  his  flanks.  General  Howard's  column  moved 
through  East  Point,  Rough-and-Ready,  Griffin,  Jonesboro', 


*  An  agent  of  Governor  Brown,  of  Georgia,  made  the  following  official  report 
of  tlie  extent  of  the  destruction  done  by  the  enemy  in  Atlanta :  "  The  property 
of  the  State  was  destroyed  by  fire,  yet  a  vast  deal  of  valuable  material  remains 
in  the  ruins.  Three-fourths  of  the  bricks  are  good,  and  will  be  suitable  for  re 
building  if  placed  under  shelter  before  freezing  weather.  There  is  a  quantity 
of  brass  in  the  journals  of  burned  cars,  and  in  the  ruins  of  the  various  ma 
chinery  of  the  extensive  railroad  shops ;  also,  a  valuable  amount  of  copper 
from  the  guttering  of  the  State  depot,  the  flue  pipes  of  destroyed  engines,  stop 
cocks  of  machinery,  etc.,  etc. 

The  car- wheels  that  were  uninjured  by  fire  were  rendered  useless  by  break 
ing  the  flanges.  In  short,  every  species  of  machinery  that  was  not  destroyed 
by  fire,  was  most  ingeniously  broken  and  made  worthless  in  its  original  form 
—the  large  steam-boilers,  the  switches,  the  frogs,  etc.  Nothing  has  escaped. 
The  fire-engines,  except  Tallulah  No.  3,  were  sent  North.  Tallulah  has  been 
overhauled,  and  a  new  fire-company  organized.  Nos.  1  and  2  fire-engine 
houses  were  saved.  All  the  city  pumps  were  destroyed,  except  one  on 
Marrietta-street.  The  car-sheds,  the  depots,  machine  shops,  foundries,  rolling 
mills,  merchant  mills,  arsenal,  laboratory,  armory,  etc.,  were  all  burned. 

In  the  angle  between  Hunter-street,  commencing  at  the  City  Hall,  running 
east,  and  McDonough-street,  running  south,  all  houses  were  destroyed.  The 
jail  and  calaboose  were  burned.  All  business  houses,  except  those  on  Alabama- 
street,  commencing  with  the  Gate  City  Hotel,  running  east  to  Lloyd-street, 
were  burned.  All  the  hotels,  except  the  Gate  City,  were  burned.  By  referring 
to  my  map  you  will  find  about  four  hundred  houses  standing.  The  scale  oi 
the  map  is  four  hundred  feet  to  one  inch.  Taking  the  car-shed  for  the  centre, 
describe  a  circle,  the  diameter  of  which  is  twelve  inches,  and  you  will  perceivo 
that  the  circle  contains  about  three  hundred  squares.  Then,  at  a  low  esti 
mate,  allow  three  houses  to  every  four  hundred  feet ;  and  we  will  have  thirty- 
six  hundred  houses  in  the  circle.  Subtract  the  number  of  houses  indicated  on 
the  map  as  standing,  and  you  will  see  by  this  estimate  the  enemy  have  de 
stroyed  thirty-two  hundred  houses.  Refer  to  the  exterior  of  the  circle,  and 
you  will  discover  that  it  is  more  than  half  a  mile  to  the  city  limits  in  every 
direction,  which  was  thickly  populated,  say  nothing  of  the  houses  beyond,  and 
you  will  see  that  the  enemy  have  destroyed  from  four  to  five  thousand  houses 
Two-thirds  of  the  shade-trees  in  the  park  and  city,  and  of  the  timber  in  the 
suburbs  have  been  destroyed.  The  suburbs  present  to  the  eye  one  vast,  naked, 
ruined,  deserted  camp." 


428  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

McDonough,  Forsythe,  Hillsboro',  Monticello,  and  bridging 
the  Ocmulgee  entered  Milledgeville  on  the  20th  of  November. 
Here  General  Sherman  made  his  headquarters  for  a  few  days, 
while  Howard  moved  on  through  Saundersville,  Griswold,  to 
wards  Louisville,  the  point  of  rendezvous,  with  the  left  wing. 
That  wing,  under  the  command  of  General  Slocum,  had  mean 
time  passed  through  Decatur,  Covington,  Social  Circle,  Madi 
son  ;  made  a  feint  of  an  attack  upon  Macon ;  parsed  through 
Buckhead  and  Queensboro',  and,  dividing  one  detachment, 
moved  towards  Augusta,  and  the  other  to  Eatonton  and  Sparta. 
The  second  stage  of  Sherman's  march  may  be  taken  as  from 
Milledgeville  to  Millen.  The  distance  was  about  seventy -five 
miles,  and  the  time  occupied  in  the  march  eight  days,  from 
November  24th  to  December  2d. 

The  Yankee  troops  left  Milledgeville  admirably  clothed 
and  equipped.  Each  man  had  eighty  rounds  of  ammunition  : 
while  their  wagons  contained  fixed  material  without  stint. 
Rations  for  forty  days  had  been  prepared,  and  they  suffered 
for  nothing.  The  Yankee  cavalry,  with  the  left  wing,  on 
crossing  the  Oconee,  had  visited  Sparta,  which  is  on  a  line  be 
tween  Warrenton  and  Milledgeville,  about  equi-distant  from 
both.  On  the  evening  of  the  24th,  General  Slocum's  advance 
encamped  at  Devereux,  seven  miles  west  of  Sparta,  and  the 
cavalry  scoured  the  whole  country,  one  of  the  most  fertile  and 
ihiekly  settled  in  the  whole  State,  and  vast  quantities  of  forage 
*ind  provisions,  many  horses,  and  mules  were  obtained,  and 
jomch  cotton  burned.  For  several  days  the  Yankees  raided 
through  the  entire  country  between  the  two  railroads  in  the 
vicinity  last  described.  Abundance  of  food  and  forage  was 
secured,  and  every  thing  was  destroyed  which  could  be  useful 
to  the  enemy.  The  march  was  leisurely — Sherman  evidently 
finding  himself  master  of  the  situation.  He  did  not  start 
directly  for  the  seaboard  until  he  had  all  the  provisions  he 
desired. 

Sherman  was  now  ready  to  enter  upon  the  third  and  last 
stage  of  his  march.  Behind  him  the  Georgia  Central  Railroad  lay 
destroyed  for  more  than  a  hundred  miles,  and  the  Georgia  road 
for  full  sixty.  The  railroad-bridge  over  the  Oconee  and  the 
Ogecchee,  on  the  Georgia  Central,  had  been  destroyed,  and 
also  those  over  Brier  Creek  and  Buckhead  Creek,  en  the 


THE    LAST    YEAB,  429 

W&ynesboro'  Branch  connecting  Augusta  with  Mfllen.  In 
calculable  damage  had  been  done.  It  only  remained  to  move 
down  to  the  Atlantic,  and  crown  the  campaign  in  the  capture 
of  Savannah. 

From  Millen,  then,  on  the  2d  of  December,  the  Yankee 
army  swung  southerly  down  on  the  final  stage  of  its  journey 
to  Savannah,  in  half  a  dozen  columns,  moving  over  as  many 
different  roads  for  the  sake  of  convenience  and  speed.  The 
Confederate  forces,  massed  at  Augusta,  were  left  hopelessly  in 
Sherman's  rear.  The  army  was  protected  on  either  flank  by  a 
large  river,  and  cavalry  formed  the  vanguard  and  rear-guard. 
Its  mission,  as  a  curtain  for  the  concealment  of  infantry  opera 
tions,  had  now  been  accomplished.  The  country  traversed  was 
covered  with  pine  forests,  cut  up  by  numerous  creeks,  and  in 
tersected  by  wide  stretches  of  swamps ;  and  further  on  the 
coastwise,  swamps  and  the  low  rice-fields  became  the  prevalent 
character  of  the  region. 

So  far  General  Sherman's  inarch  had  been  almost  without 
opposition.  It  had  had  one  or  two  small  conflicts  with  Wheel 
er's  cavalry  ;  and  some  few  militiamen  and  conscripts,  hastily 
assembled  and  badly  organized,  were  easily  brushed  from  his 
path.  Ten  miles  from  Savannah,  where  his  left  wing  struck 
the  Charleston  Railroad,  he  encountered  Confederate  skir 
mishers  posted  in  a  swamp  near  by,  which  indicated  the 
presence  of  the  Confederate  forces  under  Ilardee  for  the  first 
time. 

THE   FALL    OF    SAVANNAH. 

On  the  10th  of  December,  Sherman  lay  in  line  of  battle,  con 
fronting  the  outer  works  of  Savannah,  about  five  miles  distant 
from  the  city.  It  was  easy  for  him  to  see  that  his  first  task 
was  to  open  communication  with  the  fleet.  * 

That  part  of  the  coast  of  Georgia,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sa 
vannah,  is  of  that  amphibious  character  which  marks  so  much 
of  the  Southern  co-ast  in  general — the  ravelled  and  unfinished 
ends  of  nature's  web,  where  sea  and  land  join.  The  ocean 
breaks  in  between  Great  Wassaw  and  Ossabaw  Islands,  form 
ing  Ossabaw  Sound,  and  into  this  estuary  flow  the  Great  and 
Little  Ogeechee  and  the  Vernon  rivers.  The  land,  or  rathei 


±30  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  marsh  on  each  side  of  the  Ogeechee,  was  almost  d  flcur 
cTeau,  certainly  hardly  rising  a  foot  above  the  level  of  the  river, 
while  at  times  it  is  entirely  submerged.  For  miles  and  miles 
on  every  hand  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  but  these  low  and 
level  islands  and  islets,  covered  with  reeds  and  rank  grasses, 
save  where  a  lustier  vegetation  had  pushed  up  in  occasional 
clumps  of  trees  called  "  hummocks." 

About  six  miles  from  the  mouth  of  Ossabaw  Sound,  near 
where  the  Savannah,  Albany,  and  Gulf  Railroad  crosses  the 
Ogeechee,  the  river  jets  out  into  a  promontory  named  Point 
Genesis,  covered  by  one  of  these  hummocks  of  more  than 
ordinary  size.  Behind  this,  hidden  from  the  river,  lay  Port 
McAllister,  an  earthwork  of  considerable  strength,  erected  by 
the  Confederates  early  in  the  war.  Its  batteries  completely 
commanded  the  river. 

On  the  12th  of  December,  Hazen's  division  of  the  Fifteenth 
Corps  was  selected  for  the  important  work  of  carrying  Fort 
McAllister.  At  half-past  four  o'clock  of  the  13th,  the  division 
went  forward  to  the  assault,  another  division  supporting  it, 
over  an  open  space  of  more  than  five  hundred  yards.  The 
Yankees  rushed  on  at  the  double-quick.  The  fort  was  ap 
proached  and  stormed  from  all  sides.  Resistance  was  useless, 
as  by  a  singular  improvidence  the  fort  was  garrisoned  by  not 
more  than  two  or  three  hundred  Confederates ;  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  General  Hardee  had  been  surprised  by  the  quick 
ness  and  decision  of  the  enemy. 

Sherman  himself  had  ordered  the  assault,  and  witnessed  the 
execution  of  the  order  from  the  top  of  a  house  not  far  distant; 
and  as  soon  as  he  saw  the  men  on  the  parapets,  he  exclaimed 
to  his  staff,  "  The  fort  is  ours  !  Order  me  a  boat — I  am  going 
down  to  the  fleet." 

The  possession  of  Fort  McAllister  opened  Ossabaw  Sound, 
effected  communication  with  Dahlgren's  fleet,  and  made  the 
capture  of  Savannah,  where  Hardee  had  allowed  himself  to  be 
shut  up  with  fifteen  thousand  men,  but  a  question' of  time.  In 
fact  Sherman  had  now  invested  the  city  on  all  but  the  eastern 
side.  His  right  held  King's  Bridge,  far  in  the  rear  of  Savan 
nah,  and  controlled  the  Ogeechee,  whence  his  lines  stretched 
across  the  Savannah  River,  his  left  being  about  three  miles 
above  the  city.  He  had  cut  off  all  the  railroad  supplies  of 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  431 

Savannah.  On  the  south,  he  had  struck  the  Savannalr  Albany, 
and  Gulf  Railroad,  winch  formerly  had  transported  large  sup* 
plies  of  cattle  and  provisions  from  Florida  to  Savannah. 
The  railroads  from  Augusta  and  Macon  were  thoroughly 
broken.  Foster's  batteries  had  gotten  within  shelling  distance 
of  the  Charleston  Railroad,  and  prevented  the  passage  o«. 
trains.  It  only  remained  to  mov.e  regularly  upon  the  city  by 
systematic  approaches.  It  could  not  hope  for  outside  succor 
of  any  kind  ;  Sherman's  prompt  seizure  of  Fort  McAllister 
having  prevented  reinforcements  down  the  Charleston  road, 
and  cut  off  General  G.  "W".  Smith,  who,  with  several  thousand 
Confederates,  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ogecchee. 

From  the  10th  to  the  16th  of  December  heavy  artillery 
firing  and  skirmishing  went  on  all  along  the  lines,  but  no 
regular  engagement  occurred.  On  the  16th,  Sherman  for 
mally  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  city  from  its  commander, 
Hardee,  who  declined  next  day  to  accede  to  the  demand.  Sher 
man  instantly  hurried  more  heavy  siege-guns  upon  his  lines,  and 
on  the  20th  was  prepared  to  bombard  the  city  and  assault  its 
works.  But  Hardee  had  already  taken  the  alarm.  Finding  that 
only  the  eastern  exit  was  open  to  him,  and  that  on  that  Sherman 
was  already  cannonading,  and  soon  might  capture  it  by  assault, 
Hardee  resolved  to  evacuate  Savannah.  On  the  afternoon  of  the 
20th,  his  iron-clads  and  batteries  opened  a  tremendous  tire, 
lasting  into  the  night,  and,  under  cover  of  the  demonstration,  the 
Confederate  general  crossed  his  fifteen  thousand  men  and  his 
large  force  of  negro  laborers  upon  a  pontoon  bridge,  laid  below 
his  rear  batteries,  to  the  South  Carolina  side,  and  marched 
them  off  towards  Charleston  on  the  Union  causeway.  The 
night  was  exceedingly  favorable  for  such  a  movement,  it  being 
very  dark,  with  a  west  wind  blowing.  Next  morning,  at 
break  of  day,  the  pickets  of  Geary's  division  crept  forward, 
advanced  still  farther,  and  went  over  the  works ;  and  Geary 
himself,  marching  into  Savannah,  received,  on  the  morning  of 
the  21st  December,  1864,  its  formal  surrender  at  the  hands  of 
its  mayor.  The  troops  were  gone.  The  navy-yard,  two  iron 
clads,  many  smaller  vessels,  and  avast  amount  of  ammunitionv 
ordnance  stores,  and  supplies  had  been  destroyed  before  tho 
evacuation,  but  all  the  rest  of  the  uninjured  city  fell  into  tho 
hands  of  the  Yankees. 


432  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

Sherman  sent  a  characteristic  dispatch  to  Washington.  He 
wrote  to  President  Lincoln :  u  I  beg  to  present  you,  as  a 
Christmas  gift,  the  city  of  Savannah,  with  one  hundred  and 
fifty  heavy  guns  and  plenty  of  ammunition,  and  also  about 
twenty-five  thousand  bales  of  cotton." 

And  so  ended  Sherman's  famous  march  to  the  sea — an  ex 
ploit  which  Yankee  newspapers  declared  had  not  been  excelled 
since  William  of  Normandy  crossed  the  English  Channel  and 
burned  his  boats  on  the  shore ;  arid  since  Hernando  Cortez 
plunged  into  Mexico,  on  the  most  astounding  of  expeditions, 
and  stranded  his  ships  at  Yera  Cruz.  But  Sherman  himself 
had  a  much  juster  and  more  modest  estimation  of  his  exploit. 
On  receiving  the  congratulations  of  the  President  and  also  of 
his  personal  friends,  on  account  of  his  success,  and  seeing  him 
self  greatly  praised  in  the  public  journals  at  home  and  abroad, 
he  wrote :  "  I  am  now  a  great  favorite  because  I  have  been 
successful ;  but  if  Thomas  had  not  whipped  Hood  at  Nashville, 
six  hundred  miles  away,  my  plans  would  have  failed,  and  I 
would  have  been  denounced  the  world  over."  In  his  special 
congratulatory  orders,  he  said  :  "The  armies  serving  in  Georgia 
and  Tennessee,  as  well  as  the  local  garrisons  of  Decatur, 
Bridgeport,  Chattanooga,  and  Murfreesboro',  are  alike  entitled 
to  the  common  honor,  and  each  regiment  may  inscribe  on  its 
colors  at  pleasure  the  words  '  Savannah'  or  'Nashville.'  " 

The  fall  of  Savannah  was  the  occasion,  whether  duly  or  not, 
of  great  despondency  in  the  South.  The  single  disaster  was 
not  very  considerable ;  but  the  march  through  Georgia  that 
had  led  to  it  had  afforded  a  painful  exhibition  of  the  decay  of 
the  spirit  of  the  Confederates,  and  the  moral  effect  of  this  ex 
hibition  was  far  worse  than  any  disaster  the  South  had  ever 
yet  suffered  in  the  field.  It  suggested  a  general  review  of  the 
situation  of  the  Confederacy ;  the  people  commenced  to  cal 
culate  the  cost  and  sacrifices  of  the  war,  and  to  estimate  the 
terrible  depletion  that  had  taken  place  in  the  armies  of  the 
Confederacy  during  the  campaign  of  1864:. 

That  depletion  had  ensued  from  various  causes.  The  Yankees 
had  encouraged  desertion  to  an  extent  never  known  before, 
and  they  had  managed  to  keep  in  captivity  nearly  every  prisoner 
they  had  taken  west  of  the  Mississippi  since  the  battle  of  Get 
tysburg.  The  history  of  Yankee  finesse  in  this  matter  deserves 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  43S 

a  distinct  place  in  the  records  of  the  war,  and  may  properly  bo 
reviewed  here  at  the  close  of  the  year  1864. 


THE    EXCHANGE   OF   PRISONERS,    ETC. 


It  may  be  truly  and  emphatically  said  that  on  no  subject  had 
the  enemy  shown  such  bad  faith  as  on  that  of  the  exchange  of 
prisoners.  During  the  year  1864,  the  Confederate  authorities 
had,  at  different  times,  put  forth  every  exertion  to  obtain  an 
exchange  of  prisoners;  but  such  exertion  to  this  end  was  met 
by  some  new  pretence  of  the  Yankees,  who  had  resolved  to 
avoid  a  general  exchange,  and  to  coin  a  certain  advantage  out 
of  the  sufferings  of  their  own  men  in  Southern  prisons. 

The  Confederate  authorities  had  at  first  insisted  upon  the  re 
lease  of  all  prisoners,  the  excess  to  be  on  parole.  The  enemy 
refused  to  comply  with  this  plain  requirement  of  the  cartel, 
and  demanded,  when  a  delivery  of  prisoners  was  made,  art 
equal  number  in  return.  Seeing  a  persistent  purpose  on  thf 
part  of  the  Yankee  Government  to  violate  its  agreement,  OIP 
authorities,  moved  by  the  sufferings  of  the  brave  men  wh* 
were  so  unjustly  held  in  the  Northern  prisons,  determined  tc 
abate  their  just  demands.  On  the  10th  of  August,  1864 
Colonel  Ould,  the  Confederate  commissioner,  offered  to  ex 
change  the  prisoners  respectively  held  by  the  two  belligerents, 
officer  for  officer  and  man  for  man.  Although  this  offer  was 
substantially  what  had  often  been  proposed  by  the  Yankee 
authorities,  and  wrould  have  left  in  their  hands  whatever  excess 
of  prisoners  they  might  have  had,  yet  it  was  not  accepted. 

Another  pretence  put  forth  by  the  Yankees  for  declining  a 
general  exchange  of  prisoners  was,  that  the  Confederates  had 
refused  to  include  in  the  cartel  neoro  soldiers.  This  was  a 

O 

misrepresentation.  The  extent  of  the  claim  of  the  Confederate? 
on  this  point  was  simply  that  they  would  not  return  to  th<3 
enemy  recaptured  slaves  ;  for  to  do  this  the  Confederate  Gov 
ernment  would  stultify  itself,  ignore  the  law  of  its  social  system, 
and  be  a  party  to  an  outrage  on  the  rights  of  property  in  its 
own  citizens. 

But  this  proper  position  of  the  Confederate  authorities  in 
volved  the  disposition  of  only  a  few  hundred  persons;  and  it  is 

28 


SOUTHERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAR. 

not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  punctilious  care  for  them 
really  stood  in  the  way  of  the  duties  of  humanity  to  forty  or 
fifty  thousand  white  captives.  This  professed  care  for  two  or 
three  hundred  black  slaves,  which  was  made  to  weigh  down 
all  considerations  of  humanity  in  behalf  of  thousands  of  white 
men  pining  in  prison,  was  plainly  nothing  more  than  a  pre 
tence,  a  new  ground  of  frivolous  excuse,  to  refuse  a  general 
exchange.  In  November,  Colonel  Ould  wrote  to  the  Confed 
erate  secretary  of  war : 

"  My  own  firm  conviction  is,  that  even  if  we  were  to  agree 
to  the  unjust  demands  of  the  enemy  in  this  respect,  we  would 
not  secure  a  general  exchange.  I  think  it 

very  doubtful  whether  they  would  agree  to  a  general  ex 
change,  even  if  we  consented  to  treat  recaptured  slaves  as 
prisoners  of  war,  and  delivered  those  whose  term  of  service  had 
not  expired.  I  am  satisfied  their  course  is  the  result  of  a  con 
viction  forced  upon  them  by  the  events  of  the  war,  that  a  Con 
federate  soldier  is  more  valuable  than  a  Federal.  The  miseries 
of  tens  of  thousands  of  their  own  people  are  as  nothing  whea 
weighed  against  a  calculation." 

Here  was  the  true  secret  of  the  game  which  the  North 
>>layed  on  the  subject  of  exchange.  Men  were  scarce  in  th 
tlouth  ;  the  Confederate  soldier  was  superior  in  prowess  to  the 
Yankee;  and  thus  the  Government  at  Washington  was  con 
duced  that  any  exchange,  man  for  man,  would  be  to  its  dis 
advantage,  and  deliberately  adopted  the  remorseless  and  in- 
«uman  policy  of  enforcing  the  captivity,  with  all  its  attendant 

•  offerings,  of  the  prisoners  on  both  sides  during  the  war.     This 
*«olicy  of  the  Yankees  exhibited  to  the  unhappy  victims  from 

•  heir  army  an   amount  of  ingratitude  that  was   to   the   last 
ckegree  monstrous.     General   Sherman    had   not   hesitated  to 
avow,  with  utter  disregard  of  the  claims  of  his  captive  soldiers 
on  his  consideration  and  protection,  that  as  the  terms  of  service 
•f  many  had  expired,  they  were  not  to   be  regarded  as  sub 
jects  of  general  exchange. 

But  the  Washington  Government  was  not  satisfied,  for  con 
siderations  of  certain  advantage,  to  consign  its  soldiers  to  the 
extraordinary  sufferings  of  imprisonment  incident  to  the  scant 
supplies  in  the  South,  which  indeed  it  was  daily  endeavoring 
to  diminish  by  blockade  and  devastation.  It  went  a  step 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  435 

further.  It  paraded  these  very  sufferings,  for  which  it  was 
responsible,  which  indeed  its  own  malignity  had  produced,  to 
raise  a  clamor  about  the  cruelty  of  the  Confederates,  and  thus 
engage  the  sympathies  of  the  world. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  sound  the  depths  of  Yankee 
cruelty  in  this  subject  of  exchange. 

At  one  time,  in  the  fall  of  1864,  the  Yankees  refused  to  ex 
change  any  prisoners  but  those  who  were  sick /  and  then  to 
accuse  the  inhumanity  of  the  Confederates,  the  poor,  wasted 
victims  of  prison  diseases  were  paraded  through  the  country, 
and  had  their  photographs  taken  for  pictorials,  as  fair  speci 
mens  of  the  results  of  life  in  Confederate  prisons.  The  calcu 
lation  that  could  have  prompted  such  an  exhibition  appears 
indeed  to  partake  of  an  ingenuity  of  beings  other  than  man.* 

*  The  following  expose  was  made  in  a  Richmond  paper.  It  refers  to  an  ex- 
change  of  sick  prisoners  made  in  the  fall  of  1864 : 

"  The  mortality  among  our  unfortunate  prisoners  sent  by  sea  to  Savannah  to 
be  exchanged  was  very  remarkable.  We  have  published  a  list  of  one  hundred 
and  seventeen  who  died  on  the  passage  to  Savannah  ;  also  a  list  of  thirty-two 
who  died  within  a  few  days  after  being  landed.  Distressing  as  is  this  mortal 
ity,  the  Confederate  newspapers  have  not  been  so  inconsiderate  as  to  impute  it 
to  a  wrong  cause.  Revolting  at  the  shocking  inhumanity  which  limits  ex 
changes  to  the  sick,  the  feeble,  and  the  dying,  we  have  received  home  our 
brethren,  emaciated  as  they  are  with  long-protracted  disease,  and  we  have 
wondered,  not  that  so  many  died,  but  tha  tso  many,  travelling  in  such  a  con 
dition,  should  live. 

"  We  have  sent  to  the  truce-boat  a  similar  class  of  the  Federal  prisoners  in 
our  hands ;  it  is  for  these  only  that  the  Yankees  have  bargained.  When  the 
poor  creatures  reach  them,  worn  and  wasted  by  sickness,  and  evidencing,  in 
tlieir  appearance,  that  they  should  be  in  the  hospitals  instead  of  travelling,  in 
place  of  the  sense  of  shame  which  the  Yankee  authorities  and  people  should 
feel  at  the  consequences  of  their  inhuman  policy,  with  such  audacious  hypoc- 
...sy  as  a  Yankee  only  can  manifest,  they  seize  the  occasion  to  calumniate  the 
Confederates,  a  reluctant  party  to  a  commerce  worse  than  '  the  middle  pas 
sage,'  and  only  better  than  protracted  imprisonment.  They  pretend  to  con- 
eider  the  returned  men  as  samples  of  those  who  have  been  left  behind  ;  they 
charge  their  weakness  and  emaciation  to  starvation,  and  not  to  sickness ;  they 
clamor  like  so  many  howling'  lervishes ;  and  with  an  effrontery  that  tho 
world  beside  cannot  equal,  they  extract  self-glorification  out  of  their  own 
crime,  and  heap  reproaches  on  us  who  are  its  victims ! 

"  We  know  that  their  treatment  of  our  prisoners  is  horrible  enough.  But, 
much  as  we  execrate  such  conduct,  and  the  people  who  can  practise  it,  we 
respect  ourselves  too  much  to  slander  them.  We  do  not  pretend  that  the  sick 
men  who  are  sent  home  to  us  are  samples  of  the  rest.  We  are  not  so  false  aa 
to  represent  their  emaciation  as  due  to  starvation  and  not  to  disease,  v'alti- 


436  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE 

In  connection  with  the  history  of  the  prisons  of  the  war, 
there  is  something  of  tribute  to  be  paid  to  the  conduct  ol 
General  Grant.  This  high  officer,  however  profuse  of  the  lives 
of  his  men  in  battle,  had  certainly  an  unaffected  sympathy 
and  interest  for  the  imprisoned  soldier.  It  was  through  his 
offices  that,  in  the  later  months  of  1864,  an  agreement,  first 
proposed  by  General  Lee,  wras  concluded,  to  the  effect  that, 
without  releasing  either  Government  from  the  obligation  of 
affording  due  provision  to  its  captives,  each  should  have  the 
right  of  furnishing  to  its  own  prisoners,  in  the  possession  of  the 
other,  under  the  direction  of  officers  among  them,  to  be  paroled 
for  the  purpose,  such  additional  supplies  of  necessary  articles 
as  it  might  deem  expedient  to  send.  It  is,  indeed,  indicative 
of  the  remorseless  policy  of  the  Yankee  Government  that  such 
concessions  to  the  claims  of  humanity  should  have  been  made 
sooner  by  the  stern  soldier  in  the  field  than  by  their  statesmen 
in  the  cabinet. 

We  may  add  here,  in  advance  of  the  order  of  our  narrative, 
that  General  Grant,  having  been  subsequently  empowered 
with  the  duties  of  exchanging  prisoners,  and  put  in  a  position 
to  overrule  the  behests  of  such  men  as  Stanton  and  Butler,  did 
himself  immortal  honor  in  instantly  authorizing  a  general  ex 
change,  and  breaking  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  all  the  tissues  of 
falsehood  and  cunning  in  which  this  matter  had  been  so  long 
entangled.  This  act  has  done  more  for  his  reputation  in  just 
and  humane  history  than  any  victory  of  his  in  the  field.  But 
the  benefit  of  it  came  too  late  for  the  South,  and  only  a  few 
thousand  Confederate  prisoners  reached  home  in  time  to  wit 
ness  the  catastrophe  of  the  spring  of  1865. 

tudes  of  the  poor  sufferers  die,  as  we  have  seen,  on  their  way  to  our  lines. 
Many  die  before  we  can  take  them  to  our  arms.  Many  die  before  we  can  get 
them  into  our  hospitals  ;  and  many  there  languish  and  dio  without  a  Right  oi 
the  home  for  which  they  risked  the  travel.  In  all  our  distress  a.*,  this  mor 
tality,  we  are  candid  enough  to  recognize  the  cause,  and  to  :»V  *Jit  t  rth  nj>icl 
our  resentments.  Not  so  the  Yankees." 


THE    LAST     TEAR.  4:37 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

The  blockade  at  Wilmington. — How  ineffective. — FIRST  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  FORT 
FISIIEU.— Butler's     powder-ship. — The    two    days'    bombardment. — Landing    of 
Butler's  troops. — .Butler  decides  not  to    attack.— His  sudden  departure. — lie   ia 
removed  from  command. — SECOND   EXPEDITION  AGAINST  FORT  FISHER. — FALL  OF 
WILMINGTON. — Lauding  of  Terry's  command.— Movements  of  General  Hoke. — The 
assault   on   the    fort.— A  feu    d'enfer. — Desperate    fighting. — The    Confederates 
overpowered. — Surrender  of  Fort  Fisher. — Evacuation  of  Fort  Anderson. — Yankee 
occupation  of  Wilmington. — How  a  part  of  General  Sherman's  campaign   in  the 
Carolhias. — SHERMAN'S  SIXTV  DAYS  IN  THE  CAROLINAS. — Direction  of  his  march. — 
Crossing  the  Savannah  River. — Mismanagement  of  the  Confederate  troops. — Sher 
man  at  Branch ville. — THE   FALL  OF    CHARLESTON. — Hardee  joins  Beauregard. — 
Conflagration  in  Charleston. — Explosion  at  the  railroad  depot. — A  scarred  city. — 
Charleston  as  seen  through  Yankee  eyes. — CAPTURE  AND  BURNING  OF  COLUMBIA. — 
Wild  and  savage  scenes   of  pillage. — Tho  city  on  fire. — Four  thousand   citizens 
homeless. — Sherman's    march  northward. — His    organization    of    "bummers."— 
The  column  of  smoke. — The  Yankees  at  Winnsboro'. — More  of  the  enemy's  atro 
cities. — Sherman's  feint  upon  Charlotte. — His  occupation  of  Fayetteville. — Hamp 
ton  attacks  Kilpatrick. — Sherman's  appointment  of  a  rendezvous  with  Schofield 
— Hardee's  fight  near  Averysboro'. — What  he  did  with  half  a  corps  of  Confeder 
ates. — THE  BATTLE  OF  BENTONVILLE.— Success  of  the  Confederates.— No  decisive 
results. — Sherman's  move  towards  Goldsboro'. — Schofield's  movement. — Sherman' 
success. — His  congratulatory  order. — A  military  conference  at  City  Point,  Virginia, 

WILMINGTON  had  long  been  a  thorn  in  the  enemy's  side. 
Mr.  Welles,  the  Yankee  secretary  of  the  navy,  had  declared, 
in  his  last  official  report,  that  Wilmington,  owing  to  the  pecu 
liarity  of  its  situation,  could  not  be  absolutely  closed  to  block 
ade-runners,  without  the  co-operation  of  the  army ;  for  the 
forts  which  protected  it  were  in  such  shoal  water  that  the 
neavily  armed  ships  could  not  get  at  them.  Fifty  fast  Yankee 
steamers  had  been  unable  to  close  this  port. 


FIRST   EXPEDITION    AGAINST   FORT   FISHER. 

At  the  close  of  the  summer  of  1864,  an  expedition  had  been 

planned  against  Fort  Fisher,  according  to  Mr.  Welles'  sugges- 

ion  of  the  co-operation  of  a  land  force.     It  was  delayed,  for 

various  reasons,  until  the  winter.     Yice  Admiral  Farragut  was 


438  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

selected  by  the  Yankee  Government  to  take  charge  of  the  naval 
force,  but  was  unable  to  assume  that  duty  on  account  of  ill 
-lealth.  Rear-Admiral  Porter  was  then  transferred  from  the 
command  of  the  Mississippi  squadron  to  the  command  of  the 
North- Atlantic  blockading  squadron.  The  most  powerful  fleet 
ever  known  in  American  history  was  assembled  at  Hampton 
Roads,  under  command  of  Admiral  Porter.  The  land  force 
consisted  of  six  thousand  five  hundred  infantry,  two  batteries 
of  artillery,  and  a  few  cavalry.  On  the  13th  and  14th  of  De 
cember  the  expedition  started,  General  Butler  with  the  army 
transports  proceeding  to  a  place  twenty-five  miles  off  New 
Inlet.  Admiral  Porter,  with  his  fleet,  proceeded  to  Beaufort 
to  complete  taking  on  his  ammunition  and  supplies,  including 
some  powder  for  a  vessel  proposed  to  be  exploded  before  Fort 
Fisher,  and  some  ammunition  for  the  monitors,  which  were 
towed  light  from  Fortress  Monroe  to  Beaufort. 

Wilmington  was  then  but  feebly  garrisoned.  A  number  of 
Confederate  troops  there  had  been  sent  to  increase  the  forces 
opposed  to  Sherman  in  his  march  across  the  State  of  Georgia 
General  Butler  had  supposed  that  he  would  find  an  easy  con 
quest  there;  and,  in  fact,  he  had  foisted  himself  upon  the  expe 
dition  to  get  what  he  supposed  would  be  a  cheap  glory,  for  the 
command  of  it  had  been  given  to  General  Weitzel,  and  Butler 
had  insisted  upon  accompanying  him,  for  the  reason  that  the 
scene  of  operations  was  within  his  department,  and  the  troops 
from  his  command. 

A  novel  feature  was  introduced  into  the  expedition  against 
Fort  Fisher,  viz.,  a  vessel  loaded  with  a  large  quantity  of 
powder  to  be  exploded  as  near  the  fort  as  possible.  The  idea 
appears  to  have  originated  with  General  Butler,  in  consequence 
of  reading  of  the  terrible  effects  of  the  explosion  of  a  large 
quantity  of  gunpowder  at  Erith,  England,  some  time  before. 
He  suggested  it  to  the  departments  at  Washington,  and  they 
submitted  it  to  their  engineer  and  ordnance  officers  for  exam 
ination  and  report.  Those  officers,  while  not  anticipating  any 
very  wonderful  results  from  this  new  experiment,  still  deemed 
it  of  such  importance  as  to  reccanmend  its  trial. 

On  Friday,  23d  of  December,  Admiral  Porter  gave  orders 
that  the  powder  vessel  be  sent  in  as  near  Fort  Fisher  as  possi 
ble,  and  exploded  that  night  at  one  o'clock.  Information  ot 


THE    LAST    YEA-IS. 

what  he  proposed  to  do  was  sent  to  General  Butler  at  Beau- 
fort>  but  did  not  reach  him  until  Saturday  morning,  when  ho 
immediately  started  for  Fort  Fisher,  ordering  the  transports  tc 
follow  as  rapidly  as  possible.  The  powder-boat  was  exploded  a 
little  before  two  o'clock  on  Saturday  morning,  and  the  Yankee 
navy  commenced  their  bombardment  about  noon  of  that  day. 

The  explosion  of  the  powder-boat  was  a  ridiculous  fa  Jure, 
and  attracted  such  little  attention  in  the  fort  that  General 
Whiting,  who  was  in  command  there,  supposed  it  to  be  nothing 
more  than  the  bursting  of  one  of  the  enemy's  guns.  The  bom 
bardment  of  the  fort  continued  for  two  days.  It  was  probably 
the  heaviest  which  had  ever  occurred  in  the  annals  of  naval 
warfare.  The  huge  frigates  of  Porter's  fleet  led  the  way ;  then 
the  grim  ugly  Ironsides ;  then  the  monitors  and  the  great  line 
of  smaller  vessels,  stretching  away  out,  almost  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  reach.  From  every  vessel  could  be  seen  the  white 
curl  of  smoke,  and  high  up  in  the  air  hundreds  of  smoky  rings 
^ere  formed  from  the  explosion  of  guns.  Thick  flew  the  shell ; 
oud  sounded  the  thunder  of  artillery ;  lurid  were  the  flashes 
of  great  guns  as  they  vomited  forth  their  missiles  of  death  and 
destruction.  JSTobly  stood  the  Confederates  to  their  guns. 
From  Shephard's  battery  to  the  mound,  they  stood  unquailing 
and  defiant,  loading  and  firing  coolly  and  calmly ;  the  gunners 
sighting  their  guns  as  if  they  were  practising  at  a  target. 

After  the  arrival  of  General  Butler  a  conference  was  had 
with  Admiral  Porter  as  to  operations  next  day.  It  was  ar 
ranged  that  General  Weitzel  should  land  with  some  two  or 
three  thousand  troops,  and  reconnoitre  the  fort  with  the  view 
of  assaulting  it. 

The  expectation  of  the  garrison  that  they  would  have  a 
night-fight  was  not  realized.  The  night  was  spent  in  watch 
ing  and  in  repairing  the  slight  damage  sustained  by  the  fight. 
As  the  morning  dawned,  the  fleet  could  be  discerned  in  the 
distance  getting  ready  to  renew  the  attack;  but  it  was  not 
expected  that  operations  would  commence  before  high  tide, 
which  would  be  about  half-past  twelve  o'clock.  However, 
every  man  was  at  his  post,  ready,  at  any  moment,  to  again 
engage  the  fleet.  About  ten  o'clock  the  fleet  commenced  mov 
ing  in — their  extreme  right  resting  near  Gatlin's  battery,  about 
eis  miles  up  the  beach,  and  their  left  extending  down  to  the 


140  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

fort.  The  Ironsides  led  the  attack,  the  frigates  resting  on  her 
right  and  left,  and  the  monitors  to  the  right  of  the  frigates. 
There  were  counted  fifty-two  vessels  in  all — one  Ironsides 
three  or  four  monitors,  four  frigates,  and  forty-seven  other  ves 
sels.  They  steamed  in  very  slowly,  two  of  the  frigates  going 
round  to  the  sea  front  of  the  fort,  and  the  iron-clads  and  moni 
tors  lying  abreast  of  the  centre  front.  The  Ironsides*  and 
monitors  came  up  within  a  mile ;  the  rest  of  the  fleet  remained 
out  about  one  and  a-half  miles.  At  half-past  ten  A.  M.  the  first 
gun  was  fired  by  the  Ironsides,  followed  by  the  rest  of  the  fleet 
— firing  very  slowly  and  deliberately  for  the  while.  The  fort 
reserved  its  fire,  thinking  that  the  wooden  fleet  would  be 
tempted  to  come  in  closer  range.  Finding,  however,  that  they 
would  not  come  closer,  it  opened,  also  firing  very  slowly. 

About  noon  the  fleet  commenced  firing  with  great  rapidity. 
The  dull,  heavy,  thumping  sounds  of  the  enemy's  guns,  as 
they  were  fired,  could  be  heard  first,  and  then  the  whistling, 
shrieking  sound  of  the  shells  as  they  came  whizzing  and  buzz 
ing  through  the  air.  Their  explosion  and  the  myriad  frag 
ments  that  went  rattling  by,  thick  almost  as  hail,  were  terrible 
to  listen  to.  The  air  was  hot  with  fire ;  the  earth  shook ;  there 
was  no  interval  of  quiet ;  all  was  noise — crash,  bang,  and  crash 
all  the  time. 

A  shell  whistled  close  to  General  Whiting.  It  buried  itself, 
exploding,  and  covering  him  all  over  with  the  wet  sand.  He 
did  not  even  move,  not  even  take  his  pipe  from  his  mouth,  and 
only  remarked  coolly,  "  Well,  it  spattered  me." 

While  the  bombardment  was  at  its  height,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  enemy  had  succeeded  in  landing  a  force  at  Anderson 
and  Holland  batteries,  and  that  their  line  of  skirmishers  were 
advancing  on  the  fort.  All  was  excitement  now.  The  infan 
try  man  the  parapets,  and  the  sharp  crack  of  the  rifle  is  heard 
instead  of  the  heavy  booming  of  guns.  The  lull  was  of  short 
duration — the  most  terrific  bombardment  now  commenced  ; 
the  fleet  had  seen  their  land  forces,  and  they  opened  with 
greater  fury  than  ever  to  keep  the  Confederates  from  engaging 
the  skirmishers. 

But  there  was  to  be  no  battle  on  land.  Weitzel  had  re 
ported  to  Butler  that  it  was  not  advisable  to  attack;  and  that 
commander  had  very  promptly  desisted  from  the  enterprise. 


,      THE    LAST    YEAR.  441 

His  troops  (more  than  two  thousand  had  been  landed;  were 
ordered  back  to  the  transports ;  and  his  whole  force,  consisting 
of  sixty-five  hundred  men,  was  summarily  withdrawn  from 
the  expedition,  and  with  such  singular  celerity  that  the  nex> 
day  they  were  on  the  way  back  to  Fortress  Monroe. 

As  night  came  on  the  fire  of  the  fleet  fell  off.  The  fort  had 
made  a  gallant  and  complete  defence;  and  the  success  of  the 
Confederates  could  no  longer  be  disputed.  The  enemy's  at 
tack  the  first  day  lasted  five  hours ;  on  the  second  day,  seven 
hours  ;  firing  altogether  over  twenty  thousand  shots  from  fifty 
odd  vessels. 

The  Confederates  responded  with  six  hundred  and  sixty-two 
shots  the  first  day,  and  six  hundred  the  second.  Their  loss 
was  only  three  killed  and  fifty-five  wounded. 

The  ground  in  front  and  rear  of  the  fort  was  covered  with 
shells,  and  was  torn  in  deep  pits.  But  the  damage  to  the 
works  was  not  considerable.  Two  jnins  in  the  fort  burst,  two 

O  7 

were  dismounted  by  the  Confederates,  and  two  by  the  enemy's 
tire ;  but  the  fort  was  unhurt. 

The  failure  of  the  expedition  against  Fort  Fisher,  the  out 
post  of  the  defences  of  Wilmington,  was  the  occasion  of  some 
sharp  recrimination  between  Admiral  Porter  arid  General 
Butler.  It  is  very  certain  that  the  latter  officer,  who  had 
boasted  that  he  would  eat  his  Christmas  dinner  at  Wilmington, 
was  generally  considered  to  have  retired  from  the  scene  of 
action  in  disgrace,  and  that  a  few  days  thereafter  he  was  made 
to  pay  the  penalty  of  his  failure  by  an  order  from  Washington, 
removing  him  from  the  Army  of  the  James,  and  sending  him 
to  his  home  in  Massachusetts.* 

*  General  Grant  testified  as  follows  before  a  committee  of  the  Yankee  Con 
gress,  appointed  to  inquire  into  Butler's  conduct : 

Question— The  expectation  was  to  surprise  the  fort? 

Answer — Yes,  sir ;  and  my  instructions  were  very  clear,  and  if  they  effected 
a  landing  there  above  Fort  Fisher,  that  in  itself  was  to  be  considered  a  suc 
cess  ;  and  if  the  fort  did  not  fall  immediately  upon  their  landing,  then  they 
were  to  intrench  themselves,  and  remain  there  and  co-operate  with  the  navy 
until  the  fort  did  fall.  In  my  instructions  I  provided  for  a  bold  dash  for  the 
capture  of  Wilmington,  in  case  Fort  Fisher  did  fall  immediately  upon  the 
landing  of  the  troops.  If  it  did  not  fall,  then  they  were  to  intrench,  enter  upon 
a  siege  of  the  place,  and  remain  there  until  it  did  fall.  And  the  capture  of  Wil. 
mington  would  thus  become  a  matter  for  future  consideration.  General  Butler 
came  away  from  Fort  Fisher  in  violation  of  the  instructions  which  1  «:ave  him. 


44:2  SOUTHERN    HISTOET    OF    THE    WAR. 


SECOND    EXPEDITION  AGAINST  FORT  FISHEK. — FAIL  OF  WILMINGTO5* 

Neither  General  Grant  nor  the  Washington  authorities  wen* 
satisfied  with  Butler's  conclusion  that  Fort  Fisher  was  impreg 
nable.     The  naval  force  remained  in  the  vicinity  during  some 
very  stormy  weather,  while  a  second  military  force  was  organ 
izcd  under  command  of  General  Terry.     This  force  consisted 
of  some  eight  thousand  five  hundred  men,  with  siege  guns  and 
intrenching  tools.     On  the  13th  of  January,  the  troops  were 
landed  on  the  beach   above  Fort  Fisher,  and  proceeded   tc 
throw  up  intrenchments. 

The  enemy  landed,  under  cover  of  his  fleet,  near  Battery 
Gatlin,  about  nine  miles  from  Fort  Fisher.  "While  he  was 
landing,  General  Hoke  appeared  and  drew  up  in  line  parallel, 
to  watch  his  movements,  and  intercept  them  when  possible  to 
do  so.  It  was  not  possible  to  prevent  the  landing,  owing  to 
the  situation  of  the  point  chosen.  The  enemy  landed  on  the 
banks,  just  above  the  neck  of  the  sound,  thus  interposing  a 
small  surface, of  water  between  them  and  an  attacking  force; 
or  compelling  such  force  to  circle  around  the  lower  extreme  of 
the  sound — either  of  which  movements  would  have  to  be  dono 
under  the  fire  of  the  whole  fleet. 

When  General  Hoke  found  this  to  be  the  situation,  he  es 
tablished  a  line  facing  the  sea,  and  threw  out  cavalry  pn  his 
right  flank,  towards  Battery  Anderson,  which  was  down  the 
beach  towards  Fort  Fisher,  about  four  miles.  The  intervening 
country  here  was  broken  ;  and  the  low  places  were  grown  up 
with  thick  bushes,  and  were  marshy.  The  purpose  of  the 
cavalry  was  to  observe  the  movements,  and  give  the  signal  of 
the  first  advance  of  the  enemy  towards  establishing  a  line 
across  the  neck  of  land  to  the  river,  it  being  the  order  and 
purpose  of  General  Bragg  to  have  General  Hoke  attack  him  as 
soon  as  he  advanced.  During  the  night,  however,  the  enemy, 
passing  between  the  cavalry,  and  threading  their  way  through 
the  thick,  marshy  undergrowth,  made  their  way  to  the  river, 
and  next  morning  General  Hoke  found  an  intrenched  line  on 
his  right  flank,  extending  across  the  peninsula,  from  the  sea 
to,  or  near  to  the  river.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  maintain 
ing  his  base  at  Sugarloaf,  immediately  changed  his  line,  and 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  443 

informed  General  Bragg  of  the  situation.  Then  General  Bragg 
gave  the  order  to  charge  the  enemy  in  their  works.  In  tho 
mean  time,  General  Hoke  had  made  a  close  reconnoissance, 
under  the  fire  of  the  enemy,  and  discovered  the  strength  01 
their  force  and  position.  On  receiving  the  order  to  charge 
he  communicated  the  result  of  his  observations,  and  asked 
General  Bragg  to  reconnoitre  in  person,  which  he  did ;  and 
both  of  these  officers  concurred  that  it  was  not  proper  to 
assault  the  lines.  It  was  then  determined  to  re-enforce  the 
fort.  By  this  time  the  enemy,  four  thousand  strong,  were 
secure  behind  their  works  ;  and  the  fleet  proceeded  to  bombard 
Fort  Fisher,  which  was  done  uninterruptedly  until  Sunday, 
the  15th  of  January,  about  six  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

At  this  time  the  column  of  assault,  numbering  about  four 
thousand,  moved  from  the  enemy's  lines,  and  as  they  ad 
vanced,  they  were  plainly  visible  from  Fort  Fisher.  But  the 
beleaguered  garrison  was  kept  close  confined  within  the  bomb- 
proofs  by  the  concentrated  and  continued  fire  of  seven  hundred 
guns  pouring  torrents  of  shell  and  missiles  on  every  spot.  On 
the  land  side  of  Fort  Fisher  the  Confederates  had  seventeen 
guns — sufficient,  could  they  have  been  used,  to  make  it  impos 
sible  that  any  force  could  have  advanced  under  their  fire. 
But,  as  the  line  of  assailants  got  nearer  to  the  fort,  the  whole 
fleet  concentrated  the  fire,  in  richochet  shot,  on  the  land  side, 
and  speedily  dismounted  every  gun ;  and  this  unintermitterit 
fau  d?cnfer  was  kept  up  until  the  enemy's  line  was  within  sixty 
yards  of  the  works.  Then  it  ceased,  and  with  a  rush  and  yell 
the  charge  was  made.  Captain  Braddy  commanded  the  com 
pany  guarding  the  sally-port.  On  him  the  hope  of  the  garri 
son  hung  to  keep  the  assailants  out  until  the  men  and  officers, 
who  had  been  packed  in  the  bomb-proofs  for  fifry-six  hours, 
could  get  out  and  make  ready.  This  officer  and  his  command, 
it  is  said,  surrendered,  and  the  enemy  entered  the  open  gate. 
The  Confederates  were  benumbed  and  exhausted,  and  the 
thing  was  the  work  of  a  moment.  They  were  obliged  to  fall 
back  in  order  to  rally.  Colonel  Lamb  brought  his  men  into 
line  near  headquarters,  General  Whiting  being  present,  en 
couraging  and  cheering  on  the  troops  and  creating  enthusiasm 
by  his  ardent  heroism.  Under  these  inspiring  influences  the 
men  were  brought  to  the  charge.  The  numbers  were  agair  . 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

them  in  the  proportion  of  four  thousand,  aided  by  two  thousand 
marines,  to  two  thousand,  but  they  forced  the  enemy  back  to 
the  mound,  and  a  harid-to-hand  fight,  of  unmitigated  despera 
tion  and  fury,  ensued,  continuing  from  seven  to  about  ten 
o'clock,  when  bravery,  endurance,  and  devotion  failed  to  over 
come  numbers.  The  Confederates  were  overpowered,  and  the 
work  of  assault  was  accomplished ;  but  not  until  the  enemy 
had  paid  dearly  for  his  prize.  Pie  had  not  lost  a  man  until  he 
entered  the  fort. 

Thus  fell  Fort  Fisher  after  a  heroic  defence.  About  mid 
night,  General  "Whiting  surrendered  himself  and  his  men  to 
General  Terry  as  prisoners  of  war,  numbering  over  eighteen 
hundred,  the  remainder  of  his  force  being  killed  or  wounded. 
The  enemy  confessed  a  loss  of  seven  or  eight  hundred  in  killed 
and  wounded.  General  Whiting  received  three  wounds  in 
the  thigh,  and  thus  wounded  was  fated  to  languish  and  die  in 
a  Yankee  prison. 

The  fall  of  Fort  Fisher  did  not  clear  the  way  to  Wilmington. 
Yet  it  was  decisive  of  the  fate  of  that  city.  On  the  19th  of 
February,  Fort  Anderson,  higher  up  the  river,  was  evacuated 
under  a  heavy  fire  from  Porter's  fleet,  with  a  co-operating 
Yankee  force  eight  thousand  strong,  which  Schofield  had 
moved  up  from  Smithville.  The  troops  were  pushed  for  Wil 
mington,  while  at  the  same  time  Porter's  vessels  passed  the 
obstructions  and  steamed  up  the  river.  Wilmington  was 
occupied  without  resistance.  The  eight  or  ten  thousand  Con 
federate  troops  there,  under  the  command  of  General  Bragg, 
had  been  withdrawn  towards  what  was  now  the  dominant 
theatre  of  the  war  in  the  interior  of  the  Carolinas. 

The  capture  of  Wilmington,  indeed,  had  been  an  arranged 
parallel  of  Sherman's  grand  expedition  through  the  Carolinas ; 
it  was  intended  to  open  still  another  base  of  operations  towards 
Richmond  ;  and  it  proved,  in  fact,  a  great  element  of  success  in 
that  extraordinary  march  that  carried  the  Yankee  banners 
from  Savannah  to  Goldsboro'.  To  that  movement  attention 
must  now  be  directed  in  the  logical  order  of  our  narrative. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  445 


About  the  16th  of  January,  hardly  a  month  from  his  entry 
into  Savannah,  Sherman  had  reviewed  and  reorganized  bis 
command,  but  only  partially  refitted  it,  owing  to  delays  in  for 
warding  the  necessary  supplies.  Appreciating  the  value  of 
time,  he  hurried  forward  his  preparations,  and  dispatching 
Howard's  wing  by  water  to  Beaufort,  from  whence  it  penetrated 
up  the  Pocotaligo,  deceived  the  Confederates  into  the  belief 
that  this  force  was  the  advance  of  his  army  moving  upon 
Charleston.  The  interval  between  the  embarkation  of  Howard 
at  Savannah  and  his  arrival  in  front  of  the  Branchville  and 
Charleston  Railroad  was  well  employed  by  Sherman,  who 
marched  Slocum's  wing  towards  Augusta,  Davis'  corps  on  the 
Georgia  side,  and  William's  on  the  Carolina  side  of  the  Savan 
nah  River,  to  Sister's  Ferry. 

The  laborious  duty  of  the  campaign  commenced  with  the 
crossing  of  the  Savannah  River.  The  Confederate  forces  to 
oppose  Sherman  were  scattered  all  the  way  from  Augusta  to 
Charleston  ;  the  design  being  to  guard  all  the  approaches  to 
the  railway  that  connected  Charleston  with  the  interior.  This 
want  of  concentration  was  the  secret  of  Sherman's  success. 

Early  in  February,  Sherman  struck  the  railroad  between 
Branchville  and  Charleston,  compelled  the  Confederates  to 
evacuate  Branchville  oh  the  llth  of  February,  and  broke  up 
the  South  Carolina  Railroad  for  sixty  or  seventy  miles,  thus 
preventing  any  reinforcements  from  the  west.  The  left  wing, 
by  rapid  marches  of  eighteen  miles  per  day,  had  made  a 
detour  far  to  the  left,  within  thirty  miles  of  Augusta,  gained  a 
lodgment  upon  the  road,  and  severed  communications.  Here 
was  a  dangerous  position  for  the  Confederates;  Sherman's 
whole  force  of  cavalry,  militia,  and  veterans  at  Branchville, 
and  Augusta  open  to  capture  by  a  sudden  swoop  of  Kilpat- 
rick's  cavalry.  That  city,  with  its  arsenals,  laboratories, 
machine-shops,  rolling  stock,  and  cotton,  was  too  valuable  to 
be  neglected  ;  and  Cheatham's  corps  of  Hood's  army,  was 
marched  night  and  day  to  its  relief,  arriving  there  in  time  to 
find  t'mt  Sherman  had  turned  the  cold  shoulder  upon  Augusta,. 


446  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


by  a  dexterous  movement  thrown  his  left  wing  between 
Hill  and  the  main  force  in  his  front. 

Continuing  his  march  north,  Sherman  entered  Orangebnrg 
on  the  16th  of  February  ;  and  General  Bean  regard,  who,  owing 
to  the  extraordinary  dispersion  of  the  Confederate  plan  of  de 
fence,  had  certainly  not  more  than  ten  thousand  men  at  Co 
lumbia,  was  already  preparing  to  evacuate  the  capital  of  South 
Carolina. 


THE   FALL   OF   CHARLESTON. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  movement  of  Sherman  had  already 
been  decisive  of  the  fate  of  Charleston.  General  Hardee  find 
ing  himself  flanked  at  Charleston,  and  appreciating  the  instant 
necessity  of  effecting  a  junction  with  Beauregard  and  Cheat- 
ham,  and  concentrating  all  available  forces  in  Sherman's  path, 
resolved  to  evacuate  this  city,  so  famous  in  the  war  and  so 
long  coveted  by  the  Yankees.  But  he  was  resolved  to  leave 
as  little  as  possible  for  the  enemy's  rapacity. 

At  an  early  hour  of  the  morning,  before  the  retirement  oi 
General  Hardee's  troops,  every  building,  warehouse,  or  shed, 
stored  with  cotton,  was  fired  by  a  guard  detailed  for  the  pur 
pose.  The  engines  were  brought  out,  but  writh  the  small  force 
at  the  disposal  of  the  fire  department,  very  little  else  could  be 
done  than  to  keep  the  surrounding  buildings  from  igniting. 
On  the  western  side  of  the  city  the  conflagration  raged  with 
great  fury. 

The  horrors  of  the  conflagration  were  heightened  by  a  ter 
rible  catastrophe.  It  appears  some  boys  had  discovered  a 
quantity  of  powder  at  the  depot  of  the  Northwestern  Railroad, 
and  amused  themselves  by  flinging  handfuls  of  it  upon  the 
masses  of  burning  cotton  in  the  streets.  It  was  not  long  before 
the  powder  running  from  their  hands  formed  a  train  upon  the 
ground  leading  from  the  fire  to  the  main  supplies  of  powder  in 
the  depot.  The  result  is  easily  conjectured.  A  spark  ignited 
the  powder  in  the  train,  there  was  a  leaping,  running  fire 
along  the  ground,  and  then  an  explosion  which  shook  the  city 
to  its  very  foundation  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The  build 
ing  was.  in  a  second,  a  whirling  mass  of  ruins,  in  a  tremeudou. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  447 

volume  of  flame  and  smoke.  About  two  hundred  lives  were 
lost  by  the  explosion,  and  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
bodies  were  found  charred  in  that  fiery  furnace. 

From  the  depot  the  fire  spread  rapidly,  and  communicating 
with  the  adjoining  buildin'gs,  threatened  destruction  to  that 
part  of  the  town.  Four  squares,  embracing  the  area  bounded 
by  Chapel,  Alexander,  Charlotte,  and  Washington-streets,  were 
consumed  before  the  conflagration  was  subdued. 

The  destruction  of  public  property  in  Charleston  had  been 
as  complete  as  General  Hardee  could  make  it.  He  burned  the 
cotton  warehouses,  arsenals,  quartermaster's  stores,  railroad 
bridges,  two  iron-dads,  and  some  vessels  in  the  ship-yard. 

Among  the  captured  property  were  two  hundred  pieces  of 
artillery,  spiked  and  temporarily  disabled,  as  they  could  not 
be  brought  off. 

The  Yankees  occupied  Charleston  on  the  18th  of  February. 
A  scarred  city,  blackened  b}^  fire,  with  evidences  of  destruction 
and  ruin  wrought  by  the  enemy  at  almosj;  every  step,  had  at 
last  come  into  their  possession  ;  but  not  until  a  heroic  defence 
running  through  nearly  four  years,  and  at  last  only  by  the 
stratagem  of  a  march  many  miles  away  from  it.  The- appear 
ance  of  the  city  was  eloquent  of  the  sacrifice  and  heroism  of  its 
people.  A  Yankee  correspondent  who  had  joined  in  the 
triumphal  entry  into  Charleston  thus  described  the  scene  be 
fore  his  eyes  :  "Not  a  building  for  blocks  here  that  is  exempt 
from  the  marks  of  shot  and  shell.  All  have  suffered  more  or 
less.  Here  is  a  fine  brown-stone  bank  building,  vacant  and 
deserted,  with  great  gaping  holes  in  the  sides  and  roof, 
through  which  the  sun  shines  and  the  rain  pours,  windows  and 
sashes  blown  out  by  exploding  shell  within,  plastering  knocked 
down,  counters  torn  up,  floors  crushed  in,  and  fragments  of 
mosaic  pavement,  broken  and  crushed,  lying  around  on  the 
floor,  mingled  with  bits  of  statuarj^,  stained  glass,  and  broken 
parts  of  chandeliers.  Ruin  within  and  without,  and  its  neigh 
bor  in  no  better  plight.  The  churches,  St.  Michael's  and  St. 
Philip's,  have  not  escaped  the  storms  of  our  projectiles.  Their 
roofs  are  perforated,  their  walls  wounded,  their  pillars  demol 
ished,  and  within  the  pews  filled  with  plastering.  From  Bay- 
Btreet,  studded  with  batteries,  to  Cal noun-street,  our  shells  have 
carried  destruction  and  desolation,  and  often  death  witli  them," 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CAFPURE    AND    BURNING    OF   COLUMBIA. 

"While  the  Yankees  were  making  a  triumphal  entry  into  the 
burning  city  of  Charleston,  a  scene  yet  more  terrible  and 
dramatic  was  taking  place  in  the  capital  of  South  Carolina. 
General  Beauregard  had  evacuated  Columbia  in  haste.  Sher 
man  entered  it  on  the  18th  of  February.  A  white  flag  riis- 
played  from  the  steeple  of  the  City  Hall  announced  the 
surrender  of  the  town.  With  bands  playing,  drum-corps 
beating,  flags  flying,  and  their  men  in  step,  the  Yankee  army 
inarched  down  Main-street  to  the  Capitol  square. 

No  sooner  had  the  enemy  entered  Columbia  than  a  wild  and 
savage  scene  of  pillage  commenced.  Stragglers,  "  bummers,'* 
pontoon  men,  and  the  riffraff  of  the  army  were  to  be  met  in 
every  street  and  almost  every  house.  If  they  wanted  a  pair  of 
boots  tltey  took  them  from  one's  feet.  Watches  were  in  con 
stant  demand — in  several  instances  being  snatched  from  thb 
persons  of  ladies.  Ear  and  finger-rings  were  taken  by  force, 
and,  in  isolated  cases,  the  dresses  of  ladies  were  torn  from  their 
bodies  b.y  villains  who  expected  to  lind  jewels  or  plate  con 
cealed.  Search  for  silver  and  provisions  was  made  in  every 
conceivable  place.  Ramrods  were  used  as  probes  to  indicate 
where  boxes  were  buried ;  and  gardens,  outhouses,  cellars, 
garrets,  chimneys,  and  nooks,  never  thought  of  by  anybody  but 
a  thief  in  search  of  plunder,  were  turned,  so  to  speak,  inside 
out.  Rev.  Mr.  Shand,  the  Episcopalian  clergyman,  while  con 
veying  a  trunk  containing  the  communion  service  of  silver 
from  the  church  to  the  South  Carolina  College,  was  accosted 
by  a  Yankee  and  a  negro,  who  compelled  him,  under  threat  of 
death,  to  give  it  up. 

The  conflagration  which  destroyed  the  city  commenced 
about  dusk.  The  fire  started  near  the  rear  of  the  jail.  A 
high  wind  prevailed,  and  in  a  short  time  the  flames  were  in 
full  and  unconquerable  progress,  spreading  rapidly  in  three 
directions — up  and  down  Main-street  and  eastwardly.  From 
ten  until  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  scene  was  appalling. 
The  sky  was  one  broad  sheet  of  flame,  above  which,  amid  the 
lurid  smoke,  drifted  in  eddying  circles  a  myriad  of  .sparks. 
These  falling  scattered  the  conflagration  on  every  side.  The 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  . 

monotone  of  the  roaring,  leaping,  hissing  tongues  of  flame,  as 
they  careered  on  their  wild  course,  alone  filled  hearts  with 
dismay.  The  air  was  like  that  of  a  furnace.  Many  of  the 
streets  were  impassable.  Frightened  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren  ran  in  all  directions,  some  only  to  flee  again  from  the  fresh 
attacks  of  the  destroying  element.  Property  thrown  out  of 
houses  was  either  burned  or  stolen.  Many  of  the  Federal 
soldiers,  maddened  by  liquor,  dashed  through  the  city  with 
lighted  torches  to  inflame  the  dwellings  yet  untouched.  Morn 
ing  revealed  to  some  extent  the  broad  sweep  of  destruction. 
Four  thousand  or  more  citizens  were  houseless  and  homeless. 
From  the  State-house  to  Cotton  Town,  and  an  average  of  two 
or  three  squares  on  each  side  of  Main-street,  nothing  but 
blackened  ruins  remained.  Every  vestige  of  the  once  busy 
street  was  gone. 

After  having  completed,  as  far  as  possible,  the  destruction  of 
Columbia,  Sherman  continued  his  march  northward.  The 
Seventeenth  and  Twentieth  corps  moved  in  two  columns  upon 
Winnsboro',  thirty  miles  north,  on  the  Columbia  and  Charlotte 
Kailroad  ;  the  Seventeenth  destroying  the  railroad,  and  twisting 
the  rails  so  that  they  could  not  be  used  again.  From  Winris- 
boro',  where  they  found  many  of  the  refugees  from  Charleston 
and  Columbia,  General  Sherman  sent  Kilpatrick's  cavalry  still 
northward  towards  Chester ville,  to  keep  up  the  delusion  that 
lie  was  moving  on  Charlotte,  but  Sherman  himself  with  his 
main  army  moved  directly  eastward,  crossing  the  Catawba  or 
Wateree  nearly  east  of  Winnsboro',  and  moving  his  left  wing 
directly  towards  Cheraw,  while  the  right  threatened  Florence. 

After  leaving  Columbia,  Jihe  rapidly  increasing  mass  of 
refugees,  black  and  white,  who  followed  the  army,  were  organ 
ized  into  an  emigrant  train,  and  put  under  the  charge  of  the 
officers  and  men  who  had  escaped  from  the  Confederate  prisons 
at  Salisbury  and  elsewhere  on  the  route.  Under  the  direction 
of  their  escort  they  foraged  for  themselves,  and  being  supplied 
liberally  with  horses  and  mules,  wagons  and  other  vehicles,  of 
which  large  numbers  were  taken  along  the  route,  they  moved 
on  with  very  little  expense  or  trouble  to  the  army.  This 
organization,  known  as  that  of  "  Sherman's  bummers,"  often 
mixed  up  with  the  regular  troops  of  the  army,  carried  devas 
tation,  ruin,  and  horror  along  the  march.  It  was  said,  indeed, 

29 


£50  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

that  Sherman's  march  through  the  Carolinas  was  tracked  by  a 
column   of    smoke,    and    that   stragglers    never    found    any 
difficulty  in   rejoining  the  command,  when   this  ghastly  evi 
dence  of  its  march  stood  constantly  in  the  sky. 

At  Winnsboro',  private  dwellings  were  entered  ruthlessly 
all  kind  of  necessaries  and  luxuries  of  life  were  stolen,  and,  in 
some  cases,  helpless  women  were  cursed  and  threatened  to  be 
shot  if  they  did  not  deliver  up  keys  of  apartments.  This  town 
was  also  fired.  Charred  ruins  met  the  eye,  where  once  the 
busy  feet  of  men  passed  in  the  daily  pursuits  of  life.  Wedding- 
rings  and  mementos  of  deceased  husbands  or  parents  were 
stolen  as  ruthlessly  as  gold  coin  would  have  been  ;  watches 
and  jewelry  were  cut  from  the  persons  of  ladies,  and,  in  some 
instances,  their  shoes  removed  on  the  pretence  of  searching  for 
rings. 

Leaving  this  town,  the  enemy  took  their  line  of  march  on 
the  State  road  leading  to  Blackstocks.  On  the  route  their  road 
could  be  easily  distinguished  by  tall  chimneys  standing  solitary 
and  alone,  and  blackened  embers,  as  it  were,  laying  at  theix 
feet.  Every  fine  residence,  all  corn-cribs,  smoke-houses,  cotton 
gins — all  that  could  give  comfort  to  man — were  committed  to 
the  flames ;  dead  animals — horses,  mules,  cows,  calves,  and 
hogs — slain  by  the  enemy,  were  scattered  along  the  road.  Tha 
railroad  track  from  Winnsboro'  to  about  four  hundred  yard* 
on  the  other  side  of  Blackstocks  was  in  one  mass  of  ruins. 
Horses  and  mules  that  were  hid  in  dense  forests  were  found 
and  taken.  Corn,  fodder,  and  shucks  that  the  enemy  could 
not  use  were  burned  ;  gentlemen  were  robbed  of  what  funds 
they  had  about  their  person  ;  watches  were  jerked  from  the 
pockets  of  both  male  and  female;  in  truth  every  indignity  and 
every  insult  that  could  be  offered  to  citizens  was  perpetrated.* 


*  Tlie  following  are  extracts  from  some  private  letters  giving  some  account 
of  Sherman's  pillagers  in  the  Caroliuas  : 

"  MY  DEAR :  Sherman  has  gone,  and  terrible  has  been  the  storm  that  has 

fwept  over  us  with  his  coming  and  going.  They  deliberately  shot  t\vo  of  our 
citizens — murdered  them  In  cold  blood — one  of  them  a  Mr.  Murphy,  a  wounded 
soldier,  Confederate  States  Army.  They  hung  up  three  others  and  one  lady, 
merely  letting  them  down  just  in  time  to  save  life,  in  order  to  make  them  tell 
where  their  valuables  were  concealed.  There  was  no  place,  no  chamber, 
trunk,  drawer,  desk,  garret,  closet,  or  cellar  that  was  private  to  their  unholy 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  451 

On  the  3d  of  March  Sherman  occupied  Cheraw.  The  feint 
upon  Charlotte  was  intended  to  uncover  Fayetteville  to  Sher 
man  and  Goldsboro'  to  Schofield,  who,  with  a  large  and  vic 
torious  army,  was  sweeping  tip  from  the  coast  with  reinforce- 


eyes.  Their  rude  hands  spared  nothing  but  our  lives,  and  those  they  would 
have  taken  but  they  knew  that  therein  they  would  only  accomplish  the  death 
of  a  few  helpless  women  and  children— they  would  not  in  the  least  degree 
break  or  bend  the  spirit  of  our  people.  Squad  after  squad  unceasingly  came 
and  went  and  tramped  through  the  halls  and  rooms  of  our  house  day  and 
night  during  the  entire  stay  of  the  army. 

"  At  our  house  they  killed  every  chicken,  goose,  turkey,  cow,  calf,  and  every 
living  thing,  even  to  our  pet  dog.  They  carried  off  our  wagons,  carriages,  and 
horses,  and  broke  up  our  buggy,  wheelbarrow,  garden  implements,  axes, 
hatchets,  hammers,  saws,  etc.,  and  burned  the  fences.  Our  smoke-houses  and 
pantry — that  a  few  days  ago  were  well  stored  with  bacon,  lard,  flour,  dried 
fruit,  meal,  pickles,  preserves,  etc. — now  contain  nothing  whatever,  except  a  few 
pounds  of  meal  and  flour,  and  five  pounds  of  bacon.  They  took  from  old 
men,  women,  and  children  alike,  every  garment  of  wearing  apparel  save  what 
we  had  on,  not  even  sparing  the  napkins  of  infants  !  Blankets,  sheets,  quilts, 
etc.,  such  as  did  not  suit  them  to  take  away,  they  tore  to  pieces  before  our 
eyes.  After  destroying  every  thing  we  had,  and  taking  from  us  every  morsel 
of  food  (save  the  pittance  I  have  mentioned),  one  of  these  barbarians  had  to 
add  insult  to  injury  by  asking  me  *  what  you  (I)  would  live  upon  now?'  I  re 
plied,  '  Upon  patriotism  ;  I  will  exist  upon  the  love  of  my  country  as  long  as 
life  will  last,  and  then  I  will  die  as  firm  in  that  love  as  the  everlasting  hills.'  " 

A  lady  residing  in  South  Carolina,  who  was  in  the  enemy's  lines  for  five 
days,  writes  her  experience  to  a  friend  in  Augusta  as  follows  : 

"  Pauline  came  rushing  up  to  me  saying  the  Yankees  had  come, 
A  hasty  glance  from  the  window  confirmed  her  words,  and  we  instantly  re 
treated  to  aunt's  room.  This  being  on  the  first  floor,  was  speedily  filled  with 
armed  men.  At  first  I  very  politely  unlocked  several  trunks,  assuring  them 
that  they  only  contained  ladies'  apparel,  but  as  the  number  increased  we  gladly 
retreated  to  the  sitting-room,  where  the  whole  family  soon  collected.  There 
we  remained  from  twelve  to  six  o'clock,  while  this  band  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men  ransacked  every  nook  and  corner  ;  breaking  open  trunks  and  boxes, 
singing,  whistling,  swearing.  Many  passed  through  the  room  in  which  we 
were.  At  first  none  addressed  us.  At  last  one  young  villain  came  in,  fastened 
the  door,  demanded  our  watches,  and  using  the  most  profane  language  and 
terrible  threats,  ordered  us  to  confess  where  our  gold  and  silver  was  buried  ; 
laid  his  hands  on  Pauline's  shoulder  and  mine,  while  we  obediently  emptied 
our  v-ockets.  They  then  marched  Dr.  —  -  into  the  entry,  stripped  the  poor 
old  tfonMeman  to  the  waist,  robbing  him  of  the  one  thousand  dollars  he  had 
succeeded  in  bringing  from  his  own  house,  which  meanwhile  has  been  laid  in 
ashes — so  he  is  homeless.  We  have  lost  in  silver,  china,  and  glass.  All  our 
blankets,  quilts,  bowls,  and  all  the  pillow-cases  were  used  us  bags  to  reaiove 
provisions.  Great  destruction  in  clothing,  dresses  torn  up,  etc.  Hardly  a 
handkerchief  in  the  house." 


452  SOUTHER  5T    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ments    for  Sherman,   establishing   a   line  of  supplies  as   he 
moved. 

On  the  afternoon  and  night  of  the  6th  of  March,  the  Yankee 
army  crossed  the  Great  Pedee  River  in  safety,  and  swept  for 
ward  the  next  day — the  main  army,  in  four  columns,  moving 
on  Laurel  Hill  and  Montpelier,  North  Carolina,  and  the 
cavalry,  under  Kilpatrick,  guarding  the  extreme  left,  and 
approaching  Rockingham,  North  Carolina,  where  they  came  in 
contact  with  Butler's  division  of  Wade  Hampton's  cavalry, 
with  which  they  had  some  desultory  skirmishing.  A  long  and 
heavy  rain  delayed  somewhat  the  Yankee  approach  to  Fayette- 
ville,  but  that  place  was  reached  on  the  llth  of  March. 

Some  more  severe  and  important  fighting  than  Sherman  had 
yet  experienced  since  he  and  Johnston  parted  at  Atlanta  was 
now  to  take  place ;  the  latter  general  having  been  put  in  com 
mand  of  the  Confederate  forces  in  the  Carolinas. 

On  the  10th  of  March  General  Wade  Hampton  approached 
before  daylight  Kilpatrick's  headquarters,  at  Monroe's  planta 
tion,  and  administered  to  him  a  severe  lesson,  taking  guns  and 
prisoners. 

At  Fayetteville  Sherman  communicated  with  Schofiold  at 
Wilmington.  He  had  fixed  upon  the  vicinity  of  Goldsboro'  as 
the  place  where  he  would  form  a  junction  with  Schon'eld,  and 
the  22d  of  March  as  the  time — before  leaving  Savannah — 
and  having  brought  his  army  thus  far  in  time,  he  was  dis 
posed  to  move  slowly  to  allow  Schoiield  time  to  reach  tho 
rendezvous. 

On  the  16th  of  March  General  Hardee,  with  about  half  a 
corps  (Rhett's  and  Elliot's  brigades),  was  intrenched  between 
Black  Creek  and  Cape  Fear  River,  at  no  great  distance  from 
the  confluence  of  these  streams.  This  small  detachment  of 
Confederate  force  was  attacked  here  by  two  corps  of  Sherman 'a 
veterans,  under  Slocurn,  together  with  Kilpatrick's  cavalry. 
The  Confederates  held  their  ground  with  the  most  determined 
valor.  Three  diiferent  charges  of  the  enemy  were  repulsed. 
At  last,  to  prevent  being  flanked,  General  Hardee  had  to  fall 
back  with  the  loss  of  two  guns.  This  engagement  took  place 
at  Averysboro',  on  the  Cape  Fear  River,  about  halt- way 
between  Raleigh  and  Fayetteville.  The  loss  of  the  enemy  was 
out.  of  all  proportion  to  our  own.  General  Johnston  tele- 


GEN.  WADE     HAMPTON. 


C .  B .  Rich  ar  dson 
Publisher 


THE    LAST    YEAH.  453 

graphed  to  Richmond  that  the  total  Confederate  loss  was  four 
hundred  and  fifty  ;  that  of  the  Yankees  thirty-three  hundred. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   BENTONVILLE. 

On  the  19th  of  March  a  yet  more  important  engagement 
was  to  occur.  It  was  Johnston's  purpose  to  cripple  Sherman, 
if  possible,  before  he  could  effect  a  junction  with  Schofield ; 
and,  accordingly,  he  brought  what  troops  he  had  in  hand  by  a 
forced  inarch  into  position  at  Bentonville,  intending  to  fling 
them  upon  Sherman's  left  wing,  commanded  by  Slocum. 

About  nine  o'clock  in  Xhe  morning  the  fight  commenced. 
On  the  right,  Bate's  and  Cleburne's  division  charged  and  car 
ried  two  lines  of  breastworks,  driving  the  enemy  two  miles. 
Hill,  commanding  Lee's  corps,  and  Loring,  commanding 
Stewart's  corps,  did  similarly  on  the  left.  The  Confederates 
fought  gallantly.  Three  guns  were  taken  from  the  enemy,  and 
his  whole  line  pushed  back. 

A  mile  in  rear  the  enemy  rallied  upon  fresh  troops,  but  was 
forced  back  slowly,  until  six  o'clock  p.  M.,  when,  receiving 
more  troops,  he  apparently  assumed  the  offensive,  which 
movement  was  resisted  without  difficulty  until  dark. 

During  the  night  the  enemy  threw  up  heavy  intrenchments, 
and  the  next  morning  General  Johnston  did  not  think  it  advis 
able  to  renew  the  attack.  The  engagement  had  been  a  very 
severe  one.  The  total  loss  of  the  Confederates  was  about 
twenty-five  hundred.  Although  they  had  achieved  a  success, 
Johnston  appears  to  have  been  well  convinced  that  he  had  not 
force  sufficient  to  cope  with  Sherman  and  resist  his  junction 
with  Schofield.  On  the  night  of  the  20th  the  enemy  aban 
doned  their  works  and  moved  towards  Goldsboro'.  General 
Johnston  then  withdrew  towards  Raleigh. 

In  the  mean  time,  Schofield,  from  Newbern,  had  entered  and 
occupied  Goldsboro',  and  Terry,  from  Wilmington,  had  secured 
Cox's  bridge  crossing,  and  laid  a  pontoon  bridge  across  the 
Neuse  River.  Sherman  was  thus  in  the  position  he  had 
planned  more  than  two  months  ago  in  Savannah  ;  he  had 
brought  up  every  part  of  the  combination  in  perfect  order; 
and  so  far  had  achieved  a  success  at  once  brilliant  and  coin- 


454  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

plete.  On  the  22d  of  March  he  published  in  Goldsboro'  a  con 
gratulatory  address  to  his  troops.  He  said  :  "  After  a  mure! 
of  the  most  extraordinary  character,  nearly  five  hundred  miles 
over  swamps  and  rivers  deemed  impassable  to  others,  at  th 
most  inclement  season  of  the  year,  and  drawing  our  chief  sup 
plies  from  a  poor  and  wasted  country,  we  reach  our  destination 
in  good  health  and  condition." 

We  must  leave  Sherman  at  Goldsboro' — the  proper  termi 
nation  of  his  campaign  in  the  Carolinas.  The  position  was 
critical  enough  for  the  Confederates.  Between  Sherman's 
army,  augmented  by  the  corps  of  Schofield  and  Terry,  and  the 
army  of  Grant,  the  Confederacy  was  in  danger  of  being 
crushed.  The  two  armies  were  separated  by  only  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  miles,  and  a  railroad*,  which  conld  be  rapidly 
put  in  order,  connected  them.  No  sooner  had  Sherman  dis 
posed  his  army  in  camp  at  Goldsboro'  than  he  hastened  to 
City  Point,  Virginia,  for  an  interview  with  General  Grant  and 
President  Lincoln.  The  results  of  that  conference  were  soon 
to  be  known  to  the  Confederacy,  and  meant  any  thing  else 
than  that  "peace  negotiation"  info  which  some  lively  imagi 
nations  in  Richmond  construed  this  collection  of  distinguished 
persons. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  4-55 


CHAPTEK  XXIII. 

The  date  of  distrust  in  the  .Southern  mind. — Observation  of  Gereral  Lee. — A  pecu 
liar  moral  condition  of  the  Confederacy. — Want  of  confidence  in  President  Davis' 
administration. — Impatience  of  the  prolongation  of  the  war. — Davis'  unpopularity. 
—  V\  eak  attempts  in  Congress  at  a  counter-revolution. — General  Leo  made  com- 
mander-in  chief. — The  title  a  nominal  one. — The  Virginia  delegation  and  the  Pres 
ident. — Mr.  Seddon's  resignation. — President  Davis'  defiance  to  Congress. — The 
Davw-Johnston  imbroglio.— Senator  Wig  fall's  speeches.— Johnston's  restoration, 
— President  Davis'  opinion  of  homoeopathy. — Sullen  and  indifferent  disposition  of 
the  Southern  people. — How  they  might  have  accomplished  their  independence. — 
Review  of  the  military  situation. — Analysis  of  the  peace  feeling  in  the  North.— 
How  it  was  likely  to  be  developed  by  a  long  war. — The  Union  not  the  enemy's  sint 
qua  non. — Two  contingencies  that  limited  the  war. — The  worthless  title  of  Yankee 
invasion. — "Cob-web"  occupation  of  the  Confederacy. — Note:  an  tiddresB  in  thd 
Richmond  newspapers. — Tiie  two  fatal  facts  in  the  condition  of  the  Confederacy.— 
THE  FORTRESS  MONROE  COMMISSION. — How  it  was  brought  about. — The  Yankeo 
ultimatum. — Official  narrative  of  the  Confederate  commissioners.- — A  new  attempt 
to  rally  the  spirit  of  the  South. — The  meeting  at  the  African  church  in  Richmond. 
— President  Davis'  boasts.— His  noble  allusion  to  history. — How  the  cause  of  the 
Confederacy  was  in  danger. — PROPOSITION  TO  ARM  THE  SLAVES  OF  THK  SOUTH. — 
Indicative  of  a  desperate  condition  of  the  public  mind. — General  Lee's  opinion. — 
The  slavchohling  interest. — Its  selfishness  and  insolence. — A  weak  conclusion  of 
the  matter. — "Catching  at  straws"  in  the  Confederate  Congress. — Character  of 
this  body. 

IN  the  winter  of  1864—5,  intelligent  minds  in  the  Confed- 
«,racy  became,  for  the  first  time,  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
its  victory  and  independence  were  no  longer  certain  conclu 
sions,  and  conceived  a  painful  distrust  as  to  the  issues  of  the 
war. 

General  Lee,  a  man  who  used  few  words,  and  had  the  faculty 
of  going  directly  to  the  point  of  a  discussion,  and  putting 
sagacious  judgments  in  plain  phrases,  once  said  of  the  conduct 
of  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  in  the  war,  that  "  they  were 
only  half  in  earnest."  But  this  remark,  unlike  most  of  Lee's 
judgments,  was  only  half  true.  No  one  can  doubt  that  the 
Confederates  had  been  thoroughly  and  terribly  in  earnest  in 
the  first  periods  of  the  war ;  and  if,  in  its  later  periods,  they 
appeared  to  lack  earnestness,  the  truth  was  they  did  not  lack 
it  so  much  as  they  did  confidence  in  their  rulers,  and  a  dispo 


456  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

sition  to  continue  the  war  under  an  administration,  whoso 
squanderings  and  make-shifts  turned  all  the  sacrifices  of  the 
people  to  naught.  In  the  later  periods  of  the  terrible  conflict 
through  which  the  Confederacy  had  passed,  its  moral  condition 
was  peculiar.  All  confidence  in  the  administration  at  Ilich- 
rnond  was  gone;  the  people  were  heart-broken ;  they  had  been 
cheated  too  often  by  the  highly  colored  prophesies  of  President 
Davis,  and  those  boastful  predictions,  which  are  unfailing 
characteristics  of  the  weak  mind  ;  they  saw  that  their  sacrifices 
were  squandered,  and  their  most  patriotic  efforts  misapplied ; 
they  were  so  far  demoralized  by  want  of  confidence  in  their 
authorities,  and,  in  some  instances,  by  positive  antipathy  to 
them,  that  it  may  be  said  that  in  the  last  periods  of  the  war,  a 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  actually  deprecated 
any  single  success,  and  did  not  desire  a  victory  to  their  arms 
which  might  give  a  new  occasion  of  prolongation  of  the  war — 
for  having  already  taken  it  for  granted  as  hopeless,  they  prayed 
in  their  hearts  that  it  would  be  closed  at  the  earliest  moment. 
They  did  not  desire  the  delay  of  any  mere  fluctuations  of  for 
tune,  which  they  were  sure  was  to  be  adverse  at  the  last.  "If 
failure  was  to  ensue,  then  the  sooner  the  better. 5i>  Such  was 
the  phrase  of  the  vulgar  judgment  which  everywhere  in  tho 
Confederacy  assailed  the  ears  of  nobler  and  more  resolute  men 

Whatever  share  the  maladministration  at  Richmond  may 
have  had  in  producing  this  public  demoralization,  it  is  not  to 
be  excused  entirely  on  this  account.  It  involved  with  it  much 
that  was  shameful,  for  which  the  people  had  themselves  to 
blame,  and  to  charge  to  the  account  of  their  own  disposition 
to  let  the  war  lapse  to  its  final  conclusions  of  defeat  and  ruin. 

For  months  Mr.  Davis  had  been  a  President,  with  nothing  at 
his  back  but  a  clique  of  office-holders.  The  pec  pie  had  be 
come  thoroughly  estranged  from  him.  If  all  did  not  speak  of 
him  in  terms  of  derision  or  hate,  there  were  but  few  who  named 
him  without  expressions  of  distrust.  But  although  the  country 
was  thus  thoroughly  dissatisfied  with  Mr.  Davis'  administra 
tion,  there  was  not  nerve  enough  in  it,  not  courage  enough 
among  its  public  men,  to  overthrow  his  rule,  or  put  it  under  a 
severe  and  effective  check. 

In  the  first  months  of  1865  there  were  introduced  in  Con 
gress  some  partial  but  remarkable  measures  to  correct  the 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  457 

administration.  They  indicated  public  sentiment;  but  they 
failed  and  utterly  broke  down  in  their  execution,  and  left 
Davis  the  defiant  and  angry  master  of  the  Held. 

The  first  of  these  was  an  act  of  the  Confederate  Congress 
making:  General  Lee  commander-in-chief  of  the  armies.  The 

£? 

intention  of  this  law  was  never  executed.  Lee  was  unwilling 
to  accept  practically  its  trust ;  he  was  unwilling,  too,  to  break 
a  personal  friendship  with  the  President;  and  so  he  remained 
in  immediate  command  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  and 
Davis  continued  in  the  practical  control  of  the  armies  at  large, 
without  any  diminution  of  his  power  or  insolence. 

In  January,  1865,  the  Virginia  delegation  in  the  House  of 
.Representatives,  headed  by  Mr.  Bocock,  the  speaker  of  the 
House,  addressed  to  the  President  an  earnest,  but  most  respect 
ful  paper,  expressing  their  want  of  confidence  in  the  capacity 
and  services  of  his  cabinet,  the  members  of  which  for  four 
years  had  been  mere  figure-heads  in  Richmond.  Mr.  Davis 
resented  the  address  as  impertinent.  Mr.  Seddon,  the  secre 
tary  of  war,  a  citizen  of  Virginia,  recognizing  the  censure  as 
coming  from  Virginians,  and,  therefore,  as  peculiarly  applicable 
to  himself,  and  conscious  of  the  excessive  unpopularity  he  had 
incurred  in  the  administration  of  his  office — an  ugly  little  cir 
cumstance  of  which  had  recently  come  to  light,  namely,  that 
while  he  had  been  impressing  the  grain  of  the  Virginia  farm 
ers  at  nominal  prices,  he  had  sold  his  own  crop  of  wheat  to  the 
Government  at  forty  dollars  a  bushel — insisted  upon  resigning, 
and  thus  appeasing  the  public  indignation  against  himself. 
Mr.  Davis  opposed  this  action-  of  his  secretary,  sought  to  dis 
suade  him  from  it;  and  when  Mr.  Seddon  did  resign,  the  Pres 
ident  went  out  of  his  way  to  declare  in  a  letter,  published  in 
the  newspapers,  that  the  event  of  this  resignation  would  in  no 
manner  change  the  policy  or  course  of  his  administration,  arid 
thus,  in  words  not  to  be  mistaken,  threw  down  his  defiance  to 
Congress  and  the  country. 

Another  point  which  Congress  made  with  the  President  was 
the  restoration  of  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  to  command. 
For  weeks  in  the  Confederate  Senate,  Mr.  Wigfall,  of  Texas — 
a  course,  heavy  man,  of  large  brain,  who,  under  an  unsenti 
mental  exterior,  possessed  more  of  the  courage  and  fire  of  the 
orator  than  any  other  man  in  the  South— dealt  his  sledge-han> 


4-58  SOUTHERN     HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

mer  blows  on  the  President,  who,  he  declared,  not  satisfied 
with  persecuting  Johnston,  was  trying  to  make  him  the  scape 
goat  for  liis  own  sins.  The  debate  in  the  Johnston-Davis  im 
broglio  was  a  memorable  one  in' the  dreary  annals  of  the  Con 
federate  Congress.  The  fierce  impatience  of  Mr.  Wigfall  more 
than  once  caused  him  to  launch  into  philippics  against  the 
President,  which  most  of  the  Richmond  newspapers  did  not 
dare  to  report.  The  President  was  denounced  without  mercy. 
"He  was,"  said  Mr.  Wigfall,  summing  up  on  one  occasion  his 
points  of  indictment,  "an  amalgam  of  malice  and  mediocrity." 

The  President  did  restore  Johnston ;  but  under  circum 
stances  which  made  it  no  concession  to  the  public.  To  an  inti 
mate  friend  he  remarked  with  grim  humor,  that  "  if  the  people 
wanted  to  try  homoeapathic  treatment — similia  simililus  cur- 
antur — he  would  give  them  another  dose  of  Johnsron."  lie 
restored  this  commander,  as  he  well  knew,  to  the  conduct  of  a 
campaign  that  was  already  lost;  he  put  him  in  command  of  a 
broken  and  disorganized  force  that  Sherman  had  already  swept 
before  him  through  two  States  into  the  forests  of  North  Caro 
lina  ;  and  Johnston  was  right  when  some  weeks  before  he 
wrote  to  a  private  friend  that  he  was  quite  sure  that  if  the 
authorities  at  Richmond  restored  him  to  command,  they  were 
resolved  not  to  act  towards  him  in  good  faith  and  with  proper 
support,  but  to  put  him  in  circumstances  where  defeat  was 
inevitable,  and  thus  confirm  to  the  populace  the  military  judg 
ment  of  President  Davis. 

The  people  of  the  Confederacy,  towards  the  final  periods  of 
the  war,  may  be  said  to  have  looked  with  folded  arms  upon 
the  sins  of  its  Government,  and  to  have  regarded  its  general 
tendency  to  disaster  and  ruin  with  a  sullen  disposition  to  let 
matters  take  their  own  course,  or  with  weak  and  blank  despair. 
These  sins  were  not  only  the  fruit  of  Mr.  Davis'  violent  and 
imperious  animosities;  they  covered  the  whole  conduct  of  his 
administration,  and  involved  as  much  the  want  of  capacity  as 
that  of  official  candor  and  personal  impartiality.  Everywhere 
the  military  establishment  was  falling  to  decay,  and  although 
the  Confederacy  was  still  full  of  fighting  men  and  war  mate 
rial,  there  was  nothing  but  the  dregs  of  its  resources  at  the 
practical  command  of  the  Government. 

The  most  remarkable  fact  in  the  later  days  of  the  Confed 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  45  0 

eraey  was,  that  while  the  country  was  really  capable  of  fight 
ing  the  war  indefinitely,  and  accomplishing  its  independence- 
it'  by  nothing  more,  yet  surely  by  the  virtue  of  endurance,  it 
bad  in  active  employment  but  the  smallest  portion  of  its  re 
sources,  and  was  loitering  on  the  brink  of  destruction  at  a 
time  when  victory,  with  proper  efforts,  was  never  more  surely 
in  its  grasp. 

To  understand  this  great  and  melancholy  fact  in  the  history 
of  the  war — that  the  Confederates,  with  an  abler  government 
and  a  more  resolute  spirit,  might  have  accomplished  theii 
independence — we  have  only  to  review,  with  candor,  the 
situation  as  it  existed  in  the  opening  of  the  memorable  year 
of  1805. 

In  the  summer  of  1864  everywhere  the  thought  of  the  North 
was  peace;  not  so  much  in  the  newspapers,  whose  office, 
especially  with  the  Yankees,  was  rather  to  disguise  public  sen 
timent  than  to  express  or  apply  it;  but  in  every  circle  of  con 
versation,  and  every  quarter  where  men  dared  to  unmask  their 
minds  and  to  substitute  their  true  convictions  fur  the  stereo 
types  of  affectation,  there  was  to  be  found  a  real  desire  for 
peace,  which  had  almost  ripened  into  a  popular  demand,  ready 
to  detine  its  terms  and  resolved  to  insist  upon  its  concession. 
The  Chicago  Convention  meant  peace;  this  and  that  man, 
least  suspected  of  generosity  to  the  Confederacy  or  of  deference 
to  truth,  privately  confessed  the  war  to  be  a  failure;  even  He- 
publicans  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  school,  seizing  upon  certain  amiable 
expressions  in  the  Confederate  Congress  of  the  summer  of 
1804,  wanted  to  know  if  they  might  not  mean  some  accommo 
dation  of  the  question  of  the  war,  and  replied  to  them  with 
those  affectations  of  generosity  with  which  the  dexterous  cow 
ardice  of  the  Yankee  is  always  ready  to  cover  his  sense  of 
defeat. 

This  disposition  of  the  public  mind  in  the  North  was  easily 
accounted  for,  when  it  was  closely  observed.  It  was  clearly 
not  the  fruit  of  any  decisive  disasters  to  the  Northern  arms  in 
the  summer  campaign  of  1864.  But  that  campaign  had  been 
negative.  Atlanta  had  not  fallen.  All  the  engagements  in 
Northern  Georgia  had  not  amounted,  as  Johnston  said,  to  the 
sum  of  more  than  one  battle,  and  it  was  yet  doubtful  on  which 
side  to  strike  the  average  of  success.  Kichmond  was  erect  and 


460  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

defiant ;  and  Lee's  army  had  given  new  and  conspicuous  proofs 
of  fortitude  at  Cold  Harbour  and  Petersburg.  Nowhere,  then, 
could  the  enemy  find  any  prospect  of  the  speedy  termination 
of  the  war;  and  though  lie  had  searched  every  link  of  the 
armor  of  the  Confederacy  he  had  been  unable  to  plant  any 
where  a  serious  wound.  It  was  simply  because  the  enemy's 
campaign  was  negative;  simply  in  prospect  of  a  prolongation 
of  the  war  that,  in  midsummer  of  ISGi,  the  Yankee  public 
halted  in  its  opinions  and  seriously  meditated  a  proposition  of 
peace. 

The  great  lesson  which  the  South  was  to  learn  of  public 
opinion  in  the  North  was  this :  that  the  prospect  of  a  long 
war  was  quite  as  sure  to  obtain  the  success  and  independence 
of  the  Confederacy,  as  the  positive  victories  of  her  arms.  It 
might  not  have  been  so  in  the  first  periods  of  the  war,  when 
the  resolution  of  the  enemy  was  fresh  and  patient,  and  the 
Union  was  then  really  the  apple  of  his  eye.  But  it  was  when 
patience  had  been  worn  threadbare  by  promises — when  expec 
tation  had  stood  on  tip-toe  until  it  had  ached ;  when  the  senti 
ment  of  Union  had  lost  all  its  original  inspiration;  when  "the 
Union  as  it  was"  had  become  more  and  more  impossible  to 
the  hopes  of  the  intelligent,  and  the  attempt  to  realize  it  had 
fallen  from  the  resolution  of  a  sovereign  necessity  to  a  mere 
preference  of  alternatives — that  we  find  the  enemy  quite  as 
likely  to  be  defeated  by  the  prospect  of  a  prolonged  war,  as 
by  the  dint  of  positive  disaster,  and,  in  fact,  meditating  more 
anxiously  the  question  of  Southern  endurance,  than  the  imme 
diate  fortunes  of  any  military  campaign. 

It  was  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  in  these  later  years 
of  the  war,  the  North  was  fighting  for  the  Union  as  the  sine 
qua  non,  the  indispensable  thing.  That  was  the  clack  of  Yan 
kee  newspapers  and  the  drone  of  demagogues.  But  the  facts 
were  to  the  contrary.  It  was  to  be  admitted  that  the  North, 
in  the  development  of  her  resources  in  the  war,  and  the  discov 
ery  contemporary  with  it  of  an  almost  fabulous  wealth  in  her 
oil  regions  and  mines,  and  new  fields  of  enterprise  opened 
along  the  entire  slope  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  had  obtained 
a  confidence  which  had  assured  her,  among  other  things,  that, 
even  apart  from  the  South,  she  had  in  herself  the  elements  of 
a  great  national  existence.  It  was  this'  swollen  wealth — some 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  461 

of  it  the  windfalls  of  a  mysterious  Providimce — which  had 
appeased  much  of  that  avarice  which  formed  so  large  a  share 
in  the  Northern  desire  for  the  Union.  Again,  as  the  war  had 
progressed,  it  had  become  more  and  more  obvious  to  countless 
intelligent  persons  in  the  North,  that  it  had  wasted  what  was 
most  desirable  in  the  Union  ;  destroyed  its  esprit ;  left  nothing 
to  be  recovered  but  its  shadow,  and  that  along  with  such  pal 
try  recovery  of  a  mere  name,  were  to  be  taken  the  conse 
quences  of  such  despotic  government  as  would  be  necessary  to 
hold  two  hostilized  countries  under  a  common  rule.  It  was 
thi-s  that  the  sentiment  of  the  Union  had  lost  much  of  its 
power  in  the  North.  The  first  fervors  of  the  war  were  scarcely 
now  to  be  discovered  among  a  people  who  had  chosen  to  carry 
on  hostilities  by  the  mercenary  hands  of  foreigners  and  negroes, 
and  had  devised  a  system  of  substitution — a  vicarious  warfare 
— to  an  extent  that  was  absolutely  without  parallel  in  the  his 
tory  of  any  modern  nation. 

All  persons  in  the  North,  with  the  exception  of  some  hun 
dreds,  professed  that  they  preferred  the  Union ;  it  was  a  uni 
versal  desire  spoken  everywhere;  but  spoken  only  as  a  prefer 
ence  and  desire,  and  no  longer  as  a  passion  that  insisted  upon 
an  object  which  it  considered  death  and  ruin  to  dispense  with. 
Of  all  who  declared  for  the  Union,  but  few  were  ready  to  tes 
tify  sincerely  that  they  were  for  it  at  all  hazards  and  conse 
quences.  Whatever  might  be  the  convenient  language  or  the 
fulsome  protestation  of  public  opinion  in  the  North,  two  things 
were  certain. 

First,  that  the  North  would  not  insist  upon  the  Union  in 
plain  prospect  of  a  war  indefinitely- prolonged. 

And  second,  that  the  North  would  never  fight  the  war  be 
yond  that  moderate  point  of  success  on  the  part  of  the  South, 
where  she  would  be  disposed  to  accommodate  the  enemy  with 
certain  treaty  favors  which  might  stand  in  lieu  of  the  old 
Union,  and  where  she  would  not  be  quite  confident  enough  in 
her  position  to  insist  upon  a  severe  independence. 

It  was  thus  that  the  war,  on  the  part  of  the  North,  was 
limited  by  contingencies,  which  were  very  far  short  of  decisive 
results  one  way  or  the  other,  and  which  might  transpire  even 
without  any  very  signal  successes  of  the  Confederate  arms. 

What  had  been  said  of  the  peace  movement  in  the  North 


4 62  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

in  tlie  summer  of  1864,  before  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  has  its  ap 
plication  to  the  times  of  which  we  are  now  writing.  That 
movement  was  simply  the  result  of  a  conviction,  not  that  the 
South  was  about  to  accomplish  a  positive  triumph,  but  that 
she  was  able  to  endure  the  war  much  longer  than  had  been 
expected,  and  yet  had  riot  readied  that  point  of  confidence 
where  she  would  not  be  likely  to  make  valuable  concessions 
to  the  North  for  the  early  and  graceful  acknowledgment  of 
her  independence.  That  acknowledgment  the  North  was  then 
on  the  eve  of  making  under  certain  disguises,  it  is  true,  of 
party  convenience,  but  none  the  less  certainly  because  it  sought 
decent  excuse  for  the  act.  The  Democratic  party  was  then 
well  nigh  a  unit  on  the  subject  of  peace.  "  Burn  my  letter," 
wrote  a  distinguished  politician  of  New  England  to  a  Confed 
erate  then  in  New  York;  u  but  when  you  get  to  Richmond, 
hasten  to  President  Davis,  and  tell  him  die  Chicago  Conven 
tion  means  peace,  and  nothing  biu  peace."  It  was  the  mili 
tary  events  which  followed  t>at  interrupted  this  resolution, 
and  showed  how  little  there  was  of  principle  or  of  virtuous 
intention  in  Yankee  parties;  and  with  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  Sa 
vannah,  Wilmington,  and  Charleston,  and  Sherman's  campaign 
of  magnificent  distances,  the  Northern  mind  had  again  be 
come  inflamed  with  the  fervor  of  new  hopes,  and  clamored 
for  unconditional  war,  when  it  thought  that  it  was  in  the  last 
stages  of  success. 

Yet  in  face  of  this  clamor  it  was  plain  enough  that  if  the 
Confederates  could  ever  regain  substantially  nothing  more 
than  the  status  quo  of  seven  months  ago  ;  if  they  could  ever 
present  to  the  North  the  same  prospect  of  a  long  war  as  ihey 
did  then,  and  put  before  them  the  weary  task  of  overcoming 
the  fortitude  of  a  brave  people,  they  would  have  peace  and 
independence  in  their  grasp.  It  was  a  vulgar  mistake  that  to 
accomplish  our  success  in  this  war  wx3  had  to  retrieve  all  of 
the  past  and  recover  by  arms  all  the  separate  pieces  of  our 
territory.  It  was  to  be  remembered  that,  we  were  fighting  on 
the  defensive,  and  had  only  to  convince  the  enemy  that  we 
were  able  to  protect  the  vital  points  of  our  country  to  compel 
him  to  a  peace  in  which  all  was  surrendered  that  he  had  over 
ran,  and  all  the  country  that  he  held  by  the  worthless  title  of 
invasion,  would  fall  from  him  as  by  the  lawof  giv.vit.itio:i. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  463 

It  may  be  said  briefly  that  if  the  Confederates  could  only 
regain  the  situation  of  the  last  summer,  or  even  if  the}'  would 
only  give  a  proof  to  the  enemy  that  they  were  not  at  the  ex 
tremity  of  their  resources,  or  at  the  last  limits  of  resolution— 
that  they  were  able  and  determined  to  tight  the  war  indefi 
nitely — they  had  then  accomplished  the  important  and  vital 
condi; ions  of  peace.  JS\>r  was  the  first  impossible — to  recover 
substantially,  in  all  important  respecrs,  the  losses  of  the  past 
few  months,  and  even  add  to  the  status  quo  of  last  summer  new 
elements  of  advantage  for  us.  To  defeat  Sherman  at  any  stage 
short  of  Richmond  would  be  to  reopen  and  recover  all  the 
country  he  had  overrun.  If  the  enemy  was  left  in  possession 
of  the  seaports,  these  had  but  little  value  to  us  as  ports  of 
entry,  and  were  but  picket-posts  in  our  system  of  defences. 
Sherman's  campaign  clearly  came  to  naught  if  he  could  not 
reach  Grant — nothing  left  of  it  but  the  brilliant  zig-zag  of  a 
raid  vanishing  as  heat  lightning;  in  the  skies.  The  conso- 

O  O  O 

quences  of  Sherman's  misadventure  would  be  obvious  enough. 
Grant's  army,  without  the  looked-for  aid  from  the  Carolina?, 
was  by  no  means  certain  of  the  capture  of  Richmond.  It.  WHS 
true  that.  Grant  was  within  a  few  miles  of  the  Confederate 
capital,  when  the  same  time  last  year  he  was  on  the  Rapidau. 
Put  that  was  a  fool's  measure  of  danger,  for  in  each  case  \ve 
had  the  same  army  shielding  Richmond,  and  whether  that 
shield  was  broken  ten  or  one  hundred  miles  away  was  of  no' 
importance  to  the  interest  it  covered. 

There  was  nothing  really  desperate  in  the  military  situation 
of  the  Confederacy,  unless  to  fools  and  cowards  who  drew  lines 
on  paper  to  show  how  the  Yankees  were  at  this  place  and  at 
that  place,  and  thought  that  this  cob-web  occupation  of  the 
country,  where  the  enemy  had  no  garrisons  and  no  footholds, 
indicated  the  extent  of  Yankee  conquest  and  gave  the  true 
measure  of  the  remnant  of  the  Confederacy  !  And  yet  this  was 
too  much  'the  popular  fashion  of  the  time  in  estimating  the 
military  situation.  Men  were  drawing  for  themselves  pictures 
of  despair  out  of  what  were,  to  those  who  thought  profoundly 
and  bravely,  no  more  important  than  the  passages  of  the  hour. 
It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  the  condition  of  the  Confederacy 
was  demoralized  in  the  extreme,  and  that  it  was  difficult  to  re« 
organize,  as  the  pa: riots  of  IStil,  men  who  were  now  exclaim 


4:64:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

ing  everywhere    their  despair,  and  counselling  embassies  cf 
submission.* 

Briefly,  if  the  fatal  facts  in  the  condition  of  the  Confede- 

*  In  March,  1865,  the  author  printed  an  address  in  the  Richmond  news 
papers,  of  which  the  following  was  the  concluding  portion.  The  occasion  and 
spirit  of  this  address  are  significant  enough  of  what  was  taking  place  in 
Richmond  at  that  time  : 

"I  am  determined  to  express  the  truth,. no  matter  how  painful  to  myself  or 
unwelcome  to  others.  In  the  first  period  of  this  war  who  was  not  proud  of 
the  Confederacy  and  its  heroic  figure  in  history!  Yet  now  it  is  to  be  confessed 
that  a  large  portion  of  our  people  have  fallen  below  the  standards  of  history, 
and  hold  no  honorable  comparison  with  other  nations  that  have  fought  and 
struggled  for  independence.  It  is  easy  for  the  tongue  of  the  demagogue  to  trip 
with  flattery  on  the  theme  of  the  war  ;  but  when  we  come  to  the  counsels  of 
the  intelligent  the  truth  must  be  told.  We  are  no  longer  responding  to  the 
lessons  and  aspirations  of  history.  You  speak  of  the  scarcity  of  subsistence. 
But  Prussia,  in  her  wars,  drained  her  supplies  until  black  bread  was  tiie  only 
thing  eat  in  the  king's  palace ;  and  yet,  under  Frederick,  she  won  not  only 
her  independence,  but  a  position  among  the  five  great  powers  of  Europe.  You 
speak  of  the  scarcity  of  men.  Yet  with  a  force  not  greater  than  that  with 
which  we  have  only  to  hold  an  invaded  country  and  maintain  the  defensive, 
Napoleon  fought  his  splendid  -career,  and  completed  a  circle  of  victories  that 
touched  the  boundaries  of  Europe. 

"  It  is  enough  to  sicken  the  heart  with  shame  and  vexation  that  now,  when, 
of  all  times,  it  is  most  important  to  convince  the  enemy  of  our  resolution — 
now,  when  such  a  course,  for  peculiar  reasons,  will  insure  our  success — there 
are  men  who  not  only  whine  on  the  streets  about  making  terms  with  the 
enemy,  but  intrude  their  cowardice  into  the  official  places  of  the  Government, 
and,  sheltered  by  secret  sessions  and  confidential  conversations,  roll  the  word 
1  reconstruction  '  under  the  tongue.  Shame  upon  the  Congress  that  closed  its 
doors  that  it  might  better  consult  of  dishonorable  things !  Shame  upon  those 
leaders  who  should  encourage  the  people,  and  yet  have  broken  down  their  con 
fidence  by  private  conversations  ;  and  who,  while  putting  in  newspapers  some 
cheap  words  of  patriotism,  yet  in  the  same  breath  express  their  despair  by  a 
suspicious  cant  about  trusting  in  Providence,  and  go  off  to  talk  submission 
with  their  intimates  in  a  corner !  Shame  upon  those  of  the  people  who  have 
now  no  other  feeling  in  the  war  than  an  exasperated  selfishness  !  who  are 
ready  to  sink,  if  they  can  carry  down  in  their  hands  some  little  trash  of 
property  !  who  will  give  their  sons  to  the  army,  but  not  their  precious  negro 
slaves !  who  are  for  hurrying  off  embassies  to  the  enemy  to  know  at  what 
price  of  dishonor  they  may  purchase  some  paltry  remnants  of  their  posses- 
Bions  !  Do  these  men  ever  think  of  the  retributions  of  history  ? 

"  When  Cato  the  Younger  was  pursued  to  Utica  by  the  victorious  arms  ol 
Caesar,  Plutarch  relates  of  him  on  this  occasion  certain  conversations  and  seuti 
ments  which  singularly  apply  to  our  own  condition  in  a  besieged  city,  and 
may  almost  be  taken  as  repeated  in  the  streets  of  Richmond  : 

"  '  One  of  the  Council,'  writes  Plutarch,  '  observed  the  expediency  of  a  de 
cree  for  enfranchising  the  slaves,  and  many  commended  the  motion.  Cato, 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  465 

racy  at  the  time  of  which  we  write,  are  to  be  summed  up,  they 
are  simply  these : 

1.  A  want  of  confidence  in  the  administration  of  Mr.  Davis 


however,  said  :  '  He  would  not  do  that,  because  it  was  neither  just  nor  lawful ; 
but  such  as  their  masters  would  voluntarily  discharge,  he  would  receive,  pro 
vided  they  were  of  proper  age  to  bear  arms.'  This  many  promised  to  do  ;  and 
Cato  withdrew,  after  having  ordered  lists  to  be  made  out  of  all  that  should  offer. 
All  of  the  patrician  order  with  great  readiness  enfranchised  and 
armed  their  slaves  ;  but  as  for  tho  three  hundred,  who  dealt  in  traffic  arid  loans 
of  money  at  high  interest,  and  whose  slaves  were  a  considerable  part  of  their 
fortune,  the  impression  which  Cato's  speech  had  made  upon  them  did  not  last 
long.  As  some  bodies  readily  receive  heat,  and  as  easily  grow  cold  again  when 
the  fire  is  removed,  so  the  sight  of  Cato  warmed  and  liberalized  these  traders  ; 
but  when  they  came  to  consider  the  matter  among  themselves,  tiie  dread  of 
Caesar  soon  put  to  flight  their  reverence  for  Cato  and  for  virtue.  For  thus 
they  talked  :  '  What  are  we,  and  what  is  the  man  whose  orders  we  refuse  to 
receive  ?  Is  it  not  Caesar,  into  whose  hands  the  whole  powei  of  the  Roman 
empire  is  fallen?  And  surely  none  of  us  is  a  Scipio,  a  Pompey,  or  a  Cato, 
Shall  we,  at  a  time  when  their  fears  make  all  men  entertain  sentiments  be 
neath  their  dignity — shall  we,  in  Utica,  fight  for  the  liberty  of  Rome  with  a 
man  against  whom  Cato  and  Pompey  the  Great  durst  not  xnake  a  stand  An 
Italy?  Shall  we  enfranchise  our  slaves  to  oppose  Caesar,  ^no  have  no  more 
liberty  ourselves  than  that  conqueror  is  pleased  to  leave  UK  ?  Ah  I  wretches 
that  we  are  !  Let  us  at  last  know  ourselves,  and  send  deputies  to  intercede 
with  him  for  mercy.'  ....  They  told  Catc,  that  they  had  re 
solved  to  send  deputies  to  Caesar  to  intercede  first  and  princi  pally  for  him.  If 
that  request  should  not  be  granted,  they  would  have  no  obi  igation  to  him  foi 
any  favor  to  themselves,  but  as  long  as  they  had  breath  woald  fight  for  Cato. 
Cato  made  his  acknowledgments  for  their  regard,  and  advised  them  to  send 
immediately  to  intercede  for  themselves.  '  For  me,'  said  Le,  '  intercede  not. 
It  is  for  the  conquered  to  turn  suppliants,  and  for  those  who  have  done  an  in 
jury  to  beg  pardon.  For  my  part,  I  have  been  unconquered  through  life,  and 
superior  in  the  things  I  wished  to  be ;  for  in  justice  and  hunor  I  am  Caesar's 
superior.' ' 

"  The  arguments  of  the  traders  and  time  servers  in  Utica  are  not  unknown 
in  Richmond.  But  shall  we  not  also  find  in  this  city  something  of  the  aspira 
tions  of  Cato — a  determination,  even  if  we  are  overcome  by  force,  to  be  uncon 
quered  in  spirit,  and,  in  any  and  all  events,  to  remain  superior  to  the  enemy — 
in  honor. 

"  I  do  not  speak  to  you,  my  countrymen,  idle  sentiinentalism.  I  firmly  be 
lieve  that  the  great  commonwealth  of  Virginia,  and  this  city,  which  has  a 
peculiar  title  to  whatever  there  is  of  good  and  illustrious  report  in  this  war, 
have  been  recently,  and  are  yet  in  some  measure  on  the  verge  of  questions 
which  involve  an  interest  immeasurably  greater  than  has  yet  been  disclosed  in 
this  contest — that  of  their  historical  and  immortal  honor. 

"  I  know — I  have  had  opportunities  of  informing  myself— that  there  are  in 
fluences  at  work  to  place  tho  State  of  Virginia,  in  certain  contingencies,  •» 

80 


466  SOUTHERN"    HISTOKY  OP    THE    WAR. 

— sucn  as  was  never  before  exhibited  between  a  people  and  ita 
rulers  in  a  time  of  revolution. 


communication  with  the  public  enemy,  for  terms  of  peace,  which  cannot  be 
otherwise  than  coupled  with  the  condition  of  her  submission  to  the  Federal 
authority.  The  extent  of  this  conspiracy  against  the  honor  of  Virginia  has 
been  screened  by  secret  sessions,  and  been  covered  up  by  half-mouthed  sugges 
tions,  and  the  ifa  and  ands  of  men  who  are  not  yet  ready  to  disclose  their  cor 
ruption,  and  to  spit  from  their  lips  the  rottenness  in  their  hearts.  I  know  the 
fashionable  arguments  of  these  men.  '  If  there  is  to  be  a  wreck/  say  they, 
why  not  save  what  we  can  from  it  ?'  '  Honor/  they  say,  '  is  a  mere  rhetorical 
laurel  /  '  General  Lee  talks  like  a  school-girl  when  he  speaks  of  preferring  to 
die  on  the  battle-field  to  getting  the  best  terms  of  submission  he  can  ;'  '  let  us 
be  done  with  this  sentimental  rubbish,  and  look  to  the  care  of  our  substantial 
interests.' 

"  My  friends,  this  is  not  rubbish.  The  glory  of  history  is  indifferent  to 
events ;  it  is  simply  honor.  The  name  of  Virginia  in  this  war  is  historically 
and  absolutely  more  important  to  us  than  any  other  element  of  the  contest ; 
and  the  coarse  time-server  who  would  sell  an  immortal  title  of  honor  as  a 
trifling  sentimentalism,  and  who  has  constantly  in  his  mouth  the  phrase  of 
'substantial  interests/  is  the  inglorious  wretch  who  laughs  at  history  and 
grovels  in  the  calculations  of  the  brute. 

"  Those  who  have  lived  entirely  in  the  South  since  the  commencement  of 
this  war  have  little  idea  of  the  measure  of  honor  which  Virginia  has  obtained 
in  it,  and  the  consideration  she  has  secured  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  One 
away  from  home,  finds  even  in  intercourse  with  our  enemies,  that  the  name  of 
Tirginian  is  an  ornament  to  him,  and  that  the  story  of  this  her  heroic 
capital — the  record  of  Richmond — is  universally  accepted  in  two  hemispheres 
IU3  the  most  illustrious  episode  of  the  war.  Honor  such  as  this  is  not  a  piece 
of  rhetoric  or  a  figure  of  speech  ;  it  is  something  to  be  cherished  under  all  cir 
cumstances,  and  to  be  preserved  in  all  events. 

"  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  I  regard  subjugation  but  as  the  vapor 
of  our  fears.  But  if  remote  possibilities  are  to  be  regarded,  I  have  simply  to 
Bay,  that  in  all  events  and  extremities,  all  chances  and  catastrophes,  I  am  for 
Virginia  going  down  to  history,  proudly  and  starkly,  with  the  title  of  a  subju 
gated  people — a  title  not  inseparable  from  true  glory,  and  which  has  often 
claimed  the  admiration  of  the  world — rather  than  as  a  people  who  ever  sub 
mitted,  and  bartered  their  honor  for  the  mercy  of  an  enemy — in  our  case  a 
mercy  whose  pittance  would  be  as  a  mess  of  pottage  weighed  against  an  im 
mortal  patrimony  I 

"  The  issue  I  would  put  before  you  is  :  No  submission ;  no  State  negotia 
tions  with  the  enemy  ;  no  conventions  for  such  objects,  however  proper  for 
others.  Let  Virginia  stand  or  fall  by  the  fortunes  of  the  Confederate  arms, 
with  her  spotless  honor  in  her  hands. 

"  If  Virginia  accepts  the  virtuous  and  noble  alternative,  she  saves,  in  all 
events,  her  honor,  and  by  the  resolution  which  it  implies,  may  hope  to  secure 

positive  and  glorious  victory  ;  and  I,  among  the  humblest  of  her  citizens,  will 
be  proud  to  associate  myself  with  a  fate  which,  if  not  happy,  at  least  can 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  467 

2.  And  as  main  consequence  of  that  want  of  confidence, 
when  all  measures  to  repair  it  had  failed,  a  general  breaking 
down  of  the  public  virtue,  and  the  debasement  of  a  people 
who,  having  lost  hope  in  the  existing  order — rather  the  exist 
ing  disorder — and  having  no  heart  for  a  new  experiment,  or 
thinking  it  too  late,  descend  to  the  condition  of  time-servers, 
and  those  who  tamely  and  infamously  submit  to  fortune. 


THE    FORTRESS    MONROE    COMMISSION. 

But  another  and  last  appeal  was  to  be  made  to  the  reso 
lution  of  the  South. 

In  January,  1865,  Mr.  Francis  P.  Blair,  of  Maryland,  made 
several  visits  to  Richmond,  which  were  the  occasion  of  much 
speculation  and  curiosity  in  the  public  mind.  He  had  gone  to 
Richmond  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  pass;  but  the  objects  of  his 
mission  were  not  committed  to  paper.  However,  they  were 
soon  developed.  On  his  return  to  Washington,  Mr.  Blair 
showed  Mr.  Lincoln  a  letter  which  President  Davis  had 
written,  stating  that  Mr.  Blair  was  at  liberty  to  say  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  that  Mr.  Davis  was  now,  as  he  always  had  been, 
willing  to  send  commissioners,  if  assured  they  would  be  re 
ceived,  or  to  receive  any  that  should  be  sent ;  that  he  was  not 
disposed  to  find  obstacles  in  forms.  He  would  send  commis 
sioners  to  confer  with  the  Northern  President  with  a  view  to 
the  restoration  of  peace  between  the  two  countries,  if  he  could 
be  assured  they  would  be  received. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  therefore,  on  the  18th  day  of  January,  ad 
dressed  a  note  to  Mr.  Blair,  in  which,  after  acknowledging 
that  he  had  read  the  note  of  Mr.  Davis,  he  said  that  he  was, 
and  always  should  be,  willing  to  receive  any  agent  that  Mr. 
Davis,  or  any  other  influential  person  now  actually  resisting 
the  authority  of  the  Government,  might  send  to  confer  in- 


never  be  ignoble.  But,  if  she  chooses  to  submit,  and  make  terms  for  Yankee 
clemency,  the  satisfaction  will  at  least  remain  to  me  of  not  sharing  in  the  dis- 
honpr  of  my  native  State,  and  of  going  to  other  parts  of  the  world,  where  I 
may  say  :  '  I,  too,  was  a  Virginian,  but  not  of  those  who  sold  the  jewels  of  hex 
lastory  for  the  baubles  and  cheats  of  her  conquerors.'  " 


468  SOUTHERN    HISTOSY    OF  'THE    WAR. 

formally  with  him,  with  a  view  to  the  restoration  of  peace  to 
the  people  of  "  our  common  county." 

In  consequence  of  this  notification  President  Davis  re 
quested  Yice-President  Stephens,  Senator  Hunter,  and  Judge 
John  A.  Campbell,  to  proceed  through  the  lines  to  h<>ld  a  con 
ference  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  or  such  persons  as  he  might  depute 
to  represent  him.  The  following  report,  made  by  the  Confeder 
ate  commissioners,  gives  the  official  narrative  of  the  affair  : 

RICHMOND,  February  6th. 
To  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States : 

SIR — Under  your  letter  of  appointment  of  commissioners,  of  the  8th,  we 
proceeded  to  seek  an  informal  conference  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  upon  the  subject  mentioned  in  the  letter.  A  conference 
was  granted,  and  took  place  on  the  <j()th,  on  board  the  steamer  anchored  in 
Hampton  Roads,  where  we  met  President  Lincoln  and  Hon.  Mr.  Seward,  sec 
retary  of  State  of  the  United  States.  It  continued  for  several  hours,  and  wan 
both  full  and.  explicit.  We  learned  from  them  that  the  message  of  President 
Lincoln  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  December  last,  explains  clear!* 
his  sentiments  as  to  the  terms,  conditions,  and  mode  of  proceeding  by  whick 
peace  can  be  secured  to  the  people  ;  and  we  were  not  informed  that  they  wouM 
be  modified  or  altered  to  obtain  that  end.  We  understood  from  him  that  ff» 
terms  or  proposals  of  any  treaty  or  agreements  looking  to  an  ultimate  settb 
ment  would  be  entertained  or  made  by  him  with  the  authorities  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  because  that  would  be  recognition  of  their  existence  as  a  sepa 
rate  power,  which,  under  no  circumstances,  would  be  done ;  and  for  like  rea 
sons,  that  no  such  terms  would  be  entertained  by  him  from  the  States  sepa* 
rately ;  that  no  extended  truce  or  armistice,  as  at  present  advised,  would  b» 
granted  or  allowed,  without  the  satisfaction  or  assurance  in  advance,  of  the 
complete  restoration  of  the  authority  of  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the 
United  States  over  all  places  within  the  States  of  the  Confederacy;  that 
whatever  consequence  may  follow  from  the  re-establishment  of  that  author 
ity,  it  must  be  accepted  ;  but  all  individuals  subject  to  the  pains  and  penalties 
under  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  might  rely  upon  a  very  liberal  use  of  the 
power  confided  to  Mm  to  remit  those  pains  and  penalties  if  peace  be  restored. 
During  the  conference,  the  proposed  amendments  to  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  adopted  by  Congress  on  the  31st,  was  brought  to  our  notice. 
These  amendments  provide  that  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
except  for  crime,  should  exist  within  the  United  States  or  any  place  within  its 
jurisdiction,  and  Congress  should  have  power  to  enforce  the  amendment  by 
appropriate  legislation.  Of  all  the  correspondence  that  preceded  the  confer 
ence  herein  mentioned,  and  leading  to  the  same,  you  have  heretofore  been 
informed. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servants. 

A.  H.  STEPHENS, 
R.  M.  T.  HUNTER,. 
J.  A.  CAMPBELL. 

Of  the  conference  Mr.  Seward  testified  that  "the  Richmond 


A  L  E  X.  H.  5TEPH  ENS 
Frcm  a 


C.  B.  Richardson,  FiJoLisher 


LAST    YEAR. 

party  approached  the  chscussion  rather  indirectly,  and  at  no 
time  did  they  make  categorical  demands,  or  tender  formal  stip 
illations  or  absolute  refusals;  nevertheless,  during  the  confer 
ence,  which  lasted  four  hours,  the  several  points  at  issue  be 
tween  the  Grovernin'jnt  and  the  insurgents  were  distinctly 
raised  and  discus??'!  fully,  intelligently,  and  in  an  amicable 
spirit.  What  the  'Insurgent  party  seemed  chiefly  to  favor  was 
a  postponement  of  the  question  of  separation  upon  which  the 
war  was  waged,  and  a  mutual  direction  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Government,  as  well  as  those  of  the  insurgents,  to  some  extra 
neous  policy  or  scheme  for  a  season,  during  which  passions  might 
be  expected  to  subside,  and  the  armies  be  reduced,  and  trade 
and  intercourse  between  the  people  of  both  sections  be  resumed." 

The  proposition  which  looked  to  an  armistice  or  truce  was 
distinctly  answered  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  stated  that  he 
would  agree  to.no  cessation  or  suspension  of  hostilities  unless 
on  the  basis  of  t'oe  disbandment  of  the  Confederate  forces. 
There  were  no  n'j/'es  of  the  conference.  There  was  no  attend 
ance  of  clerks  o?  secretaries;  and  nothing  was  written  or  read. 
But  the  result  of  the  whole  conversation,  which  was  earnest 
and  free,  may  be  summarily  stated  to  have  shown  that  the 
enemy  refused  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  the  Confederate 
States,  or  any  of  them  separately,  or  give  to  their  people  any 
other  terms  or  guarantees  than  those  which  Congress  might 
grant;  or  to  permit  the  Southern  people  to  have  a  vote  on  any 
other  ba^is  than  unconditional  submission  to  their  rule,  coupled 
with  the  acceptance  of  the  recent  legislation  at  Washington, 
including  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  for  the  emancipa 
tion  of  all  negro  slaves. 

The  failure  of  the  Fortress  Monroe  commission  was  made 
the  occasion  in  the  South  of  a  new  attempt  to  rally  the  spirit  of 
its  people,  and  to  infuse  into  the  war  a  new  element  of  desper 
ate  passion.  The  people  were  told  that  the  result  of  the  con 
ference  at  Fortress  Monroe  showed  plainly  enough  that  every 
avenue  to  peace  was  closed,  except  such  as  might  be  carved 
out  by  the  sword.  It  was  calculated  ingeniously  enough  that 
t!»e  party  in  the  South  which  had  so  long  clamored  for  nego 
tiations  with  Wasmngton  would  now  abandon  its  visions  of 
reconciliation  and  generosity,  and  give  in  their  adhesion  to  a 
renewed  and  even  desperate  prosecution  of  the  war. 


470  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

These  expectations  were  not  realized.  The  attempt  to  ra.se 
the  drooping  spirits  of  the  South,  and  to  introduce,  as  some  oi 
the  public  men  in  Richmond  fondly  imagined,  a  new  era  oi 
resolution  and  devotion  in  the  war,  shamefully  failed.  The 
Fortress  Monroe  affair  produced  in  the  Confederacy  a  feeble 
flare  of  excitement  which  was  soon  extinguished.  A  mass- 
meeting  was  called  at  the  African  church  in  Richmond,  that 
the  people  might  renew  their  testimony  of  devotion  to  the 
Confederacy.  The  meeting  was  held  at  high  noon  ;  all  busi 
ness  in  the  city  of  Richmond  was  suspended,  as  if  to  give  ex 
traordinary  solemnity  to  the  occasion  ;  fiery  addresses  were 
made,  and  tokens  of  enthusiasm  were  said  in  the  newspapers 
to  have  been  abundant.  But  speeches  and  hurrahs  are  cheap 
things.  The  public  mind  of  the  South  made  but  a  sickly  re 
sponse  to  what  was  undoubtedly,  in  all  its  circumstances,  one 
of  the  most  powerful  appeals  ever  calculated  to  stir  the  heart 
and  nerve  the  resolution  of  a  people  lighting  for  liberty ;  and 
in  its  relapse  into  the  abject  and  timid  counsels  of  the  submit 
sionists,  exhibited  a  want  of  spirit  which,  it  must  be  confessed, 
must  ever  make  a  painful  and  humiliating  page  in  the  history 
of  the  Confederacy. 

Mr.  Davis  also  spoke  at  the  African  church.  He  did  not 
omit  the  occasion  of  exhorting  the  people.  But  he  unfortu 
nately  fell  into  that  style  of  boastful  prediction  and  bombastic 
speech  which  was  characteristic  of  all  his  public  addresses ; 
which  was  evidence  of  his  weak  mind ;  and  whi.cb  furnished 
the  grave  ground  of  accusation  against  him  that  in  his  public 
declarations  he  never  dealt  with  the  people  in  a  proper  spirit 
of  candor.  He  declared  that  the  military  affairs  of  the  Con 
federacy  were  in  excellent  condition ;  he  hinted  at  great  vic 
tories  which  were  about  to  be  accomplished ;  he  boasted  that 
u  Sherman's  march  through  Georgia  would  be  his  last ;"  he 
completed  his  rhetorical  flourish  with  the  strange  prediction 
that  before  the  summer  solstice  fell  upon  the  country  it  would 
be  the  Yankees  who  would  be  asking  for  terms  of  peace  and 
the  grace  of  conferences  in  which  the  Confederates  might 
make  known  their  demands. 

But  in  this  unfortunate  address  of  the  President  there  was 
one  just  and  remarkable  sentiment.  He  referred  to  the  judg 
ment  of  history  upon  Kossuth,  who  had  been  so  weak  as  to 


THE    LAST    YEAB.  471 

abandon  the  cause  of  Hungary  with  an  army  of  thirty  thousand 
men  in  the  field  ;  and  spoke  of  the  disgrace  of  surrei.  der,  if  the 
Confederates  should  abandon  their  cause  with  an  army  on  our 
side  and  actually  in  the  field  more  numerous  than  those  which 
had  made  the  most  brilliant  pages  in  European  history ;  an 
army  more  numerous  than  that  with  which  Napoleon  achieved 
his  reputation  ;  an  army  standing  among  its  homesteads ;  au 
army  in  which  each  individual  man  was  superior  in  every 
martial  quality  to  each  individual  man  in  the  ranks  of  the 
invader,  and  reared  with  ideas  of  independence,  and  in  the 
habits  of  command ! 

It  was  very  clear  that  the  Confederacy  was  very  far  from 
the  historical  necessity  of  subjugation.  But  it  was  at  any  time 
near  the  catastrophe  of  a  panic.  If  the  cause  was  to  be  lost, 
it  was  to  be  so  by  weak  despair  ;  by  the  cowardice  of  suicide ; 
by  the  distress  of  weak  minds. 


PROPOSITION   TO   ARM   THE    SLAVES   OF   THE    SOUTH. 

A  measure  indicative  of  the  desperate  condition  of  the  South 
ern  mind  was  that  to  extend  the  conscription  to  the  slaves. 
A  proposition  to  arm  the  negroes  of  the  South,  and  use  them 
as  soldiers  in  the  Confederate  Army,  had  been  debated  in  the 
Richmond  press  as  early  as  the  fall  of  1864.  It  was  favored 
by  General  Lee,  but  variously  received  by  the  general  public. 
There  were  many  persons  who  argued  that  the  negro  might  be 
effectively  used  in  this  new  department  of  service  ;  that  mili 
tary  experience  had  shown  that  a  soldier  could  be  made  of 
any  thing  that  had  arms  and  legs;  that  the  United  States  had 
formerly  recruited  its  regular  army  from  the  dregs  of  human 
ity;  that  the  experience  of  the  North  with  the  negro  had 
shown  him  to  be  a  serviceable  soldier;  and  that  the  South 
could  offer  him  superior  inducements  to  good  service,  by  mak 
ing  him  a  freeman  in  his  own  home,  and  could  give  him  offi 
cers  who  could  better  understand  his  nature,  and  better  prompt 
his  good  qualities,  than  his  Yankee  military  taskmasters. 
These  views  were  encouraged  by  General  Lee.  Indeed,  this 
distinguished  officer  made  no  secret  of  his  opinion,  that  the 
military  service  of  the  slave  should  be  secured  on  the  basis  01- 


472  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

general  emancipation  ;  arguing,  with  no  little  ingenuity,  thai 
the  institution  of  slavery  had  been  so  shaken  by  the  invasions 
and  raids  of  the  enemy,  which  had  -penetrated  every  portion 
of  the  country,  that  its  practical  value  had  become  but  a  small 
consideration  in  view  of  the  insecure  tenure  of  the  property ; 
that  it  might,  eventually,  be  broken  up  if  the  war  continued  ; 
and  that,  by  a  decree  of  emancipation,  the  South  might  make 
a  virtue  of  necessity,  remove  a  cause  of  estrangement,  however 
tin j nst,  between  it  and  the  Christian  world,  and  possibly  neu 
tralize  that  large  party  in  the  North,  whose  sympathy  and 
interest  in  the  war  were  mainly  emplo}Ted  with  the  negro. 

The  question  divided  the  country.  The  slaveholding  inter 
est,  in  its  usual  narrow  spirit — in  its  old  character  of  a  greedy, 
vulgar,  insolent  aristocracy — took  the  alarm,  and  in  Congress 
and  in  the  newspapers,  proclaimed  that  the  use  of  negroes  as 
soldiers  was  the  entering  wedge  of  Abolition;  that  it  would 
stultify  the  whole  cause  of  the  Confederacy;  that  it  would 
give  up  what  they  falsely  imagined  to  be  the  leading  object 
of  the  war — the  protection  of  the  interests  of  less  than  a 
quarter  of  a  million  of  people  who  owned  slaves  in  the  South. 
The  Charleston  Mercury  declared  that  if  the  slaves  were 
armed,  South  Carolina  could  no  longer  have  any  interest  in 
prosecuting  the  war. 

But  beyond  the  opposition  of  the  slaveholders  and  the  cotton 
aristocrats,  there  were  many  intelligent  men  in  the  South  who 
seriously  doubted  both  the  capacity  and  fidelity  of  the  nesrro 
as  a  Confederate  soldier.  General  Lee  and  many  of  his  dis 
tinguished  officers  were  not  among  these. 

A  majority  of  the  Confederate  Army  were  probably  in  favor 
of  the  experiment  of  negro  soldiers;  and  many  who  doubted 
their  efficiency  at  the  front  were  persuaded  that  they  might  be 
made  useful,  in  other  parts  of  the  military  field.  General 
Ewell,  who  commanded  in  the  Department  of  Henrico,  declared 
that  the  employment  of  the  negroes  in  the  trenches,  around 
.Richmond,  would  relieve  fifteen  thousand  white  soldiers,  who 
might  be  used  on  the  enemy's  front,  and  thus  make  an  import 
ant  accession  to  our  forces  actually  in  the  field. 

The  action  of  the  Confederate  Congress  with  reference  to 
the  military  employment  of  the  negro  was  characteristic  of 
that  body.  The  subject  was  debated  threadbare,  discussed 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  473 

and  dissected  in  open  and  secret  session  ;  T>ut  .10  puu  tii^l 
action  could  be  obtained  on  the  matter,  but  what  was  too  late 
in  respect  of  time,  and  absurdly  small  with  reference  to  the 
measure  of  the  necessities  by  which  legislation  on  the  subject 
had  been  invoked. 

Congress  took  no  action  on  the  subject  until  at  the  heel  of 
its  session.  A  bill  was  passed  on  the  7th  of  March  authoriz 
ing  the  President  to  ask  and  accept  from  the  owners  of  negro 
slaves  as  many  able-bodied  negroes  as  he  might  deem  expedi 
ent,  to  perform  military  service  in  any  capacity  he  might 
direct,  and  providing  that  nothing  in  the  act  should  be  con 
strued  to  alter  the  existing  relation  between  master  and  slaves. 

The  entire  results  of  this  ridiculously  small  and  visionary 
legislation,  which  proposed  to  obtain  negro  soldiers  from  such 
volunteers  as  their  masters  might  patriotically  dedicate  to  the 
Confederate  service,  and  was  ominously  silent  on  the  subject 
of  their  freedom,  were  two  fancy  companies  raised  in  the  city 
of  Richmond,  who  were  allowed  to  give  balls  at  the  Libby, 
and  to  parade  in  Capitol  Square,  and  were  scarcely  intended 
to  be  more  than  decoys  to  obtain  sable  recruits.  But  they 
served  not  even  this  purpose.  The  measure  passed  by  Con 
gress  may  be  taken,  indeed,  as  an  indication  of  that  vague  des 
peration  in  the  Confederacy  which  caught  at  straws,  and  had 
not  nerve  enough  to  make  a  practical  and  persistent  effort  at 
safety. 

The  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  was  a  weak,  spas 
modic  body.  There  was  no  organization  of  opinion  in  it;  no 
leaders;  plenty  of  idle  debate,  capricious  measures,  weak  re 
crimination,  and  but  little  of  the  sense  and  order  of  legislative 
assemblies.  It  went  in  and  out  of  secret  session  almost  every 
twenty-four  hours;  it  was  fruitful  of  propositions  without 
results;  and  it  finally  adjourned  on  the  18th  of  March,  after 
a  session  of  four  months,  in  which  it  had  failed  to  enact  any 
effective  measure  to  recruit  the  arm}T,  to  improve  the  finances, 
to  mobilize  the  subsistence  of  the  country,  or,  in  fact,  ta  serve 
one  single  important  interest  in  the  Confederacy 


±74:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  last  address  and  appeal  of  the  Confederate  Congress. — The  war  in  a  geographic*.! 
point,  of  view. — THE  CONFEDERATE  CONGRESS  AND  PRESIDENT  DAVIS. — THE  EXECU 
TIVE  DEPARTMENTS. — A  sharp  recrimination. — A  committee  of  the  Senate  reply  to 
President  Davis. — Maladministration  in  the  War  Department. — Two-thirds  of  the 
Confederate  Army  absentees. — Lee  loses  nearly  half  his  army  by  desertions. — Tho 
other  half  threatened  witli  starvation. — Ample  supply  of  food  in  the  country. — 
The  fault  in  the  Commissary  Department. — Commissary  Northrop  a  "pepper-doc 
tor"  as  the  favorite  of  Davis. — Analysis  of  President  Davis'  character  for  firmness. 
—How  Northrop  starved  Richmond. — HISTORY  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMISSA 
RIAT. — Secret  testimony  in  Congress. — President  Davis'  refusal  to  trade  cotton  for 
meat. — Persistent  delusion  about  "king  cotton." — Venality  of  the  enemy. — Davis 
takes  no  advantage  of  it. — Record  of  the  rations  in  Lee's  army. — Startling  statis 
tics. — Attempts  to  get  meat  from  Europe. — General  Lee's  army  without  meat.-- 
His  telegram  to  President  Davis. — The  necessities  of  the  Commissary  Department 
Bummed  up  in  secret  session  of  Congress. — But  little  done  to  meet  them.— How  the 
cause  of  the  Confederacy  would  have  failed  without  a  catastrophe  of  arms. — The 
military  narrative  resumed. — MILITARY  EVENTS  IN  VIRGINIA  IN  THE  WINTER  or 
\864-5. — SHERIDAN'S  RAID. — Thirteen  counties  traversed. — Amount  of  destruction 
accomplished  by  the  enemy. — THE  RICHMOND  LINES. — HATCHER'S  RUN. — Extension 
of  Grant's  line. — BATTLE  or  HARES  HILL. — Gallantry  of  Gordon's  command.— 
Vigor  and  brilliancy  of  the  fighting  of  the  Confederates. — No  decisive  results. 

ON  the  occasion  of  what  was  to  be  its  final  adjournment, 
Congress  published  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  Confederate 
States.  It  was  more  prolix  than  other  documents  of  this  sort 
Jhit  it,  contained  one  just  and  admirable  reflection,  to  which 
we  have  already  referred  in  the  pages  of  the  preceding  chapter. 

It  said  :  "  The  extent  of  our  territory,  the  food-producing 
capacity  of  our  soil,  the  amount  and  character  of  our  popula 
tion,  are  elements  of  strength  which,  carefully  husbanded  and 
wisely  employed,  are  amply  sufficient  to  insure  our  final  tri 
umph.  The  passage  of  hostile  armies  through  our  country, 
though  productive  of  cruel  suffering  to  our  people,  and  great 
pecuniary  loss,  gives  the  enemy  no  permanent  advantage  or 
foothold.  To  subjugate  a  country,  its  civil  government  must 
be  suppressed  by  a  continuing  military  force,  or  supplanted  by 
another,  to  which  the  inhabitants  yield  a  voluntary  or  forced 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  475 

obedience.  The  passage  of  hostile  armies  through  our  territory 
cannot  produce  this  result.  Permanent  garrisons  would  have 
to  be  stationed  at  a  sufficient  number  of  points  to  strangle  all 
civil  government  before  it  could  be  pretended,  even  by  the 
United  States  Government  itself,  that  its  authority  was  ex 
tended  over  these  States.  How  many  garrisons  would  it  re 
quire  ?  How  many  hundred  thousand  soldiers  would  suffice 
to  suppress  the  civil  government  of  all  the  States  of  the  Con 
federacy,  and  to  establish  over  them,  even  in  name  and  form, 
the  authority  of  the  United  States?  In  a  geographical  point 
of  mew,  therefore,  it  may  le  asserted  that  the  conquest  of  these 
Confederate  States  is  impracticable" 


THE   CONFEDERATE   CONGRESS    AND     PRESIDENT    DAVIS. THE    EXEC 
UTIVE   DEPARTMENTS. 

The  last  Confederate  Congress  concluded  with  a  sharp  re 
crimination  between  it  and  President  Davis  as  to  the  responsi 
bility  for  the  low  state  to  which  the  public  defence  had  lapsed. 
The  President  had  charged,  in  'a  public  message,  that  the  meas 
ures  of  Congress  for  recruiting  the  army  were  insufficient,  and 
that  it  had  generally  neglected  to  supply  the  urgent  need  of 
men  and  supplies  for  the  army. 

A  committee  of  the  Senate  made  an  elaborate  reply  to  this 
accusation.  It  declared  that  all  the  measures  recommended 
by  the  President,  to  promote  the  efficiency  of  the  army,  had 
been  adopted,  except  the  entire  repeal  of  class  exemption ;  and 
that  seme  measures  not  suggested  by  him — such  as  the  creation 
of  general-in-chief — were  originated  and  passed  by  Congress, 
with  a  view  to  the  restoration  of  public  confidence  and  the 
energetic  administration  of  military  affairs. 

The  committee  retorted  upon  the  executive  the  charge  that 
by  a  system  of  details,  in  which  corruption  and  favor  were 
dominant,  the  Conscription  Law  had  been  robbed  of  its  legiti 
mate  fruits,  arid  the  army  enfeebled.  They  said  that  in  re 
markable  contrast  to  the  number  of  persons  relieved  from 
military  service  by  the  exemptions  enacted  by  Congress,  the 
report  of  the  Conscript  Bureau  exhibited  the  fact,  that  east  of 
the  Mississippi  Eiver,  twenty-two  thousand  and  thirty-live  IP  en 


4:76  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 

bad  been  detailed  by  executive  authority.     It  was,  they  de 
clared,  in  consequence  of  this  abuse  of  the  power  of  detail, 
that  Congress  had  passed  an  act  revoking  all  details,  and  lim 
iting  the  exercise  of  that  power  in  the  future. 

We  shall  not  go  at  large  into  the  merits  of  this  recrimina 
tion  between  the  Confederate  Congress  and  the  executive. 
Each,  undoubtedly,  had  its  share  of  responsibility  for  the 
general  improvidence  and  mismanagement  that  had  fatally 
involved  the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy.  But  the  mal-admin- 
istraiion  in  the  War  Department  was  even  greater  than  Con 
gress  chose  to  indicate.  From  that  department  the  confession 
had  repeatedly  gone  forth,  that  two-thirds  of  our  army  were 
absentees;  and  yet  nothing  was  done  to  enforce  discipline  or 
to  punish  desertions,  and  the  morale  of  the  Confederate  Army 
was  left  entirely  to  the  regulation  of  loose  patriotic  sentiment 
among  those  who  composed  it.  No  more  forcible  commentary 
can  be  made  on  the  feeble  execution  of  the  military  laws  ot 
the  Confederacy,  and  the  omission  of  the  most  ordinary  disci 
pline  in  the  army,  than  to  state  the  simple  and  indisputable 
fact  that  in  the  winter  of  1864-5  Lee  lost  nearly  half  his  army 
by  desertions  alone. 

And  that  half  was  frequently  in  a  condition  bordering  on 
starvation.  There  was  really  no  lack  of  supplies  in  the  coun 
try.  It  is  needless  to  go  into  details,  or  to  adduce  statistics  in 
proof  of  this.  It  is  obvious  to  every  well-informed  mind. 
Although  the  occupation  by  the  enemy,  and  his  ruthless  policy 
of  destroying  the  harvests,  granaries,  and  agricultural  imple 
ments  of  the  people,  wherever  he  moved,  had,  undoubtedly, 
diminished  the  amount  of  cereals  in  the  South,  still,  in  view  ot 
the  fact  that  in  every  State  of  the  Confederacy  without  excep 
tion,  its  agricultural  labor  had  been  devoted  almost  exclusively 
to  the  raising  of  breadstuffs  (while  before  the  war  it  was  mainly 
devoted  to  the  production  of  cotton,  tobacco,  and  other  ex 
ports),  it  was  impossible  to  doubt  that  there  was 'ample  supply 
of  food  in  the  country. 

The  fault  was  in  the  Commissar}7  Department  at  Richmond  ; 
where  a  man  flagrantly  incompetent,  appointed  to  the  most 
important  post  in  the  country,  on  no  other  ground  of  selection 
than  that  many  years  ago  he  had  been  the  college  churn  of  the 
President,  seemed  busy  for  almost  four  years  in  bearing  down 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  47 7 

all  common  sense  and  advice,  practising  the  most  ridiculous 
quackeries,  and  stifling  the  very  life  of  the  Confederacy. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  in  history  that  many  famous  men 
who  have  prided  themselves  on  their  firmness  and  resolution 
in  public  affairs,  and  indeed  have  displayed  these  qualities  to 
the  generality  of  mankind,  have  yet  been  discovered  to  bo 
under  the  dominion  of  the  most  paltry  influences — in  many 
instances  governed  by  women,  court-jesters,  and  the  smallest 
of  favorites.  Such  an  apparent  contradiction  of  character  was 
to  be  found  in  President  Davis.  Pie  could  brace  his  mind  and 
Bet  his  face  against  Congressmen  and  counsellors  generally. 
But  he  was  absurdly  uxorious ;  he  was  surrounded  by  adven 
turers  and  "  confidence-men ;"  and  some  old  West  Point  or 
Yrashington  acquaintance  might  readily  obtain  his  car  and 
favor  when  they  were  denied  to  the  first  men  of  the  Confed 
eracy. 

Commissary  Northrop,  whose  profession  Mr.  Foote  declared 
in  Congress  had  been  that  of  a  "pepper  doctor,"  was  one  of 
the  small  favorites  of  President  Davis.  This  old  man  was  an 
extraordinary  combination  of  ignorance  and  obstinacy  ;  and 
it  was  remarked  of  him  that  such  was  his  perversity,  tlwt 
whenever  advice  or  suggestion  was  offered  to  him,  he  instantly 
and  invariably  took  the  precisely  opposite  course. 

Richmond  was  now  almost  destitute  of  supplies,  through  tho 
mismanagement  and  conceit  of  this  man.  His  latest  fancy  had 
been  to  prohibit  to  the  general  public  the  importation  of  any 
supplies  whatever  into  the  Confederate  capital.  The  farmer 
could  not  bring  a  bushel  of  corn  or  a  pound  of  meat  into 
.Richmond  without  running  the  gauntlet  of  impressment 
agents.  Permits  to  get  flour  into  Richmond  were  valued  at 
high  figures,  and  obtained  only  through  special  favors.  The 
consequences  of  Mr.  Northrop's  folly  were,  that  large  stocks  of 
supplies  were  kept  at  home  in  different  parts  of  the  interior  of 
Virginia ;  that  they  were  thus  exposed  to  Yankee  devastation, 
and,  in  time,  became  an  easy  prey  of  the  enemy's  raids.  It 
was  through  such  mismanagement  that  the  rich  harvests  of  the 
Shenandoah  were  lost  to  the  Confederacy.  There  had  been 
ample  time  to  have  gathered  into  Richmond  at  least  a  large 
portion  of  these  rich  and  accessible  supplies.  Numerous  per- 
eons  had  gone  to  Commissary  JSTorthrop  with  the  proposition 


478  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

to  bring  into  Richmond  grain  and  flour  from  the  Valley  and 
were  willing  to  make  the  condition  that  any  part  of  their 
stocks  would  be  given  up  to  the  Government,  whenever  there 
was  any  occasion  for  it  to  encroach  upon  the  private  store 
houses  of  Richmond.  But  Mr.  Northrop  closed  the  door  to 
all  such  applications,  and  the  commission  houses  and  provision 
stores  of  Richmond  were  left  almost  empty  ;  while  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand  was  sending  prices  up  far  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  general  customer. 


HISTORY    OF   THE   CONFEDERATE    COMMISSARIAT. 

In  the  last  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States,  a  secret  com 
mission  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  Com 
missary  Department.  There  was  thus  obtained  within  closed 
doors  a  mass  of  testimony  which  covered  the  whole  history  of 
the  commissariat,  and  contains,  indeed,  subjects  of  the  great 
est  interest  in  the  war.  This  testimon}7  was  never  permitted 
to  see  the  light  in  the  Confederacy ;  probably  because  it  so 
deeply  involved  President  Davis  and  his  associates  in  the 
charge  of  maladministration. 

It  appeared  before  the  secret  commission  that  as  early  as 
the  second  year  of  the  war,  the  meat  supplies  of  the  Confed 
eracy  were  discovered  to  be  largely  deficient.  This  became 
e  ndent  enough  on  the  successive  captures  of  Forts  Donelson 
ai  d  Henry.  The  subsequent  campaign  lost  us  Kentucky  and 
much  of  Tennessee,  and  left  us  comparatively  bare  of  meat. 

At  this  time  a  number  of  propositions  were  made  to  the 
Richmond  authorities,  by  responsible  parties,  to  exchange 
through  the  enemy's  lines  meat  for  cotton.  One  man,  whose 
ability  to  meet  his  engagements  was  never  questioned,  offered 
to  deliver  thirty  thousand  hogsheads  of  bacon  through  the 
lilies  in  exchange  for  cotton.  It  was  urged  that  there  was 
enough  cotton  to  feed  and  clothe  our  army,  in  a  section  tribu 
tary  to  Memphis — which  city  was  then,  and  had  been  for  some 
time  previous,  in  the  secure  possession  of  the  enemy ;  that 
guch  cotton  must  otherwise  probably  be  destroyed,  to  prevent 
its  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy ;  but  that  the  owners 
as  a  general  rule,  though  willing  to  let  the  Government  have 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  479 

their  crops,  were  averse,  if  not  stubbornly  opposed,  to  having 
them  destroyed. 

Against  every  proposition  to  get  meat  through  the  inland 
military  lines,  President  Davis  set  his  face  as  flint.  He  had 
got  an  idea  into  his  head  that  the  enemy's  finances  were  about 
to  collapse,  and  that  if  a  little  cotton  might  be  kept  from  them 
they  would  be  unable  to  pay  the  January  interest  of  18b3. 
It  appears,  indeed,  to  have  been  impossible  for  him  and  his 
associates  to  rid  themselves  of  their  early  conceit  of  the  power 
of  cotton ;  and  it  was  this  wretched  delusion  in  hoarding  this 
inert  wealth  of  the  South,  that  did  more  than  any  thing  else  to 
wreck  the  finances  of  the  Confederacy,  and  eventually  to 
reduce  the  rations  of  its  armies  to  one-quarter  of  a  pound  of 
meat  a  day  per  man. 

The  venality  of  the  enemy  afforded  full  opportunity  to  the 
Richmond  authorities  to  use  the  Mississippi  from  Memphis  to 
New  Orleans,  until  all  their  needed  supplies  should  be  ob 
tained.'  But  no  advantage  was  ever  taken  of  this  ample  and 
obvious  opportunity.  The  arguments  used  against  trade  in 
cotton  through  the  lines  were  : 

First — That  the  Federal  finances  were  in  such  a  condition 
that  if  they  could  not  obtain  cotton,  upon  which  to  draw  bills 
wherewith  to  pay  their  then  accruing  interest,  their  credit 
would  explode,  and  the  war  would  speedily  cease  from  the 
bankrupting  of  our  assailants.  Hence  they  wanted  cotton. 

Second — That  they  did  not  want  cotton,  but  only  sought, 
under  cover  of  a  contract  for  supply,  to  find  out  the  channels 
of  navigable  streams,  to  ascertain  the  location  and  condition 
of  certain  defences,  and  otherwise  to  spy  out  the  land. 

Third — That  the  trade  on  the  part  of  the  Government  would 
demoralize  the  people  among  whom  it  might  be  conducted. 

Fourth — That  to  trade  through  New  Orleans,  and  let  cotton 
clear  from  that  port,  "  would  make  Europe  think  we  had  caved, 
who  thereupon  would  decline  to  recognize  us,  or  to  intervene." 

The  reader  will  recognize  for  himself  the  little  value  of  these 
arguments — some  of  them  childish — by  the  side  of  the  great 
necessity  of  feeding  the  armies  of  the  South. 

The  record  of  the  r arrow  escapes  of  Lee's  army  alone  from 
btarvation,  is  sufficient  commentary  upon  the  management  at 
Richmond.  In  consequence  of  the  refusal  to  be  allowed  to 


4:80  SOUTHERN    HISTOEY    OF    TJIE 

i 

purchase  on  the  Mississippi,  the  army,  especially  in  Virginia 
was  put  upon  short  rations.  First,  they  were  reduced  to  one- 
half  pound  of  meat  per  day, — which,  if  it  could  have  been 
kept  up  at  that,  would  have  been  sufficient;  then  to  one-third 
of  a  pound — though  this  allowance  was  not  agreed  to  or  ad 
hered  to  by  several  of  the  generals  commanding;  and  then  t<\ 
one-quarter  of  a  pound.  Upon  this  last  allowance  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia  wintered  in  1864-5. 

On  the  18th  of  October,  1864,  a  memorandum  was  commii 
nicated  to  President  Davis,  showing  that  there  were  on  hand 
in  the  Confederate  States  4.105,048  rations  of  fresh  meat, 
and  3,426,519  rations  of  bacon  and  pork,  which  would 
subsist  three  hundred  thousand  men  twenty-five  days.  The 
authorities  were  now  compelled  to  subsist,  independent  of 
the  armies  of  the  Confederacy,  many  thousand  prisoners  of 
war  who  were  collected  in  different  camps  throughout  the 
country. 

In  1863  a  feeble  and  badly  organized  attempt  had  been 
made  to  get  meat  from  Europe  through  the  blockade.  Much 
of  it  was  allowed  to  remain  at  Nassau  and  Bermuda  until  if 
spoiled.  Contracts  for  supplies,  payable  in  cotton  in  our  At 
lantic  ports,  were  made  with  several  parties ;  but  in  no  instance 
with  success.  Either  the  amount  involved  was  too  small,  tc 
tempt  the  venality  of  those  who  could  control  or  purchase  an 
evasion  of  the  blockade ;  or  the  engagement  to  deliver  meal 
alone,  was  found  to  be  too  small  an  inducement  to  those  en 
gaged  in  blockade-running. 

In  the  winter  of  1864  the  subsistence  of  the  Confederate 
armies  appeared  to  be  in  the  last  stages  of  exhaustion.  Major 
Ruffin,  assistant-comrnissary-general,  testifies  before  a  secret 
committee  of  Congress : 

"  On  the  5th  of  December  I  brought  the  condition  of  things 
to  the  attention  .of  the  Secretary  of  War,  coupling  it  with  a 
statement  of  subsistence  on  hand,  which  showed  nine  days* 
rations  on  hand  for  General  Lee's  army  ;  and,  quoting  his  let 
ter  to  the  commissary-general,  that  day  received,  stating  that 
his  men  were  deserting  on  account  of  short  rations,  I  urged 
prompt  action;  but  none  was  taken.  On  the  14th  of  Decem 
ber,  nine  days  afterwards,  General  Lee  telegraphed  Mr.  Dayia 
liat  his  armv  was  whliout  meat." 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  4:81 

In  January,  1865,  the  following  points  were  presented  in 
secret  session  of  Congress  : 

First — That  there  was  not  meat  enough  in  the  Southern 
Confederacy  for  the  armies  it  had  in  the  field. 

Second — That  there  was  not  in  Virginia  either  meat  or  bread 
enough  for  the  armies  within  her  limits. 

Third — That  the  bread  supply  from  other  places  depended 
absolutely  upon  the  keeping  open  the  railroad  connections  ol 
the  South. 

Fourth — That  the  meat  must  be  obtained  from  abroad 
through  a  seaport,  and  by  a  different  system  from  that  which 
has  heretofore  prevailed. 

Fifth — That  the  bread  could  not  be  had  by  impressment, 
but  must  be  paid  for  in  market  rates. 

Sixth — That  the  payment  must  be  made  in  cash,  which,  so 
far,  had  not  been  furnished ;  and,  if  possible,  in  a  better  medi 
um  than  treasury  scrip. 

Seventh — That  the  transportation  was  not  adequate,  from 
whatever  cause,  to  meet  the  necessary  demands  of  the  service. 

Eighth — That  the  supply  of  fresh  meat  to  General  Lee's 
army  was  precarious;  and  if  the  army  fell  back  from  Richmond 
and  Petersburg,  there  was  every  probability  that  it  would  ceaso 
altogether. 

Nothing  was  done  by  the  Confederate  Government  com 
mensurate  with  the  necessities  indicated  above — nothing,  in 
fact,  done  to  meet  them  beyond  a  visionary  scheme,  enacted  in 
the  last  days  of  Congress,  to  raise  three  millions  in  specie  to 
purchase  supplies  from  those  producers  of  the  Confederacy 
who  were  no  longer  willing  to  take  scrip  for  their  commodi 
ties.  But  few  persons  outside  of  official  circles  in  the  Confed 
eracy  were  acquainted  with  the  true  state  of  affairs;  so  hedged 
in  with  secrecy  was  the  weak  and  recluse  government  of  Mr. 
Davis.  To  the  well-informed  and  intelligent  the  appalling 
fact  was  manifest — that  the  whole  system  of  Confederate  de 
fence  was  hound  to  brealc  down  by  sheer  mismanagement  in 
the  commissariat,  even  without  a  catastrophe  of  arms. 

Before  we  reach  the  final  and  sudden  catastrophe  that  was 
to  befall  the  arms  of  the  Confederacy,  there  is  a  slight  space 
in  our  military  narrative  which  we  have  to  cover  by  a  brief 
relation  of  the  events  of  the  war  in  Virginia  in  the  winter  of 

81 


4:82  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE     WAR. 

1864^-5.  This  record  is  a  very  slender  one.  But  it  is  the 
ace,  in  pcint  of  time  at  least,  to  those  great  events  which,  in 
April,  18G5,  were  to  bring  the  war  to  a  singularly  abrupt  close, 
and  with  a  precipitation  heretofore  l)ut  little  known  in  the 
history  of  great  contests. 


MILITARY     EVENTS     IN     VIRGINIA     IN     THE    WINTER     OF    1864r  5 


Our  last  reference  to  the  campaign  in  the  Valley  of  Vir 
ginia  was,  when  the  forces  there  had  been  much  reduced  and 
the  scale  of  operations  had  become  inconsiderable  ;  the  bulk 
of  Early 's  troops  having  been  withdrawn  to  General  Lee's 
lines.  Sheridan,  too,  had  sent  most  of  his  infantry  to  Grant. 
In  December,  the  Sixth  Corps  was  returned  to  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  ;  and  the  Army  of  the  Shenandoah  for  nearly  two 
months  acted  principally  as  an  army  of  observation. 

Towards  the  last  of  February,  1865,  Sheridan  began  to  "  ride" 
again  up  the  Yalley  of  the  Shenandoah,  leaving  Hancock  in 
command  of  his  department  at  Winchester.  On  reaching 
Waynesboro'  a  battle  occurred  between  Early  and  Ousters 
divisions,  which  resulted  in  the  rout  of  the  Confederates. 
Sheridan  captured  about  thirteen  hundred  prisoners — nearly 
all  of  Early's  little  command ;  which  indeed  fell  an  easy  prey 
to  the  magnificent  Yankee  cavalry.  Early  himself  escaped 
with  difficulty,  some  of  his  staff-officers  and  his  personal  bag 
gage  being  captured. 

Charlottesville  was  surrendered  the  next  day.  From  this 
point,  on  the  6th  of  March,  Sheridan  moved  in  two  columns 
southward  towards  the  James.  One  division,  under  General 
Deven,  took  a  directly  southern  route  to  Scottsville>  destroying 
all  mills,  merchandise,  and  bridges  on  the  line  of  march,  and 
along  the  Hivanria  River  to  Columbia.  The  other  division 
proceeded  down  on  the  railroad  to  Lynchburg,  destroying  ii 
as  far  as  Amherst — a  distance  of  over  forty  miles.  From 
Scottsville,  Deven's  division  proceeded  westward  along  the 
l»anks  of  the  James,  destroying  every  lock  on  the  canal  as  fa) 
as  Dugaldsville,  twenty  miles  from  Lynchburg.  ]S"ot  being 
able  to  cross  the  James  on  account  of  the  high  water,  Sheridan 


THE    LAST   YEAR.  433 

moved  around  the  north  side  of  Richmond,  and,  crossing  at 
Deep  Bottom,  joined  General  Meade's  army  south  of  Peters 
burg. 

The  destruction  accomplished  by  this  raid  was  serious 
enough.  The  country  through  which  it  passed  was  devastated, 
and  a  Yankee  correspondent,  who  accompanied  the  expedition, 
boasted  that  two  million  dollars  worth  of  provisions  and  war 
material  were  destroyed  in  a  single  day.  The  damage  to  the 
Kanawha  and  James  River  Canal  was  almost  irreparable ;  as 
to  the  railroads  between  Waynesboro'  and  Charlottesville, 
Charlottes  ville  and  Amherst  Court-house,  and  Louisa  Court 
house,  and  the  South  Anna,  and  between  Chesterfield  Station 
and  the  Chickahominy  River,  every  bridge,  nearly  every  cul 
vert,  and  scores  of  miles  of  the  rail  itself,  had  been  completely 
destroyed ;  and  in  thirteen  counties  traversed  by  the  expedi 
tion,  mills  of  various  kinds,  tobacco  warehouses,  manufactured 
and  leaf  tobacco,  and  various  other  descriptions  of  private 
property  were  pillaged  or  destroyed. 


THE   RICHMOND    LINES HATCHER^S   RUN. 

On  the  lines  around  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  during  the 
winter  of  1864-5,  there  were  no  very  important  events.  Two 
very  considerable  engagements  were  fought  on  them  in  this 
time ;  but  they  were  wholly  indecisive  and  strangely  barren 
of  results  commensurate  with  the  scale  of  fighting.  Pegram's 
division,  of  Lee's  army,  whilst  reconnoitring  on  the  morning 
of  the  6th  of  February,  was  attacked  by  cavalry  and  infantry 
in  heavy  force.  The  enemy's  cavalry  at  one  time  broke 
through  one  of  his  brigades,  but  the  men  fought  them  all  the 
while.  Capturing  some  in  rear  of  our  lines,  driving  the  others 
oil',  the  division  was  pressed  slowly  back,  occupying  a  very 
long  line,  but  fighting  obstinately,  under  the  direction  of  its 
gallant  commander. 

Evans,  commanding  Gordon's  division,  arrived,  and  was 
formed  on  the  left.  The  two  divisions  now  charged,  and  drove 
the  enemy  back.  They  were  finally  overpowered,  and  driven 
back  a  short  distance;  but  reforming,  charged  again  and 
again. 


464:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  battle  raged  fiercely  for  hours  over  a  space  of  groniui 
not  more  than  live  hundred  yards  in  width.  Every  effort  of 
the  Yankees  to  break  through  the  Confederate  lines  was  re 
pulsed.  Mahone's  division  came  up  and  reported  late  in  the 
afternoon,  and  was  formed  between  the  other  two,  when  the 
three  divisions  made  a  most  spirited  advance  and  drove  the 
enemy  in  the  greatest  disorder  from  the  field  to  his  fortifica 
tions  on  Hatcher's  Run.  The  pursuit  was  continued  until 
after  dark.  General  Pegram  fell  in  the  last  charge,  just  be 
fore  Mahone's  division  came  up. 

The  enemy  kept  his  position  on  Hatcher's  Hun,  which  pro 
longed  his  line,  but  did  not  advance  it  in  the  direction  of  Pe 
tersburg.  The  advantage  of  this  extension  was  even  question 
able  ;  and  after  this  important  movement  quiet  was  resumed 
on  the  Richmond  lines,  unbroken  by  any  remarkable  incident 
for  several  weeks. 


At  daylight,  on  the  25th  of  March,  General  Lee  suddenly 
attacked  Grant's  lines  south  of  the  Appomattox.  The  attack 
was  immediately  directed  by  General  Gordon  on  the  enemy's 
works  at  Hare's  Hill.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  General 
Lee's  plan  was  more  extensive ;  that  his  design  was  to  follow 
up  the  first  success  by  the  capture  of  the  neighboring  works, 
and  then  making  the  line  a  part  of  his  own,  to  command 
Grant's  military  railroad.  If  his  success  should  be  all  that 
he  hoped,  he  might  even  venture  to  cut  Grant's  entire  left 
from  its  base  at  City  Point  and  from  the  army  north  of  the 
James. 

About  iour  o'clock  in  the  morning,  every  thing  being  in 
readiness,  the  corps  of  sharpshooters,  about  two  hundred  and 
fifty  strong,  left  our  works,  and,  with  empty  guns,  advanced 
stealthily  but  rapidly  upon  the  enemy's  positions.  They  fell 
like  a  thunder-clap  upon  the  Yankees,  behind  the  first  line  of 
works  they  struck,  clubbing  such  as  they  found  awake  with 
their  muskets,  taking  a  good  many  prisoners,  and  capturing 
several  hundred  yards  of  breastworks.  Not  a  musket  was 
fired,  and  not  a  man  injured  on  our  side.  Meantime  the 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  485 

several  brigades  massed,  both  to  support  and  assist  them,  caine 
up,  and  the  formidable  force  on  Hare's  Hill,  with  a  consider 
able  portion  of  the  heavy  line  of  works  adjoining  and  connect 
ing  with  it,  were  charged  and  captured,  additional  prisoners 
and  numerous  mortars  and  guns  falling  into  our  hands.  Un 
fortunately  some  of  the  Yankees,  who  had  escaped  in  the  dark 
ness,  fled  and  aroused  the  men  in  the  rear  line  of  works;  and 
the  alarm  was  quickly  spread  throughout  the  reserve  camps 
behind,  so  that  a  formidable  force  was  soon  alert.  By  the 
time  our  troops  had  formed  into  line  on  either  side  of  the  cap 
tured  fort  the  enemy  was  thoroughly  aroused,  and  was  pre 
pared  for  further  offensive  operations  on  our  side;  otherwise 
the  advance  of  our  troops  would  have  been  irresistible  and 
successful  beyond  anticipation.  As  it  was,  they  came  into  a 
position  subject  to  an  enfilading  fire  on  either  side,  and  con 
fronted  by  heavy  forts  and  breastworks.  The  Yankees  were 
not  slow  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded 
them,  and  they  quickly  massed  artillery  in  the  neighboring 
forts  and  infantry  in  our  front.  They  made  several  fierce 
assaults  upon  our  columns  in  heavy  lines,  which  were  repulsed 
with  great  coolness  and  vigor;  and  in  which,  it  is  believed,  the 
enemy  sustained  much  loss.  Finding  it  impossible  to  dislodge 
the  Confederates  by  their  infantry  attacks,  the  enemy  opened 
upon  them  with  their  artillery.  A  battery  on  the  river,  and 
Fort  Steadman  on  the  right,  both  so  situated  as  thoroughly  to 
command  and  enfilade  the  captured  fort  and  works,  belched 
forth  their  terrible  discharges  of  shell,  grape,  and  canister  into 
our  ranks,  and  rendered  the  position  almost  untenable.  Fur 
ther  advance  by  our  troops,  in  the  face  of  the  terrible  obsta 
cles  that  presented  themselves,  was  deemed  impracticable,  and 
General  Gordon  gave  the  command  to  retire. 

The  success  of  the  day  was  incomplete,  and  of  but  little 
value,  although  Gordon  had  shown  the  greatest  gallantry,  and 
the  Confederates  had  fought  with  a  vigor  and  brilliancy  that 
reminded  one  of  Lee's  old  campaigns.  They  had  swept  the 
enemy's  lines  for  a  distance  of  four  or  five  hundred  yards  to 
the  right  and  left,  and  two  efforts  made  to  recover  the  cap 
tured  works  had  been  handsomely  repulsed.  It  was  only 
when  it  was  found  that  the  inclosed  works  in  rear,  command 
ing  the  enemy's  main  line,  could  only  be  taken  at  a  great 


486  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

sacrifice,  that  our  troops  were  withdrawn  to  their  original 
position. 

Gordon  captured  nine  pieces  of  artillery,  eight  mortars 
find  between  five  and  six  hundred  prisoners,  amongst  them 
one  brigadier-general  and  a  number  of  officers  of  lower 
Ejrade.  It  being  impracticable  to  bring  off  the  captured  guns, 
owing  to  the  nature  of  the  ground,  they  were  disabled  and 
left. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  4:87 


CHAPTEK  XXIY. 

TUK  BVTTLES  AROUND  PETERSBURG. — The  movement  of  Sheridan's  cavalry. — The  Five 
Forks. — General  Lee's  counter-movement. — Repulse  of  Sheridan. — Re-enforced  by 
Grant. — The  Confederates  flanked  at  the  Five  Forks. — The  situation  in  front  of 
Petersburg. — Lee's  lines  broken  in  three  places. — Capture  of  Fort  Mahone  by  the 
enemy. — General  Lee  loses  his  entire  line  of  defence,  and  the  Southside  Railroad. 
— THE  EVACUATION  OF  RICHMOND. — Great  surprise  in  the  Confederate  capital. — The 
news  in  the  churches. — Dr.  Hoge's  address. — Consternation  and  uproar  in  the 
streets. — The  city  on  fire. — A  reckless  military  order. — Scenes  of -horror. — Mobs  of 
plunderers. — The  scene  at  the  commissary  depot. — Weitzel's  entry  into  Richmond. 
— Suffering  of  the  people. — Scene  on  Capitol  Square. — Devastations  of  the  fire. — 
The  burnt  district. — Weitzel's  and  Shepley's  general  orders. — Yankee  rejoicings 
over  the  fall  of  Richmond. — Bell-ringings,  hymns,  and  dancing  in  the  streets  of 
New  York. — A  grand  illumination  in  Washington. — Yankee  mottoes. — A  memor 
able  speech. 

GRANT  was  quick  in  retaliating  for  General  Lee's  attempt  on 
his  lines,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  drove  the  enemy  at  Hare'a 
Hill,  but  did  not  hold  the  ground  it  traversed,  or  accomplish 
any  decisive  results. 


THE    BATTLES    AROUND    PETERSBURG. 

On  the  29th  of  March,  Grant  began  a  heavy  movement  to 
wards  the  Southside  Railroad.  The  cavalry  command,  con 
sisting  of  General  Crook's  division  and  Sheridan's  cavalry, 
moved  out  on  the  Jerusalem  plankroad,  about  three  and  a 
half  miles  from  Hancock  Station,  where  they  took  the  country 
road  leading  across  the  Weldon  Railroad  at  Ream's  Station, 
and  into  the  Vaughn  road  cne  mile  from  the  Dinwiddie  Court 
house,  General  Crook's  division  going  in  advance.  They 
reached  Dinwiddie  Court-house  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
evening. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Fifth  and  Second  corps  of  infantry  had 
been  moving  in  a  parallel  line  on  the  Vaughn  road.  Gen- 


488  .SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

eral  Grant's  headquarters  on  the  night  of  the  29th  were  en 
the  Boydtown  Plankroad,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Gravelly 
Bun. 

The  next  day  heavy  rains  impeded  operations  ;  but  the  force 
of  the  enemy  pressed  on  towards  the  Five  Forks,  the  extreme 
right  of  Lee's  line  on  the  Southside  Railroad. 

General  Lee  had  not  been  idle  in  meeting  this  movement. 
On  the  31st  of  March,  the  enemy  found  on  his  front,  prepared 
to  contest  the  prize  of  the  railroad,  Pickett's  division  of  in 
fantry,  and  General  Fitzhugh  Lee's  and  General  William  II. 
Lee's  divisions  of  cavalry.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  day,  the 
Confederates  made  a  determined  and  gallant  charge  upon  the 
whole  cavalry  line  of  the  Yankees,  forced  it  back,  and  drove 
the  enemy  to  a  point  within  two  miles  of  Dinwiddie  Court 
house. 

But  the  news  of  Sheridan's  repulse  had  no  sooner  reached 
General  Grant,  than  the  Fifth  Corps  was  moved  rapidly  to  his 
relief.  The  re-enforcement  arrived  in  time  to  retrieve  the  for 
tunes  of  the  enemy.  The  next  day,  April  1st,  the  combined 
forces  of  Yankee  cavalry  and  Warren's  infantry  advanced 
against  the  Confederates.  Overpowered  by  numbers,  the  Con 
federates  retreated  to  the  Five  Forks,  where  they  were  flanked 
by  a  part  of  the  Fifth  Corps,  which  had  moved  down  the 
White  Oak  road.  It  was  here  that  several  thousand'  prisoners 
were  taken. 

On  the  night  of  Saturday,  April  1st,  the  prospect  was  a 
most  discouraging  one  for  General  Lee.  Grant  had  held  all 
his  lines  in  front  of  Petersburg,  had  manoeuvred  troops  far  to 
his  left,  had  turned  Lee's  right,  and  was  now  evidently  pre 
pared  to  strike  a  blow  upon  the  thin  lines  in  front  of  Pe 
tersburg. 

By  daylight,  on  Sunday,  April  2d,  these  lines  were  assaulted 
in  three  different  places  by  as  many  different  Yankee  corps. 
They  were  pierced  in  every  place.  The  Sixth  Corps  went 
through  first,  at  a  point  about  opposite  the  western  extremity  ot 
Petersburg;  the  Twenty-fourth,  a  little  way  further  west;  and 
the  Ninth  Corps  further  east,  near  to  the  Jerusalem  plankroatl, 
capturing  Fort  Mahone,  one  of  the  largest  forts  in  the  Peters 
burg  defences.  The  Confederates  made  a  desperate  struggle 
tor  Fort  Mahone,  which  was  protracted  through  the  day,  but 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  489 

without  success.     At  dark  the  position  of  the  contending  par 
ties  was  the  same  as  during  the  day. 

The  Yankees  had  congratulated  themselves  that,  by  the  suc 
cess  of  the  Sixth  Corps,  they  hud  cut  Lee's  army  in  two— rdit- 
ting  off  the  troops  that  were  not  in  Petersburg.  As  that  place 
was  supposed  to  be  the  Confederate  point  of  manoeuvre — as  it 
was  supposed  that  troops  could  not  cross  the  Appomattox  ex 
cept  through  the  city — their  capture  was  taken  as  certain  by 
the  enemy,  since  they  were  hemmed  in  between  Sheridan,  the 
Sixth  Corps,  and  the  river.  But  in  this  they  were  mistaken. 
The  Confederates  easily  forded  the  river ;  and  the  close  of  the 
day  found  Lee's  army  brought  together  within  the  inner  line 
of  the  Petersburg  defences.* 


*  Among  the  Confederate  killed  was  the  brave  General  A.  P.  Hill,  whose 
name  had  been  illustriously  connected  with  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia 
all  during  the  war.  He  had  desired  to  obtain  a  nearer  view  of  a  portion  of  the 
Yankee  line  during  the  attack  of  the  2d  of  April,  and  leaving  his  staff  behind 
in  a  place  of  safety,  rode  forward,  accompanied  by  a  single  orderly,  and  soo» 
came  upon  a  squad  of  Yankees,  who  had  advanced  along  ravines  far  beyond 
their  lines.  He  immediately  ordered  them  to  surrender,  which  they  were  on 
the  point  of  doing,  under  the  supposition  that  a  column  of  troops  were  at  hi 
heels,  They  soon  discovered  he  was  Dearly  unattended,  and  shot  him  through 
the  heart. 

General  Hill  was  a  native  of  Culpepper  County,  Virginia,  and  descended 
from  an  ancient  family,  famous  in  the  political  annals  of  that  portion  of  the 
commonwealth  ;  although  he  himself  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  civil  or  po 
litical  life.  He  appeared  to  be  about  thirty-six  or  thirty-seven  years  of  age, 
and  was  a  soldier  by  profession.  He  was  graduated  at  West  Point,  entered  the 
army,  and  served  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  made  arms  not  only  his  profession, 
but  an  enthusiastic  study,  to  which  he  was  prompted  by  the  natural  tastes  and 
disposition  of  his  mind. 

General  Hill  was,  undoubtedly,  a  commander  of  remarkable  talents  and 
qualities.  He  had  risen  rapidly  in  the  war  by  the  force  of  personal  merit.  At 
the  famous  field  of  Manassas  he  was  colonel  of  the  Thirteenth  Virginia  regi 
ment,  i"  General  Johnston's  army,  which,  it  will  be  recollected,  arrived  on  the 
field  in  time  to  secure  and  complete  the  great  victory  of  that  memorable  day. 
At  the  battle  of  Williamsburg  he  had  risen  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general ; 
and  in  that  fight  he  exhibited  an  extraordinary  spirit  and  energy,  which  were 
recognized  by  all  who  observed  his  behavior  on  that  field,  and  drew  the  eyes 
of  the  public  upon  him. 

General  Hill  made  his  greatest  reputation  by  his  conspicuous  part  in  the 
seven  days'  battles  around  Richmond,  in  the  summer  of  18G2.  Having  then 
been  made  major-general,  he  occupied,  with  his  division,  the  extreme  left  ol  our 
position  in  the  neighborhood  of  Meadow  Bridge.  He  was  put  in  command  of 
one  of  the  largest  divisions  of  the  Army  of  Richmond,  his  division  being  com 


490  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 

But  the  disasters  which  had  already  ocurred  were,  in  General 
Lee's  opinion,  irretrievable.  In  killed  and  wounded  his  loss 
had  been  small — two  thousand  would  probably  cover  it  in 
the  entire  series  of  engagements  ;  but  he  had  lost  an  entire  lino 
of  defence  around  Petersburg,  and  with  it  the  Southside 
Railroad,  so  important  to  Richmond  as  an  avenue  of  supply 


THE   EV AGITATION   OF   RICHMOND. 

The  morning  of  Sunday,  the  2d  of  April,  broke  calmly  and 
pleasantly  over  the  city  of  Richmond.  The  usual  crowds  were 
collected  at  the  Post-office  and  the  War  Department,  asking 
for  news,  discussing  common-places,  arid  idling  away  the  irk 
some  hours  of  the  Sabbath  in  Richmond.  There  was  not  a 
breath  of  excitement  in  the  general  community.  It  is  a  re 
markable  circumstance  that,  outside  of  official  circles,  not  half 
a  dozen  persons  in  Richmond  knew,  on  that  Sunday  morning, 
of  the  three  days'  fighting  that  had  taken  place  around  Peters 
burg,  and  at  the  distance  of  only  a  few  hours'  ride  from  the 
capital.  For  months  past,  the  Government  had  been  reticent 
of  all  military  news  whatever;  the  newspapers  had  beer 
warned  not  to  publish  any  military  matters,  but  what  shouk. 
be  dictated  to  them  from  the  War  Department ;  and  the  public 
was  left  to  imagine  pretty  much  what  it  pleased  concerning  the 
progress  of  the  war.  Indeed,  the  idea  current  in  the  streets  on 
this  Sunday  morning  was  rather  pleasant  and  reassuring  than 


posed  of  the  brigades  of  Anderson,  Branch,  Fender,  Gregg,  Field,  and  perhaps 
some  others.  He  rapidly  brought  his  division  to  perfection  in  organization, 
It  was  made  his  duty  to  cross  at  Meadow  Bridge,  and  make  the  first  attack 
upon  McClellan's  forces.  He  performed  this  duty  alone,  without  waiting  for 
other  movements  ;  and,  unassisted  by  a  portion  of  his  command  (for  Generals 
Branch  and  Gregg  did  not  come  up  until  late  in  the  evening),  he  sustained  a 
terrible  conflict  with  the  enemy,  encouraging  his  troops  by  examples  of  per 
sonal  audacity,  which  kept  him  constantly  exposed  to  the  enemy's  fire.  That 
position  of  the  enemy  being  gained,  the  division  of  General  Hill  followed  his 
subsequent  movements,  being  placed  first  in  the  line  of  our  advance,  and 
bearing  the  brunt  of  the  action  to  Fra/ier's  farm,  where  occurred  the  memor 
able  engagement  in  which  the  command  of  General  Hill,  composed  of  his  own 
division  and  one  division  of  General  Longstreet's  two,  fought  the  whole  Yan 
kee  force,  and  achieved  a  success  which  broke  the  spirit  of  the  enemy,  and 
completed  the  circuit  of  our  famous  victories  around  Richmond  in  1862. 


THE    LAST    YEAR. 

otherwise ;  for  there  was  a  general  impression  that  Johnston 
was  moving  to  Lee's  lines,  and  that  the  combined  force  was  tc 
take  the  offensive  against  the  enemy.  Beyond  this  general 
anticipation,  the  Richmond  public  had  on  the  day  referred  to 
not  the  slightest  inkling  of  the  situation.  The  news  which  a 
few  hours  later  was  to  overwhelm  them,  of  the  reverse  of  Lee 
and  the  forced  evacuation  of  Richmond,  was  to  burst  upon 
them  like  a  thunderclap  from  clear  skies. 

The  first  breath  of  the  report  was  obtained  in  the  churches. 
While  President  Davis  was  seated  in  his  pew  in  St.  Paul's 
church,  the  services  were  interrupted  by  a  messenger  handing 
him  a  dispatch.  It  was  from  General  Lee  ;  it  stated  that  his 
lines  had  been  broken  in  three  places,  and  that  preparations 
should  be  made  to  evacuate  Richmond  by  eight  o'clock  the  ensu 
ing  night,  in  the  event  that  he  should  be  unable  to  re-establish 
his  lines.  The  President  left  the  church  with  a  measured,  but 
nervous  step.  It  was  the  constrained  calmness  of  despair. 
No  one  but  himself  knew  the  exact  contents  of  the  dispatch ; 
but  an  uneasy  whisper  ran  through  the  congregation,  and,  as 
they  were  hastily  dismissed,  the  rumor  was  caught  up  in  the 
streets  that  Richmond  was  to  be  evacuated,  and  was  soon  car 
ried  to  the  ends  of  the  city. 

In  another  of  the  churches,  the  news  was  more  plainly  told. 
Dr.  Hoge,  the  beloved  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church, 
than  whom  there  was  no  brighter  Christian  or  nobler  patriot 
within  the  limits  of  Richmond,  had,  at  the  conclusion  of  hia 
sermon,  given  out  a  beautiful  hymn  to  be  sung  by  his  congre 
gation.  Before  they  raised  their  voices,  he  told  them,  with  his 
own  voice  broken  with  emotion,  that  he  had  sad  news  to  com 
municate  ;  that  our  army  had  "  met  with  a  reverse ;"  that  with 
out  being  exactly  apprised  of  the  extent" and  nature  of  the  re 
verse,  he  was  convinced  that  it  was  probable  that  they  might 
never  again  meet  in  that  house  of  God ;  and  then  he  spoke  to 
those  who  had  so  long  known  and  loved  him  a  tender  farewell, 
in  such  beautiful  and  plaintive  words  that  there  was  not  a  dry 
eye  among  all  those  dismayed  faces  which  hung  upon  hia 
words. 

Men,  women,  and  children  rushed  from  the  churches,  pass 
ing  from  lip  to  lip  news  of  the  impending  fall  of  Richmond 
And  yet  it  was  difficult  to  believe  it.  To  look  up  to  the  calm, 


492  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

beautiful  sky  of  the  spring  day  unassailed  by  one  single  noise 
of  battle,  to  watch  the  streets  un vexed  by  artillery  or  troops, 
stretching  away  into  the  quiet  hazy  atmosphere,  and  believer 
that  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  so  peaceful,  so  apparently 
secure,  was  in  a  few  hours  to  be  the  prey  of  the  enemy,  and  tc 
be  wrapped  in  the  infernal  horrors  of  a  conflagration  ! 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  the  signs  of  evacuatioo 
became  apparent  to  the  incredulous.  Wagons  on  the  streete 
were  being  hastily  loaded  at  the  departments  with  boxes,  trunks, 
etc.,  and  driven  to  the  Danville  depot.  Those  who  had  de 
termined  to  evacuate  with  the  fugitive  Government  looked  on 
with  amazement ;  then,  convinced  of  the  fact,  rushed  to  follow 
the  Government's  example.  Vehicles  suddenly  rose  to  a  pre 
mium  value  that  was  astounding;  and  ten,  fifteen,  and  even  a 
hundred  dollars  in  gold  or  federal  currency  was  offered  for  a 
conveyance.  Suddenly,  as  if  by  magic,  the  streets  became 
tilled  with  men,  walking  as  though  for  a  wager,  and  behind 
them  excited  negroes  with  trunks,  bundles,  and  luggage  of 
every  description.  All  over  the  city  it  was  the  same — wagons, 
trunks,  bandboxes,  and  their  owners,  a  mass  of  hurrying  fugi 
tives,  filling  the  streets.  The  banks  were  all  open,  and  deposit 
ors  were  as  busy  as  bees  removing  their  specie  deposits ;  and 
the  directors  were  equally  active  in  getting  off  their  bullion. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  of  paper  money  was  de 
stroyed,  both  State  and  Confederate.  Night  came,  and  wiih 
it  came  confusion  worse  confounded.  There  was  no  sleep  for 
human  eyes  in  Richmond  that  night. 

The  ciry  council  had  met  in  the  evening,  and  resolved  to 
destroy  all  the  liquor  in  the  city,  to  avoid  the  disorder  con 
sequent  on  the  temptation  to  drink  at  such  a  time.  About  the 
hour  of  midnight  the  work  commenced,  under  the  direction  of 
committees  of  citizens  in  all  the  wards.  Hundreds  of  barrels 
of  liquor  were  rolled  into  the  street  and  the  heads  knocked  in. 
The  gutters  ran  with  a  liquor  freshet,  and  the  fumes  filled  and 
impregnated  the  air.  Fine  cases  of  bottled  liquors  were  tossed 
into  the  street  from  third  sicry  windows,  and  wrecked  into 
a  thousand  pieces.  As  the  work  progressed,  some  stni£rgling 
soldiers,  retreating  through  the  city,  managed  to  get  hold  of  a 
quantity  of  the  liquor.  From  that  moment  law  and  order 
ceased  to  exist.  Many  of  the  stores  were  pillaged,  and  the 


THE    LAST    YEAR. 

sidewalks  were  encumbered  with  broken  glass,  where  the 
thieves  had  smashed  the  windows  in  their  reckless  haste  to  get 
their  hands  on  the  plunder  within.  The  air  was  tilled  with 
the  wild  cries  of  distress,  or  the  yells  of  roving  pillagers. 

But  a  more  terrible  element  was  to  appear  upon  the  scene. 
An  order  had  been  issued  from  General  Ewell's  headquarters  to 
fire  the  four  principal  tobacco  warehouses  of  the  city — namely, 
the  public  warehouse,  situated  at  the  head  of  the  basin,  near  the 
Petersburg  Railroad  depot;  Shockoe  warehouse,  situated  near 
the  centre  of  the  city,  side  by  side  with  the  Gallego  flour-mills  ; 
Mayo's  warehouse,  and  Dibrell's  warehouse,  on  Gary-street,  a 
square  below  the  Libby  prison. 

Late  in  the  night,  Mayor  Mayo  had  dispatched,  by  a  com 
mittee  of  citizens,  a  remonstrance  against  this  reckless  military 
order,  which  plainly  put  in  jeopardy  the  whole  business  portion 
of  Richmond.  It  was  not  heeded.  Nothing  was  left  for  the 
citizens  but  to  submit  to  the  destruction  of  their  property. 
The  warehouses  were  fired.  The  rams  in  the  James  River 
were  blown  up.  The  Richmond,  Virginia,  and  another  one, 
were  all  blown  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven.  The  Patrick 
Henry,  a  receiving  ship,  was  scuttled.  Such  shipping,  very 
little  in  amount,  as  was  lying  at  the  Richmond  wharves,  was 
also  fired,  save  the  flag-of-truce  steamer  Allison. 

The  bridges  leading  out  of  the  city — namely,  the  Danville 
Railroad  bridge,  the  Petersburg  Railroad  bridge,  Mayo's 
bridge,  leading  to  Manchester  and  the  opposite  side  of  the 
James,  were  also  tired,  arid  were  soon  wrapped  in  flames. 

Morning  broke  upon  a  scene  such  as  those  who  witnessed  *t 
can  never  forget.  The  roar  of  an  immense  conflagration 
sounded  in  the  ears ;  tongues  of  flame  leaped  from  street  to 
street ;  and  in  this  baleful  glare  were  to  be  seen,  as  of  demons, 
the  figures  of  busy  plunderers,  moving,  pushing,  rioting; 
through  the  black  smoke  and  into  the  open  street,  bearing 
away  every  conceivable  sort  of  plunder. 

The  scene  at  the  commissary  depot,  at  the  head  of  the  dock, 
beggared  description.  Hundreds  of  government  wagons  were 
loaded  with  bacon,  flour,  and  whiskey,  and  driven  off  in  hot 
haste  to  join  the  retreating  army.  Thronged  about  the  depot 
were  hundreds  of  men,  women,  and  children,  black  and  white 
provided  with  capacious  bags,  baskets,  tubs,  buckets,  tin  pans 


4:94:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  aprons;  cursing,  pushing,  and  crowding,  awaiting  the 
throwing  open  of  the  doors,  and  the  order  for  each  to  help 
himself. 

About  sunrise  the  doors  were  opened  to  the  populace,  and 
a  rush,  that  almost  seemed  to  carry  the  building  off  its  founda 
tion,  was  made,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  of  bacon, 
flour,  etc.,  were  soon  swept  away  by  a  clamorous  crowd. 

In  the  mean  time,  let  us  see  what  was  passing  on  the  Yankee 
lines.  When  General  Ord  withdrew  to  the  lines  investing 
Petersburg,  he  carried  with  him  exactly  one-half  of  hi? 
army.  On  the  north  side,  occupying  his  entire  line,  he  left 
Weitzel,  with  Kautz's  division -of  the  Twenty -fourth  Corps, 
and  Ashborne's  and  Thomas'  divisions  of  the  Twenty-fifth 
Corps. 

While  the  fighting  was  in  progress  around  Petersburg 
Weitzel's  entire  line  was  perfectly  quiet,  not  a  shot  anywhere. 
His  command  had  orders  to  make  as  great  a  show  as  possible. 
At  night  he  set  all  his  bands  to  work  upon  national  airs,  and 
the  night  was  filled  with  melodious  strains. 

Towards  midnight  this  musical  entertainment  ceased,  and 
a  silence,  complete  and  absolute,  brooded  over  the  contending 
lines.  At  this  hour,  the  enemy's  camps  were  startled  into  life 
again,  by  explosions  heard  in  Richmond. 

To  Weitzel's  brain  the  full  meaning  of  the  event  came  home 
at  once,  and  he  did  not  need  the  confirmatory  lurid  light  he 
saw  hanging  over  the  Confederate  capital  to  tell  him  that  the 
hour  had  come.  His  orders  were  to  push  on,  whenever 
satisfied  of  his  ability  to  enter  the  city. 

Day  had  no  sooner  broke  than  Weitzel  dispatched  Major  A. 
H.  Stevens,  of  the  Fourth  Massachusetts  cavalry,  and  Major 
E.  E.  Graves,  of  his  staff,  with  forty  cavalry,  to  investigate  the 
condition  of  affairs.  The  troops  rode  steadily  into  Richmond. 
On  a  trot  they  proceeded  to  the  Capitol,  and  creeping  to  its 
summit,  planted  the  stars  and  stripes.  The  symbols  of  the 
United  States  thus  hoisted  by  the  halyards,  consisted  of  two 
guidons  from  companies  E  and  II  of  the  Fourth  Massachusetts 
cavalry,  of  which  Stevens  was  one  of  the  field-officers.  The 
colors  of  the  enemy  fluttered  in  the  early  morning  light  over 
the  Capitol  of  the  Confederacy. 

As  the  day  advanced,  Weitzel's  troops  poured  through  the 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  495 

streets  of  the  city.  Long  lines  of  negro  cavalry  swept  by  the 
Exchange  Hotel,  brandishing  their  swords  and  uttering  savage 
shouts.  These  shouts,  the  roar  of  devouring  flames,  the  endless 
processions  of  plunderers  passing  from  street  to  street,  tugging 
away  the  prizes  they  had  drawn  from  the  hellish  circle  of  the 
fire,  made  up  an  indescribable  horror.  Here  were  the  garish 
Yankee  troops  sweeping  up  towards  the  Capitol  Square,  with 
music  and  wild  cheers ;  everywhere,  almost,  the  pandemonium 
of  fire  and  pillage  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  all  the  wild  agony,  the 
fugitive  distress  of  women  and  children  rushing  towards  the 
open  square  for  a  breath  of  pure  air,  all  that  was  now  left  them 
in  heaven's  great  hollowness.  And  even  that  was  not  to  be 
obtained  there.  The  air,  even  in  the  square  of  the  Capitol,  was 
almost  choking ;  and  one  traversed  it  blinded  by  cinders  and 
struggling  for  breath.  Beneath  the  trees,  on  the  sward,  were 
piles  of  furniture,  dragged  from  the  ruins  of  burning  homes ; 
and  on  carpets,  stretched  on  the  slopes  of  the  hill,  were  family 
groups,  making  all  sorts  of  uncouth  arrangements  to  protect 
their  little  ones,  and  to  patch  up,  with  broken  tables  and 
bureaus,  some  sort  of  home  in  the  open  air. 

In  the  afternoon,  the  fire  had  burned  itself  out.  It  had  con 
sumed  the  very  heart  of  the  city.  A  surveyor  could  scarcely 
have  designated  more  exactly  the  business  portion  of  the  city, 
than  did  the  boundaries  of  the  fire.  Commencing  at  the 
Shockoe  warehouse,  the  fire  radiated  front  and  rear,  and  on 
two  wings,  burning  down  to,  but  not  destroying,  the  store  No. 
77  Main-street,  south  side,  half  way  between  Fourteenth  and  Fif 
teenth  streets,  and  back  to  the  river,  through  Gary  and  all  the 
intermediate  streets.  Westward,  on  Main,  the  fire  was  stayed 
at  Kinth-street,  sweeping  back  to  the  river.  On  the  north  side 
of  Main  the  flames  were  stayed  between  Thirteenth  and  Four 
teenth  streets.  From  this  point  the  flames  raged  on  the  north 
side  of  Main  up  to  Eighth-street,  and  back  to  Bank-street. 

Among  some  of  the  most  prominent  buildings  destroyed 
were,  the  Bank  of  Richmond,  Traders'  Bank,  Bank  of  the  Com 
monwealth,  Bank  of  Virginia,  Farmers'  Bank,  all  the  banking 
houses,  the  American  Hotel,  the  Columbian  Hotel,  the  En 
quirer  building  on  Twelfth-street,  the  Dispatch  office  and  job 
rooms,  corner  of  Thirteenth  and  Main-streets  ;  all  that  block 
of  buildings  known  as  Belvin's  Block ;  the  Examiner  office, 


4:06  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

engine,  and  machinery  rooms  ;  the  Confederate  Post-office  Do 
partment  building;  the  State  Courthouse,  a  fine  old  building 
situated  on  Capitol  Square  at  its  Franklin-street  entrance  ;  the 
Mechanics'  Institute,  vacated  by  the  Confederate  War  Depart 
inent,  and  all  the  buildings  on  that  square  up  to  Eighth-stree 
and  back  to  Main-street ;  the  Confederate  arsenal  and  labora 
tory,  Seventh-street. 

The  streets  were  crowded  with  furniture  and  every  descrip 
tion  of  wares,  dashed  down  to  be  trampled  in  the  mud  or 
burned  up  where  it  lay.  All  the  government  storehouses 
were  thrown  open,  and  what  could  not  be  gotten  off  by  the 
Government  was  left  to  the  people. 

Next  to  the  river  the  destruction  of  property  was  fearfully 
complete.  The  Danville  and  Petersburg  Eailroad  depots,  and 
the  buildings  and  shedding  attached,  for  the  distance  of  half 
a  mile  from  the  north  side  of  Main-street  to  the  river,  and  be 
tween  Eighth  and  Fifteenth  streets,  embracing  upwards  of 
twenty  blocks,  presented  one  waste  of  smoking  ruins,  black 
ened  walls,  and  solitary  chimneys. 

On  the  occupation  of  Richmond,  General  Weitzel  established 
his  headquarters  in  the  State  Capitol,  in  the  hall  lately  occu 
pied  by  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  and  instituted  meas 
ures  to  restore  order.  He  immediately  issued  the  following 
order : 

HEADQUARTERS  DETACHMENT  ARMY  OF  THE  JAMES, 
Richmond,  Va.,  April  3,  1865. 

Major-General  Godfrey  Weitzel,  commanding  detachment  of  the  Army  of 
the  James,  announces  the  occupation  of  the  city  of  Richmond  by  the  Armies  of 
the  United  States,  under  command  of  Lieutenant-General  Grant.  The  people 
of  Richmond  are  assured  that  we  come  to  restore  to  them  the  blessings  of  peace, 
prosperity,  and  freedom,  under  the  flag  of  the  Union. 

The  citizens  of  Richmond  are  requested  to  remain,  for  the  present,  quietly 
within  their  houses,  and  to  avoid  all  public  assemblages  or  meetings  in  the 
public  streets.  An  efficient  provost-guard  will  immediately  re-establish  order 
and  tranquillity  within  the  city. 

Martial  law  is,  for  the  present,  proclaimed. 

Brigadier-General  George  F.  Shepley,  United  States  Volunteers,  is  hereby 
appointed  military  governor  of  Richmond. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Fred.  L.   Manning,    provost-marshal-general,   Army  of 
the  James,  will  act  as  provost-marshal  of  Richmond.     Commanders  of  detach 
ments  doing  guard-duty  in  the  city  will  report  to  him  for  instructions. 
By  command  of 

MAJOR-GENERAL  WEITZEL. 

D.  D  WHEELER,  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  4:97 

Brigadier-General  G.  F.  Shepley,  having  been  announced  as 
military  governor  of  Richmond,  issued  the  following  order : 

HEADQUARTERS  MILITARY  GOVERNOR  OP  RICHMOND 
Richmond,  Va.,  April  3,  1865. 

I.  The  armies  of  the  rebellion  having  abandoned  their  effort  to  enslave  tho 
people  of  Virginia,  have  endeavored  to  destroy  by  fire  the  capital  which  they 
could  not  longer  occupy  by  their  arms.     Lieutenant-Colonel  Manning,  provost- 
marshal-general  of  the  Army  of  the  James  and  provost-marshal  of  Richmond, 
will  immediately  send  a  sufficient  detachment  of  the  provost-guard  to  arrest, 
if  possible,  the  progress  of  the  flames.    The  fire  department  of  the  city  of 
Richmond,  and  all  the  citizens  interested  in  the  preservation  of  their  beautiful 
city,  will  immediately  report  to  him  for  duty,  and  render  every  possible  assist 
ance  in  staying  the  progress  of  the  conflagration.     The  first  duty  of  the  Armies 
of  the  Union  will  be  to  save  the  city  doomed  to  destruction  by  the  armies  of 
the  rebellion. 

II.  No  person  will  leave  the  city  of  Richmond,  without  a  pass  from  the  office 
of  the  provost-marshal. 

III.  Any  citizen,  soldier,  or  any  person  whatever,  who  shall  hereafter  pluii* 
"Tier,  destroy,  or  remove  any  public  or  private  property  of  any  description  what 
ever,  will  be  arrested  and  summarily  punished. 

IV.  The  soldiers  of  the  command  will  abstain  from  any  offensive  or  insult 
ing  words  or  gestures  towards  the  citizens. 

V.  No  treasonable  or  offensive  expressions,  insulting  to  the  flag,  the  cause, 
or  the  Armies  of  the  Union,  will  hereafter  be  allowed. 

VI.  For  an  exposition  of  their  rights,  duties,  and  privileges,  the  citizens  of 
Richmond  are  respectfully  referred  to  the  proclamations  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  in  relation  to  the  existing  rebellion. 

VII.  All  persons  having  in  their  possession,  or  under  their  control,  any  prop 
erty  whatever  of  the  so-called  Confederate  States,  or  of  any  officer  thereof,  or 
the  records  or  archives  of  any  public  officer  whatever,  will  immediately  report 
the  same  to  Colonel  Manning,  provost-marshal. 

In  conclusion,  the  citizens  of  Richmond  are  assured  that,  with  the  restora 
tion  of  the  flag  of  the  Union,  they  may  expect  the  restoration  of  that  peace, 
prosperity,  and  happiness  which  they  enjoyed  under  the  Union,  of  which  that 
flag  is  the  glorious  symbol. 

G.  F.  SHEPLEY,  Brigadier-General  U.  S.  V., 
and  Military  Governor  of  Richmond, 

While  the  scenes  of  terror  and  destruction  we  have  nar 
rated  were  taking  place  in  Richmond,  the  North  was  cele 
brating,  with  those  fervors  and  shows  known  only  to  the  Yan 
kee,  the  fall  of  the  Confederate  capital.  In  New  York  and  in 
Washington  were  the  most  swollen  exhibitions  of  the  popular 
triumph. 

In  the  former  city  there  was  an  unlimited  display  of  flags ; 
bells  were  rung  ;  impromptu  meetings  were  gotten  up,  and 


498  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

wild  and  enthusiastic  congratulations  were  exchanp-cd  on  the 
streets.  The  New  York  Herald  said:  "People  fairly  danced 
in  the  excess  of  enthusiasm.  To  state  that  they  howled  would 
sound  harsh  and  flat,  but  it  would  nevertheless  be  the  simple 
truth.  Huzzaing  and  cheering  were  heard,  as  never  they 
were  heard  before.  Singing  also  formed  part  of  the  popula. 
mode  of  letting  off  the  exuberant  feelings  of  the  masses. 
Down  in  Wall-street,  a  chorus,  which  Maretzek  could  never 
hope  to  rival,  almost  made  the  ancient  piles  of  stone  and  brick 
tremble  in  sympathy." 

The  rage  for  flags  was  immense.  Half  an  hour  after  the 
receipt  of  the  news  of  the  capture  of  the  Confederate  capital, 
there  was,  says  a  New  York  paper,  not  a  single  large  flag  of  a 
national  character  in  the  whole  city  left  unpurchased.  Every 
housekeeper  showed  his  loyalty  and  satisfaction,  by  exhibiting 
the  stars  and  stripes  from  some  portion  of  his  establishment. 
The  railway  cars  and  horses  were  decorated  with  miniature* 
flags.  Carts,  stages,  and  wagons,  all  over  the  city,  displayed 
the  same  symbol  of  loyalty  ;  and  every  spot,  where  a  piece  of 
bunting  could  properly  be  fastened,  wras  so  decorated. 

At  noon,  the  bells  of  Trinity  and  St.  Paul  churches  were 
rung.  The  chimes  of  Trinity  resounded  melodiously  through 
the  air,  above  the  din  of  rumbling  stages  and  heavy  vehicles 
of  every  description.  The  example  of  these  two  churches  was 
speedily  followed  by  almost  every  church  in  the  city  ;  and  for 
half  an  hour  or  more  the  ringing  was  heard  from  Trinity  to 
Harlem — a  distance  of  six  miles. 

A  large  meeting  of  leading  merchants,  and  other  prominent 
citizens,  was  held  at  the  custom-house,  to  make  arrangements 
for  a  suitable  celebration  of  the  great  victory.  A  number  of 
speeches  were  made  on  the  occasion.  At  the  conclusion  of 
one  of  the  speeches,  some  persons  present,  with  a  grand  chorus, 
began  the  hymn,  to  the  tune  of  "  Old  Hundred,''  generally 
known  in  churches  as  the  Doxology : 

"Praise  God,  from  whom  all  blessings  flow ; 
Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below  ; 
Praise  Him  above,  ye  heavenly  host ; 
Praise  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost." 

The  whole  crowd  joined  in.     The  chimes  of  Trinity  came  in 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  499 

at  the  proper  time  *~ith  good  effect ,  and,  as  the  voice*  of  over 
twenty  thousand  singers  subsided,  the  echoes  of  the  chime? 
from  the  towers  of  Trinity  came  floating  on  the  breeze,  and 
repeating  in  musical  accord — 

"  Praise  Him,  all  creatures  here  below."  * 


*  From  the  appearance  of  the  New  Tork  papers  one  would  suppose  that  the 
general  excitement,  produced  by  the  capture  of  Richmond,  had  culminated  in 
the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  North. 

The  Tribune  occupied  one-half  of  its  first  page  with  an  enormous  spread 
eagle,  and  the  eighth  page  with  a  map  of  Richmond.  The  editor,  while  con 
gratulating  his  readers  on  the  fall  of  Richmond,  could  not  avoid  saying,  that 
"  it  might  have  been  ours  long  ago."  An  Irish  drinking  song,  prepared  for  the 
occasion,  and  beginning,  "  Bad  luck  to  the  man  who  is  sober  to-night,"  was 
published  on  the  inside,  and  proposed  a  good  health  to  every  official  who  had 
been  connected  with  the  military  department  of  the  Government,  not  excepting 
"  Shtanton." 

The  World's  columns  were  chiefly  occupied  with  a  brilliant  and  lengthy 
account  of  the  battles,  but  the  displayed  heads  of  the  news  were  jubilant  and 
expressive;  and  the  editor  declared,  that  "  the  taking  of  Richmond  was  a  greater 
event,  and  more  fully  justified  exuberant  rejoicing,  than  any  previous  achieve* 
ment  in  the  history  of  the  war." 

The  New  York  Herald  declared,  that  the  taking  of  Richmond  was  "  one  o 
the  grandest  triumphs  that  had  crowned  human  efforts  for  centuries." 

The  following  specimen  of  Yankee  poetry  on  the  occasion  was  published  in 
a  New  York  paper  : 

RICHMOND  18    OUHS  ! 

Richmond  is  ours  !     Richmond  is  ours  I 

Hark  !  to  the  jubilant  chorus  ! 
Up,  through  the  lips  that  no  longer  repress  'it, 
Up,  from  the  Heart  of  the  People !  God  bless  it ! 
Swelling  with  loyal  emotion, 
Leapeth  our  joy,  like  an  ocean!  — 
Richmond  is  ours !     Richmond  is  ours  I 
Babylon  falls,  and  her  temples  and  towers 
Crumble  to  ashes  before  us  1 

Glory  to  Grant !    Glory  to  Grant ! 

Hark  !  to  the  shout  of  our  Nation ! 
Up,  from  the  Irish  heart,  up  from  the  German- 
Glory  to  Sheridan !     Glory  to  Sherman  I 

Up,  from  all  peoples  uniting — 

Freedom's  high  loyalty  plighting — 
Glory  to  all !  Glory  to  all  !— 
Heroes  who  combat,  and  martyrs  who  fall  I 

Loft  we  our  joyous  ovation  1 


500  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR, 

The  people  of  "Washington  vied  with  those  of  New  York  in 
demonstrations  of  joy  over  the  fall  of  Richmond  and  Peters 
burg.  In  accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  the  Executive  Mansion,  the  Capitol,  and  all  the 
departments  and  other  public  buildings,  and  the  City  Hall, 
were  at  night  illuminated,  and  each  in  a  blaze  of  light  was  ex 
hibited  in  its  beautiful  proportions.  The  National  flag  was  a 
prominent  adornment,  and  appropriate  mottoes  were  conspicu 
ously  displayed.  Pennsylvania  Avenue  and  the  principal 
streets  were  thronged  with  pedestrians.  Bonfires  were  kindled 
in  various  parts  of  the  city,  and  rockets  ignited.  Washington 
was,  in  short,  ablaze  with  lights.  The  residences  of  the  head? 
of  the  departments,  and  other  officers  of  the  Government,  were 
also  adorned  and  illuminated. 

The  Capitol  made  a  splendid  appearance.  It  was  the  centre 
of  attraction,  and  from  basement  to  dome  was  a  blaze  of  light. 
Over  the  main  entrance,  fronting  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue, 
was  a  large  transparency,  on  which  was  inscribed,  "  This  is 
the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes." 

Over  the  main  entrance  to  the  War  Department  was  the 
motto,  "  The  Union  must  and  shall  be  preserved,"  and  under 
neath  an  eagle,  the  word,  "  Richmond." 

Over  the  main  entrance  to  the  Patent  Office  building  was 
an  immense  gas-jet,  displaying  the  word,  "  Union."  Over  the 

Ming  out  the  Flag !    Flash  out  the  Flag  I 

Up  from  each  turret  and  steeple  ! 
Up  from  the  cottage,  and  over  the  mansion, 
Fling  out  the  symbol  of  Freedom's  expansion  I 

Victory  crowneth  endeavor ! 

Liberty  seals  us  forever ! 
Up  from  each  valley,  and  out  from  each  crag, 
Fling  out  the  Flag  !  Flash  out  the  Flag ! 

Borne  on  the  breath  of  the  People  I 

Richmond  is  ours  !     Richmond  is  ours ! 

Hark  !  how  the  welkin  is  riven ! 
Hark !  to  the  joy  that  our  Nation  convulses, 
Timing  all  hearts  to  the  cannon's  loud  pulses ; 

Voices  of  heroes  ascending, 

Voices  of  martyred  ones  blending : 
Mingling  like  watchwords  on  Liberty's  towers, 
u  Richmond  is  ours !  Richmond  is  ours  1" 

Freedom,  rejoiceth  in  Heaven  ! 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  501 

lower  entrance  of  the  Treasury  building,  on  Fifteen  tli-street, 
was  a  huge  transparency  representing  a  ten-dollar  Treasury 
note,  over  which  was  the  motto,  "  U.  S.  greenbacks  and  U.  S 
Grant — Grant  gives  the  greenbacks  a  metallic  ring." 

Over  the  front  entrance  of  the  State  Department  was  dis 
played  the  motto,  "  At  home,  union  is  order,  and  order  is 
strength ;  abroad,  union  is  strength,  and  strength  is  peace." 
Over  the  Fifteenth-street  entrance  was  the  following  motto, 
"  Peace  and  good-will  to  all  nations ;  but  no  entangling 
alliances,  and  no  foreign  intervention." 

Thousands  of  persons  of  both  sexes  attended  a  public  meeting 
at  the  southern  portico  of  the  Patent  Office,  where  the  word 
"  Union"  was  largely  prominent  in  flaming  gas-jets.  Speeches 
were  delivered  by  a  number  of  persons,  among  them  Yice- 
President  Johnson.  He  made  a  long  and  intensely  Union 
speech,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said  he  could  live  down  all 
the  slanders  which  had  been  uttered  against  him.  He  was 
particularly  severe  on  "  the  rebels,"  at  the  head  of  whom  he 
placed  Jefferson  Davis,  and  he  asked,  what  should  be  done 
with  him.  The  response  from  many  voices  was,  "  Hang  him  ! 
hang  him!"  To  this  he  agreed,  and  applause  succeeded  his 
remark  that  Davis  ought  to  be  hanged  twenty  times  higher 
'than  Hainan. 

The  following  are  passages  from  Yice-President  Johnson's 
ijpeech : 


"  At  the  time  that  the  traitors  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  plotted 
against  the  Government,  and  entered  into  a  conspiracy  more  foul,  more  ex 
ecrable,  and  more  odious  than  that  of  Catiline  against  the  Romans,  I  happened 
to  be  a  member  of  that  body.  I  was  then  and  there  called  upon  to  know  what 
I  would  do  with  such  traitors,  and  I  want  to  repeat  my  reply  here.  I  said,  if 
we  had  an  Andrew  Jackson,  he  would  hang  them  as  high  as  Haman.  Humble 
as  I  am,  when  you  ask  me  what  I  would  do,  my  reply  is,  I  would  arrest  them  ; 
I  would  try  them  ;  I  would  convict  them  ;  and  I  would  hang  them.  I  say  this : 
'  The  halter  to  intelligent,  influential  traitors.'  But  to  the  honest  boy,  to  the 
deluded  man,  who  has  been  deceived  into  the  rebel  ranks,  I  would  extend 
leniency ;  1  would  say,  return  to  your  allegiance,  renew  your  support  to  the 

Governnieni,  and  become  a  good  citizen ;  but  the  leaders  I  would  hang 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  make  any  imprudent  remarks  or  allusions,  but  the 
houi  will  come  when  those  nations  that  exhibited  towards  us  such  insolence 
and  improper  interference  in  the  midst  of  our  adversity,  and,  as  they  supposed, 
of  our  weakness,  will  learn  that  thid  is  a  Government  of  the  people,  possessing 
power  enough  to  make  itself  felt  anvl  respected." 


502  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  passages  of  this  speech,  quoted  above,  as  we  must  pre 
6nme  correctly,  from  the  columns  of  a  New  York  paper,  ob 
tained  a  most  important  significance  in  view  of  the  tragical 
death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  the  14th  day  of  April,  and  the  succes 
sion  of  Mr.  Johnson  to  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  that  of  dictator  of  the  programme  of  subjugation 
consequent  upon  the  war.  But  these  events  lie  beyond  the 
period  and  purpose  of  our  narrative  of  the  war,  and  we  make 
only  this  brief  and  passing  reference  to  them. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  503 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

What  the  Confederates  anticipated  on  the  fall  of  Richmond. — Two  opinions.— Pro 
phetic  words  of  the  Richmond  Examiner. — Disintegration  of  Lee's  army. — Th<e 
line  of  his  retreat.— Grant's  pursuit. —Sheridan  captures  prisoners,  guns,  and  wag 
ons. — Sheridan's  dispatch. — Change  in  the  movements  of  hoth  armies. — The  situa 
tion  at  Appomattox  Court-house. — How  Lee  was  surrounded.— SURRENDER  OF  THM 
AUMY  OF  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA. — A  frightful  demoralization  of  the  army. — More  than 
two-thirds  of  the  men  deserted. — Pickett's  division. — Reasons  to  suppose  that  Gen 
eral  Lee  had  predetermined  a  surrender  on  moving  from  Richmond  and  Peters 
burg. — Straggling  of  his  soldiers.— Official  correspondence  concerning  the  surren 
der. — Interview  between  General  Lee  and  General  Grant  at  McLean's  house. — How 
General  Lee  looked. — Grant's  generous  conduct. — Scenes  between  the  lines  of  th« 
two  armies.- -An  informal  conference  of  officers.— How  the  news  of  surrender  was 
received  in  the  Yankee  army. — How  received  at  Washington. — Secretary  Stanton's 
dispatch. — President  Lincoln's  speech, — "  Dixie"  in  Washington. — General  Lee's 
farewell  address  to  his  army.— His  return  to  Richmond.— Effect  of  Lee's  surrender. 
-Geireral  Johnston's  department. — MOVEMENTS  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. — FALL  OF  MO 
BILE. — Wilson's  cavalry  expedition  through  Alabama  and  Georgia. — SURRENDER 
OF  JOHNSTON'S  ARMY. — Sherman's  "  basis  of  negotiations"  repudiated  at  Wash 
ington. — The  policy  of  the  Northern  Government  unmasked. — Sherman's  reply. — 
SURRENDER  OF  TAYLOR'S  ARMY, — SURRENDER  OF  KIRBY'S  SMITH'S  ARMY. — "  W«i 
meetings"  in  Tc-xas. —  \\  ant  of  public  resolution. — The  last  act  of  the  war. — A  sad 
den  peace,  and  what  it  implied. 

FOR  a  long  time  there  had  been  two  opinions  in  the  Confed 
eracy,  as  to  the  effect  the  fall  of  Richmond  would  have  upon 
the  war.  Many  intelligent  persons  considered  that  Richmond 
was  not  a  vital  point  in  the  Confederacy ;  and  now  that  it  had 
been  evacuated,  there  were  not  a  few  persons  who  still  indulged 
the  hope  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Southern  arms  and  the  dream 
of  independence.  There  were  found  sanguine  persons  in  Rich 
mond  the  day  after  the  evacuation,  who  pleased  themselves 
with  the  imagination  that  that  event  was  only  about  to  date  a 
new  era  in  the  Confederate  defence ;  that  the  Government 
would  re-establish  itself,  perhaps,  in  Georgia,  and  with  advan 
tages  and  under  auspices  it  had  never  had  before ;  that  it  might 
reopen  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  thus  place  itself  nearer 
its  resources  of  subsistence,  and  have  the  control  of  a  territory 
practically  much  larger  than  that  in  the  Richmond  jurisdiction. 
But  these  hopeful  and  ingenious  persons  wholly  failed  to  take 


504:  SOUTHERN    HI  '.TORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

mto  account  the  moral  effect  of  the  loss  of  the  Confederate 
capita],  and  to  calculate  the  easy  transition  in  such  circum* 
stances  from  despondency  to  despair. 

Several  weeks  before  the  catastrophe  the  Richmond  Ex 
aminer  had  used  the  following  almost  prophetic  language ' 
"  The  evacuation  of  Richmond  would  be  the  loss  of  all  respect 
ar.d  authority  towards  the  Confederate  Government,  the  disin 
tegration  of  the  army,  and  the  abandonment  of  the  scheme  01 
an  independent  Southern  Confederation.  Each  contestant  in 
the  war  has  made  Richmond  the  central  object  of  all  its  plans 
and  all  its  exertions.  It  has  become  the  symbol  of  the  Con 
federacy.  Its  loss  would  be  material  ruin  to  the  cause,  and,  in 
a  moral  point  of  view,  absolutely  destructive,  crushing  the 
heart  and  extinguishing  the  last  hope  of  the  country.  Our 
armies  would  lose  the  incentive  inspired  by  a  great  and  worthy 
object  of  defence.  Our  military  policy  would  be  totally  at 
sea;  we  should  be  without  a  hope  or  an  object;  without  civil 
or  military  organization  ;  without  a  treasury  or  a  commissariat  • 
without  the  means  of  keeping  alive  a  wholesome  and  active 
public  sentiment ;  without  any  of  the  appliances  for  supporting 
a  cause  depending  upon  a  popular  faith  and  enthusiasm  ;  with 
out  the  emblems  or  the  semblance  of  nationality." 

These  sad  but  intelligent  anticipations  were  now  to  bo 
vividly  realized.  The  disintegration  of  Lee's  army  com 
menced  with  its  withdrawal  from  the  Richmond  and  Peters 
burg  lines. 

In  his  last  telegram  to  Richmond  from  Petersburg,  Sunday 
evening,  the  2d  of  April,  General  Lee  stated  that  some  time 
during  the  night  he  would  fall  back  behind  the  Appomattox — 
that  is,  to  the  north  bank  of  that  stream,  to  prevent  being 
flanked.  The  Appomattox  rises  in  Appomattox  County,  eighty 
miles  west  of  Petersburg,  flows  northeast  to  Matoax  Station, 
on  the  Danville  Railroad,  twenty-seven  miles  from  Richmond, 
and  thence  southeast  to  City  Point.  When  Lee  sent  his  tele 
gram  above  alluded  to,  his  troops  were  holding  a  semicircular 
line  south  of  the  river,  and  including  Petersburg;  his  left  rest 
ing  on  the  Appomattox,  his  right  on  the  Southside  Railroad, 
Borne  fifteen  miles  west  of- the  town.  The  Yankee  armies  were 
pressing  his  whole  line,  Sheridan  being  on  his  extreme  right. 
During  Sunday  night  he  got  across  the  Appomattox,  and  com 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  505 

menced  to  push  up  the  north  bank  of  that  stream.  The  Fan- 
kee  forces  were  hurried  up  the  Southside  Railroad  to  Burkee- 
ville  Junction  to  cut  him  off.  Sheridan  made  direct  pursuit, 
with  the  double  object  of  harassing  the  rear  of  the  retreating 
columns,  and  cutting  off  such  troops  as  were  retreating  from 
Richmond  and  attempting  to  join  Lee. 

Grant  was  possessed  of  the  interior  or  shorter  lines  to 
Burkesville.  He  might  thus  hope  to  cut  off  Lee's  retreat  from 
Danville  or  from  Lynchburg.  Indeed,  there  appeared  but  one 
way  for  Lee  to  escape — namely,  a  tremendous  run  up  the 
bank  of  the  Appomattox,  to  reach  the  Southside  Railroad  at 
Farmville,  destroying  the  bridges  in  his  rear.  Even  this 
chance  Sheridan  was  sanguine  of  cutting  off. 

On  the  5th  of  April,  Sheridan  made  an  important  capture  of 
prisoners,  guns,  and  wagons.  It  appears  that  Lee's  army  was 
moving  as  rapidly  west  as  his  limited  transportation  and  the 
demoralized  condition  of  his  troops  would  permit,  on  the  road 
between  Amelia  Court-house  and  Jetersville.  The  Yankee 
cavalry  having  gained  possession  of  the  Danville  Railroad 
some  time  previous,  were  not  long  in  discovering  his  where 
abouts.  Sheridan  immediately  sent  Davies'  brigade  around 
on  his  left  flank  ;  and  although  they  were  repulsed  and  driven 
back  upon  the  infantry,  it  was  not  until  they  had  taken  several 
hundred  prisoners,  five  guns,  and  a  number  of  wagons. 

On  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  April,  a  portion  of  the  advance 
of  Grant's  army  was  at  Burkesville  Station  (the  junction  of  the 
Southside  and  Danville  railroads).  Sheridan,  with  the  main 
body  of  his  cavalry,  at  three  p.  M.  of  that  day,  was  at  Jeters 
ville,  on  the  Danville  road,  a  station  forty-three  miles  from 
Richmond.  Lee,  at  the  same  date,  with  the  remnants  of  his 
army,  was  at  Amelia  Court-house,  a  point  thirty-six  miles  from 
Richmond,  and  seven  miles  north  of  Sheridan's  advance. 

In  this  situation  Sheridan  telegraphed  to  Grant :  "  I  feel 
confident  of  capturing  the  entire  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
if  we  exert  ourselves.  I  see  no  escape  for  Lee." 

On  the  6th,  at  daylight,  General  Meade,  with  the  Second, 
Fifth,  and  Sixth  corps,  was  at  Burkesville  Station,  Lee  being 
near  Amelia  Court-house  ;  the  Yankee  forces  were  south  and 
west  of  him.  Sheridan's  advance  was  at  Jetersville  ;  and,  as  it 
moved  towards  Amelia  Court-house,  its  left  stretched  well  on 


5D6  SOUTHERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAB. 

towards  Painesville,  a  point  about  ten  miles  northwest  of 
Amelia  Court-house,  and  directly  on  the  line  of  Lee's  retieat 
towards  the  Appomattox. 

It  seemed  as  if  Sheridan's  position  at  Jetersville,  with  hi« 
left  across  the  line  of  Lee's  westward  march  to  the  Appomat 
tox,  would  compel  Lee  to  stand  still.  Hence  the  enemy's 
movement  towards  the  Appomattox  was  given  up,  and  the 
men  were  faced  about  and  moved  northeast,  towards  Amelia 
Court-house,  expecting  to  fight  Lee  there.  Lee,  however,  was 
already  on  his  way  from  the  court-house  towards  the  river; 
and  when  this  became  known,  the  direction  of  the  enemy's 
movement  was  changed  once  more. 

On  the  evening  of  the  6th,  two  divisions  of  the  Sixth  Army 
Corps  came  up  with  Lee's  retreating  columns  at  the  intersec 
tion  of  the  Burkesville  Station  road  with  the  road  upon  which 
they  were  moving.  Some  desultory  fighting  ensued.  Sheri 
dan  telegraphed  :  "  If  the  thing  is  pressed,  I  think  Lee  will  sur 
render."  He  claimed  already  to  have  captured  Generals 
Ewell,  Kershaw,  Button,  Corse,  De  Bare,  and  Custis  Lee,  sev 
eral  thousand  prisoners,  fourteen  pieces  of  artillery,  with  cais 
sons,  and  a  large  number  of  wagons. 

The  position  into  which  the  remnant  of  Lee's  army  had  no\i 
been  forced  was  one  from  which  it  was  impossible  to  extricate 
it  without  a  battle,  which  it  was  no  longer  capable  of  fighting. 
His  army  lay  massed  a  short  distance  west  of  Appomattox 
Court-house;  his  last  avenue  of  escape  towards  Danville,  on 
the  southwest,  was  gone  ;  he  was  completely  hemmed  in. 
Meade  was  in  his  rear  on  the  east,  and  on  his  right  flank  north 
of  Appomattox  Court-house;  Sheridan  had  headed  him  off 
completely,  by  getting  between  him  and  Lynchburg;  General 
Ord  was  on  the  south  of  the  court-house,  near  the  railroad  ; 
the  Yankee  troops  were  in  the  most  enthusiastic  spirits,  and 
what  remained  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was  plainly 
doomed. 


SURRENDER    OF  THE  ARMY    OF   NORTHERN   VIRGINIA. 

The  line  of  Lee's  retreat  afforded  ample  evidence  of  the  ex 
cessive,  frightful  demoralization  of  his  army.     It  was  strewn 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  507 

with  arms  and  accoutrements,  with  abandoned  caissons,  -vvirh 
knapsacks,  blankets,  and  clothing — in  short,  with  whatever  could 
be  most  readily  cast  away  in  flight.  The  whole  intervening 
country  was  tracked  by  deserters  returning  in  squads  to  their 
homes ;  and  who,  anticipating  a  surrender  of  the  army,  were 
anxious  to  avoid  what  they  supposed  would  be  the  conditions 
of  such  an  event.  The  extent  of  this  desertion  was  without 
precedent.  Lee's  whole  army  had  almost  ran  through  his 
fingers.  He  had  had  on  the  lines  he  had  abandoned  between 
twenty-seven  and  twenty-eight  thousand  men  ;  at  Appomattox 
Court  house  he  had  scarcely  ten  thousand  men  for  a  battle, 
and  actually  surrendered  less  than  eight  thousand.*  On  the 
Petersburg  lines  Piekett's  division  had  been  roughly  estimated 
at  eight  thousand  men.  It  surrendered  only  forty-five  muskets. 
Such  were  the  moral  effects  of  the  fall  of  Richmond,  and  such 
the  necessities  which  brought  with  it  the  terrible  consequence 
of  the  surrender  of  what  had  been  by  far  the  most  formidable 
army  the  Confederates  had  ever  had  in  the  field. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  in  history  that  General  Lee,  in  taking 
his  army  away  from  .Richmond  and  Petersburg,  had  decided, 
in  his  own  mind,  upon  the  hopelessness  of  the  war,  and  had 
predetermined  its  surrender.  The  most  striking  proof  of  this 
is,  that  on  his  retreat  there  was  no  order  published  against 
straggling — a  thing  unprecedented  in  all  deliberate  and  strategic 
retreats — and  nothing  whatever  done  to  maintain  discipline. 
The  men  were  not  animated  by  the  style  of  general  orders 
usual  on  such  occasions.  They  straggled  and  deserted  almost 
at  will.  An  idea  ran  through  the  Virginia  troops  that  with 
the  abandonment  of  Richmond  the  war  was  hopeless,  and  that 
they  would  be  justified  in  refusing  to  fight  outside  the  limits 
of  their  State.  Nothing  was  done  to  check  the  notorious 


*  The  looseness  of  historical  statement  in  the  North  with  reference  to  the 
war  is  very  remarkable.  We  must  expect  exaggeration  and  brag  in  Yankee 
newspapers  ;  but  in  the  magazine,  pamphlet,  report,  and  those  deliberate  forma 
of  literature,  which  stand  between  the  daily  paper  and  the  bound  volume,  some 
effort  at  accuracy  of  statement  is  to  be  expected.  Yet  we  see  in  the  columns 
of  a  popuHr  Northern  magazine  that  Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox  Court 
house  fifty  thousand  men!  And  this  absurd  statement  is  quite  as  likely  to  go 
into  Yankee  history  as  any  other  absurd  piece  of  statistics  about  the  extent 
and  glory  of  Yankee  conquests. 


508  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

circulation  of  this  notion  in  the  army.  The  Virginia  troops 
scattered  off  to  their  homes  at  almost  every  mile  of  the  route, 
We  have  seen  that  Pickett  was  left  with  only  a  handful  01 
rnen.  Some  of  the  brigade  commanders  had  not  hesitated  to 
advise  their  men  that  the  war  was  virtually  over,  and  that  they 
had  better  go  home  and  "  make  crops." 

But  there  are  other  proofs,  besides  the  omission  of  the 
measures  against  straggling  usual  on  retreats,  that  General 
Lee  had  prevised  a  surrender  of  his  army.  He  carried  off  from 
Petersburg  and  Kichmond  all  the  transportation  of  his  army, 
sufficient,  perhaps,  for  one  hundred  thousand  men,  certainly 
largely  in  excess  of  the  actual  needs  of  the  retreat.  The  ex 
cessive  number  of  Virginia  troops  who  were  permitted  to  drop 
out  of  the  ranks  and  return  to  their  homes,  shows  very  well 
that  there  was  no  firm  purpose  to  carry  the  war  out  of  the 
limits  of  that  State.  Prisoners  taken  on  the  retreat  invariably 
reported  that  the  army  was  soon  to  be  halted  for  a  surrender ; 
and  General  Custis  Lee,  when  captured  by  the  enemy,  is 
alleged  to  have  made  the  same  revelation  of  his  father's 
designs. 

While  the  pursuit  of  Lee's  army  by  Grant's  overwhelming 
forces  was  still  in  progress,  the  following  correspondence  ensued 
between  the  two  commanders : 


APRIL  7,  1865. 
GENEBAL  R.  E.  LEE,  Commanding  C.  S.  A. : 

GENERAL — The  result  of  the  last  week  must  convince  you 
of  the  hopelessness  of  further  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Army 
of  Northern  Virginia  in  this  struggle.  I  feel  that  it  is  so,  and 
regard  it  as  my  duty  to  shift  from  myself  the  responsibility  of 
any  further  effusion  of  blood,  by  asking  of  you  the  surrender 
of  that  portion  of  the  Confederate  Southern  army,  known  as 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 
Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

U.  S.  GRANT, 
Lient.-Gen.  commanding  Armies  of  the  United  States 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  509 

n. 

APRIL  7,  L865. 

GENERAL — I  have  received  your  note  of  this  day.  Though 
not  entirely  of  the  opinion  you  express  of  the  hopelessness  ol 
further  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
I  reciprocate  your  desire  to  avoid  useless  effusion  of  blood,  and 
therefore,  before  considering  your  proposition,  ask  the  terms 
you  will  offer  on  condition  of  its  surrender. 

K.  E.  LEE,  General. 
To  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  U.  S.  GRANT, 

Commanding  Annies  of  the  United  States. 

in. 

APRIL  8,  1865. 

To  GENERAL  R.  E.  LEE,  Commanding  C.  S.  A. : 

GENERAL — Your  note  of  last  evening,  in  reply  to  mine  of 
the  same  date,  asking  the  coriditions  on  which  I  will  accept 
the  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  is  just  re 
ceived. 

In  reply,  I  would  say,  that  peace  being  my  first  desire,  there 
is  but  one  condition  that  I  insist  upon,  viz. : 

That  the  men  surrendered  shall  be  disqualified  for  taking  up 
arms  again  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States  until 
properly  exchanged. 

I  will  meet  you,  or  designate  officers  to  meet  any  officers 
you  may  name  for  the  same  purpose,  at  any  point  agreeable  to 
you,  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  definitely  the  terms  upon 
which  the  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  will  be 
received. 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieutenant-General, 
Commanding  Armies  of  the  United  States. 


IV. 

APRIL  8,  1865. 

GENERAL — I  received,  at  a  late  hour,  your  note  of  to-day  in 
answer  to  mine  of  yesterday. 

I  did  not  intend  to  propose  the  surrender  of  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia,  but  to  ask  the  terras  of  your  proi  osition 


510  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

To  be  frank,  I  do  not  think  the  emergency  has  arisen  to  call 
for  the  surrender. 

But  as  the  restoration  of  peace  should  be  the  sole  object  of 
all,  I  desire  to  know  whether  jour  proposals  would  tend  to 
that  end. 

I  cannot,  therefore,  meet  you  with  a  view  to  surrender  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  ;  but  so  far  as  your  proposition 
may  affect  the  Confederate  States  forces  under  my  command 
and  tend  to  the  restoration  of  peace,  I  should  be  pleased  to 
meet  you  at  ten  A.  M.  to-morrow,  on  the  old  stage-road  to 
Richmond,  between  the  picket-lines  of  the  two  armies. 
Yery  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

E.  E.  LEE,  General  C.  S.  A 
Te  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  GRANT, 

Commanding  Armies  of  the  United  States. 

V. 

APRIL  9,  1805. 

GENERAL  R.  E.  LEE,  Commanding  C.  S.  A. : 

GENERAL — Your  note  of  yesterday  is  received.  As  I  have 
no  authority  to  treat  on  the  subject  of  peace,  the  meeting  pro 
posed  for  ten  A.  M.  to-day  could  lead  to  no  good.  I  will  state, 
however,  General,  that  I  am  equally  anxious  for  peace  with 
yourself;  and  the  whole  North  entertain  the  same  feeling. 
The  terms  upon  which  peace  can  be  had  are  well  understood. 
By  the  South  laying  down  their  arms  they  will  hasten  that 
most  desirable  event,  save  thousands  of  human  lives,  and 
hundreds  of  millions  of  property  not  yet  destroyed. 

Sincerely  hoping  that  all   our  difficulties  may  be  settled 
without  the  loss  of  another  life,  I  subscribe  myself, 
Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

U.  S.  GRANT, 
Lieutenant-General  United  States  Army 


APRIL  9,  1865. 

GENERAL— I  received  your  note  of  this  morning  on  the 
picket-line,  whither  I  had  come  to  meet  you  and  ascertain 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  511 

definitely  what  terms  were  embraced  in  youi  proposition  of 
yesterday  with  reference  to  the  surrender  of  this  army. 

I  now  request  an  interview  in  accordance  with  the  ofi'ei 
contained  in  your  letter  of  yesterday  for  that  purpose. 
Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

R.  E.  LKE,  General. 
To  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  GRANT, 

Commanding  Armies  of  the  United  States. 

VII. 

APRIL  9, 1865. 

GENERAL  R.  E.  LEE,  Commanding  C.  S.  A. : 

Your  note  of  this  date  is  but  this  moment,  11.50  A.  M.,  re 
ceived. 

In  consequence  of  my  having  passed  from  the  Richmond  and 
Lynchburg  road  to  the  Farmville  and  Lynchburg  road,  I  am, 
at  this  writing,  about  four  miles  west  of  Walter's  Church,  and 
will  push  forward  to  the  front  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  you. 

Notice  sent  to  me  on  this  road  where  you  wish  the  interview 
to  take  place,  will  meet  me. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieutenant-General. 

VIII. 

APPOMATTOX  COURT-HOUSE,  April  9, 1865 
GENERAL  R.  E.  LEE,  Commanding  C.  S.  A.: 

In  accordance  with  the  substance  of  my  letter  to  you  of  tho 
8th  inst.,  I  propose  to  receive  the  surrender  of  the  Army  ol 
Northern  Virginia  on  the  following  terms,  to  wit : 

Rolls  of  all  the  officers  and  men  to  be  made  in  duplicate, 
one  copy  to  be  given  to  an  officer  designated  by  me,  the  other 
to  be  retained  by  such  officers  as  you  may  designate. 

The  officers  to  give  their  individual  parole  not  to  take  arms 
against  the  Government  of  the  United  States  until  properly 
exchanged;  and  each  company  or  regimental  commander  to 
sign  a  like  parole  for  the  men  of  their  commands. 

The  arms,  artillery,  and  public  property  to  be  parked  and 
Blacked,  and  turned  over  to  the  officers  appointed  by  me  to 
receive  them. 


512  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

Tin's  will  not  embrace  the  side-arms  of  the  officers,  nor  their 
private  horses  or  baggage. 

This  done,  each  officer  and  man  will  be  allowed  to  return  to 
their  homes,  not  to  be  disturbed  by  United  States  authority  so 
long  as  they  observe  their  parole  and  the  laws  in  force  where 
they  may  reside. 

Yery  respectfully, 

U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieu  tenant-General. 

IX. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  OF  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA,  April  9, 1865. 
LIEUT.-GENERAL  U.  S.  GRANT,  Commanding  U.  S.  A. : 

GENERAL — I  have  received  your  letter  ot  this  date,  contain 
ing  the  terms  of  surrender  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
as  proposed  by  you.  As  they  are  substantially  the  same  as 
those  expressed  in  your  letter  of  the  8th  inst.,  they  are  accepted. 
I  will  proceed  to  designate  the  proper  officers  to  carry  the 
stipulations  into  effect. 

Yery  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

R.  E.  LEE,  General. 

Thus  in  two  days  time,  and  by  means  of  nine  short  letters, 
was  accomplished  the  decisive  event  of  the  war,  and  what  in 
fact  was  to  prove  its  complete  conclusion. 

General  Lee  and  General  Grant  had  met  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Wilmer  McLean.  The  interview  was  very  simple,  and  unat 
tended  by  any  ceremony.  General  Lee  was  attended  only  by 
Colonel  Marshal,  one  of  his  aids,  while  with  Grant  there  were 
several  of  his  staff-officers ;  and  a  number  of  Yankee  generals 
entered  the  room  during  the  interview.  The  two  commanders 
greeted  each  other  with  courtesy,  and  without  idle  words  or 
dramatic  flourishes  proceeded  at  once  and  simply  to  business. 

General  Lee  immediately  alluded  to  the  conditions  of  the 
surrender,  characterized  them  as  lenient,  and  said  he  would 
leave  the  details  to  General  Grant's  own  discretion.  General 
Grant  stated  the  terms  of  the  parole ;  that  the  arms  should  be 
stacked,  the  artillery  parked,  and  the  supplies  and  munitions 
turned  over  tr  him,  the  officers  retaining  theii  side-arms, 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  613 

horses,  and  personal  effects.  General  Lee  promptly  assented 
to  the  conditions,  and  the  agreement  of  surrender  was  engrossed 
and  signed  by  General  Lee  at  half-past  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon. 

A  Yankee  correspondent  thus  described  the  appearance  oi 
General  Lee  in  this  memorable  interview :  "  General  Lee 
looked  very  much  jaded  and  worn,  but,  nevertheless,  presented 
the  same  magnificent  physique  for  which  he  has  always  been 
noted.  He  was  neatly  dressed  in  gray  cloth,  without  em 
broidery  or  any  insignia  of  rank,  except  three  stars  worn  on 
the  turned  portion  of  his  coat-collar.  His  cheeks  were  very 
much  bronzed  by  exposure,  but  still  shone  ruddy  underneath 
it  all.  He  is  growing  quite  bald,  and  wears  one  of  the  side 
locks  of  his  hair  thrown  across  the  upper  portion  of  his  fore 
head,  which  is  as  white  and  fair  as  a  woman's.  He  stands 
fully  six  feet  one  inch  in  height,  and  weighs  something  over 
two  hundred  pounds,  without  being  burdened  with  a  pound  of 
superfluous  flesh.  During  the  whole  interview  he  was  retired 
and  dignified  to  a  degree  bordering  on  taciturnity,  but  was 
free  from  all  exhibition  of  temper  or  mortification.  His  do 
meaner  was  that  of  a  thoroughly  possessed  gentleman  whc 
had  a  very  disagreeable  duty  to  perform,  but  was  determined 
to  get  through  it  as  well  and  as  soon  as  he  could." 

It  is  to  be  fairly  and  cheerfully  admitted  that  Genera. 
Grant's  conduct,  with  respect  to  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
surrender,  exhibited  some  extraordinary  traits  of  magnanimity. 
He  had  not  dramatized  the  affair.  He  had  conducted  il 
with  as  much  simplicity  as  possible,  avoided  "  sensation,"  and 
spared  every  thing  that  might  wound  the  feelings  or  imply 
the  humiliation  of  a  vanquished  foe.  Such  conduct  was 
noble.  Before  the  surrender,  General  Grant  had  expressed  to 
his  own  officers  his  intention  not  to  require  the  same  for 
malities  as  are  required  in  a  surrender  between  the  forces  of 
two  foreign  nations  or  belligerent  powers,  and  to  exact  no 
conditions  for  the  mere  purpose  of  humiliation. 

While  the  interview  with  reference  to  the  surrender  was 
taking  place  between  the  commanders,  a  strange  scene  was 
transpiring  between  the  lines  of  the  two  armies,  and  occupied 
the  period  of  the  armistice.  An.  informal  conference  and 
mingling  of  officers  of  both  armies  gave  to  the  streets  of  thr» 

ss 


514:  SOUTHERN    H1STOEY  OP    THE    WAB. 

village  of  Appomattox  Court-house  a  strange  appearance.  On 
the  Yankee  side  were  Generals  Ord,  Sheridan,  Crook,  Gib 
bon,  Griffin,  Merritt,  Ayres,  Bartlett,  Chamberlain,  Forsyth, 
and  Michie.  On  the  Confederate  side  were  Generals  Long- 
street,  Gordon,  Heth,  "Wilcox,  and  others.  The  conference 
lasted  some  hour  and  a  half.  None  but  general  officers  were 
allowed  to  pass  through  the  skirmish  line.  There  were  mutual 
introductions  and  shaking  of  hands  ;  and  soon  was  passed  about 
Borne  whiskey,  and  mutual  healths  were  drank.  Gradually  the 
area  of  the  conference  widened.  The  parties  filled  the  streets, 
and  before  this  singular  conference  closed,  some  were  seated  on 
the  steps,  and  others,  for  lack  of  more  comfortable  accommo 
dations,  chatted  cosily,  seated  on  a  contiguous  fence. 

Between  the  skirmish  lines  of  the  two  armies  there  was  a 
great  suspense,  for  it  was  felt  that  great  interests  were  at  stake 
between  them.  Skirmish  line  confronted  skirmish  line,  lines 
of  battle  confronted  lines  of  battle,  cannon  confronted  cannon. 
Eager  hopes  hung  on  the  interview  between  the  opposing 
great  commanders  of  the  two  armies.  Peace  might  follow 
this  interview.  It  might  end  in  resumption  of  hostilities,  in 
fiercest  battle,  in  terrible  carnage.  The  two  armies  were  plainly 
visible  to  one  another.  The  Confederates  skirted  a  strip  of  wood 
in  rear  of  the  town.  Through  the  vistas  of  the  streets  might 
be  seen  their  wagon-trains.  The  minutes  passed  but  slowly. 
The  approach  of  every  horseman  attracted  an  eager  look.  Two 
o'clock  had  been  appointed  by  Grant  for  the  resumption  of 
hostilities.  It  arrived,  and  the  Yankee  skirmish  line  com 
menced  to  advance.  The  Confederate  pickets  were  in  plain 
eight,  and  stationary.  A  moment  more,  and  the  crack  of  the 
rifle  would  indicate  the  resumption  of  carnage.  But  a  clatter 
of  hoofs  is  heard,  and  a  flag  of  truce  appears  upon  the  scene, 
with  an  order  from  General  Grant  that  hostilities  should  cease 
until  further  orders. 

After  the  interview  at  McLean's  house,  General  Lee  returned 
to  his  own  camp,  about  half  a  mile  distant,  where  his  leading 
officers  were  assembled  awaiting  his  return.  He  announced  the 
result,  and  the  terms.  They  then  approached  him  in  order  of 
rank,  shook  hands,  expressing  satisfaction  at  his  course  and  their 
regret  at  parting,  all  shedding  tears  on  the  occasion.  The  fact 
of  surrender  and  the  terms  were  then  announced  to  the  troops 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  515 

and  when  General  Lee  appeared  among  them  he  was  loadlj 
cheered. 

At  four  o'clock  it  was  announced  in  Grant's  army  that  the 
surrender  had  been  consummated,  and  the  articles  signed. 
And  now  the  enthusiasm  which  had  been  restrained  by  uncer 
tainty  broke  loose.  The  various  brigade  commanders  an 
nounced  the  joyful  news  to  their  commands,  and  cheers  of  the 
wildest  description  followed.  The  men  threw  their  hats  high 
in  the  air,  leaped,  ran,  jumped,  threw  themselves  into  each 
other's  arms,  and  seemed  mad  with  joy. 

But  this  scene  of  joy  was  but  slight  in  comparison  with 
what  was  taking  place  in  distant  parts  of  the  North,  where  the 
news  of  the  surrender  had  been  carried  by  the  telegraph.  Sec 
retary  Stan  ton,  in  Washington,  immediately  telegraphed  an 
order  to  the  headquarters  of  every  army  and  department,  and 
to  every  fort  and  arsenal  in  the  United  States,  to  fire  a  salute 
of  two  hundred  guns  in  celebration  of  the  event.  To  Grant  he 
dispatched  :  "  Thanks  be  to  Almighty  God  for  the  great  vic 
tory  with  which  He  has  this  day  crowned  you  and  the  gallant 
armies  under  your  command.  The  thanks  of  this  department, 
and  of  the  Government,  and  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 
— their  reverence  and  honor  have  been  deserved — will  be  ren 
dered  to  you  and  the  brave  and  gallant  officers  and  soldiers  01 
your  army  for  all  time." 

The  clerks  of  the  departments,  in  "Washington,  went  in  pro 
cession  to  the  President's  house,  and  entertained  him  with  the 
"  Star  Spangled  Banner"  and  "  Old  Hundred."  A  crowd  of 
several  thousands  were  soon  assembled  in  front  of  the  executive 
mansion.  They  shouted  for  Mr  Lincoln.  The  President  tes 
tified  his  participation  in  the  joy  by  calling  for  the  once  popular 
secession  song  of  "  Dixie."  He  said  :  "  I  have  always  thought 
that  '  Dixie'  was  one  of  the  best  songs  I  ever  heard.  Our  ad 
versaries  over  the  way,  I  know,  have  attempted  to  appropriate 
it ;  but  I  insist  that  on  yesterday  we  fairly  captured  it.  I  re 
ferred  the  question  to  the  attorney-general,  and  he  gave  it  as  hia 
legal  opinion  that  it  is  now  our  property.  (Laughter  and  loud 
applause.)  I  now  ask  the  band  to  give  us  a  good  turn  upon  it." 

The  day  after  the  surrender  General  Lee  bid  farewell  to  his 
army  in  the  following  simple  address,  so  characteristic  of  his 
plain  and  manly  style  of  writing  : 


516  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


GENERAL   ORDER   NO.  9. 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  NORTHERN 
April  10,  1865. 

After  four  years  of  arduous  service,  marked  by  unsurpassed  courage  and  for 
titude,  tho  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  lias  been  compelled  to  yield  to  over 
whelming  numbers  and  resources. 

I  need  not  tell  the  survivors  of  so  many  hard-fought  battles,  who  have  re 
mained  steadfast  to  the  last,  that  I  have  consented  to  this  result  from  no  dis 
trust  of  them ;  but  feeling  that  valor  and  devotion  could  accomplish  nothing 
that  could  compensate  for  the  loss  that  would  have  attended  the  continuation 
of  the  contest,  I  have  determined  to  avoid  the  useless  sacrifice  of  those  whose 
past  services  have  endeared  them  to  their  countrymen. 

By  the  terms  of  agreement,  officers  and  men  can  return  to  their  homes  and 
remain  there  until  exchanged. 

You  will  take  with  you  the  satisfaction  that  proceeds  from  the  consciousness 
of  duty  faithfully  performed ;  and  I  earnestly  pray  that  a  merciful  God  will 
extend  to  you  his  blessing  and  protection. 

With  an  unceasing  admiration  of  your  constancy  and  devotion  to  your  coun 
try,  and  a  grateful  remembrance  of  your  kind  and  generous  consideration  of 
myself,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell 

R.  E.  LEE,  General. 

A  few  days  after  the  surrender,  General  Lee,  attended  bj 
five  members  of  his  staff,  rode  into  Richmond  over  the  pontoon 
bridge  at  the  foot  of  Seventeenth-street,  and  thence  up  Main 
street  to  his  residence  on  Franklin-street  between  Seventh  and 
Eighth  streets. 

Passing  rapidly  through  the  city  he  was  recognized  by  but 
few  citizens,  who  raised  their  hats,  a  compliment  which  waa 
in  every  case  returned  ;  but  on  nearing  his  residence,  the  fact 
of  his  presence  having  spread  quickly,  a  great  crowd  rushed  to 
see  him,  and  set  up  a  loud  cheering,  to  which  he  replied  by 
simply  raising  his  hat.  As  he  descended  from  his  horse,  a 
large  number  of  persons  pressed  forward  and  shook  hands  with 
him.  In  a  few  moments  the  General  made  his  way  into  his 
house,  the  crowd  dispersed,  and  thus  quietly  passed  from  the 
theatre  of  action  and  public  observation  the  great  and  famous 
commander  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Yirginia. 

The  surrender  of  General  Lee  drew  after  it  important  and 
rapid  consequences,  and,  in  effect,  terminated  the  war. 

It  left  Johnston  with  no  alternative  but  surrender.  On  the 
26th  of  April,  by  the  official  returns  of  the  Army  of  Tennessee, 


THE    LAST    YEAH.  517 

the  number  of  infantry  and  artillery,  present  and  absent,  was 
seventy-  thousand  five  hundred  and  ten ;  the  total  present, 
eighteen  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy-eight;  the  ef 
fective  fighting  force,  fourteen  thousand  one  hundred  and 
seventy-nine.  The  effective  total  of  the  cavalry  was  only  a 
a  little  over  five  thousand.  These  statistics  afford  a  startling 
exhibition  of  the  demoralization  of  the  Confederates,  and  01 
the  amount  of  that  offence  in  our  armies  mildly  called  "  ab 
senteeism  ;"  but  for  which,  in  military  language,  there  could 
be  no  name  but  desertion. 

'  The  limits  of  Johnston's  command  included  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida.  In  the  distant  districts  of  his 
department  the  situation  was  even  more  deplorable  and  des 
perate  than  in  the  vicinity  of  Raleigh.  In  South  Carolina  the 
Confederates  had  only  a  division  of  cavalry,  less  than  one 
thousand,  and  in  Florida  they  were  as  weak. 

In  General  Dick  Taylor's  department  there  had  been  disas 
trous  events.  Mobile  had  fallen,  and  there  were  no  means  ot 
opposing  the  formidable  Yankee  army  under  General  Canby. 


MOVEMENTS    IN   THE    SOUTHWEST. FALL   OF   MOBILE,    ETC. 

The  operations  against  this  city  had  been  renewed  late  in 
March,  when  two  corps  of  Canby's  army  invested  the  Spanish 
Fort,  one  of  the  principal  defences  on  the  east  side  of  the  bay. 
The  design  of  this  renewal  of  operations  against  Mobile  was  to 
give  the  crowning  stroke  to  the  system  of  Confederate  defence 
in  the  Southwest.  After  Hood's  defeat  before  Nashville,  Gen 
eral  Thomas  indicated  to  the  Washington  authorities  that  he 
would  not,  on  account  of  the  state  of  the  roads  and  for  other 
reasons,  be  able  to  enter  immediately  upon  another  campaign. 
But  he  offered  to  co-operate  with  General  Canby  by  sending 
to  the  latter  one-half  of  his  infantry  force,  and  almost  all  his 
cavalry,  the  former  under  the  command  of  General  A.  J. 
Smith,  the  latter  under  General  Wilson. 

In  addition  to  these  movements,  another  column  of  Yankee 
troops  under  Steele  had  left  Pensacola,  Florida,  on  the  20th  of 
March,  arrived  in  front  of  Mobile,  and  opened  communication 
with  General  Canby's  force.  On  his  march  General  Steele  had 


518  SOUTHEKN    HISTORf    OF    THE    WAJR. 

considerable  skirmishing,  but  met  with  no  serious  opposition 
His  command  arrived  on  the  22d  of  April,  having  cut  the  Mo 
bile  and  Montgomery  Railroad  near  Pollard. 

'On  the  8th  of  April,  an  extraordinary  force  was  brought  to 
bear  upon  Spanish  Fort.  Twenty-two  Parrott  guns  were  got 
within  half  a  mile  of  the  work,  while  other  powerful  batteries 
were  still  nearer.  Two  gunboats  joined  in  the  tremendous 
cannonade.  The  result  was,  that  the  fort  surrendered  a  little 
after  midnight.  Fort  Alexandria  followed,  and  the  guns  ot 
these  two  were  turned  against  Forts  Tracy  and  Huger,  in  the 
harbor,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Blakely  and  Appalachee  rivers. 
But  these  had  already  been  abandoned.  The  monitors  then 
went  busily  to  work  removing  torpedoes,  and  ran  up  to  within 
shelling  distance  of  the  city.  On  the  12th  of  April  the  city 
of  Mobile  was  occupied  by  the  Yankee  forces,  General  Maury, 
the  Confederate  commander,  having  evacuated  the  city  with 
the  bulk  of  his  army. 

In  the  mean  time  Wilson's  movements  were  completing  the 
plan  of  subjugation  in  the  Southwest.  His  cavalry  force  had 
moved  almost  unresisted  through  the  Southwest,  captured 
Selma,  in  Alabama,  were  already  in  the  vicinity  of  Macon 
Georgia,  and  might  easily  calculate  upon  the  capture  of  every 
place  of  importance  west  of  Augusta. 

Selma  was  occupied  by  the  Yankee  forces  on  the  2d  01 
April.  The  first  resistance  met  by  the  enemy's  forces  was  at 
Monticello,  where,  after  a  short  engagement,  they  continued  to 
advance.  On  the  1st  of  April,  Forrest,  Lyon,  and  Chalmers 
having  formed  a  junction,  the  first  named  took  command,  and 
the  Confederates  again  made  a  stand,  and  were  driven  back 
with  loss.  They  then  retreated  to  Selma,  where  an  obstinate 
defence  was  prepared  for.  On  the  next  day,  the  2d  of  April, 
Wilson  moved  to  the  attack  of  the  place,  and  after  about  an 
hour  of  severe  fighting,  the  fortifications  were  carried  by  as 
sault,  and  his  troops  entered  the  town,  capturing  over  two 
thousand  prisoners,  one  hundred  cannon,  large  numbers  of 
horfes  and  mules,  and  immense  quantities  of  supplies,  ammu 
nition,  etc.  Besides  these,  there  fell  into  the  enemy's  posses* 
eion  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  cotton,  a  large  arsenal,  naval 
iron-works  and  other  manufactories,  all  of  which  were  de 
stroyed 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  519 

Mcntgomery,  the  first  Confederate  capital,  was  peaceably 
surrendered  on  the  12th.  Columbus,  Georgia,  was  captured 
on  the  16th.  Macon  was  approached  on  the  21st.  Here  "Wil 
son  was  met  by  a  flag  of  truce  from  Howell  Cobb,  announcing 
an  armistice  between  Sherman  and  Johnston. 

The  survey  of  the  situation  south  of  Virginia  leads  to  the 
conclusion  that  to  carry  on  the  war  east  of  the  Mississippi  the 
Confederacy  had  to  depend  on  Johnston's  army  alone.  The 
enemy  could  have  brought  against  it  twelve  or  fifteen  times  its 
number  in  the  armies  of  Generals  Grant,  Sherman,  and  Can- 
by.  With  such  odds  against  us,  without  the  means  of  procur 
ing  ammunition  or  repairing  arms,  without  money  or  credit  to 
provide  food,  it;  was  thought  by  Johnston  impossible  to  con 
tinue  the  war  with  any  reasonable  hope  of  success. 


SURRENDER   OF   JOHNSTON'S    ARMY. 

This  conclusion  the  Confederate  commander  announced  to 
the  governors  of  the  States  within  his  department  by  telegraph 
as  follows : 

"  The  disaster  in  Virginia,  the  capture  by  the  enemy  of  all  our  workshop* 
for  the  preparation  of  ammunition  and  repairing  of  arms,  the  impossibility  01 
recruiting  our  little  army,  opposed  to  more  than  ten  times  its  number,  or  sup 
plying  it  except  by  robbing  our  own  citizens,  destroyed  all  hope  of  successful 
war.  I  have,  therefore,  made  a  military  convention  with  Major-General  Sher 
man  to  terminate  hostilities  in  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida. 
I  made  this  convention  to  spare  the  blood  of  this  gallant  little  army,  to  pre 
vent  further  suffering  of  our  people  by  the  devastation  and  ruin  inevitable  from 
the  marches  of  invading  armies,  and  to  avoid  the  crime  of  waging  a  hopeless 


Johnston  had  at  first  made  an  attempt  to  obtain  terms  to 
give  security  to  citizens  as  well  as  to  his  own  soldiers.  The 
first  result  of  his  negotiations  with  Sherman  was  a  basis  of 
agreement,  which  that  Yankee  commander  declared  in  a  cir 
cular  address  was  to  secure  instant  peace  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  would  involve  the  surrender  of  every  battalion 
of  Confederates  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  Thn 
following  is  a  copy  of  the  important  paper  signed  by  the  com 
nianders  of  the  two  armies  : 


5ilO  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

MEMORANDUM,  OR  BASIS  OF  AGREEMENT,  made  this  eighteenth  day  of  April 
A.  D.,  J865,  near  Durham  Station,  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  by  and  be. 
tween  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  commanding  Confederate  Army,  and 
ulajor-General  W.  T.  Sherman,  commanding  Army  of  the  United  States,  in 
North  Carolina,  both  being  present : 

1.  The  contending  armies  now  in  the  field  to  maintain  the  status  quo,  until 
notice  is  given  by  the  commanding  general  of  any  one  to  its  opponent,  and 
reasonable  time,  say  forty-eight  hours,  allowed. 

2.  The  Confederate  armies  now  in  existence  to  be  disbanded,  and  conducted 
to  their  several  state  capitals,  therein  to  deposit  their  arms  and  public  property 
In  the  state  arsenal,  and  each  officer  and  man  to  execute  and  file  an  agreement 
to  cease  from  acts  of  war,  and  to  abide  the  action  of  both  State  and  Federal 
authorities.    The  number  of  arms  and  munitions  of  war  to  be  reported  to  the 
chief  of  ordnance  at  Washington  City,  subject  to  the  future  action  of  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  mean  time  to  be  used  solely  to  maintain 
peace  and  order  within  the  borders  of  the  States  respectively. 

3.  The  recognition  by  the  Executive  of  the  United  States  of  the  several  State 
governments,  on  their  officers  and  legislatures  taking  the  oath  prescribed  by 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States  ;  and  where  conflicting  State  govern 
ments  have  resulted  from  the  war,  the  legitimacy  of  all  shall  be*  submitted  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

4.  The  re-establishment  of  all  federal  courts  in  the  several  States,  with 
powers  as  defined  by  the  constitution  and  laws  of  Congress. 

5.  The  people  and  inhabitants  of  all  these  States  to  be  guaranteed,  so  far  as 
the  Executive  can,  their  political  rights  and  franchises,  as  well  as  their  rights 
of  person  and  property,  as  defined  by  the  constitution  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  States  respectively. 

6.  The  executive  authority  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  not  to 
disturb  any  of  the  people  by  reason  of  the  late  war,  so  long  as  they  live  in 
peace  and  quiet  and  abstain  from  acts  of  armed  hostility,  and  obey  the  laws 
In  existence  at  the  place  of  their  residence. 

7.  In  general  terms,  the  war  to  cease — a  general  amnesty,  so  far  as  the 
Executive  of  the  United  States  can  command,  on  the  condition  of  the  disband- 
ment  of  the  Confederate  armies,  distribution  of  the  arms,  and  the  resumption 
of  peaceable  pursuits  by  the  officers  and  men  hitherto  composing  said  armies. 

Not  being  duly  empowered  by  our  respective  principals  to  fulfil  these  terras, 
we  individually  and  officially  pledge  ourselves  to  promptly  obtain  an  answer 
thereto,  and  to  carry  out  the  above  programme. 

W.  T.  SHERMAN,  Major-General, 

Commanding  Army  U.  S.  in  N.  C. 
J.  E.  JOHNSTON,  General, 

Commanding  C.  S.  A.  in  N.  C. 

Sherman's  vivid  vision  of  restoring  "  peace  to  the  banks  ot 
the  Ilio  Grande"  did  not  take  at  Washington.  The  announce 
ment  there  of  the  nature  and  terms  of  Ins  conference  with 
Johnston  was  the  signal  for  the  outpouring  of  such  censure 
«.nd  denunciation  as  required  all  his  military  reputation  to 


THE    LAST*"  YEAR.  5ljj 

withstand.  In  fact,  Sherman  had  committed  the  unpardonable 
offence  of  attempting  to  substitute  for  the  idea  of  subjugation 
that  of  a  restored  Union  ;  and  it  was  easy  enough  now  to  see 
that  the  profession  of  the  latter  purpose  had  all  along  been 
nothing  more  than  the  mask  of  the  real  designs  of  the  Wash 
ington  Government,  which  would  be  content  with  nothing 
short  of  the  abolition  of  slaver}'  in  the  South,  the  extinction  of 
the  State  governments,  or  their  reduction  to  provisional  estab 
lishments,  and  the  programme  of  a  general  confiscation  of 
property.  The  President  rejected  Sherman's  terms;  the  de 
partment  disallowed  them,  and  General  Grant,  although  a 
warm  personal  friend  of  Sherman,  disapproved  them. 

It  was  fiercely  argued  by  the  Washington  authorities  that 
the  terms  proposed  by  Sherman  would  bring  the  war  to  naught; 
that  if  the  State  governments  were  re-established  in  the  South, 
they  might  re-enact  slavery,  and  set  up  a  power  in  defiance  of 
the  General  Government ;  and  that  it  was  the  madness  of  gen 
erosity  to  abolish  the  confiscation  laws,  and  relieve  "  rebels" 
from  all  pains  and  penalties  for  their  crimes. 

General  Sherman  replied  to  the  censures  uttered  or  instigated 
at  Washington,  by  including  in  the  official  report  of  his  cam 
paign  an  elaborate  justification  of  his  course  in  entering  upon 
the  convention  with  Johnston  which  was  disavowed  by  the 
Government.  The  substance  of  his  defence  was,  that  General 
Johnston  wished,  in  addition  to  the  terms  granted  to  General 
Lee,  some  general  concessions  that  would  enable  him  to  con 
trol  his  followers  until  they  could  be  got  back  to  the  neighbor 
hood  of  their  homes,  thereby  saving  North  Carolina  from  the 
devastation  which  would  result  from  turning  the  men  loose 
and  unprovided  for,  and  by  the  pursuit  of  these  scattered  bodies 
through  the  State.  All  of  Sherman's  generals  were  in  favor 
of  his  granting,  as  far  as  lay  in  his  power,  such  concessions. 
At  the  next  meeting  Sherman  stated  that  Johnston  satisfied 
him  that  he  had  power  to  disband  all  the  Confederate  armies, 
as  well  as  those  under  his  own  immediate  command.  What 
the  Confederate  commander  especially  dreaded  was,  that  the 
States  would  be  dismembered  and  deprived  of  any  political 
existence,  and  that  the  absolute  disarming  of  his  men  would 
leave  the  South  powerless  and  exposed  to  the  depredations  of 
assassins  and  robbers.  "  In  any  case,"  concluded  Sherman, 


522  SOUTHERN"    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

"  the  memorandum  was  a  mere  basis  for  reference  to  the  Pres 
ident,  to  enable  him,  if  he  chose,  at  one  blow  to  dissipate  the 
power  of  the  Confederacy,  which  had  threatened  the  national 
safety  for  years.  It  admitted  of  modification,  alteration,  and 
change.  It  had  no  appearance  of  an  ultimatum,  and  by  no 
false  reasoning  can  it  be  construed  into  a  usurpation  of  powers 
on  my  part." 

The  dissatisfaction  at  Washington  with  Sherman's  conduct 
was  so  extreme,  that  Grant  was  ordered  to  proceed  at  once  to 
North  Carolina,  to  take  control  of  Sherman's'  army,  and  to 
force  Johnston  to  an  immediate  and  unconditional  surrender. 
In  this  instance,  Grant  again  showed  that  magnanimity  which 
seems  to  have  been  largely  developed  in  the  hours  of  hia 
triumph,  and  in  the  last  scenes  of  the  war — at  a  time,  indeed, 
when  the  true  character  of  the  popular  hero  is  most  surely 
tested.  In  the  most  fortunate  period  of  the  life  of  any  living 
man  in  America,  Grant  was  not  intoxicated  by  vanity  or 
conceit.  He  was  incapable  of  an  attempt  upon  the  reputation 
of  a  rival.  He  went  to  North  Carolina,  but  he  kept  the  opera 
tions  in  the  hands  of  Sherman.  He  insisted  upon  giving  him 
the  honor  of  concluding  the  final  negotiations  with  Johnston 
and  receiving  his  surrender.  It  was  concluded  on  the  sanio 
terms  as  had  been  conceded  to  General  Lee. 


On  the  4th  of  May,  General  Dick  Taylor  surrendered  to 
General  Canby  all  "  the  forces,  munitions  of  war,  etc.,  in  the 
Department  of  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  East  Louisiana." 
The  negotiations  for  this  surrender  took  place  at  Citronville, 
Alabama.  The  terms  were  essentially  the  same  as  those  ac 
corded  to  Johnston :  officers  and  men  to  be  paroled  until  duly 
exchanged  or  otherwise  released  by  the  United  States  ;  officers 
to  give  their  individual  paroles  ;  commanders  of  regiments  and 
companies  to  sign  paroles  for  their  men  ;  arms  and  munitions 
to  be  given  up  to  the  United  States ;  officers  and  men  to  be 
allowed  to  return  to  their  homes,  and  not  to  be  molested  so 
long  as  they  kept  their  paroles,  and  obeyed  the  laws  where 
they  reside,  but  persons  resident  in  Northern  States  not  to 


THE    LAST    YEAK.  523 

return  without  permission  ;  officers  to  be  allowed  to  retain  their 
side  arms,  private  horses,  and  baggage;  horses,  the  private 
property  of  enlisted  men,  not  to  be  taken  from  them,  but  they 
to  be  allowed  to  retain  them  for  private  purposes  only.  This 
surrender  virtually  involved  that  of  the  Confederate  vessels 
blockaded  in  the  Tombigbee  River. 


SURRENDER   OF   KIRBY   SMITH'S    ARMY. 

In  the  first  days  of  May,  1865,  all  the  Confederate  forces 
east  of  the  Mississippi  River  had  been  surrendered.  But  west 
of  that  stream,  in  Western  Louisiana  and  Texas,  there  remained 
a  considerable  force  of  Confederates,  under  command  of 
General  E.  Kirby  Smith.  There  was  yet  a  prospect  that  the 
war  might  be  continued  there  for  some  indefinite  period.  The 
country  was  ill  adapted  for  the  advance  of  an  invading  army. 
The  fortune  of  the  Confederate  arms  in  the  Trans-Mississippi 
had  been  superior,  in  the  average  of  successes,  to  that  east  01 
the  river ;  because  there  our  forces,  not  tied  down  to  any  par 
ticular  cities  or  forts,  or  any  particular  line  of  defence — which 
indeed  had  been  the  cardinal  error  in  the  general  system  of  the 
Confederate  warfare — had  fought  as  opportunity  occurred,  and 
generally  on  ground  of  their  own  selection. 

When  the  news  of  Lee's  surrender  first  reached  Kirby  Smith, 
he  issued,  from  his  headquarters  at  Shreveport,  a  stirring  gen 
eral  order  to  his  troops.  He  reminded  them  that  they  had  the 
means  of  long  resisting  invasion  ;  he  declared  that  they  had 
hopes  of  succor  from  abroad ;  he  promised  them  that  if  they 
protracted  the  struggle,  they  would  surely  receive  the  aid  of 
nations  who  already  deeply  sympathized  with  them.  He 
said  : 

"The  great  resources  of  the  department,  its  vast  extent,  the 
numbers,  discipline,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  army,  will  secure 
to  our  country  terms  that  a  proud  people  can  with  honor 
accept,  and  may,  under  the  providence  of  God,  be  the  means 
of  checking  the  triumph  of  our  enemy,  and  securing  the  final 
success  of  our  cause." 

War  meetings  were  held  in  different  parts  of  Texas.  At 
Houston,  General  Magruder  addressed  the  citizens  ;  he  declared 


524:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

that  lie  was  not  at  all  discouraged  by  the  position  of  affairs ; 
ar  d  he  ended  by  protesting  that  he  had  rather  be  a  "  Camanche 
Indian"  than  bow  the  knee  to  the  Yankees.  In  Washington 
County,  the  citizens  submitted  to  the  military  authorities  a  pro 
position  that  every  white  male  over  the  age  of  thirteen  years 
should  be  called  into  the  army;  that  every  male  slave  should 
be  brought  in  with  his  master;  and  that  every  white  female 
should  be  provided  with  arms.  Resolutions  and  plans  of  this 
sort  were  rife  for  some  weeks  in  Texas. 

But  these  were  but  spasmodic  expressions  of  the  public 
mind  in  the  first  moments  of  disappointment  and  rage;  they 
lacked  resolution  and  steadiness.  When  Kirby  Smith  published 
his  address  at  Shreveport,  the  extent  of  the  disasters  east  of 
the  Mississippi  River  was  not  fully  known.  When  it  was  fully 
known,  a  demoralization,  which  it  was  impossible  to  check, 
quickly  ensued  in  Smith's  army,  and  involved  most  of  the 
people  of  Texas.  His  force  was  daily  wasting  away  by  deser 
tions,  and  it  had  received  but  few  accessions  from  across  the 
Mississippi.  On  the  23d  of  May,  he  sent  officers  to  General 
Canby,  at  Baton  Rouge,  to  negotiate  terms  of  surrender. 
These  were  agreed  upon  on  the  26th  of  May,  and  were  such  as 
had  been  conceded  to  the  other  Confederate  forces.* 

With  this  act  there  passed  from  the  great  stage  of  the  war 
the  last  armed  Confederate.  The  last  action  of  the  war  had 
been  a  skirmish  near  Brazos,  in  Texas.  Peace  now  reigned 
from  the  Potomac  to  Rio  Grande. 

Contrary  to  the  plausible  expectations  of  those  who  supposed 
that  if  the  war  went  adverse  to  the  South,  it  would  drag  out 
its  last  terms  in  irregular  fighting  in  mountain  warfare,  and 
such  desultory  contests,  complete  and  profound  peace  fell 

*  On  the  1st  of  June,  General  Brown,  commanding  the  Yankee  forces, 
occupied  and  garrisoned  Brownsville.  On  the  2d  of  June,  Generals  Kirby 
Smith  and  Magruder  met,  in  the  harbor  of  Galveston,  General  A.  J.  Smith, 
representing  Major-General  Canby,  and  General  Kirby  Smith  then  and  there 
signed  the  terms  of  surrender  previously  agreed  on  at  New  Orleans.  On  the 
fith  of  June,  full  and  formal  possession  of  Galveston  was  delivered  up  to  the 
Yankee  forces,  and  the  flag  of  the  Union  raised.  On  the  8th  of  June,  Admiral 
Thatcher  went  ashore,  and  was  received  by  the  Confederate  naval  and 
military  authorities,  who  requested  a  part  of  the  United  States  naval  force  to 
remain  there  for  their  protection.  General  Sheridan  was  subsequently 
assigned  to  command  in  Texas,  and  the  blockade  of  Galveston  raised. 


THE    LAST    YEAR.  525 

upon  the  Confederacy  as  the  calm  after  the  hurricane.  "  Sur 
render"  was  the  word,  as  the  news  of  Lee's  disaster  travelled 
from  point  to  point,  from  camp  to  camp,  in  the  Confederacy. 
The  quick  succession  of  these  surrenders — the  suddenness  and 
completeness  of  the  catastrophe — show  plainly  enough  that 
there  was  a  widely  spread  rottenness  in  the  affairs  of  the  Con 
federacy,  and  that  its  cause  went  down  :n  a  general  demoraliza 
tion  of  the  arnrr  and  people. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX  No.   I. 


AMERICAN  IDEAS:  THE  KEYS  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAR. 


I. 

Political  Iconoclasm  in  America. — The  two  idols  of  "  the  Constitution"  and  "  the 
Union." — Extravagant  praises  of  the  Constitution. — Its  true  value. — It  contained  a 
noble  principle  and  glaring  defects. — Character  of  the  founders  of  the  Constitution. 
— Hamilton.— Franklin. — His  cookery-book  philosophy. — His  absurdities  in  the 
Convention. — The  cull  for  the  Convention  that  formed  the  Constitution. — Three 
parties  in  the  Convention. — The  idea  of  a  "  national"  government. — Conflict  be 
tween  the  small  and  large  States. — The  result  of  this,  the  distinguishing  feature  of 
the  Constitution. — That  feature  an  accident,  and  not  an  a  priori  discovery. — Enu 
meration  of  defects  in  the  Constitution. — The  weakness  and  ignorance  of  its  framcrs. 
— Its  one  conspicuous  virtue  and  original  principle. — Combination  of  State-righU 
with  a  common  authority. — How  involved  in  the  construction  of  the  Senate. — How 
made  more  precise  in  the  Amendments. — Particulars  in  which  the  element  of  tk» 
States  was  recognized. — A  new  rule  of  construction  applied  to  the  American  Union. 
— The  necessity  which  originated  it. — The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  not  a 
political  revolution. — The  creature  of  the  States. — True  interpretation  of  its  moral 
grandeur. — The  bond  of  the  Union  a  voluntary  one. — No  mission  apart  from  the 
States. — Why  coercion  of  the  States  was  not  necessary.— How  the  Union  stood 
for  an  American  nationality. — Its  power  to  reach  individuals. — The  Union,  in 
practice,  rather  a  rough  companionship  than  a  national  identity. — Right  of  seces 
sion. — Not  necessary  to  discuss  it. — The  development  of  the  Union  a  North  and 
South,  and  not  disintegrated  States. — Profound  invention  of  Calhoun  of  South  Car 
olina. — How  it  was  a  Union  measure,  and  not  "  Nullification." 

AN  effect  of  great  civil  commotions  in  the  history  of  a  peo 
ple  is  to  liberate  reason,  and  to  give  to  intelligence  the  oppor 
tunity  to  assert  itself  against  the  traditions  and  political 
idolatries  of  the  past.  Such  a  period  is  essentially  one  of 
political  iconoclasm — the  breaking  of  idols  which  we  find  we 
have  heretofore  unduly  cherished,  and  with  it  the  recovery 
from  the  delusions  of  an  unworthy  and  traditional  worship. 
When  there  is  little  in  the  present  to  interest  men,  and  their 

84 


530  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

lives  are  passed  in  an  established  routine,  it  is  natural  for  them 
to  exaggerate  and  to  adorn  the  past.  But  when  the  present 
has  its  own  historical  convulsion,  it  is  then  that  men  find  new 
standards  with  which  to  judge  the  past,  and  a  period  in  which 
rightly  to  estimate  it, — destroying  or  dwarfing,  it  is  true,  much 
that  before  claimed  their  admiration  or  enchained  their  wor 
ship  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  ofttimes  exalting  what  before 
had  had  an  obscure  and  degraded  place  in  popular  estimation. 
It  is  in  such  periods  that  the  native  historian  of  his  country 
finds  the  justest  time  for  determining  the  correct  value  of  the 
past,  arid  distinguishing  between  what  were  its  mere  idols,  and 
what  should  have  been  its  true  aspirations. 

It  is  thus,  from  the  stand-point  of  the  recent  great  war  in 
America,  that  one  may  justly  contemplate  the  true  value  of 
its  past  history,  measure  correctly  its  great  men  of  a  former 
period,  and  master  the  delusions  of  an  old  political  idolatry. 
The  world  knows  how  before  this  war  the  people  of  North 
America  had,  for  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century,  wor- 
ehipped,  as  its  two  political  idols,  the  Federal  constitution  and 
the  Union  of  States  formed  under  it.  Looking  back  at  these 
from  the  present  period  in  American  history,  which  has  freed 
us  from  the  restraints  of  mere  sentiment  and  tradition,  he  who 
thus  makes  the  calm  and  intelligent  retrospect  is  astonished  to 
find  what  extravagance  and  delusion  were  in  the  minds  of 
these  worshippers,  and  what  acts  of  devotion  were  made  to 
what  were  ofttimes  but  gilded  images  of  clay. 

For  two  generations  of  men,  the  almost  miraculous  wisdom 
of  the  Federal  constitution  of  America  has  been  preached  and 
exclaimed,  until  it  was  thought  to  be  political  blasphemy  to 
impugn  it.  Its  praises  were  hymned  by  poets.  The  public 
orator  was  listened  to  with  impatience  who  had  not  some  ex 
aggerated  tribute  to  pay  to  the  sacred  virtues  of  what  Daniel 
Webster  called  the  consti-itew-tion.  and  the  almost  angelic 
excellence  of  "  the  forefathers"  who  had  framed  it.  It  was 
seriously  asserted,  that  in  this  instrument  had  been  combined 
the  political  wisdom  of  all  ages,  and  that  it  was  the  epitome 
of  the  human  science  of  government.  The  insolent  heights  to 
which  this  extravagance  arose  were  astounding.  The  world's 
last  hopes  of  good  government  were  said  to  be  contained-  in 
these  dozen  pages  of  printed  matter. 


APPENDIX.  531 

Unhappily  for  such  hopes,  or  for  such  boasts,  we  are  now  at 
i  period  when  we  may  estimate  the  right  value  of  this  won 
derful  constitution,  and  take  the  severe  judgment  of  history 
upon  it.  We  may  now  dare  to  state  that  judgment  briefly: 
it  is,  that  never  did  a  political  instrument  contain,  from  the 
necessity  of  its  circumstances,  a  nobler  principle,  or  present 
the  folly  and  ignorance  of  men  in  more  glaring  defects,  than  did 
the  Federal  constitution  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  no  longer  required,  by  the  political  fashion  of  the  times, 
for  an  American  to  say,  that  the  men  who  formed  this  consti 
tution  were  either  intellectual  giants  or  wonderful  scholars. 
Beyond  a  few  names — such  as  Randolph  and  Patrick  Henry, 
"  the  forest-born  Demosthenes,"  of  Virginia,  Pinckney  and 
Luther  Martin,  of  Maryland,  Hamilton,  of  New  York,  and 
Franklin,  of  Pennsylvania — the  Convention  which  formed  this 
instrument  may  be  described  as  a  company  of  very  plain  men, 
but  little  instructed  in  political  science,  who,  in  their  debates, 
showed  sometimes  the  crudities  and  chimeras  of  ignorant  re 
form,  and  exhibited  more  frequently  a  loose  ransacking  of 
history  for  precedents  and  lessons,  such  as  rather  might  have 
been  expected  in  a  club  of  college  sophomores  than  in  a  council 
of  statesmen. 

The  two  last  names  mentioned  on  the  list  of  distinction  in 
the  Convention — Hamilton  and  Franklin — may  be  taken  as  ex 
amples  of  the  American  exaggeration  of  their  public  men, 
which,  indeed,  more  peculiarly  belonged  to  the  people  of  the 
Northern  States — that  division  of  the  American  people  which 
after-events  have  classified  as  Yankees.  Hamilton,  who  had  a 
school  of  his  own  in  the  Convention,  was  readily  exalted  as  an 
idol  by  the  party  which  he  so  early  begot  in  the  history  of  his 
country.  The  man  who  was  honored  by  pageants  and  proces 
sions  in  the  streets  of  New  York,  at  the  close  of  the  Conven 
tion,  must  be  declared,  by  the  just  and  unimpassioned  historian, 
to  have  been  superficial  as  a  statesman,  and  defective  as  a 
scholar.  He  had,  indeed,  neither  the  intuition  of  genius,  nor 
the  power  of  analysis.  He  was  a  man  of  little  mind.  But  he 
had  studied  a  peculiar  style  in  writing,  which  Washington  was 
weak  enough  to  take  for  a  model,  and,  it  is  said,  sometimes 
appropriated.  There  was  no  point  or  sharp  edges  in  the  style 
either  of  Alexander  Hamilton  or  George  Washington.  Both 


532  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

wrote  and  spoke  in  those  long  sentences  in  which  common 
places  are  pompously  dressed  up,  and  in  which  the  sense  is  so 
overlaid  with  qualifications  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
probe  it.  But  Washington  made  no  pretensions  to  literature 
and  scholarship,  while  Hamilton  had  no  titles  to  fame  other 
than  these.  And  in  these  it  must  be  confessed  that  he  had 
scarcely  any  other  merit  than  that  of  a  smooth  constructer  of 
words,  a  character  which  with  the  vulgar  often  passes  for  both 
orator  and  statesman. 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  thoroughly  a  representative  Yankee, 
the  first  clear-cut  type  we  recognize  in  history  of  that  material 
ism,  coarse  selfishness,  pelf,  low  cunning,  and  commercial 
smartness,  which  passes  with  the  contemporary  Yankee  as  the 
truest  philosophy  and  highest  aim  of  life.  It  is  alike  curious 
and  amusing  to  examine  the  grounds  of  estimation  in  the  minds 
of  his  countrymen,  which  conferred  the  high-sounding  title  of 
philosopher  on  an  old  gentleman  in  blue  stockings,  who,  in 
France,  was  the  butt  of  the  Parisian  wits,  and  who  left  a  legacy 
of  wisdom  to  posterity  in  the  "  Mtvxim.s  of  Poor  Richard? 
How  many  modern  Yankees  have  been  educated  in  the  school 
of  the  "Maxims"  of  Franklin  it  would  be  difficult  to  over-esti 
mate.  If  a  gross  and  materialistic  value  of  things  is  to  pass 
as  "  philosophy  ;"  if  the  hard  maxims  of  selfishness,  and  the 
parings  of  penuriousness,  such  as  "Poor  Kichard"  dins  to 
American  youth,  do  really  contain  the  true  lessons  and  mean 
ing  of  life,  then  we  may  declare,  in  the  phrases  of  Yankee  ad 
miration,  that  Benjamin  Franklin  was  a  philosopher  and  a  sage, 
who  eclipsed  all  other  lights  in  the  world,  and  u  whipped  tho 
universe."  But  really,  after  all,  may  we  not  doubt  the  value  of 
this  cookery-book  philosophy  of  smart  things  ;  think  it  doubt 
ful  whether  the  mighty  problem  of  how  pence  make  pounds, 
be  the  largest  or  best  part  of  human  wisdom ;  and  conclude 
that  Benjamin  Franklin,  though  not  the  greatest  celebrity 
America  has  ever  produced,  was  neither  worse  nor  belter 
than  a  representative  Yankee. 

We  are  almost  inclined  to  laugh  at  the  part  which  this  queer 
figure  acted  in  the  Convention  which  formed  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States.  No  member  had  irore  clap-traps  in  the 
way  of  political  inventions.  His  ignorance  of  political  science 
and  of  popular  motives  was  alike  profound ;  and  we  find  him 


APPENDIX.  533 

pro]  osing  to  govern  the  country  after  a  fashion  scarcely  less 
beautiful  and  less  practicable  than  the  Republic  of  Plato  and 
the  Arcadia  of  Sydney.  He  thought  that  magistrates  might 
serve  the  public  from  patriarchal  affection  or  for  the  honor 
of  titles.  He  quoted  in  the  Convention  a  maxim  that  sounds 
curiously  enough  to  American  ears  :  that  uin  all  cases  of  public 
service,  the  less  profit,  the  greater  honor."  He  was  in  favor 
of  the  nonsense  of  a  plural  executive.  He  insisted  in  the  Con 
vention  on  the  practicability  of  "finding  three  or  four  men  in 
all  the  United  States  with  public  spirit  enough  to  bear  sitting 
in  peaceful  council,  for  perhaps  an  equal  term,  merely  to  pre 
side  over  our  civil  concerns,  and  see  that  our  laws  were  duly 
executed."  Such  was  the  political  sagacity  of  this  person, 
who,  it  must  be  confessed,  made  what  reputation  he  had  rather 
in  the  handbooks  of  Yankee  economy  than  iu  monuments  of 
statesmanship. 

But  we  shall  find  a  better  key  to  the  real  value  of  the  con- 
fititution  in  a  summary  review  of  its  debates,  than  in  a  portrait 
ure,  however  interesting,  of  the  men  who  composed  it.  The 
Convention  of  delegates  assembled  from  the  different  States  at 
Philadelphia,  on  the  second  Monday  in  May,  1787,  had  met  on 
a  blind  errand.  They  had  been  called  by  Congress,  "for  the 
sole  and  express  purpose  of  revising  the  Articles  of  Confedera 
tion,  and  reporting  to  Congress  and  the  several  legislatures 
euch  alterations  and  provisions  therein,  as  shall,  when  agreed 
to  in  Congress  and  confirmed  by  the  States,  render  the  Federal 
constitution  adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  government  and  the 
preservation  of  the  Union." 

This  singularly  confused  language,  in  the  call  of  the  Conven 
tion,  naturally  gave  rise  to  differences  of  opinion.  One  party 
in  the  Convention — representing  what  was  known  as  the  New 
Jersey  proposition — took  the  ground  that  its  power  was  limited 
to  a  mere  revision  and  amendment  of  the  existing  Articles  of 
Confederation  :  that  it  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  take  the 
present  federal  system  as  the  basis  of  action,  to  proceed  upon 
terms  of  the  federal  equality  of  the  States;  in  short,  to  remedy 
the  defects  of  the  existing  government,  not  to  supplant  it. 
Ham il ton  and  his  party  were  for  a  new  and  violent  system  of 
reform.  They  were  said  to  favor  the  establisment  of  a  mon 
archy.  The  extent  to  which  this  was  true  is,  that  they  were  in 


534  SOUTHERN    HISIOEY    OF    THE    WAB. 

favor  of  the  annihilation  of  the  State  governments  and  the  perma 
nent  tenure  of  public  offices.  A  third  party  in.  the  Conventioi 
avoided  both  extremes,  insisted  upon  a  change  of  the  federa 
principle,  and  proposed  a  "  national"  government,  in  the  sense 
of  a  supreme  power  with  respect  to  certain  objects  eommor- 
between  the  States,  and  committed  to  it,  and  which  would 
have  some  kind  of  direct  compulsory  action  upon  individuals 
The  word  "  national"  was  used  only  in  this  limited  sense.  The 
great  defect  of  the  existing  Confederation  was,  that  it  had  nc 
power  to  reach  individuals,  and  thus  enforce  its  decrees.  The 
proposed  Union,  or  "  national"  government,  was  to  be  a  league 
of  States,  but  with  power  to  reach  individuals ;  and  yet  these 
only  in  certain  severely  defined  respects,  and  through  powers 
expressly  delegated  by  the  States.  In  the  nature  of  things,  this 
power  could  not  act  upon  the  States  collectively ;  that  is,  nofc 
in  the  usual  and  peaceful  mode  in  which  governments  are  con 
ducted.  All  that  was  claimed  for  it,  and  all  that  could  b<~ 
claimed  for  it,  was  to  reach  individuals  in  those  specification*- 
of  authority  that  the  States  should  make  to  it. 

The  plan  of  this  party  was  no  sooner  developed  in  the  Con 
vention  than  it  met  the  furious  opposition  of  the  smalle* 
States.  It  was  declared  by  Luther  Martin,  that  those  who 
advocated  it  "  wished  to  establish  such  a  system  as  could  give 
their  own  States  undue  power  and  influence  in  the  government 
over  the  other  States."  Both  Mr.  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  and 
Mr.  Pinckney,  of  Maryland,  who  had  brought  before  the 
Convention  drafts  of  the  plan  referred  to,  agreed  that  the 
members  of  the  Senate  should  be  elected  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  ;  thus,  in  effect,  giving  to  the  larger  States 
power  to  construct  the  Senate  as  they  chose.  Mr.  Randolph 
had  given  additional  offence  to  the  smaller  States.  He  pro 
posed  that,  instead  of  an  equal  vote  by  States,  "  the  right  of 
suffrage  in  the  National  Legislature  ought  to  be  proportioned 
to  the  quotas  of  contribution,  or  to  the-number  of  free  inhabit 
ants." 

There  was  thus  excited  in  the  Convention  a  jealousy  between 
the  larger  and  smaller  States;  the  former  insisting  upon  a 
preponderating  influence  in  both  houses  of  the  National 
Legislature,  and  the  latter  insisting  on  an  equality  of  repre 
sentation  in  each  house.  This  jealous  controversy  is  tracked 


APPENDIX.  5  "5 

tLrough  the  debates  of  the  Convention.  It  proceeded  to  a 
degree  of  warmth  and  anger  in  which  the  Convention  was  on 
the  point  of  dissolution.  When  the  vote  was  taken,  five  States 
were  for  an  equality  of  representation  and  five  against  it.  At 
this  critical  period,  a  conference  committee  was  appointed.  It 
resulted  in  a  compromise  ;  the  opponents  of  an  unequal  repre 
sentation  agreeing  to  yield  their  objections  to  it  in  the  lower 
House,  provided  its  advocates  would  pledge  themselves  to 
support  an  equal  representation  in  the  Senate :  and  on  this 
basis  of  agreement  was  reared  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States  of  America. 

The  reader  must  observe  here,  that  the  great  distinguishing 
feature  of  this  constitution,  the  peculiar  virtue  of  the  American 
system — namely,  the  mixed  representation  of  the  people  and 
the  States — was  purely  the  result  of  a  jealousy  between  the 
larger  and  the  smaller  States,  the  fruit  of  an  accident.  It 
contained  the  true  virtue  of  a  political  instrument,  which,  as 
we  shall  see,  was  otherwise  full  of  faults  and  glaring  with 
defects.  It  was  that  in  which  it  was  original.  But  it  was 
not  an  a  priori  discovery.  It  was  not  the  result  of  the  wisdom 
of  our  ancestors.  History  abounds  in  instances  where  acci 
dental  or  empirical  settlements  have  afterwards  been  discovered 
to  contain  great  elements  of  wisdom  and  virtue ;  and  it  has 
been  natural  and  pleasing  for  succeeding  generations  to  ac 
count  these  rather  as  the  result  of  human  reason  and  prescience, 
than  as  the  product  of  blind  circumstances.  But  we  are  forced 
to  confess,  that  in  that  great  political  novelty  of  the  American 
system — in  which  the  world  was  to  see,  for  the  first  timo 
combined  and  harmonized,  the  principle  of  geographical 
sovereignties  with  that  of  a  confederate  unity,  which,  for 
certain  purposes,  was  to  stand  for  national  identity — the 
"  wisdom"  of  our  forefathers  had  no  part,  but  acted  uncon 
sciously  under  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  or  the  direction 
of  divine  Providence. 

This  statement  is  not  pleasant  to  American  vanity.  But 
it  is  due  to  the  truth  of  history.  It  is  highly  probable  that 
the  framers  of  the  constitution  did  not  fully  comprehend  the 
importance  of  the  principles  of  the  combination  of  State 
sovereignty  with  that  of  the  simple  republic  on  which  they 
had  stumbled.  If  t>hey  had,  it  might  be  supposed  that  they 


636  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

would  have  defined  with  a  much  severer  accuracy  the  political 
relations  of  the  States  and  the  General  Government ;  for  it 
has  been  for  the  want  of  such  accuracy  that  room  has  been 
found,  at  least  for  disputation,  and  the  creation  of  two  po 
litical  parties,  which  have  run  through  the  whole  of  American 
history. 

And  here  it  is  we  must  turn  from  the  consideration  of  that 
principle  in  the  constitution  which  was  its  distinctive  feature 
and  its  saving  virtue,  to  view  briefly  the  enormous  defects  and 
omissions  of  an  instrument  that  has  shared  so  much  of  the 
undue  admiration  of  mankind. 

It  is  impossible  to  resist  the  thought,  that  the  framers  of  the 
constitution  were  so  much  occupied  with  the  controversy  of 
jealousy  between  the  large  and  the. small  States  that  they  over 
looked  many  great  and  obvious  questions  of  government, 
which  have  since  been  fearfully  developed  in  the  political 
history  of  America.  Beyond  the  results  and  compromises  of 
that  jealousy,  the  debates  and  the  work  of  the  Convention  show 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  blanks  that  has,  perhaps,  ever 
occurred  in  the  political  inventions  of  civilized  mankind. 
They  left  behind  them  a  list  of  imperfections  in  political  pre 
science,  a  want  of  provision  for  the  exigencies  of  their  country, 
gxich  as  has  seldom  been  known  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

A  system  of  negro  servitude  existed  in  some  of  the  States. 
It  was  an  object  of  no  solicitude  in  the  Convention.  The  only 
references  in  the  constitution  to  it  are  to  be  found  in  a  provision 
in  relation  to  the  rendition  of  fugitives  "  held  to  service  or 
labor,"  and  in  a  mixed  and  empirical  rule  of  popular  represen 
tation.  However  these  pro  visions  may  imply  the  true  status 
of  slavery,  how  much  is  it  to  be  regretted  that  the  Convention 
did  not  make  (what  might  have  'been  made  so  easily)  an  ex 
plicit  declaration  on  the  subject,  that  would  have  put  it  beyond 
the  possibility  of  dispute,  and  removed  it  from  even  the 
plausibilities  of  party  controversy  ! 

For  many  years  the  very  obvious  question  of  the  power  of 
the  General  Government  to  make  "  internal  improvements" 
has  agitated  the  councils  of  America ;  and  yet  there  is  no  text 
in  the  constitution  to  regulate  a  matter  which  should  have 

O 

.stared  its  authors  in  the  face,  but  what  may  be  derived,  by 


APPENDIX.  537 

the  most  forced  and  distant  construction,  from  the  powers  of 
Congress  "  to  regulate  commerce,"  and  to  u  declare  war,"  and 
u  raise  and  support  armies." 

For  a  longer  period,  and  with  a  fierceness  once  almost  fatal 
to  the  Union,  has  figured  in  the  politics  of  America,  "  the 
tariff  question,"  a  contest  between  a  party  for  revenue  arid  a 
party  for  protective  prohibitions.  Both  parties  have  fought 
over  that  vague  platitude  of  the  constitution,  the  power  of 
Congress  "  to  regulate  commerce  ;"  and  in  the  want  of  a  more 
distinct  language  on  a  subject  of  such  vast  concern,  there  has 
been  engendered  a  controversy  which  lias  progressed  from  the 
threshold  of  the  history  of  the  Union  up  to  the  period  of  its 
dissolution. 

With  the  territorial  possessions  of  America,  even  at  the  date 
of  the  Convention,  and  with  all  that  the  future  promised  in  the 
expansion  of  a  system  that  yet  scarcely  occupied  more  than 
the  water-slopes  of  a  continent,  it  might  be  supposed  that  the 
men  who  formed  the  constitution  would  have  prepared  a  full 
and  explicit  article  for  the  government  of  the  territories. 
That  vast  and  intricate  subject — the  power  of  the  General 
Government  over  the  territories,  the  true  nature  of  these 
establishments,  the  status  arid  political  privileges  of  their 
inhabitants — is  absolutely  dismissed  with  this  bald  provision 
m  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  : 

*  New  States  may  be  admitted  by  Congress  into  this  Union." — ART.  iv., 
SEC.  3. 

But  however  flagrant  these  omissions  of  the  constitution, 
and  however  through  them  sprung  up  much  that  was  serious 
and  deplorable  in  party  controversy,  we  must  lose  neither 
sight  nor  appreciation  of  the  one  conspicuous  and  character 
istic  virtue  of  this  instrument.  That  was  the  combination  of 
State  rights  with  an  authority  which  should  administer  the 
common  concerns  of  the  States.  This  principle  was  involved 
in  the  construction  of  the  Senate.  It  was  again  more  fully 
and  perfectly  developed  in  the  amendments  of  the  constitu 
tion  ;  these  amendments  having  a  peculiarity  and  significance 
as  parts  of  the  instrument,  since  they  were,  in  a  certain  sense, 


588  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

conditions  precedent  made  by  the  States  to  their  ratlficaticii  01 
it.     They  provide : 

"  The  enumeration  in  the  constitution,  of  certain  rights,  shall  not  be  con 
Btrued  to  deny  or  disparage  others  retained  by  the  people. 

"  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  constitution,  nor 
prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the 
people/'* 

It  may  be  said,  that  whereas  the  element  of  the  States  was 
recognized  in  the  construction  of  the  Senate,  that  element  was 
precisely  adjusted  and  admeasured  in  the  amendments  which 
we  have  just  quoted.  In  the  debates  in  the  legislatures  of  the 
different  States  on  the  ratification  of  the  constitution,  it  was 
never  doubted  that  their  original  existence  was  already  rec 
ognized  in  it ;  not  only  in  the  text  of  the  instrument,  but  m 
the  composition  by  States  of  the  convention  that  framed  it, 
and  in  the  ratification  by  States  which  was  necessary  to  pro 
mulgate  it,  and  give  it  force  and  existence.  The  design  of  the 
amendments  referred  to,  was  simply  to  adjust  in  more  precise 
language  a  vital  and  important  element  in  the  new  system, 
and  to  declare  formally  what  sense  the  States  had  of  it,  and 
with  what  understanding  they  approved  it. 

*  These  amendments,  which  were  the  fruit  of  the  legislative  wisdom  of  the 
States,  not  of  that  of  the  Convention,  and  were  designed  to  give  a  full  devel 
opment  and  a  proper  accuracy  to  what  was  certainly  ill-performed  work  in  it, 
will  be  found  embodied  in  the  official  declarations  of  at  least  six  of  the  States, 
coupled  with  their  ratification  of  the  constitution. 

MASSACHUSETTS. — "  That  it  be  explicitly  declared,  that  all  powers  not  ex 
pressly  delegated  by  the  aforesaid  constitution,  are  reserved  to  the  several 
States,  to  be  by  them  exercised." 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE. — "  That  it  be  explicitly  declared,  that  all  powers  not  ex 
pressly  and  particularly  delegated  by  the  aforesaid  constitution,  are  reserved 
to  the  several  States,  to  be  by  them  exercised." 

SOUTH  CAROLINA. — "  This  convention  doth  also  declare,  that  no  section  or 
paragraph  of  the  said  constitution  warrants  a  construction  that  the  States  do 
not  retain  every  power  not  expressly  relinquished  by  them,  and  vested  in  the 
General  Government  of  the  Union." 

VIRGINIA. — "  We,  the  delegates  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  etc.,  do,  in  the 
name  and  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  declare  and  make  known  that 
the  powers  granted  under  the  constitution,  being  derived  from  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  may  be  resumed  by  them,  whensoever  the  same  shall  be 
perverted  to  their  injury  or  oppression,  and  that  every  power  not  granted  there 
by  remains  with  them,  and  at  their  will ;  that,  therefore,  no  right,  of  any  de 
nomination,  can  bo  cancelled,  abridged,  restrained,  or  modified,  by  the  Con- 


APPENDIX.  539 

But  even  if  these  official  texts  are — as  a  partj  in  America 
has  long  contended — insufficient  to  establish  the  political 
element  of  the  States,  and  to  measure  it  as  the  depository  of 
sovereignty  by  the  rule  of  reserved  rights,  we  are  left  a  rule 
of  construction  as  to  the  true  nature  of  the  American  Union, 
which  is  completely  out  of  the  reach  of  any  ingenious  torture 
of  language,  and  far  above  any  art  of  quibble  on  words.* 


gress,  by  the  Senate,  or  House  of  Representatives,  acting  in  any  capacity,  by 
the  President,  or  any  department  or  officer  of  tlie  United  States,  except  in 
those  instances  in  which  power  is  given  by  the  constitution  for  those  purposes ; 
and  that,  among  other  essential  rights,  the  liberty  of  conscience,  and  of  the 
press,  cannot  be  cancelled,  abridged,  restrained,  or  modified,  by  any  authority 
of  the  United  States." 

NEW  YORK. — "  That  the  powers  of  government  may  be  resumed  by  the 
people  whensoever  it  shall  become  necessary  to  their  happiness ;  that  every 
power,  jurisdiction,  and  right,  which  is  not  by  the  said  constitution  clearly 
delegated  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  or  the  departments  of  the  Gov 
ernment  thereof,  remains  to  the  people  of  the  several  States,  or  to  their  respec 
tive  State  governments,  to  whom  they  may  have  granted  the  same  ;  and  thai 
those  clauses  in  the  said  constitution,  which  declare  that  Congress  shall  not 
have  or  exercise  certain  powers,  do  not  imply  that  Congress  is  entitled  to  any 
powers  not  given  by  the  said  constitution ;  but  such  clauses  are  to  be  con 
strued  either  as  exceptions  to  certain  specified  powers,  or  as  inserted  merely 
for  greater  caution." 

RHODE  ISLAND. — "  That  those  clauses  in  the  constitution  which  declare  that 
Congress  shall  not  have  or  exercise  certain  powers,  do  not  imply  that  Congress 
is  entitled  to  any  powers  not  given  by  the  said  constitution  ;  but  such  clauses 
are  to  be  construed  as  exceptions  to  certain  specified  powers,  or  as  inserted 
merely  for  greater  caution." 

*  It  is  curious  to  notice  to  what  lengths  of  verbal  torture  that  party  in 
America  that  denied  the  sovereignty  of  the  States,  and  represented  the  Union 
as  a  popular  consolidated  government,  have  gone. 

Thus  it  has  been  fashionable  to  quote  in  the  school  of  consolidation  a  decla 
ration  in  the  letter  of  George  Washington,  president  of  the  Convention,  sub 
mitting  the  constitution  to  the  States  for  their  ratification,  in  which  he  says  : 

"  It  is  obviously  impracticable  in  the  Federal  Government  of  these  States 
to  secure  A~LL  the  rights  of  independent  sovereignty  to  each,  and  yet  provide 
for  the  interest  and  safety  of  all."— Eliot's  Debates,  Vol.  I.,  p.  17. 

Yet  the  word  "  ALL,"  which  we  have  capitalized  for  emphasis,  and  which  a 
hasty  reader  might  lose  in  the  context,  is  directly  opposed  to  the  theory  of 
consolidation,  and  directly  implies  the  residuum  of  sovereignty  in  the  States. 

Again,  the  word  "  United  States"  has  been  used  as  a  popular  argument  for 
a  consolidated  government.  Yet  we  find  in  the  history  cf  America  that  the 
same  words  designated  all  the  former  associations  of  the  colonies  and  of  thp 
States ;  that  the  first  assembly  of  delegates  to  take  into  consideration  th<» 
grievances  that  led  to  the  revolt  from  the  British  crown  were  known  as  thp 


540  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

That  rule  is  found  in  the  historical  circumstances  and  exigen 
cies  in  which  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  was  formed. 
It  is  decisive.     For  surely  there  is  no  juster  measure  of  a  grant 
of  political  powers  than  the  necessity  which  originated  it,  if 
that  necessity  be  at  once  intelligible  arid  precise. 

Such  was  the  necessity  which  originated  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States.  It  was  a  necessity  for  purely  economical 
purposes.  It  could  not  have  been  intended  as  a  revolution  in 
the  sense  of  a  proclamation  of  new  civil  polit}^;  for  the  civil 
institutions  of  the  States,  as  derived  from  the  common  law  of 
England,  were  already  perfect  and  satisfactory,  and  have 
remained  without  material  change  for  nearly  a  century.  The 
constitution  of  the  United  States  was  thus  not  a  political  revo 
lution.  It  was  a  convenience  of  the  States,  growing  out  of 
their  wants  of  a  system  by  which  they  might  have  a  common- 
agent  and  a  uniform  code  on  concerns  common  between  them- 
selves.  Is  it  too  much  to  conclude,  therefore,  that  the  new 
Union  had  no  mission  apart  from  the  States;  that  it  was  the 
government  of  the  States;  that,  in  short,  it  could  not  have 
been  intended  to  destroy  the  very  bodies  which  invoked  it  as 
a  benefactor  to  each  as  well  as  to  all? 

It  is  in  this  sense  that  the  moral  grandeur  of  the  American 
Union  is  interpreted  :  in  this  sense  that  its  great  political 
virtue  was  contained.  There  was  put  before  the  eye  of  man- 


Congress  of  delegates  of  the  United  States;  that  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  emanated  from  "  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America," 
and  that  the  style  of  the  subsequent  confederation  was  declared  111  its  first 
article  to  be,  "  The  United  States  of  America."  So,  if  the  words  "  United 
States"  are  at  all  to  be  considered,  their  natural  force  and  their  precedent 
use  are  alike  in  direct  opposition  to  the  dogma  of  consolidation. 

Of  a  similar  style  of  puerile  argument  for  this  dogma  is  this :  Whereas,  tho 
preamble  of  the  constitution  recites,  "  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States," 
the  people  are,  therefore,  represented  as  one  corporation.  Daniel  Webster,  who 
was  always  ready  to  catch  at  sophomorial  crudities,  actually  descended  to  an 
argument  so  absurd.  The  explanation  of  this  phraseology  is  simple  to  the 
last  degree.  The  names  of  the  contracting  States  were  first  inserted  in  the 
preamble  of  the  constitution.  They  were  suppressed  because  it  was  still  un 
certain  what  States  would  adopt  it ;  and  as  it  was  impossible  to  know  which 
might  be  the  first  nine  States  of  the  Union — that  number  being  necessary  to 
establish  the  constitution  as  between  themselves — it  was  agreed  to  use  the 
corporate  style  we  have  quoted  in  the  preamble,  that  it  might  include  those 
only  who  adheied  to  it. 


APPENDIX. 

kind,  not  a  consolidated  nationality  ;  not  a  simple  republic, 
with  an  anomalous  and  indefinable  appendage  of  "  States," 
which  were  not  provinces,  or  cantons,  or  territories,  and  yet 
subordinate ;  not  some  undefined  and  misshapen  political 
mongrel ;  but  a  spectacle  such  as  it  had  never  seen — an  asso 
ciation  of  coequal  and  sovereign  States,  with  a  common 
authority,  the  subjects  of  which  were  yet  sufficient  enough  to 
give  it  the  effect  of  an  American  and  national  identity ;  "  a 
republic  of  republics ;"  a  government  which  derived  its  entire 
life  from  the  good-will,  the  mutual  interests,  and  the  uncon 
strained  devotion  of  the  States  which  at  once  originated  and 
composed  it. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  admission  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
States  breaks  at  once  the  bond  of  their  association.  .  Yet,  this 
can  be  said  only  in  a  low  and  narrow  sense.  The  wants  and 
hopes  of  men  operate  with  the  same  effect  in  political  bodies 
as  in  the  social  community.  Men  will  scarcely  withdraw  from 
a  society  in  which  they  are  alike  happy  and  fortunate.  Nor 
was  it  to  be  supposed  that  any  of  the  American  States  would 
be  SD  mad  as  to  withdraw  from  a  Union  through  which  they 
were  to  be  profited  and  to  ascend,  as  long  as  it  fulfilled  its  de 
signs  of  affording  them  protection  against  foreign  powers, 
commercial  interchanges,  justice  and  welcome  among  them 
selves,  the  charms  and  benefits  of  social  intercourse  ;  or  that 
after  these,  its  essential  designs  might  have,  within  the  exigen* 
cies  of  history  or  the  possibilities  of  human  depravity,  ceased 
to  be  fulfilled,  any  State  could  be  held  in  it  without  violating 
quite  as  well  the  spirit  of  republican  institutions,  and  the  obli 
gations  of  public  morals,  as  the  written  text  of  a  compact. 

Such  undoubtedly  were  the  designs  and  the  law  of  the 
American  Union.  It  was  a  compact  which  covered  only  the 
interests  which  it  specified  ;  yet  quite  large  enough  to  stand 
as  an  American  nationality  for  all  practical  purposes.  It  had 
no  dynastic  element ;  it  had  no  mission  separate  from  the 
States ;  it  had  no  independent  authority  over  individuals, 
except  within  the  scope  of  the  powers  delegated  to  it  by  the 
States.  The  States  retained  the  power  to  control  their  own 
soil,  their  own  domestic  institutions,  and  their  own  morals. 
In  respect  to  the  powers  which  they  prohibited  to  the  General 
Government,  they  retained,  of  necessity,  the  right  of  exclusive 


642  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 

judgment.  That  Government  was  not  a  mere  league  ;  it  did 
have  the  power  to  reach  individuals  within  the  scope  of  powers 
delegated  by  the  States  ;  and  as  to  these  powers,  its  own  courts 
• — the  Federal  judiciary — were  made  the  exclusive  judge.  In 
this  sense — only  in  this  sense — it  had  the  qualities  of  a  gov 
ernment  ;  but  a  government  founded  exclusively  on  the  good 
of  the  States,  resting  in  their  consent,  and  to  which  the  law  of 
force  was  as  foreign  in  respect  of  its  maintenance,  as  it  had 
been  in  respect  of  its  ordination. 

The  Union  was  beautiful  in  theory.  It  might  have  been 
beautiful  in  practice.  If  it  did  prove  in  the  history  of  America 
rather  a  rough  companionship,  scarcely  ever  a  national  iden 
tity  in  the  common  concerns  intrusted  to  it,  such  was  not  the 
result  of  inherent  defects,  but  of  that  party  abuse  and  usurpa* 
tion,  in  which  have  been  wrecked  so  many  of  the  political 
fabrics  of  mankind. 

The  right  of  secession,  whether  involved  or  not  by  the  prin 
ciple  of  State  sovereignty,  was  not  necessarily  the  weak  point 
of  the  Union.  We  shall  see  hereafter  that  the  development 
of  this  Union  was  two  hostile  sections — a  political  North  and 
a  political  South — and  not  disintegration  of  States ;  that  the 
Union  was  sacrificed,  not  to  the  dogma  of  secession,  but  to  the 
overruling  event  of  a  sectional  rupture.  In  view  of,  and  in 
connection  with,  these  events,  it  will  be  wholly  unnecessary  to 
discuss  "  the  right  of  secession." 

Forty  years  after  the  ordination  of  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  we  shall  see  how  there  sprung  up  the  profound 
invention  of  the  greatest  political  scholar  of  America — John 
C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina — to  avoid  this  very  issue  ot 
secession  ;  how  it  was  designed  to  erect  over  the  Union  a 
council  of  States,  and  to  submit  it  to  their  august  guardian 
ship  ;  how  it  represented  the  true  and  sublime  theory  of  the 
association  of  the  States  ;  and  how,  avoiding  the  issue  of  seces 
sion,  it  proposed  a  measure  that  would  have  perpetuated  the 
Union,  carried  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  to  the 
highest  point  of  development,  perfected  the  American  system, 
introduced  into  it  the  principle  of  adaptability  to  all  circum 
stances,  and  given  it  that  elasticity  which  is  the  first  virtue  of 
wise  governments,  and  the  best  element  of  their  endurance. 
We  shall  see  how  this  scheme  of  the  South  Carolina  statesmen 


APPENDIX.  543 

— emphatically  a  Union  measure — was  rejected  by  the 
Northern  States  under  a  shallow  clamor  and  the  coarsest  and 
most  ignorant  of  all  party  libels  in  America — "  Nullification  ;?> 
and  how  this  rejection  left  no  other  resource  to  dissatisfied 
States  than  what  Mr.  Calhoim  of  all  men  most  deplored,  and 
most  sought  to  avoid — disunion.  These  assertions  may  already 
Bound  strange  to  those  who  have  got  their  political  history  oi 
America  from  Northern  sources.  But  we  must  not  anticipate 
too  much  here  what  is  undoubtedly  the  most  interesting  period 
in  American  history,  between  the  dates  of  Union  and  Disunion 

— the  era  of  Calhoun. 
***»**»• 


54:4:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR 


II. 


What  the  American  colonies  contended  for. — Bnrkers  idea. — The  first  American  C  u 
gross. — Its  demands.— How  the  question  of  independence  was  developed. — Vir 
ginia  the  h'rst  to  move  for  independence. — Tlie  Declaration  of  Independence. — The 
Articles  of  Confederation. — Diverse  character  and  circumstances  of  the  colonies.— 
The  gentry  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas. — Early  type  of  the  Yankee. — Difference 
of  races. — Its  value  in  historical  inquiries. — Commercial  spirit  of  New  Kngland 
in  the  revolution. — The  nature  and  the  value  of  ''  the  Confederation." — John  Ad 
ams'  ide*  — "  Perpetu&l  Union." — The  Confederation  a  makeshift  of  the  war. — 
**  State- rights"  in  the  treaty  of  1783. — How  the  revolution  succeeded. — Its  illustra 
tion  of  the  value  of  endurance. — Liberty  invariably  the  fruit  of  rebellion. — Tho 
two  conditions  of  all  history. 

IN  their  dissatisfaction  with  the  British  government,  the 
American  colonies  did  not  at  first  propose  the  experiment  of 
independence.  They  onbf  claimed  equality  with  Englishmen 
at  nome  in  respect  of  rights;  contending  that  the  ancient  and 
existing  charters  of  Englishmen — the  guaranties  of  Magna 
Charta,  arid  the  later  muniments  acquired  under  the  Stuarts 
— were  theirs  by  birthright ;  and  resenting  the  idea  that  they 
were  an  inferior  class  of  British  subjects,  to  be  governed  as 
Charles  I.  proposed,  and  as  even  that  luminary  of  the  law — 
Bhickstone — with  curious  obtuseness  justified,  as  the  denizens 
of  a  conquered  country. 

No  man  in  England  better  understood  the  temper  of  the 
colonists,  or  better  divined  the  future  as  containing  the  ques 
tion  of  peace  and  war  between  Great  Britain  and  America, 
than  did  Edmund  Burke.  This  illustrious  man,  who  was  riot 
only  a  superb  artist  of  words,  but  an  orator  in  action,  defended 
the  cause  of  the  colonies  with  a  happiness  of  expression,  and  a 
measure  of  zeal,  that  have  since  confirmed  to  the  world  his  repu 
tation  as  the  most  acute  and  eloquent  of  English  statesmen. 
"  Freedom,"  said  he,  "  arid  not  servitude,  is  the  cure  of  an 
archy."  He  declared  in  the  House  of  Commons  a  plan  of 
pacification  alike  simple,  generous,  and  effective.  "  My  idea," 
he  said,  u  without  considering  whether  we  yield  as  matter  of 
right,  or  grant  as  matter  of  favor,  is,  to  admit  the  people  oi 
our  colonies  into  an  interest  in  our  constitution." 


APPENDIX.  515 

The  pacific  counsels  did  not  prevail.  The  "  day-star  of  the 
English  constitution,"  as  Burke  termed  it — alba  stella — was 
not  decreed  to  arise  over  the  troubled  waters  and  shed  its  influ 
ence  of  peace.  The  colonists  were  left  to  contest  as  best  they 
might  their  claim  of  equality  with  other  subjects  of  the  Brit 
ish  crown. 

They  did  nothing  more  than  this  on  the  very  threshold  of 
the  revolution.  In  1774,  the  first  American  Congress  of  dele 
gates  met  at  Philadelphia.  On  the  14th  of  October  it  made 
a  declaration  and  adopted  resolutions  relative  to  the  rights  and 
grievances  of  the  colonies.  It  was  unanimously  resolved,  "  that 
the  respective  colonies  are  entitled  to  the  common  law  of  Eng 
land,  and  more  especially  to  the  great  and  inestimable  privilege 
of  being  tried  by  their  peers  of  the  vicinage,  according  to  the 
course  of  that  law;"  "that  they  were  entitled  to  the  benefit, 
of  such  statutes  as  existed  at  the  time  of  their  colonization, 
and  which  they  have,  by  experience,  respectively  found  to  bei 
applicable  to  their  several  and  local  circumstances  ;"  and  that 
their  ancestors,  at  the  time  of  their  immigration,  were  "  entitled 
to  all  the  rights,  liberties,  and  immunities  of  free  and  natural- 
born  subjects  within  the  realms  of  England." 

But  with  actual  hostilities  came  the  full  development  of  the 
question,  the  opportunity  to  compromise  which  had  been  lost. 
It  was  the  assertion  of  independence.  Such  was  the  reply  ot 
the  colonies,  provoked  by  the  insolence  of  power  that  had  too 
long  disdained  all  means  of  peace,  but  what  it  supposed  the 
easy  compulsion  of  three  millions  of  people  by  the  arms  of  an 
empire,  upon  which  it  was  boasted  the  sun  never  set. 

To  Virginia  belongs  the  honor  of  the  first  motion  for  inde 
pendence.  In  Congress,  on  the  7th  of  June,  1776,  the  dele 
gates  from  Virginia  moved,  in  obedience  to  instructions  from 
their  constituents,  that  the  Congress  should  declare  that  "  these 
United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  inde 
pendent  States;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to 
the  British  crown;  that  all  political  connection  between  them 
and  the  State  of  Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dis 
solved  ;  and  that  measures  should  be  immediately  taken  for 
procuring  the  assistance  of  foreign  powers,  and  a  confederation 
formed  to  bind  the  colonies  more  closely  together." 

The  proposition  aroused  a  deep  anxiety,  arid   was  received 

85 


546  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

with  no  little  opposition.  Other  colonies  had  not  kept  pace 
with  the  spirit  of  Virginia.  The  middle  colonies — Maryland, 
Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  the  Jerseys,  and  New  York — were  no 
ripe  for  the  dissolution  of  the  British  connection.  Their  dele 
gates  declared  that  it  would  be  improper  for  Congress  to  take 
such  a  capital  step  until  the  voice  of  the  people  drove  them  into  it. 

The  final  decision  was  postponed  to  the  1st  of  July.  It  was 
taken  on  the  original  motion  made  by  the  delegates  of  Vir 
ginia;  but  the  ultimate  question  was  postponed  for  a  day,  in 
order  to  obtain  unanimity  ;  and  on  the  second  of  July  twelve 
colonies  gave  their  voice  for  it, — New  York  withdrawing  from 
the  question  for  instructions,  but  subsequently  adhering  to  the 
others  through  the  decision  of  her  convention.  But  the  hesi 
tation  of  Congress  was  not  yet  entirely  over.  The  motion  of 
Virginia  has  been  triumphantly  carried ;  but  it  remained  to 
pass  upon  the  text  of  the  u  declaration"  of  independence. 
"The  pusillanimous  idea,"  said  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  author 
of  this  famous  paper,  "that  we  had  friends  in  England  worth 
keeping  terms  with,  still  haunted  the  minds  of  many."  But 
the  declaration  was  at  last  and  substantially  agreed  to  on  the 
evening  of  the  fourth  of  July,  and  subscribed  by  the  auto 
graphs  of  the  members  present;  and  thus  from  this  paper 
which  introduced  as  it  were  the  august  ceremony  of  personal 
pledges,  rather  than  from  the  official  act  of  Congress  on  the 
motion  of  Virginia,  concluded  on  the  second  of  July,  dates  the 
aatal  day  of  American  Independence. 

The  natural  companion  of  the  act  of  independence — "  the 
Unanimous  Declaration  of  the  Thirteen  United  States  of 
America" — was  the  confederation  of  the  States,  to  enable  them 
to  conduct  the  war  with  a  common  and  effective  purpose.  It 
had  been  proposed  on  the  motion  of  Virginia.  Eight  days 
after  the  declaration  of  independence,  articles  of  confederation 
were  reported.  It  was  an  obvious  necessity  of  the  war.  The 
average  population  of  the  colonies  was  less  than  two  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  inhabitants ;  and  it  would  have  been 
absurd  for  any  one  of  them  to  attempt  to  measure  arms  singly 
with  the  British  power,  and  for  each  to  conduct  the  war  on"  its 
own  responsibility. 

It  was  fortunate  indeed  that  a  common  military  necessity 
fluppL'td  what  scarcely  any  thing  else  could  have  sup- 


APPENDIX.  54:7 

plied — a  political  bond  between  colonies  suddenly  erected  into 
sovereign  States.  There  had  been  no  similarity  of  natural  cir 
cumstances  to  unite  the  colonies.  They  had  been  planted  at 
different  times,  from  1606  to  1732,  and  by  different  stocks  or 
population.  Differences  of  government,  the  sharpest  antago 
nism  of  religious  faith,  the  natural  difficulties  of  intercourse,  and- 
the  obstructions  of  trade  between  them,  as  the  effect  of  the 
navigation  laws,  which  hindered  the  development  of  their 
marine,  had  not  only  separated  the  colonies,  but  drawn 
through  them  lines  of  exasperated  division. 

The  New  England  colonies  were  settled  by  a  people  very 
different  from  those  who  laid  the  foundations  of  empire  in 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  In  those  latter  countries  the 
notions  of  chivalry  were  early  planted  by  the  Cavaliers ;  and 
in  Virginia  especially,  the  British  gentry  founded  many 
families  whose  names  have  become  illustrious  in  American 
history.*  With  such  a  stock  of  ancestors  in  the  South  the 


*  Dr.  Randall,  in  his  Life  of  Jefferson  (Vol.  I.,  pp.  3,  4,  and  5),  has  drawn  a 
strong  and  graphic  picture  of  the  early  lowland  aristocracy  of  Virginia,  which 
we  reproduce  here  for  its  historical  interest,  especially  with  reference  to  its 
contrast  to  the  Puritan  stock  of  population  in  America : 

"  In  the  early  settlement  of  Virginia,  the  inhabitants  found  the  river-bot 
toms  of  the  tide-water  region  more  fertile  than  the  intervening  sandy  ridges ; 
and  the  rivers  themselves  for  a  long  period  furnished  the  only  convenient 
means  for  transporting  heavy  products  to  or  from  the  seaboard.  The  popula 
tion,  therefore,  clung  to  their  banks,  each  new  wave  of  foreign  emigration,  or 
younger  and  spreading  generation  of  the  inhabitants,  advancing  higher  towards 
their  sources.  Lands  were  obtained  on  easy  conditions  from  the  government 
and  otherwise  ;  and  provident  individuals  secured  vast  estates.  This  was  par 
ticularly  the  case  on  James  River,  where  the  most  enterprising  and  wealthy 
of  the  earlier  emigrants  established  themselves.  Some  of  these,  men  of  par 
ticular  mark  and  energy,  acquired  possessions  vying  in  extent  with  those  of 
the  proudest  nobles  of  their  native  land.  These  were  perpetuated  in  their 
families  by  entails,  the  laws  regulating  which  were  ultimately  rendered  more 
stringent  in  Virginia  than  in  England  itself.  As  their  lands  rose^  gradually 
in  value,  the  great  lowland  proprietors  began  to  vie  with  English  nobles  in 
wealth  as  well  as  in  territory.  Many  of  them  lived  in  baronial  splendor. 
Their  abodes,  it  is  true,  were  comparatively  mean,  as  the  country  did  not .  yet 
furnish  permanent  building  materials,  except  at  vast  cost,  nor  did  it  furnish 
architects  to  make  use  of  them  ;  but  their  tables  were  loaded  with  plate  and 
with  the  luxuries  of  the  old  and  new  world  ;  numerous  slaves,  and  white  per 
sons  whose  times  they  owned  for  a  term  of  years,  served  them  in  everj 
capacity  which  use,  luxury,  or  ostentation  could  dictate  ;  and  when  they  trav, 
elled  in  state,  their  cumbrous  and  richly  appointed  coaches  were  dragged  \sy 


518  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAK. 

Eoundhead  regicide  of  the  New  England  settlements  had  but 
little  sympathy,  and  few  points  of  agreement.  The  religion  o, 
the  Puritan  settler;  his  fierce  and  relentless  persecution,  even 
to  the  extremity  of  death,  of  those  who  dissented  from  dissent; 
his  hypocritical  and  canting  selfishness,  with  which  he  robbed 
the  Indians  of  their  lands  for  "the  Lord's  people,"  and  sold 
some  of  them  into  West  Indian  slavery  ;  his  pious  formulas  of 
selfish  aggrandizement,  were  a  detestable  barrier  between  him 
and  the  Episcopalian  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolines ;  and  a 
diversity  prominent  in  religion  naturally  ran  through  the 
manners,  morals,  and  politics  of  the  two  early  stocks  of  popu 
lation  in  America. 


BIX  horses,  driven  by  three  postillions.  But  usually  the  mistress  of  the  house 
hold,  with  her  children  and  maids,  appropriated  this  vehicle.  The  Virginia 
gentleman  of  that  day,  with  much  of  the  feeling  of  earlier  feudal  times,  whea 
the  spur  was  the  badge  of  knighthood,  esteemed  the  saddle  the  most  manly 
if  not  the  only  manly  way  of  making  use  of  the  noblest  of  brutes.  He  accord 
ingly  performed  all  his  ordinary  journeys  on  horseback.  When  he  wen* 
forth  with  his  whole  household,  the  cavalcade  consisted  of  the  mounted  whitn 
males  of  his  family,  the  coach-and-six  lumbering  through  the-sands,  and  a  ret 
inue  of  mounted  body-servants,  grooms  with  spare  led  horses,  etc..  in  the  rear. 
"  In  their  general  tone  of  character,  the  lowland  aristocracy  of  Virginia 
resembled  the  cultivated  landed  gentry  of  the  mother  country.  Numbers  o» 
them  were  highly  educated  and  accomplished  by  foreign  study  and  travel ; 
and  nearly  all,  or  certainly  much  the  largest  portion,  obtained  an  excellent 
education  at  William  and  Mary  College,  after  its  establishment,  or  respectablo 
acquirements  in  the  classical  schools  kept  in  nearly  every  parish  by  the 
learned  clergy  of  the  established  Church.  As  a  class,  they  were  intelligent, 
polished  in  manner,  high-toned,  and  hospitable  —and  sturdy  in  their  loyalty 
and  in  their  adherence  to  the  national  Church.  Their  winters  were  often- 
spent  in  the  gayeties  and  festivities  of  the  provincial  capital ;  their  summers, 
when  not  connected  with  the  public  service,  principally  in  supervising  their 
immense  estates,  in  visiting  each  other,  and  in  such  amusements  as  country 
life  afforded.  Among  the  latter  the  chase  held  a  prominent  place.  Burn 
almost  to  the  saddle  and  to  the  use  of  firearms,  they  were  keen  hunters ;  antf 
when  the  chase  was  over  they  sat  round  groaning  boards,  and  drank  con 
fusion  to  Spaniard  and  Frenchman  abroad,  and  to  Roundhead  and  Prelatist 
at  home.  When  the  lurking  and  predatory  Indian  became  the  object  of  pur- 
t,  no  strength  of  the  red-man  could  withstand,  no  speed  of  his  elude  this 
y  and  gallantly  mounted  cavalry.  The  social  gulf  which  separated  this 
from  the  common  class  of  colonists  became  about  as  deep  and  wide,  and  aa 
difficult  to  overleap  in  marriage  and  other  social  arrangements,  as  that  which 
divided  the  gentry  and  peasantry  of  England.  Such  were  the  Curlers,  the 
Carys,  the  Bur  wells,  the  Byrds,  the  Fairfaxes,  the  Harrisons,  the  Lees,  tho 
Randolphs,  and  many  other  families  of  early  Virginia." 


APPENDIX. 

It  is  certainly  not  a  mere  speculation  which,  has  thought 
to  discover  in  the  history  of  the  New  England  settlements 
some  of  the  elements  of  the  character  of  the  modern  Yankee. 
We  must,  however,  take  care  not  to  push  the  speculation  too 
far.  It  has  been  often  an  over-refinement  in  the  treatment  of 
history  to  trace  up  the  character  of  nations  to  differences  in 
race  and  blood ;  forgetting  how  much  of  that  character  is  due 
to  those  developments  of  events  and  interests  which  have 
taken  place  between  the  first  beginnings  of  a  people  and  the 
period  of  historical  retrospect.  We  are  not  disposed  to  risk 
the  analysis  of  the  modern  Yankee  character  on  those  elements 
of  race  and  blood  which  were  involved  in  the  early  settlement 
of  America.  We  shall  see,  in  the  progress  of  this  inquiry,  how 
much  of  this  character  was  due  to  subsequent  development  and 
education  in  the  crooked  paths  of  their  political  history,  and 
vrhat  a  lar^e  and  various  addition  of  meanness  was  thus  made 

O 

to  the  nature  and  habit  of  the  original  New  England  colonist. 

But  in  that  early  type  of  the  colonist  we  certainly  do  dis 
cover  some  traits,  more  or  less  imperfect,  of  the  Yankee  of  a 
liAter  period.  We  would  only  warn  the  reader  from  expecting 
tx>  discover  too  much  here,  reminding  him  that  the  character 
of  a  people,  although  undoubtedly  deriving  some  elements  from 
its  ancestry,  takes,  as  does  the  individual  life,  additions  and 
modifications  from  the  school  of  events  and  influences ;  that, 
iisi  short,  the  geometrical  accuracy  of  ethnology  is  an  imperfect 
and  sophistical  guide  to  the  truth  of  history. 

Modern  events  have  most  largely  produced  the  Yankee  of 
our  day.  Yet  in  the  sniffling  Puritan,  with  his  stock  of  pious 
excuses  for  every  ferocious  scheme  of  selfishness,  and  in  the 
Massachusetts  "  trader,"  with  his  early  code  of  commercial 
politics,  which,  in  fact,  he  carried  into  the  revolution  of  1776, 
we  find  no  slight  likeness  to  the  present  generation  of  their 
Northern  descendants.  It  is  not  overstating  the  case  to  say, 
that  the  New  England  colonies  went  into  the  revolution  rather 
resenting  the  restraints  upon  their  commerce  than  animated  by 
the  pure  love  of  liberty.  Their  commercial  casuistry  had  long 
defied  the  laws  and  authority  of  the  mother  country.  Sir 
William  Berkeley,  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  when  remon- 
Btrating,  in  1671,  against  the  Navigation  Act  cutting  off  all 
trade  with  foreign  countries,  made  it  the  subject  of  particular 


550  SOUTHEKN    HISTOKY    OF    THE    WAR. 

complaint  that,  while  the  Virginians  were  "  most  obedient  to 
all  laws,  the  New  England  men  break  through,  and  men  trad* 
to  any  place  that  their  interest  leads  them."      He  had  already 
discovered  two  different  rales  of  public  morals  in  the  begin 
uings  of  American  history. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  confederation,  despite  the  plain 
military  necessity  which  demanded  it,  was  an  achievement  oi 
no  tittle  difficulty,  and  a  bond  of  very  partial  and  imperfect 
effect.  It  was  debated  for  nearly  five  years.  It  was  not  con 
summated  until  the  1st  of  March,  1781.  It  lasted  nominally 
about  eight  years,  but,  practically,  not  more  than  two.  It 
was  distinctly  founded  on  the  sovereignty  of  the  States  ;  was 
ratified  by  the  State  legislatures,  and  gave  Congress  the  power 
of  determining  questions  only  by  the  vote  of  the  States.  True, 
it  was  something  more  than  a  military  alliance.  It  was  in 
tended  to  umtr  the  resources  of  the  States,  and  to  establish  a 
foundation  for  public  credit  for  the  purposes  of  the  war.  It 
was  intended  for  nothing  more.  In  the  circular  letter  of  Con 
gress,  urging  the  reluctant  States  to  accede  to  the  confedera 
tion,  they  were  urged  "  to  conclude  the  glorious  compact,  which, 
by  uniting  the  wealth,  strength,  and  councils  of  the  whole,  might 
bid  defiance  to  external  violence  and  internal  dissensions^  whilst 
it  secured  the  public  credit  at  home  and  abroad." 

The  compact  had  been  ostentatiously  styled  in  its  title  a 
•"  perpetual  Union,"  and  Mr.  John  Adams,  of  Massachusetts, 
had  really  .desired  to  incorporate  into  it  the  features  of  a  con 
solidated  government.  These,  however,  were  the  fancies  oi 
ignorance,  and  the  dreams  of  extravagance.  The  confedera- 
tion,  indeed,  even  as  an  association  to  give  a  common  direction 
.to,  and  create  a  common  fund  for,  the  war,  was  very  imperfect 
and  lamentably  loose.  It  had  no  power  to  reach  individuals, 
,and  to  enforce  the  common  will  of  the  States.  It  could  only 
apportion  the  quota  to  be  paid  by  each  State,  but  had  no  way 
of  compelling  the  payment.  It  could  make  commercial  treaties 
with  foreign  States,  but,  unless  the  legislatures  of  the  States 
chose  to  adopt  such  commercial  regulations  in  their  ports  as 
might  be  necessary,  the  treaties  might  be  utterly  inoperative. 
Such  an  anomaly,  such  a  weak  pretence  of  a  common  govern 
ment,  could  scarcely  be  expected  to  last  beyond  the  war,  of 
which  it  was  the  makeshift.  At  the  peace,  it  naturally  went 


APPENDIX.  551 

t)  pieces.  "  Each  State,"  says  Madison,  "  yielding  to  the  voice 
of  immediate  interest  or  convenience,  withdrew  its  support 
from  the  confederation,  till  the  frail  and  tottering  edifice  was 
ready  to  fall  upon  our  heads  and  crush  us  beneath  its  ruins.* 
The  "  perpetual  Union"  was  practically  terminated  by  the 
uninterrupted  free  will  of  the  States  which  composed  it. 

The  treaty  of  1783,  which  crowned  the  success  of  the  Amer 
ican  revolution,  contained  the  only  description  which  had  evei 
been  made,  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  of  the  nature  of  the 
new  power  which  was  recognized  in  recognizing  American 
independence.  What  was  recognized,  was  the  independence 
severally  of  the  thirteen  States  formerly  colonies.  And  it  is 
especially  to  be  remarked  that  these  States  were  recognized 
severally,  arid  not  jointly,  in  the  treaty. 

The  revolution  was  thus  crowned  with  success.  But  it 
is-  doubtful  whether  there  was  any  merit  in  obtaining  it 
other  than  endurance.  The  American  armies  were  generally 
unsuccessful ;  the  American  troops — however  American  vanity 
may  proclaim  the  contrary — fought  no  better  than  the  British 
veterans.  George  Washington  was  not  a  military  genius.  The 
diplomacy  of  the  revolution  was  neither  a  monument  of  wisdom 
nor  of  letters.*  The  result  of  the  war  was  the  triumph  of  the 
endurance  of  a  people  resolved  to  be  free,  over  the  less  deter 
mined  wishes  and  interests  of  those  who  desired  merely  an  ad 
dition  of  empire. 

The  war  of  the  American  States  added  another  illustration 
to  a  curious  fact  in  all  history.  This  fact  is,  that  no  system  of 
liberty  ever  yet  emanated  from  the  generosity  or  wisdom  of 
human  rulers  ;  it  has  invariably  been  the  fruit  of  rebellion — 
the  result  of  a  contest  between  the  natural  tendency  of  power 
to  centralize  and  exaggerate  its  authority,  and  the  opposition  of 
its  subjects,  naturally  intermittent,  in  its  checks  on  usurpation. 


*  It  is  true  that  the  American  States,  in1  their  war  with  Great  Britain,  made 
connections  and  some  advantageous  arrangements  in  Europe ;  but  these  were 
natural  results,  rather  than  skilful  achievements.  The  diplomacy  of  the  revo 
lution  was  a  botch.  In  the  beginning  of  the  revolution  the  foreign  correspond, 
ence  was  intrusted  to  a  committee.  The  confederation  included  a  department 
of  foreign  affairs  ;  but  the  secretary  had  no  power  to  perform  any  thing  but 
the  specific  acts  authorized  by  Congress,  which,  at  that  time,  was  at  once  the 
executive  and  the  legislative  power. 


552  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

"We  embrace  here  the  two  conditions  of  history  :  the  tendency 
of  all  political  power,  and  the  disposition  of  its  subjects.  So 
true  are  these  of  man,  everywhere,  that  they  have  passed  into 
two  general  declarations,  which  have  the  force  of  maxims. 
The  first  is,  that  "tyranny,  when  possible,  is  always  certain." 
The  second  is  found  in  the  text  of  the  American  Declaration  of 
Independence:  "  All  experience  hath  shown  that  mankind  are 
more  disposed  to  suffer,  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right 
themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  ac 
customed." 


APPENDIX. 


553 


III. 


The  times  of  Thomas  Jefferson. — Manners  and  appearance  of  the  intn. — His  Democ 
racy. — its  application  to  the  relations  of  the  States  and  Federal  Government. — Ori 
gin  of  the  Republican  or  Democratic  party. — The  idea  of  consolidation. — New 
York,  and  the  New  England  States.— Early  political  preaching  in  New  England.-— 
The  Alien  and  Sedition  laws. — How  the  hitter  infringed  the- rights  of  the  States. — 
The  Kentucky  Resolutions. — A  fact  not  in  the  record.— Mr.  Jefferson  on  "  nullifi 
cation."— Why  the  Kentucky  Resolutions  were  modified.— The  Virginia  Resolutions. 
— The  replies  of  the  New  England  States,  and  of  New  York. — Jefferson's  triumph. 
— A  new  era  at  Washington. 

IT  has  been  fashionable  for  two  generations  to  entitle  Thomas 
Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  the  father  of  the  Democratic  party  of 
America.  Unlike  most  of  the  party  phrases  of  tradition,  this 
is  strictly  true. 

The  name  of  Jefferson  fills  a  large  space  in  American  his 
tory  ;  it  is  identified  with  an  important  and  enraged  political 
crisis ;  it  is  connected  with  much  of  party  controversy  ;  and 
for  more  than  sixty  years  his  name  has  been,  on  t}ie  one  hand, 
adorned  with  titles  of  popular  adulation,  and  on  the  other, 
coupled  with  the  very  same  terms  which  Hamilton,  his  contem 
porary  enemy,  and  the  best  representative  of  Federalist  ran 
cor,  applied  to  him — "  an  atheist  in  religion,  and  a  fanatic  in 
politics." 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  remarkable  man.  He  was  thor 
oughly  a  Virginian ;  and  he  was  by  nature  a  Democrat. 
Born  of  a  moderate  family  in  Chesterfield  County,  he  carried, 
through  all  the  honors  and  illustrious  passages  of  his  life,  the 
plain,  unostentatious,  and  kindly  manners  of  a  Virginia  farmer. 
His  sandy  hair,  and  strong  features,  and  large  bones,  were 
Virginian.  His  dress  had  always  the  quaintness  of  a  country 
man  ;  he  wore  nnder-waistcoats  and  woollen  tippets ;  and  his 
manners,  unaffected  as  his  dress,  invited  all  classes  of  persons 
to  approach  him. 

We  have  said  that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  Democrat  by 
nature.  His  official  residence  in  France,  as  minister  to  that 
court  from  1784  to  1Y89,  is  reported  to  have  been  the  occasion 


55*1  SOUTEEKN    HISTOBY    01    THE    WAR. 

of  contracting  peculiar  views  on  the  subject  of  popular  rights 
It,  no  doubt,  added  something  to  them  ;  but  he  had  contracted 
his  king-phobia  in  the  Revolution,  in  his  own  country,  and 
before  there  ,was  such  a  thing  as  a  Democrat  in  France.  His 
hatred  of  monarchy  was  expressed  in  such  intense  words,  as 
could  only  have  come  from  ideas  identified  with  the  constitu 
tion  of  the  mind.  There  was  a  savage  sincerity  in  all  he  ever 
said  or  wrote  of  monarchies.  The  people  who  lived  under 
them,  he  divided  into  two  classes, — "  wolves  and  sheep." 
Among  the  lessojis  which  he  recommended  to  those  of  hi? 
countrymen,  who  were,  in  1787,  debating  the  idea  of  a  new 
constitution,  were  "  never  to  call  on  foreign  powers  to  settle 
their  differences  ;  to  guard  against  hereditary  magistrates  ;  to 
prevent  their  citizens  from  becoming  so  established  in  wealth 
and  power,  as  to  be  thought  worthy  of  alliance,  by  marriage, 
with  the  nieces,  sisters,  etc.,  of  kings ;  and,  in  short,  to  besiege 
the  throne  of  Heaven  with  eternal  prayers,  to  extirpate  from 
creation  that  class  of  human  lions,  tigers,  and  mammoths,  called 
kings."  There  is  an  unpleasant  excess  in  these  views.  But 
we  may  certainly  pardon  something  to  the  rhetorical  fervor  of 
strong  convictions. 

When  Jefferson  returned  to  America,  the  name  of  Democrat 
was  not  popular  there.  His  most  careful  biographer,  Dr. 
Randall  says :  "  In  1786,  and  for  some  period  later,  there 
were  few,  if  any,  prominent  Americans  who  avowed  them 
selves  in  favor  of  a  broadly  Democratic  system.  In  the 
Federal  Convention  of  1787  (which  framed  'our  constitution), 
not  a  man  could  be  found  who  advocated  such  systems,  or  was 
willing  to  be  suspected  of,  at  he-art,  favoring  them.  There 
were  gentlemen  in  that  Convention  who  avowed  themselves 
monarchists  in  theory  ;  but  not  one  could  be  found  who  would 
take  the  name  of  Democrat !  Jefferson  was  the  first,  and  for 
a  long  time  the  only  very  prominent  American  we  know  of, 
who  was  \villing  persistently  to  avow  that  Democracy  con 
stituted  the  essence  of  his  system,  or  the  rule  of  construction 
which  he  would  apply  to  the  mixed  forms  of  the  State  and 
Federal  Governments." 

It  is  in  its  application  to  the  relations  subsisting  between 
the  State  and  Federal  authority  that  we  find  the  technical 
meaning  of  that  broad  nomenclature — the  Democratic  party 


APPENDIX.  655 


of  America.  The  application  of  the  general  principle  of 
mocracy  —  the  doctrine  of  popular  rights  —  to  this  relation  wag 
obvious.  Mr.  Jefferson  was,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  persuaded 
that  there  was  a  monarchical  party,  more  or  less  disguised,  in 
America.  It  is  probable  that  he  fought  nothing  more  than  a 
shadow  in  this,  and  mistook  a  fondness  of  the  Federalists  foi 
the  traditions  and  fashions  of  the  ante-revolutionaiy  period  —  a 
depraved  appetite  for  social  ceremonies  in  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  —  as  a  desire  for  the  substance  as  well  as  the  trap 
pings  of  monarchy. 

But  Jefferson  had  a  real  substance  to  fight  in  the  consolida 
tion  school  of  politics,  which  was  early  established  in  New 
York,  and  in  the  New  England  States.  It  is  true  that  the 
propositions  of  this  school  bordered  on  the  monarchical  idea  ; 
but  it  is  extravagant  to  say  that  they  fully  implied  it.  They 
suggested  no  change  in  the  republican  forms  of  the  General 
Government.  But  the  idea  of  the  Federalists  was  to  accumu 
late  power  in  that  Government  at  the  expense  of  the  States  ;  to 
impair  these  original  political  institutions  of  America  ;  and  to 
strike  down,  in  the  States,  that  principle  of  local  sovereignty 
which  had  been  interposed  between  the  general  authority  and 
people,  and  which,  in  fact,  from  the  days  of  the  Saxon^Octar 
chy  to  those  of  the  American  Union,  may  be  taken  as  consti 
tuting  the  most  important  bulwark  of  popular  liberty. 

The  idea  of  consolidation  had  obtained  early  popularity  and 
rapid  growth  in  the  Northern  States.  Mr.  Jefferson  found  his 
most  powerful  enemies  in  the  compact  masses  of  Federalists 
in  New  England.  It  was  during  his  party  contests  with  Mr. 
Adams'  administration,  and  his  subsequent  campaign,  for  the 
presidency,  that  we  may  find  the  development  of  the  peculiar 
spirit  of  hierocracy  in  New  England  —  a  disposition  of  the 
clergy  to  control  in  secular  affairs  —  and  date  that  era  of  polit~ 
ical  preaching,  which  has  had  so  much  to  do  with  Yankee 
politics,  and  the  party  education  of  Northern  mobs.  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  never  pelted  from  the  hustings  and  ward-rooms 
with  viler  abuse,  than  from  the  pulpits  of  New  England. 
Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith,  of  Shena,  declared  that  he  had 
been  guilty  of  l'  fraud  arid  robbery  ;"  and  with  that  usual 
decent  and  Christian  weapon  of  New  England—  an  attack  on 
private  life  —  deluged  him  with  vituperations  from  the  pulp«f 


556  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

and  pronounced  stern  maranatlia  on  the  man.  At  other  New 
England  divine  made  an  elaborate  parallel  between  the  dis 
tinguished  Virginian  and  the  wicked  Rehoboam,  printed  his 
u  sermon,"  and  distributed  it  through  the  land.  This  Puri 
tanical  rancor  mingled  largely  in  the  party  conflicts  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  time;  but  probably  disturbed  him  less  than  any 
other  element  of  enmity.  He  had  a  greater  contempt  for 
religious  fanaticism  than  for  any  other  form  of  error ;  he  was 
inclined  to  jest  on  it ;  he  was  never  disposed  to  appease  attacks 
on  his  private  character;  he  was  satisfied  to  trust  himself  to 
the  tests  of  reason,  and  to  do  his  work  faithfully  and  patiently 
for  history.  That  work  was  the  foundation  of  the  Republican 
party,  known  long  after  him  as  the  Democratic,  or  State- 
rights  party  of  America. 

The  administration  of  John  Adams  was  distinguished  by 
two  important  assaults  on  the  liberties  of  the  country — one  of 
them  involving  an  obvious  infringement  of  the  principle  of 
State  sovereignty.  These  were  the  Alien  and  the  Sedition  laws. 
The  first,  passed  Congress  on  the  22d  day  of  June,  1798, 
authorized  the  President  to  deport  at  pleasure,  aliens  whom 
he  might  judge  "dangerous  to  the  peace  and  safet}T  of  the 
United  States."  The  second,  passed  the  14th  of  July,  1798, 
abridged  the  freedom  of  the  press,  by  an  odious  bill  of  penalties, 
and  assumed  to  punish,  bj7  fine  and  imprisonment,  "  false, 
scandalous,  and  malicious  writings"  against  the  Government. 
It  did  more  than  aim  a  blow  at  civil  liberty:  it  conv^ed  an 
attack  against  the  structure  of  the  Government,  and  the  vital 
principle  of  the  Federal  compact.  It  was  inferred,  from  the 
existence  of  State  laws  on  the  subject,  that  Congress  had  a 
similar  power  of  legislation  ;  that  its  authority  might  thus  be 
deduced  from  implication  ;  violating  the  cardinal  principle  of 
the  Democratic  or  Republican  school,  that  the  State  sovereign 
ties  w6re  only  diminished  by  the  powers  specifically  enume 
rated,  and  that  the  Federal  agency  had  no  power  whatever  to 
intrude  upon  the  reserved  ground.  It  is  easily  seen  that  the 
extent  of  the  pretension  was  to  endow  Congress  with  a  power 
of  legislation  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  to  strip  the  States  of  their 
sovereignty,  and  to  despoil  them  of  all  the  rights  they  had 
reserved  to  themselves. 

Against   this   tremendous  pretension,  Jefferson  raised  the 


APPENDIX-  557 

stai.dard  of  party  revolt.  The  leading  republicans  in  Congress 
formed  a  plan  of  action,  which  was,  *-to  retire  from  that  Held, 
and  take  a  stand  in  the  State  legislatures"  against  Federalist 
enterprises  on  the  constitution.  The  co-operation  of  Kentucky 
with  Virginia  was  assured.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  consulted,  and 
from  his  pen  emanated  the  famous  Kentucky  Resolution^ 
which  were  passed  almost  unanimously  by  the  Legislature  ot 
that  State,  in  November,  1798,  and  which  have  since  con 
stituted  the  most  august  text  of  the  principles  of  American 
Democracy,  and  for  two  generations  have  been  the  exacting 
standard  of  party  authority. 

The  first  of  these  resolutions  was  in  the  nature  of  a  general 
declaration  of  principles,  while  others  of  the  series  practically 
applied  to  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  and  other  excesses  of 
the  Federalists.  It  is  sufficient  to  quote  it : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  several  States  composing  the  United  States  of  America, 
are  not  united  on  the  principle  of  unlimited  submission  to  their  General 
Government ;  but  that  by  compact,  under  the  style  and  title  of  a  constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  of  amendments  thereto,  they  constituted  a  General 
Government  for  special  purposes,  delegated  to  that  Government  certain  definite 
powers,  reserving,  each  State  to  itself,  the  residuary  mass  of  right  to  their  own 
self-government ;  and,  that  whensoever  the  General  Government  assumes 
undelegated  powers,  its  acts  are  unauthoritative,  void,  and  of  no  force;  that 
to  this  compact  each  State  acceded  as  a  State,  and  is  an  integral  party ;  that 
this  Government,  created  by  this  compact,  was  not  made  the  exclusive  or 
final  judge  of  the  extent  of  the  powers  delegated  to  itself;  since  that  would 
have  made  its  discretion,  and  not  the  constitution,  the  measure  of  its  powers  ; 
but,  that  as  in  all  other  cases  of  compact  among  parties  having  no  common 
judge,  each  party  has  an  equal  right  to  judge  for  itself,  as  well  of  infractions 
as  of  the  mode  and  measure  of  redress." 

But  there  was  something  behind  this  record  which  is  not 
to  be  omitted  from  history.  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  original 
draft  of  the  resolutions,  as  it  came  from  his  hand,  had  proposed 
the  remedy  for  an  assumption  by  Congress  of  powers  not 
delegated  to  it.  He  was  too  logical  to  slate  conclusions  del 
icately.  He  declared  the  right-  of  nullification.  In  the  ninth 
of  the  series  of  resolutions,  he  wrote:  "That  in  cases  of  an 
abuse  of  the  delegated  powers,  the  members  of  the  General 
Government  being  chosen  by  the  people,  a  change  by  the 
people  would  be  the  constitutional  remedy  ;  but,  where  powers 
are  assumed  which  have  not  been  delegated,  a  nulliricatiou  of 


558  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  act  is  the  rightful  remedy  ;  that  every  State  has  a  natural 
light  in  cases  not  within  the  compact  (casus  non fwderis),  to 
•lullity,  of  their  own  authority,  all  assumptions  of  power  by 
others  within  their  limits ;  that,  without  this  right,  they  would 
be  under  the  dominion,  absolute  and  unlimited,  of  whosoever 
might  exercise  this  right  of  judgment  over  them  ;  that,  never 
theless,  this  commonwealth,  from  motives  of  regard  and  respect 
for  its  co-states,  has  wished  to  communicate  with  them  on  the 
subject." 

It  remained  for  another  generation  of  American  people  to 
consider  the  "rightful  remedy"  of  nullification,  and  for  the 
masterly  mind  of  Mr.  Calhoun  to  develop  Mr.  Jefferson's  idea 
expressed  above  ;  to  modify  it,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  himself,  in 
another  period  of  his  life,  did  modify  it  to  a  call  of  convention 
of  States ;  and  to  draw  out  of  this  first  crude  suggestion  of  a 
remedy  the  most  finished  and  conservative  plan  that  was  ever 
devised  in  the  politics  of  America,  to  exorcise  the  spirit  of 
sectionalism,  and  to  save  an  imperilled  Union. 

But  the  peril  of  1798  was  not  important  enough  to  force  a 
discussion  of  the  remedy  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had  indicated. 
He  was  satisfied  to  declare  the  right  of  it.  It  was  supposed 
that  the  repeal  of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  might  be  effected 
without  invoking  extraordinary  remedies  ;  and  that  it  was 
best  to  accomplish  it  without  unnecessary  ferment,  and  through 
the- forms  of  polite  remonstrance.  Mr.  Jefferson  thought  so. 
He  wrote  to  a  friend  :  "  For  the  present,  I  shall  be  for  resolv 
ing  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws  to  be  against  the  constitution, 
and  merely  void,  and  for  addressing  the  other  States  to  obtain 
similar  declarations ;  and  I  would  not  do  any  thing  at  this 
moment  which  should  commit  us  further,  but  reserve  ourselves 
to  shape  our  future  measures,  or  no  measures,  by  the  events 
which  may  happen." 

It  was  in  a  similar  conviction,  and  probably  with  the  con 
currence  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  that  the  Kentucky  Legislature 
modified  the  eighth  resolution,  so  as  to  omit  any  allusion  to 
ulterior  remedies,  simply  requiring  their  representatives  to  use 
their  best  endeavors  for  the  repeal  in  Congress  of  the  obnoxious 
legislation  referred  to.  The  governor  was  requested  to  transmit 
the  resolutions  to  the  other  States,  and  solicit  their  concurrence 
in  procuring  the  desired  repeal. 


APPENDIX. 

Virginia  followed  the  action  of  Kentucky.  In  December, 
1798,  her  legislature  passed  a  series  of  resolutions  responsive 
to  those  of  Kentucky.  They  were  drafted  by  Mr.  Madison. 
They  referred  to  the  spirit  of  the  Federal  Government  "  to 
enlarge  its  powers  by  forced  constructions  of  the  constitutional 
charter,"  and  "  so  to  consolidate  the  States  by  degrees  into 
one  sovereignty."  They  peremptorily  declared  that  they 
viewed  "the  powers  of. the  Federal  Government,  as  resulting 
from  the  compact,  to  which  the  States  are  parties,  as  limited 
by  the  plain  sense  and  intention  of  the  instrument  constituting 
that  compact,  as  no  further  valid  than  they  are  authorized  by 
the  grants  enumerated  in  that  compact ;  and  that  in  case  of  a 
deliberate,  palpable,  and  dangerous  exercise  of  other  powers, 
not  granted  by  the  said  compact,  the  States,  who  are  parties 
thereto,  have  the  right,  and  are  in  duty  bound,  to  interpose 
for  arresting  the  progress  of  the  evil,  and  for  maintaining 
within  their  respective  limits,  the  authorities,  rights,  and 
liberties  appertaining  to  them." 

The  resolutions  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky  were  communi 
cated  to  the  other  States  for  council  and  co-operation.  They 
drew  upon  them  a  unanimous  burst  of  Federalist  denunciation 
from  all  of  the  New  England  States.  The  replies  of  these 
States,  and  that  of  New  York,  reveal  the  extent  of  the  early 
establishment  of  the  consolidation  school  in  the  North,  and 
discover  those  principles  from  which  have  flowed  the  more 
modern  political  principles  of  the  Yankee. 

Each  of  the  New  England  States,  confounding  judicial  cases 
with  political  questions,  declared  that  the  State  legislatures 
had  no  power  to  supervise  the  acts  of  the  General  Govern 
ment  (which,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say,  parenthetically, 
was  to  nullity  the  political  influence  of  the  States) ;  that  the 
construction  of  such  laws  as  the  Alien  and  Sedition  acts  was 
exclusively  vested  in  the  judicial  courts  of  the  United  States. 
Yet  each  of  these  States  went  out  of  the  way  to  affirm,  specu- 
latively,  the  constitutionality  and  expediency  of  these  acts. 
Massachusetts  declared,  that  in  no  circumstances  had  the  State 
legislatures  "  the  right  to  denounce  the  administration  of  that 
government  to  which  the  people  themselves,  by  a  solemn 
compact,  had  exclusively  committed  their  national  concerns." 
The  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantation  declared, 


560  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

that  the  resolutions  of  Virginia  were  "  very  unwarrantable, >J 
and  "  hazarded  an  interruption  of  the  peace  of  the  States  b^ 
civil  discord."  Connecticut  "explicitly  disavowed"  the 
principles  contained  in  these  resolutions.  New  Hampshire 
thought  the  State  legislatures  were  not  the  proper  tribunals 
to  pass  upon  the  laws  of  the  General  Government.  Vermont 
"highly  disapproved"  of  the  Virginia  resolutions,  and  thought 
them  "  unconstitutional  in  their  nature,  and  dangerous  in 
their  tendency."  New  York,  then  united  to  New  England 
by  the  tie  of  Federalism,  and  long  kept  in  that  bad  alliance 
by  the  influence  of  Hamilton,  exceeded  even  the  intolerance 
of  her  Puritan  associates.  Her  legislature  declared  that  they 
observed  with  anxiety  and  regret  "  the  inflammatory  and  per 
nicious  sentiments,  and  doctrines  which  are  contained  in  the 
resolutions  of  Virginia  and  Kentucky.1" 

On  the  issues  involved  in  the  Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolu 
tions,  Mr.  Jefferson  achieved  a  decisive  triumph,  and  by  his 
election  to  the  presidency  in  1800  put  the  Federalist  party 
almost  out  of  existence.  After  that  event,  it  may  be  said  to 
have  degenerated  into  a  mere  local  faction.  Mr.  Jefferson 
launched  the  country  into  a  career  of  Democratic  simplicity, 
and  real  substantial  prosperity,  that  ran  through  many  years. 

He  abolished  all  the  stately  ceremonials  which  had  grown 
up  in  Washington's  administration.  He  discontinued  the 
levees  at  the  Executive  Mansion  ;  he  dispensed  with  the 
pageant  of  opening  Congress  ;  he  threw  the  doors  of  that 
assembly  open,  for  the  first  time,  to  newspaper  reporters,  and 
broke  down,  as  far  as  possible,  every  barrier  of  ceremony  and 
exclusiveness  between  the  Government  and  the  people.  The 
simplicity  of  his  inauguration  into  office  made  people  stare. 
Ail  English  spectator  thus  describes  his  appearance  on  the 
occasion  :  "  His  dress  was  of  plain  cloth,  and  he  rode  on  horse 
back  to  the  Capitol,  without  a  single  guard,  or  even  servant, 
in  his  train;  dismounted  without  assistance,  and  hitched  the 
bridle  of  his  horse  to  the  palisades." 

But  Mr.  Jefferson  marked  the  administration  of  his  high 
office  with  changes  much  more  important  than  outward  tokens 
of  Democratic  simplicity.  He  instituted  a  rule  of  rigid  econ 
omy  in  every  department  of  the  Government.  By  economy 
aloue,  he  reduced  the  public  debt  twelve  millions  of  dollars. 


APPENDIX 


By  tlie  purchase  of  Louisiana  and  treaties  with  the  Indiar.s, 
he  doubled  the  area  of  the  United  States.  The  second  census 
of  the  United  States  presented  an  increase  of  t.r.fjif\&  from 
nineteen  to  ninety-four  millions  of  dollars.  The  'rvitry  vra? 
on  the  high  and  plain  road  to  prosperity. 


SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAB. 


IV. 

The  slavery  question. — A  libel  on  political  nomenclature. — A  brief  moral  de 
fence  of  negro  servitude  in  the  Soirth. — The  history  of  its  establishment. — 
Accommodation  of  the  slavery  question  in  the  Constitution. — Political  history  ol 
the  question. — The  Hartford  Convention. — Two  blows  aimed  at  the  South. — Devel 
opment  of  the  slavery  controversy. — Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  as  to  slavery  in 
the  territories. — The  Missouri  restriction. — The  initial  point  of  the  war  of  section*. — 
Mr.  Jefferson's  alarm. — The  trace  of  disunion. — Real  causes  of  conflict  between 
the  North  and  the  South. — The  slavery  question  subordinate  and  yet  conspicu 
ous. — Why  so  ? — How  it  was  bound  up  in  the  conflict  between  State-rights  and 
consolidation. — Northern  civilization. — An  insolent  democracy. — Yankee  "gentle 
men." — Plainness  of  the  South. — A  noble  type  of  civilization. — Effect  of  slavery 
on  the  political  and  social  character  of  the  South. — Yankee  vulgarity. — Why  the 
South  was  the  nursery  of  American  statesmen. 

THE  peaceful  and  fortunate  career  on  which  Mr.  Jefferson's 
administration  launched  the  country  was  to  meet  with  a 
singular  interruption.  That  interruption  was  the  sectional 
agitation  which  finally  broke  the  bonds  of  the  Union  and 
plunged  North  and  South  into  one  of  the  fiercest  wars  of 
modern  times.  The  occasion  of  that  conflict  was  what  the  Yan 
kees  called — by  one  of  their  convenient  libels  in  political  no 
menclature — slavery  •  but  what  was  in  fact  nothing  more  than 
a  system  of  negro  servitude  in  the  South ;  well  guarded  by  laws, 
which  protected  the  negro  laborer  in  the  rights  of  humanity ; 
moderated  by  Christian  sentiments  which  provided  for  his 
welfare ;  and,  altogether,  one  of  the  mildest  and  most  benefi 
cent  systems  of  servitude  in  the  world. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  enter  upon  a  moral  defence  of 
slavery  in  the  South  (using,  as  we  would  remind  the  reader, 
that  opprobrious  term,  wherever  it  occurs  in  these  pages, 
under  a  constant  protest,  and  simply  because  it  has  become 
the  familiar  word  in  the  party  controversies  of  America  to 
describe  the  peculiar  institution  of  labor  in  the  South).  Our 
object  in  these  pages  is  simply  with  the  political  complications 
of  slavery.  But  as  a  problem  in  morals  there  are  but  two 
principles  which  decide  it ;  and  these  Tve  may  briefly  turn  our 


APPENDIX.  563 

pen  to  announce,  candidly  believing  them  to  be  the  summary 
of  the  entire  ethics  of  negro  servitude  in  the  South : 

1.  The  white  being  the  superior  race,  and  the  black  the  in 
ferior,  subordination,  with  or  without  law,  must  be  the  status 
of  the  African  in  the  mixed  society  of  whites  and  blacks. 

2.  It  thus  becomes  the  interest  of  both  races,  especially  of 
the  inferior  race,  that  this  status  should  be  fixed  and  pro 
tected  by  law ;  and  it  was  simply  the  declaration  and  defini 
tion  of  this  principle  that  went  by  the  name  of  negro  slavery 
in  the  South. 

Slavery  (without  that  moderation  of  legislative  checks  and 
Christian  sentiments  which  were  the  constant  employment  of 
the  South)  had  been  planted  in  America  by  the  direct  and 
persistent  action  of  the  British  government.  It  was  the  com 
mon  law  of  the  thirteen  colonies  before  their  separation  from 
England.  The  mother  country  established  negro  slavery  in 
the  colonies.  It  maintained  and  protected  the  institution.  It 
originated  and  carried  on  the  slave  trade.  It  forbade  the  col 
onies  permission  either  to  emancipate  or  export  their  slaves. 
It  prohibited  them  from  inaugurating  any  legislation  in  dimi 
nution  or  discouragement  of  the  institution.  Even  after  the 
Continental  Congress  had  been  assembled,  and  the  battle  of 

O  / 

Lexington  had  been  fought,  the  earl  of  Dartmouth,  British 
Secretary  of  State,  in  answer  to  a  remonstrance  from  the  agent 
of  the  colonies  on  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade,  replied  :  "  We 
cannot  allow  the  colonies  to  check  or  discourage  in  any  degree 
a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the  nation." 

In  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  slavery  question 
had  been  singularly  accommodated.  Two  clauses  covered  it. 
The  first  guaranteed  to  the  South  its  property — it  provided  for 
the  return  of  slaves  recognized  as  the  property  of  their  South 
ern  masters.  Another  clause,  in  the  interest  of  the  North, 
prevented  a  disturbance  of  the  representative  system  by  an 
importation  of  slaves,  and  provided  that  the  South  should  not 
increase  her  negro  population  (five  of  which  in  the  basis  of 
representation  were  made  equal  to  three  white  men)  by  im 
portation  after  the  lapse  of  twenty  years. 

The  political  history  of  the  slavery  question  in  the  early 
periods  of  the  American  Union  is  scarcely  more  than  an 
enumeration  of  dates  or  of  measures  which  were  taken  aa 


564:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

matters  of  course.  The  action  of  the  first  Congress,  in  relation 
to  slavery  in  the  territories,  was  simply  to  acquiesce  in  a 
government  for  the  Northwest  territory,  "based  upon  a  pre 
existing  anti-slavery  ordinance — the  ordinance  of  1781-87. 
The  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1793  was  passed  without  opposition 
and  without  a  division  in  the  Senate  ;  and  in  the  House,  by  a 
vote  of  forty-eight  to  seven.  The  slave  trade  was  declared 
piracy.  Petitions  upon  the  slavery  question  were  at  first  re 
ferred  to  a  committee ;  and  afterwards  were  rejected,  and  in 
one  instance  returned  to  the  petitioner.  Louisiana  and  Florida, 
both  slaveholding  countries,  were  added  to  our  territories 
without  agitation  in  Congress.  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Missis 
sippi,  and  Alabama  were  admitted  into  the  Union,  bringing 
the  institution  of  slavery  with  them,  without  a  murmur  of 
opposition. 

It  is  to  be  remarked,  however,  that  that  jealousy  of  South 
ern  domination  which  was  the  characteristic  and  controlling 
element  of  the  Northern  mind,  and  which  afterwards  became 
singularly  associated  with  the  slavery  discussion,  may  be 
dated  with  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana.  The  famous  Hartford 
Convention,  held  in  1814,  aimed  two  remarkable  blows  at  the 
power  of  the  South.  It  proposed  to  strike  down  the  slave  rep 
resentation  in  Congress,  and  to  have  the  representation  con 
formed  to  the  number  of  free  persons  in  the  Union  \  and  as  a 
further  restriction  upon  the  power  of  the  South — the  extension 
of  our  territory  being  then  in  that  direction — it  proposed  an 
amendment  to  the  constitution,  to  the  effect  that  no  new 
States  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  without  the  concur 
rence  of  two-thirds  of  both  Houses  of  Congress. 

But  the  slavery  question  was  as  yet  only  incidental  to  this 
sectional  rivalry,  and  was  scarcely  yet  developed  into  a  dis 
tinct  and  independent  controversy.  There  was  some  genera) 
discussion  as  to  the  policy  of  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
new  territories  ;  and  some  political  union,  without,  however, 
any  distinct  lines  of  party  organization,  had  already  been 
occasioned  in  the  North  by  a  proposition  to  extend  the  ordi 
nance  of  1787  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  It  is  a  remarkable 
circumstance,  in  connection  with  these  early  discussions  of 
the  "  Free- Soil "  school,  that  Mr.  Jefferson,  notwithstanding  his 
connection  with  the  ordinance  of  1787,  was  in  favor  of  the  free 


APPENDIX.  565 

and  unlimited  extension  of  slavery  ovei  the  new  soil  acquired 
by  the  United  States.  And  he  maintained  this  view  on  a 
very  singular  and  ingenious  ground:  it  was  that  "the  dif 
fusion  of  the  slaves  over  a  greater  surface  would  make  them 
•'ndividually  happier,  and  proportionally  facilitate  the  accom 
plishment  of  their  emancipation,  by  dividing  the  burden  on  a 
greater  number  of  coadj  utors." 

It  may  be  said  generally — notwithstanding  the  episode  of 
the  Hartford  Convention — which  fell  into  early  disrepute — 
that  there  was  nothing  in  the  precedents  of  the  Government  to 
betoken  that  wild  and  violent  controversy  nursed  in  the  selfish 
mind  of  the  North,  which,  in  1820,  was  to  break  through  the 
bonds  of  secret  jealousy  and  array  the  country  into  two 
sectional  parties  struggling  for  supremacy,  on  opposite  con 
victions,  or  perhaps  on  opposite  pretences,  with  regard  to  the 
slavery  question. 

The  Missouri  legislation — by  which  the  institution  of  slavery 
was  bounded  by  a  line  of  latitude — naturally  divided  the 
United  States  into  geographical  parties,  and  tore  the  country 
in  twain.  It  create-d  for  the  first  time  a  distinct  political 
North  and  a  distinct  political  South.  It  is  to  be  taken  as  the 
proper  initial  point  of  that  war  of  sections  which  raged  in 
America  for  forty  years,  and  at  last  culminated  in  an  appeal 
to  arms.  The  discussion  of  the  Missouri  matter  awoke  the 
anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  country  that  had  for  some  years 
past  been  almost  completely  dormant.  It  was  the  occasion 
of  a  call  of  a  convention  of  abolitionists  at  Philadelphia.  It 
tired  the  passions  of  the  populace,  and  to  the  serious  statesmen 
of  the  country  gave  unbounded  alarm.  "  From  the  battle  of 
Bunker's  Hill  to  the  treaty  of  Paris  we  never  had  so  ominous 
a  question,"  said  Mr.  Jefferson.  To  a  friend  he  wrote :  "  This 
momentous  question,  like  a  fire-bell  in  the  night,  awakened 
and  filled  me  with  terror."  After  the  passage  of  what  was 
called  "  a  compromise  "  in  Congress,  he  wrote  :  "  The  question 
sleeps  for  the  present,  but  is  not  dead."  "  A  geographical 
line,  coinciding  with  a  marked  principle,  moral  and  political, 
once  conceived  and  held  up  to  the  angry  passions  of  men  will 
not  be  obliterated ;  and  every  new  irritation  will  make  it 
deeper  and  deeper."  The  Sage  of  Monti  cello  spoke  propheti- 


566  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAK. 

cally,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  put  on  record  this  remarkable 
declaration : 

"  I  regret  that  I  am  now  to  die  in  the  belief  that  the  useles 
sacrifice  of  themselves,  by  the  generation  of  1776,  to  acquire 
self-government  and  happiness  to  their- country,  is  to  be  thrown 
away  by  the  unwise  and  unworthy  passions  of  their  sons  ;  and 
that  my  only  consolation  is  to  be,  I  live  not  to  weep  over  it. 
If  they  would  but  dispassionately  weigh  the  blessings  they 
will  throw  away,  against  an  abstract  principle  more  likely  to 
be  affected  by  union  than  by  scission,  they  would  pause  before 
they  would  perpetrate  this  act  of  suicide  on  themselves,  and  of 
treason  against  the  hopes  of  the  world." 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  right  in  designating  the  Missouri  Re 
striction  as  the  preliminary  trace  of  disunion.  Thereafter,  the 
slavery  question  was  developed  as  a  well-defined  controversy  ; 
and  for  forty  years  the  most  ingenious  attempts  to  appease  it, 
and  to  erase  the  geographical  line,  which  was  drawn  in  1820, 
were  worse  than  ineffectual. 

But  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  true  causes  of  sectional 
.animosity  between  the  North  and  the  South  were  beyond  the 
slavery  question,  although  unavoidably  and  indissolubly  con 
nected  with  it.  If  we  are  to  analyze  that  animosity,  we  shall 
discover  that  its  deep-lying  causes  were  certain  radical  an 
tipathies,  which  discovered  slavery  as  the  most  prominent 
ground  of  distinction  between  the  two  sections,  and  seized 
upon  it  as  the  readiest  point  of  controversy.  We  must  not 
fall  into  the  common  error  of  taking  occasions  for  original 
agents,  and  confounding  as  one  a  number  of  causes,  attached 
to  each  other,  or  even  grown  out  of  each  other,  and  yet  logi- 
.cally  distinct.  The  war  between  North  and  South  was  es 
sentially  a  war  between  two  great  political  schools,  and 
what  is  more,  between  two  distinct  civilizations.  Yet  in  both 
regards,  the  slavery  question  was  bound  up  in  the  conflict,  be 
ing,  in  the  first  place,  an  inevitable  issue  between  the  States- 
rights  and  consolidation  schools;  and,  in  the  second  place, 
itself  being  the  most  prominent  cause  of  the  distinction  between 
the  civilizations,  or  social  autonomies  of  North  and  South. 

It  is  thus  that  the  slavery  question,  although  subordinate— 
although,  so  to  speak,  a  smaller  question  than  those  with 
which  it  was  associated — pervaded  al1  of  American  politics. 


APPENDIX.  567 

and  played  the  conspicuous  part  in  the  dissolution  of  tho 
Union.  The  two  great  political  tendencies  in  America — that 
of  consolidation  and  that  of  State-rights — naturally  joined 
issue  on  slavery ;  for  the  first  school,  recognizing  the  authority 
at  Washington  as  a  national  one,  could  easily  presume  it 
responsible  for  what  was  denounced  as  "  the  plague-spot  of 
the  country,"  and  deplored  as  a  tarnish  of  the  American 
name.  Again,  as  the  North  envied  the  peculiar  intellectual 
civilization  of  the  South,  its  higher  sentimentalism,  and  its 
superior  refinements  of  scholarship  and  manners,,  it  would 
naturally  find  the  leading  cause  of  these  things  in  the  peculiar 
institution  of  slavery,  and  concentrate  upon  it  all  the  unscru 
pulous  rage  of  jealousy,  and  that  singularly  bitter  hate,  which 
is  inseparable  from  a  sense  of  inferiority. 

Free  labor  founded  in  the  North  a  material  civilization,  a 
pestilent  system  of  public  schools,  and  that  insolent  democ 
racy  which  went  by  the  phrase,  "  D — n  you,  I  am  as  good  as 
you."  That,  and  "commercial"  politics,  made  the  North  pros 
perous;  a  showy,  glittering  mass  of  all  the  national  elements 
of  civilization,  by  the  side  of  the  apparently  scanty,  but  re 
fined,  South.  Northern  men  were  apt  to  sneer  at  the  uncul 
tivated  aspects  of  the  South  ;  to  point  to  the  slight  nets  of 
internal  improvements  that  stretched  over  tracts  of  wild 
timber  and  swamps  ;  to  laugh  at  the  plain  architecture  in  tho 
cities  of  the  South ;  and  to  talk,  with  great  self-complacency, 
of  "  the  want  of  enterprise"  in  the  slaveholding  States.  Yet 
after  all,  the  Yankee  trader  had  a  sneaking,  irrepressible  con 
sciousness  that  the  Southern  planter,  in  his  homespun  garb, 
was  infinitely  his  superior  as  a  gentleman  ;  that  he  could  not 
compete  with  him  in  courage,  in  the  sentiment  of  honor,  in 
the  refinements  of  manners,  or  in  any  of  the  solid  and  merito 
rious  accomplishments  of  manhood.  The  sleek  business  men 
of  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  might  be  very  im 
pressive  in  their  exteriors,  but  they  never  had  any  manners; 
they  were  not  even  accustomed  to  the  words,  "Sir"  and  "gen 
tleman,"  in  their  conversation ;  they  might  talk  a  learned 
iargon  about  stocks  and  markets,  but  beyond  that,  in  matters 
of  history  and  literature,  many  of  these  well-dressed  men  were 
as  ignorant  as  the  draymen  at  their  door. 

Despite  the  plainness  of  the  South,  and  the  absence  there  ot 


668  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

the  shows  and  gauds  of  material  prosperity,  and  the  insepar 
able  companion  of  such  prosperity  in  a  moneyed  aristocracy, 
there  was  recognizable,  in  this  slaveholding  country,  a  noble 
and  singularly  pure  type  of  civilization.  Slavery  introduced 
elements  of  order  and  conservatism  in  the  society  of  the 
South  ;  and  yet,  after  all,  there  was  no  truer  democracy  in  the 
world  than  there :  the  lower  white  classes  recognizing,  it»  is 
true,  certain  distinctions  in  social  intercourse ;  but  outside  of 
these,  having  a  manly  sense  of  equality,  and  claiming,  from 
the  more  prosperous  orders  of  society,  a  consideration  and 
measure  of  respect  that  the  poor  man  in  the  North,  where 
society  was  made  up  of  browbeating  on  the  one  hand,  and  an 
insolent  assertion  of  equality  on  the  other,  in  vain  contended 
for.  Slavery  trained  the  white  race  of  the  South  in  habits  of 
command  ;  and  though,  sometimes,  these  may  have  degenerated 
into  cruelty  and  insolence,  yet  they  were  generally  the  occasions 
of  the  revival  of  the  spirit  of  chivalry  in  the  nineteenth 
century ;  of  the  growth  of  many  noble  and  generous  virtues ; 
and  of  a  knightly  polish  of  manners,  that  the  shopkeeping 
aristocracy  of  the  North,  being  unable  to  emulate,  was  satis 
fied  to  ape  in  its  hotels  and  caravansaries.  Slavery  relieved 
the  better  classes  in  the  South  from  many  of  the  demands  ol 
physical  and  manual  labor ;  but  although  in  some  instances 
idle  or  dissolute  lives  may  have  been  the  consequence  of  this, 
yet  it  afforded  opportunity  for  extraordinary  intellectual  cul 
ture  in  the  South,  elevated  the  standards  of  scholarship  and 
mental  cultivation  there,  and  furnishes  some  explanation  of 
the  extraordinary  phenomenon  in  American  history,  that  the 
statesmanship  of  the  country  was  peculiarly,  and  almost  ex 
clusively,  the  production  of  the  slaveholding  States. 

The  vulgar  North  envied  the  South,  even  down  to  the  small 
hands  and  feet  of  its  people.  For  the  better  civilization  and 
higher  refinement  of  slaveholders,  the  North  retaliated  that 
the  South  was  dull  and  unenterprising,  and  had  to  import  all 
of  its  luxuries,  and  many  of  its  comforts  from  Yankee  shops 
This  was  true  ;  but  it  proved  nothing,  or  it  might  prove  more 
than  .the  Yankee  argument  might  desire,  for  with  Northern 
luxuries  there  came  into  the  South  Northern  vices.  It  was  said, 
with  a  coarse  wit,  but  with  not  a  little  meaning,  that  there  were 
**  three  things"  for  which  the  South  would  always  be  depend 


APPENDIX.  609 

ent  upon  the  North,  and  never  could  produce  for  herself;  they 
were  u  ice,  play-actors,  and  prostitutes."  There  is  a  certain 
exaggeration  in  every  bon  mot /  but  the  witticism  is  a  good 
one,  as  it  gives  an  indication  of  that  coarse,  vulgar  measure  of 
superiority  which  the  North  applied  to  itself  to  compensate 
for  its  detects  in  refinement,  and  in  the  nobler  attributes  of 
national  life  by  the  side  of  the  South. 

With  reference  to  the  singular  point  of  contrast  between 
the  North  and  the  South  in  the  exhibitions  of  statesmanship 
and  political  scholarship,  we  discover  the  most  remarkable 
feature  of  American  history.  Slavery  appears,  indeed,  to 
have  been  the  school  of  American  statesmanship,  for  it  is  from 
its  domains  there  came  by  far  the  most  considerable  contribu 
tion  to  the  political  literature  of  the  country.  The  smallness 
of  Yankee  contribution  in  this  respect  has  been  a  subject  of 
remark  by  every  impartial  historian  of  America;  and  there 
are  but  few  candid  persons  who  will  deny  that  the  quality  of 
Yankee  statesmanship  was  always  intensely  sophomorical. 
It  may  have  been  that  slavery  afforded  to  the  statesmen  of 
the  South  certain  fields  of  observation,  and  applied  certain 
influences  of  conservatism  that  qualified  them  for  their  pecu 
liar  studies  ;  but  it  is  unquestionably  true,  that  to  them  we 
must  look  for  the  monuments  of  political  literature  in  Amer 
ica.  It  has  been  acutely  remarked  by  a  Yankee  writer,  in  the 
anonymous  pages  of  a  magazine,  that  the  public  men  of  the 
North  were  generally  actuated  by  an  ambition  to  make  a 
show  on  what  they  imagined  the  theatre  of  national  life; 
that  they  neglected  the  obscure  theatres,  but  noble  schools,  of 
State  politics ;  and  that  to  this  shallow,  ostentatious  ambition 
is  to  be  attributed  much  of  the  Yankee  distaste  for  the 
severity  and  exclusiveness  of  the  States-rights  schoo]. 


5? 0  SOUTHEKN    HISTORY  OF    THE    WAS. 


V. 

Contrast  between  the  North  and  South  in  material  progress.— The  times  of  Andrew 
Jackson. — The  tariff  controversy. — Culhoun  and  Webster  as  representative  men. 
— The  latter  a  sophomore  in  American  politics. — Mr.  Webster's  private  correspon 
dence  and  poetry. — His  superficial  accomplishments. — "  Nullification,"  another 
libel  of  political  nomenclature. — A  true  explanation  and  analysis  of  Mr.  Calhoun's 
scheme  to  save  and  perpetuate  the  Onion. — Jefferson  Davis'  defence  of  Calhoun. 
New  England's  regard  for  the  Union. — The  veneration  of  the  Union  peculiarly  a 
Southern  sentiment.— Mr.  Calhoun's  Fort  Hill  speech.— The  ignorance  or  hypoc 
risy  of  Webster  and  his  party.— How  the  South  was  driven  to  "  disunion." 

THE  inequality  between  the  North  and  the  South,  with 
respect  to  material  progress,  was  perhaps  never  more  marked 
than  at  the  time  of  the  memorable  administration  of  Andrew 
Jackson.  Eeferring  to  this  period,  a  Northern  biographer  of 
President  Jackson  writes  in  the  following  style  of  Yankeo 
ct>nceit : 

"  The  North  was  rushing  on  like  a  Western  high-pressur 
steamboat,  with  resin  in  the  furnace  and  a  man  on  the  safety 
valve.  All  through  "Western  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Illinois,  the  primeval  wilderness  was  vanishing  like  a  mist, 
and  towns  were  springing  into  existence  with  a  rapidity  that 
rendered  necessary  a  new  map  every  month,  and  spoiled  the 
gazetteers  as  fast  as  they  were  printed.  The  City  of  New  York 
began  already  to  feel  itself  the  London  of  the  New  World,  and 
to  calculate  how  many  years  must  elapse  before  it  would  be 
the  London  of  the  World. 

"  The  South,  meanwhile,  was  depressed  and  anxious.  Cotton 
was  down  ;  tobacco  was  down ;  corn,  wheat,  and  pork  were 
down.  For  several  years  the  chief  products  of  the  South  had 
either  been  inclining  downward,  or  else  had  risen  in  price  too 
slowly  to  make  up  for  the  (alleged)  increased  price  of  the  com 
modities  which  the  South  was  compelled  to  buy.  Few  new 
towns  changed  the  Southern  map.  Charleston  languished,  or 
seemed  to  languish — certainly  did  not  keep  pace  with  New 


APPENDIX;  571 

York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia.  No  Cincinnati  of  the  South 
became  the  world's  talk  by  the  startling  rapidity  of  its  growth. 
No  Southern  river  exhibited  at  every  bend  and  coyne  of  van 
tage  a  rising  village.  "No  Southern  mind,  distracted  with  tho 
impossibility  of  devising  suitable  names  for  a  thousand  new 
places  per  annum,  fell  back  in  despair  upon  the  map  of  the  Old 
World,  and  selected  at  random  any  convenient  name  that  pre 
sented  itself,  bestowing  upon  clusters  of  log  huts  such  titles  as 
[Ttica,  Rome,  Palermo,  Naples,  Russia,  Egypt,  Madrid,  Paris, 
Elba,  and  Berlin.  No  Southern  commissioner,  compelled  to 
find  names  for  a  hundred  streets  at  once,  had  seized  upon  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet  and  the  figures  of  arithmetic,  and  called 
the  avenues  A,  B,  C,  and  D,  and,  instead  of  naming  his  cross 
streets,  numbered  them." 

The  Yankee  writer  attributes  this  inequality  of  conditions  to 
the  influence  of  negro  slavery  in  the  South.  But  it  has  another 
interpretation.  The  tariff  measures,  which  were  closely  asso 
ciated  with  the  slavery  question — being  the  commercial  appli 
cation  of  that  doctrine  of  the  power  of  numerical  majorities, 
taught  in  the  consolidation  schools,  which  had  attained  ita 
moral  and  sentimental  development  in  the  war  upon  slavery — • 
had  been  used  by  the  North  as  the  stepping-stones  to  pros 
perity,  and  the  most  profitable  expedients  of  sectional  aggran 
dizement.  In  1831  the  public  debt  of  the  United  States  was 
near  extinction  ;  and  it  was  calculated  that,  with  the  tariff 
then  in  force,  there  would  be,  in  three  years  thereafter,  a  sur 
plus  in  the  treasury.  The  South  demanded  the  repeal  of  a 
measure  which  was  no  longer  necessary  for  the  purposes  of 
public  revenue ;  which  had  been  used  to  promote  the  manu 
facturing  and  commercial  interests  of  the  North  ;  and  which, 
taxing  her  for  the  benefit  of  the  Yankees,  had  restricted  and 
embarrassed  her  resources,  and  put  upon  her  the  badge  of 
inferiority. 

The  tariff  controversy  of  1831-2  introduced  on  the  political 
stage  two  of  the  most  remarkable  men  in  America,  who  more 
than  any  others,  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  representative  men 
of  the  North  and  the  South,  and  the  clear-cut  anti-types  of 
consolidation  and  State-rights.  They  were  John  C.  Calhoun, 
of  South  Carolina,  and  Daniel  Webster,  of  Massachusetts.  The 
issue  between  these  men  wa^  the  broadest  and  most  compre- 


572  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


ever  rop/le  in  the  political  history  of  the  country,  in 
volving  not  only  the  slavery  and  tariff  questions,  but  going  to 
the  very  roots  of  the  constitution,  arid  embracing  the  whole 
American  system  of  pol/ties. 

Mr.  Calhoun  was  a  sp'iendU  type  of  the  accomplished  scholar 
of  the  South,  and  a  cor.PWflimate  champion  of  State-rights. 
He  was  the  opposite  of  the  shallow  and  rhetorical  Massa 
chusetts  man  in  every  respect.  He  was  an  ascetic  in  his  pri 
vate  habits  and  tasto,  ;  he  was  a  devotee  of  "the  midnight 
lamp;"  he  was  the*  /^ost  exact  logician  that  ever  figured  in 
political  life;  he  had  no  ad  captandum  arguments  for  the 
vulgar  ;  his  phrases  were  almost  syllogisms,  and  his  language 
as  clear-cut  as  the  diamond. 

If  Daniel  Webster,  of  Massachusetts,  can  be  described  by  a 
phrase,  he  may  be  briefly  designated  as  a  representative  of  the 
smattering  of  New  England  education  and  the  rhapsody  of 
"  spread  eagleism."  This  may  offend  the  taste  of  his  wor 
shippers  ;  but  of  that  we  are  careless,  as  long  as  we  do  not 
offend  the  truth  of  history.  To  the  end  of  his  days,  Mr.  "Web 
ster  was  nothing  more  than  a  ready-spoken  sophomore  in 
politics  —  a  man  who  adorned  common-places  with  silken  ora 
tions—who  had  an  unrivalled  "  Fourth-of-July"  style  of  public 
speaking  —  but  who  never  invented  or  discovered  any  thing  in 
politics,  and  who  defended  his  doctrines  much  more  with  frothy* 
sentiments  than  with  sound  arguments.  There  is  nothing  so 
injurious  to  posthumous  reputation  as  the  publication  of  "  pri 
vate  correspondence,"  where  the  great  man  is  discovered  in 
undress;  and  the  officious  friends  of  Mr.  Webster,  who  pub 
lished  two  octavo  volumes  of  his  letters,  after  his  death,  have 
exhibited  the  intellectual  hero  of  Massachusetts  as  a  vapid, 
sophomorical,  shallow  statesman,  who  could  not  afford  to  wear 
his  literary  court-dress  —  a  tinsel  one  at  that  —  but  on  state 
occasions.  Mr.  Webster  had  the  weakness  of  putting  scraps  of 
law  Latin  in  his  correspondence;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  his 
attainments  in  the  dead  languages  extended  beyond  this  cheap 
collection  from  his  professional  glossary.  In  his  early  days  he 
affected  a  taste  for  poetry,  and  wrote  tawdry  and  conceited 
verses  to  his  friends.  In  one  instance  —  as  a  specimen  of  his 
muse,  some  years  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  —  we  are  given 
this  bit  of  the  Yankee  pastoral  : 


APPENDIX.  573 

"Nor  health  alone — be  four  more  blessings  thine  ! — 
CASH,  and  the  Fair  One,  Friendship,  and  the  Nine." 

But  it  is  scarcely  just  to  estimate  Mr.  "Webster's  mind  from 
his  experiments  in  Latin  or  in  verse,  or  from  any  other  of  hi 
notoriously  weak  efforts  at  scholarship.  In  his  political  life — • 
his  so-called  "  statesmanship" — he  was  an  excellent  represent 
ative  of  the  shallowness  and  fluency  of  the  New  England 
mind.  He  had  the  Yankee  tact  of  showing  his  little  learning 
to  the  greatest  advantage.  In  vulgar  estimation,  he  could 
overwhelm  the  most  logical  opponent  by  the  beauty  of  a 
peroration.  He  had  an  abundance  of  catch-phrases  and  bril 
liant  illustrations  ;  his  manner  was  pompous,  slow,  and  sage  ; 
his  figure,  in  social  life,  was  that  of  a  good  liver — a  well-fed 
and  well-drunken  Sir  Oracle.  In  short,  he  was  a  man  who 
might  easily  be  imposed  upon  the  vulgar  as  a  proficient  in 
eloquence  and  a  pundit  in  politics.  A  mind  like  Mr.  Web 
ster's  readily  seized  upon  the  crude  plausibilities  of  the  con 
solidation  school  of  politics,  and  was  admirably  suited  to 
employ,  to  the  best  advantage,  its  superficial  though  captiotfa 
arguments. 

In  connection  with  the  tariff  dispute,  Mr.  Calhoun  devel 
oped  his  so-called  scheme  of  "  Nullification."  This  masterly 
scheme  of  politics  was  misrepresented  by  a  Yankee  word,  so 
adept  were  the  Northern  people  in  conveying  libels  in  the 
party  nomenclature  they  imposed  upon  the  world.  Mr.  Cal- 
houn's  proposition  was  in  no  sense  nullifiGation.  Strange  as  it 
may  sound  to  those  who  have  got  American  history  from  the 
narrow  and  sophistical  pages  of  Yankee  books,  it  was  emphati 
cally  a  Union-saving  measure;  devised  in  deference  to  the 
Union  sentiment  of  the  country  ;  and  better  calculated,  in 
reality,  to  maintain  the  bonds  of  confederation  between  the 
States  than  any  thing  ever  planned  or  suggested  by  the 
American  mind. 

A  loose  impression  has  gained  in  the  world,  that  our  State 
institutions  were  schools  of  provincialism;  that  they  were  a 
partial  and  incomplete  expression  of  the  nationality  of 
America ;  and  that  their  logical  tendency  was  to  the  disrup 
tion  of  the  confederate  bond.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  not  the  first 
to  conceive,  although  more  than  any  other  he  expressed  logi 
cally  and  clearly,  that  the  rights  of  the  States  were  the  only 


574:  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

solid  foundation  of  the  Union ;  and  that,  so  far  from  being  an 
tagonistic  to  it,  they  constituted  its  security,  realized  its  per- 
fection,  and  gave  to  it  all  the  moral  beauty  with  which  ! 
appealed  to  the  affections  of  the  people.  It  was  in  this  sense 
that  the  great  South  Carolina  statesman,  so  frequently  caltim 
niated  as  "  nullifier,"  agitator,  etc.,  was  indeed  the  real  and 
devoted  friend  of  the  American  Union.  He  maintained  the 
rights  of  the  States — the  sacred  distribution  of  powers  between 
them  and  the  General  Government — as  the  life  of  the  Union, 
and  its  bond  of  attachment  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  And 
in  this  he  was  right.  The  State  institutions  of  America, 
properly  regarded,  were  not  discordant;  nor  were  they  unfor 
tunate  elements  in  our  political  life.  They  gave  certain  occa 
sions  to  the  divisions  of  industry ;  they  were  instruments  oi 
material  prosperity ;  they  were  schools  of  pride  and  emula 
tion  ;  above  all,  they  were  the  true  guardians  of  the  Union, 
keeping  it  from  degenerating  into  that  vile  and  short-lived 
government  in  which  power  is  consolidated  in  a  mere  numeri 
cal  majority. 

Mr.  Calhoun's  so-called  doctrine  of  Nullification  is  one  of 
the  highest  proofs  ever  given  by  any  American  statesman  of 
attachment  to  the  Union.  The  assertion  is  not  made  for  para 
doxical  eifect.  It  is  clear  enough  in  history,  read  in  the  severe 
type  of  facts,  without  the  falsehoods  and  epithets  of  that  Yan 
kee  literature  which  has  so  long  defamed  us,  distorted  our 
public  men,  and  misrepresented  us,  even  to  ourselves. 

The  so-called  and  miscalled  doctrine  of  Nullification  marked 
one  of  the  most  critical  periods  in  the  controversies  of  America, 
and  constitutes  one  of  the  most  curious  studies  for  its  philoso 
phic  historian.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  unwilling  to  oifend  the 
popular  idolatry  of  the  Union ;  he  sought  a  remedy  fur  exist 
ing  evils  short  of  disunion,  and  the  consequence  was  what  wag 
called,  by  an  ingenious  slander,  or  a  contemptible  stupidity, 
Nullification.  His  doctrine  was,  in  fact,  an  accommodation 
of  two  sentiments  :  that  of  Yankee  injustice,  and  that  of  rever 
ence  of  the  Union.  He  propos-ed  to  save  the  Union  by  the 
simple  and  august  means  of  an  appeal  to  the  sovereign  States 
that  composed  it.  He  proposed  that  should  the  General  Gov 
ernment  and  a  State  come  into  conflict,  the  power  should  be 
invoked  that  called  the  General  Government  into  existence 


APPENDIX  575 

and  gave  it  all  of  its  authority.  "  In  such  a  case,"  said  Mr.  Cal- 
houn,'"  the  States  themselves  may  be  appealed  to,  three-fourths 
of  which,  in  fact,  form  a  power  whose  decrees  are  the  constitu 
tion  itself,  and  whose  voice  can  silence  all  discontent.  The 
utmost  extent,  then,  of  the  power  is,  that  a  State  acting  in  its 
sovereign  capacity,  as  one  of  the  parties  to  the  constitutional 
compact,  may  compel  the  Government  created  by  that  com 
pact  to  submit  a  question  touching  its  infraction  to  the  parties 
who  created  it."  He  proposed  a  peculiar,  conservative,  and 
noble  tribunal  for  the  controversies  that  agitated  the  country 
and  threatened  the  Union.  He  was  not  willing  that  vital  con 
troversies  between  the  sovereign  States  and  the  General  Gov 
ernment  should  be  submitted  to  the  Supreme  Court,  which 
properly  excluded  political  questions,  and  comprehended  those 
only  where  there  were  parties  amenable  to  the  process  of  the 
court.  This  was  the  length  and  breadth  of  Nullification.  It 
was  intended  to  reconcile  impatience  of,  Yankee  injustice,  and 
that  sentimental  attachment  to  the  Union  which  colors  so  much 
of  American  politics;  it  resisted  the  suggestion  of  revolution  ; 
it  clung  to  the  idolatry  of  the  Union,  and  marked  that  passage 
in  American  history  in  which  there  was  a  combat  between 
reason  and  that  idolatry,  and  in  which  that  idolatry  made  a 
marked  conquest. 

The  doctrine,  then,  of  Mr.  Calhoun  was  this :  he  proposed 
only  to  constitute  a  conservative  and  constitutional  barrier  to 
Yankee  aggression  ;  and,  so  far  from  destroying  the  Union, 
proposed  to  erect  over  it  the  permanent  and  august  guard  01 
a  tribunal  of  those  sovereign  powers  which  had  created  it.  It 
was  this  splendid,  but  hopeless  vision  of  the  South  Carolina 
statesmen,  which  the  North  slandered  with  the  catch-word  of 
Nullification  ;  which  Northern  orators  made  the  text  of  indig 
nation;  on  which  Mr.  Webster  piped  his  schoolboy  rhetoric; 
and  on  which  the  more  modern  schools  of  New  England  have 
exhausted  the  lettered  resources  of  their  learned  blacksmiths 
and  senatorial  shoemakers. 

The  suggestion  of  the  real  safety  of  the  Union,  first  made  by 
Jefferson,*  and  reproduced  by  Calhoun,  the  North  slandered 

*  At  a  late  period  of  his  life  Mr.  Jefferson  wrote :  "  With  respect  to  oiu 
State  and  Federal  governments,  I  do  not  think  their  relations  are  correctly 


576  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 

as  millificfl.tion,  insulted  as  heresy,  and  branded  as  treason. 
"It  was,'1  fiaid  Jefferson  Davis,  on  occasion  of  his  taking-leave 
of  the  United  States  Senate  in  1SG1,  u  because  of  his  deep- 
seated  attachment  to  the  Union,  his  determination  to  find  some 
remedy  for  existing  ills*,  short  of  a  severance  of  tho  ties  which 
bound  South  Carolina  to  the  other  States,  that  Mr.  Calhoun 
advocated  the  doctrine  of  Nullification,  which  he  proclaimed 
to  be  peaceful,  to  be  within  the  limits  of  State  power;  not  to 
disturb  the  Union,  but  only  to  be  the  means  of  bringing  the 
agent  before  the  tribunal  of  the  States  for  their  judgment.'' 
Mr.  Davis,  on  that  occasion,  publicly  confessed  that  the  South, 
was  about  to  resort  to  another  class  of  remedies  than  that  pro 
posed  by  the  great  South  Carolinian — SKCESSION — and,  vindi 
cating  the  name  of  Calhoun,  suggested  that,  as  the  door  had 
been  closed  to  his  great  and  efficient  proposition  to  sate  the 
Union,  there  was  no  longer  any  hope  for  the  South  but  in  vio 
lent  measures. 

Daniel  Webster  had  no  complicated  or  nice  theory  about  the 
American  Union.  In  his  eyes,  the  Government  at  Washington 
was  nothing  more  than  a  central  organization  of  numbers,  with 
scarcely  any  feature  of  originality  to  distinguish  it  from  other 
rude  democracies  of  the  world.  "  It  had,"  he  said,  u  created 
direct  relations  between  itself  and  individuals  ;"  and  "  no  State 
authority  had  power  to  dissolve  these  relations."  He  scouted  the 
whole  doctrine  of  State-rights.  lie  spoke  as  the  mouth-piece 
of  manufacturing  interests  in  the  North  ;  apostrophized  "  the 
glorious  Union  ;"  declared  its  benefits  and  gains,  and  easily  led 
the  whole  North  to  worship  the  Union,  in  the  base  spirit  of 
commercial  idolatry,  as  a  pretty  machinery  to  secure  tariffs 
nd  bounties,  and  to  aggrandize  a  section. 

Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  school  worshipped  the  American 
Union  in  a  very  different  sense  from  the  Yankee  material- 


understood  by  foreigners.  They  suppose  the  former  subordinate  to  the  latter. 
This  is  not  the  case.  They  are  co-ordinate  departments  of  one  simple  and  in 
tegral  whole.  But,  you  may  ask,  if  the  two  departments  should  claim  each 
the  same  subject  of  power,  where  is  the  umpire  to  decide  between  them  ?  In 
cases  of  little  urgency  or  importance,  the  prudence  of  both  parties  will  keep 
them  aloof  from  the  questionable  ground ;  but,  if  it  can  neither  be  avoided  nor 
compromised,  a  convention  of  the  States  must  be  called  to  ascribe  the  doubtfiL 
power  to  that  department  which  they  may  think  best." 


APPENDIX.  577 

jsts.  The  moral  veneration  of  the  Union  was  peculiarly  a 
Bentiment  of  the  South.  The  political  ideas  of  the  North,  as 
represented  by  Mr.  Webster  and  his  school,  excluded  that  of 
any  peculiar  moral  character  about  the  Union  ;  the  doctrina 
of  State-rights  was  rejected  by  them  for  the  prevalent  notion 
that  America  was  a  single  democracy ;  thus,  the  Union  to 
them  was  nothing  more  than  a  geographical  name,  entitled  to 
no  peculiar  claims  upon  the  affections  of  the  people.  It  was 
different  with  the  South.  The  doctrine  of  State-rights  gave 
to  the  Union  its  moral  dignity ;  this  doctrine  was  the  only 
really  possible  source  of  sentimental  attachment  to  the  Union  ; 
and  this  doctrine  was  the  received  opinion  of  the  Southern 
people,  and  the  most  marked  peculiarity  of  their  politics. 
The  South  venerated  the  Union,  because  she  discovered  in 
it  a  sublime  moral  principle;  because  she  regarded  it  as  a 
peculiar  association,  in  which  sovereign  States  were  held  by 
high  considerations  of  good  faith ;  by  the  exchanges  of  equity 
and  comity ;  by  the  noble  attractions  of  social  order ;  by  the 
enthused  sympathies  of  a  common  destiny  of  power,  honor, 
and  renown. 

In  his  famous  Fort  Hill  speech,  delivered  in  1831,  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  said  : 

u  I  yield  to  none,  I  trust,  in  a  deep  and  sincere  attachment 
to  our  political  institutions  and  the  Union  of  these  States.  I 
never  breathed  an  opposite  sentiment;  but,  on  the  contrary,  I 
have  ever  considered  them  the  great  instruments  of  preserving 
our  liberty,  and  promoting  the  happiness  of  ourselves  and  of 
our  posterity  ;  and  next  to  these  I  have  ever  held  them  most 
dear.  Nearly  half  of  my  life  has  passed  in  the  service  of  the 
Union,  and  whatever  public  reputation  I  have  acquired  is 
indissolubly  identified  with  it.  With  these  strong  feelings  of 
attachment,  I  have  examined  with  the  utmost  care  the  bearing 
of  the  doctrine  in  question  ;  and  so  far  from  anarchical  or 
revolutionary,  I  solemnly  believe  it  to  be  the  only  solid  foun 
dation  of  our  system,  and  of  the  Union  itself;  and  that  the 
opposite  doctrine,  which  denies  to  the  States  the  right  of  pro 
tecting  their  reserved  powers,  and  which  would  vest  in  the 
General  Government  (it  matters  not  through  what  department) 
the  right  of  determining  exclusively  and  finally  the  powers 
delegated  to  it,  is  incompatible  with  the  sovereignity  of  the 

87 


578  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    VTAR. 

States  and  of  the  Constitution  itself,  considered  as  the  basia 
of  a  Federal  Union.  *  *  *  To  realize  the  perfection  01 
this  Union,  we  must  view  the  General  Government  and  the 
States  as  a  whole,  each  in  its  proper  sphere  sovereign  and 
independent;  each  perfectly  adapted  to  their  respective 
objects;  the  States  acting  separately,  representing  and  pro 
tecting  the  local  and  peculiar  interests;  acting  jointly,  through 
the  General  Government,  with  the  weight  respectively  assigned 
to  each  by  the  constitution,  representing  and  protecting  the 
interests  of  the  whole,  and  thus  perfecting,  by  an  admirable 
but  simple  arrangement,  the  great  principle  of  representation 
and  responsibility,  without  which  no  government  can  be  free 
or  just.  To  preserve  this  sacred  distribution  as  originally 
settled,  by  coercing  each  to  move  in  its  prescribed  orb,  is  the 
great  and  difficult  problem,  on  the  solution  of  which  the  dura 
tion  of  our  constitution,  of  our  Union,  and  in  all  probability, 
our  liberty  depends.  *  *  *  I  must  think  the  fear  of  weak 
ening  the  Government  too  much  in  this  case  to  be  in  a  great 
measure,  unfounded,  or  at  least,  that  the  danger  is  much  less 
from  that  than  the  opposite  side.  I  do  not  deny  that  a  power 
of  so  high  a  nature,"  [that  of  demanding  the  judgment  of  a 
convention  of  States  on  questions  disputed  with  the  General 
Government,]  "may  be  abused  by  a  State;  but  when  I  reflect 
that  the  States  unanimously  called  the  General  Government 
into  existence,  with  all  of  its  powers,  which  they  freely  surren 
dered  on  their  part,  under  the  conviction  that  their  common 
peace,  safety,  and  prosperity  required  it ;  that  they  are  bound 
together  by  a  common  origin,  and  the  recollection  of  common 
suffering  and  common  triumph  in  the  great  and  splendid 
achievement  of  their  independence;  and  the  strongest  feel 
ings  of  our  nature,  and  among  the  love  of  national  power  and 
distinction,  are  on  the  side  of  the  Union  ;  it  does  seem  to  mo 
that  the  fear  which  would  strip  the  States  of  their  sovereignty, 
and  degrade  them,  in  fact,  to  mere  dependent  corporations, 
lest  they  should  abuse  a  right  indispensable  to  the  peaceable 
protection  of  those  interests,  which  they  reserved  under  their 
own  peculiar  guardianship,  when  they  created  the  General 
Government,  is  unnatural  and  unreasonable." 

Such  were  the  just  views  and  noble  sentiments  of  the  man 
whom  "Webster  and  his  party  hounded  as  a  traitor,  and  who 


APPENDIX.  579 

lias  gone  down  to  history  in  Yankee  books  in  the  utterly  false 
character  of  a  Disunionist. 

The  failure  of  Mr.  Calhoun's  scheme  to  bind  up  the  right 
of  the  States  with  the  interests  and  glory  of  the  Union,  was  to 
the  consolidation  school  a  new  and  decisive  era  of  power 
State-rights  fell  into  a  loose  disrepute  from  which  they  never 
recovered  ;  the  sectional  controversy  between  North,  and  South 
went  on  with  increased  force;  and  influences  were  combining 
to  force  the  South  at  last  to  abandon  all  conservative  expe 
dients  and  to  accept  the  conclusion  of  Disunion.  That  conclu 
sion  remained  as  the  only  possible  protection  against  that 
Northern  party  which  founded  the  school  of  consolidation 
only  to  use  the  Government  at  Washington  as  the  organ  o/ 
numerical  majorities  and  the  engine  of  sectional  oppression. 


580  SOUTHERN    HISTORY    OF    THE    WAR. 


VI 


A  Fourth  of  July  sentiment  in  1851. — Slavery  not  the  Cause  of  Disunion. — The  wai 
of  1861. — What  it  has  decided. — The  incense  of  weak  minds  to  the  Yankee.— 
Last  sentiment  of  President  Davis. 

ON  the  Fourth  of  July,  1851,  the  foundation  was  laid  for  an 
addition  to  the  Capitol  at  "Washington.  Under  the  corner 
stone  of  the  addition,  Daniel  Webster  deposited  a  paper,  in 
his  own  handwriting,  containing  the  following  sentence:  "If 
therefore,  it  shall  be  hereafter  the  will  of  God  that  this  struc 
ture  shall  fall  from  its  base,  that  its  foundations  be  upturned, 
and  the  deposit  beneath  this  stone  brought  t'g  the  eyes  of  men, 
be  it  then  known  that  on  this  day  the  Union  of  the  United 
States  of  America  stands  firm — that  their  constitution  still 
exists  unimpaired,  and  with  all  its  original  usefulness  and 
glory,  growing  every  day  stronger  and  stronger  in  the  affec 
tions  of  the  great  body  of  the  American  people,  and  attracting 
more  and  more  the  admiration  of  the  world." 

But  ten  years  after  this  glowing  tribute  to  the  permanency 
of  American  institutions,  the  Union  was  rent  in  twain,  and  the 
States  which  composed  it  were  ranged  in  one  of  the  most  im 
mense  and  violent  wars  of  modern  'times.  On  the  Fourth  of 
July,  1861,  a  remnant  of  Congress  met  at  Washington,  to  raise 
armies  and  means  for  a  war  upon  the  Southern  States,  which 
having  realized  the  constitution' as  a  farce,  and  the  Union  as 
the  penalty  of  association  of  the  oppressed  with  the  oppressors, 
were  prepared  to  take  their  political  destinies  in  their  own 
hands. 

The  disruption  of  the  Union,  in  1861,  was  by  no  means  the 
direct  or  the  logical  consequence  of  the  slavery  discussion. 
The  dispute  on  that  subject  had  at  last  narrowed  down  to  a 
solitary  point — whether  it  was  competent  for  the  Congress  ot 
the  United  States,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  exclude  slavery 
from  the  territories  of  the  Union ;  and  to  this  proposition  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  had  given  a  negative 
answer. 


APPENDIX.  581 

The  terrible  war  which  ensued  on  Disunion  mast  be  taken 
as  the  result  of  a  profound  and  long-continued  conflict  between 
the  political  and  social  systems  of  North  and  South,  with 
which  slavery  had  a  conspicuous  connection,  but  was  not  in 
deed  an  independent  controversy;  a  conflict  on  which  was 
ranged  on  one  side  the  party  that  professed  the  doctrines  01 
consolidation  and  numerical  majorities;  that  represented  the 
material  civilization  of  America;  that  had  the  commerce  and 
the  manufactures,  the  ships,  the  workshops,  the  war-material 
of  the  country — on  the  other  side,  the  party  that  maintained 
the  doctrines  of  State-rights,  studied  government  as  a  s}^stem 
of  checks  and  balances,  and  cultivated  the  highest  schools  ot 
statesmanship  in  America ;  that  represented  a  civilization 
scanty  in  shows  and  luxuries,  but  infinitely  superior  in  the 
moral  and  sentimental  elements ;  that  devoted  itself  to  agricnl- 

'  O 

ture,  and  had  nothing  but  its  fields  and  brave  men  to  oppose 
to  a  people  that  whitened  every  sea  with  their  commerce,  and 
by  the  power  of  their  wealth  and  under  the  license  of  "legiti 
macy,"  put  the  whole  world  under  tribute  for  troops  and 
munitions. 

It  is  said  that  in  this  war  the  material  civilization  of  the 
North  has  conquered;  that  the  principle  of  consolidation  is 
supremely  triumphant,  and  that  hereafter,  under  the  captiva 
ting  title  of  an  Imperial  Republic,  it  is  to  found,  without  dis 
pute,  a  new  and  permanent  order  of  things  in  America. 

The  latter  part  of  the  proposition  we  dispute.  The  principle 
of  State- rights,  which  for  three  generations  has  been  harbored 
in  the  American  mind,  cannot  be  destroyed  by  an  act  of  war. 
The  just  opinions  of  men  are  immortal ;  suppressed  or  terrified 
at  times,  they  reassert  themselves  on  opportunity  ;  punished 
in  one  instance,  although  they  may  never  resort  again  to  the 
fatal  experiment,  they  discover  new  resources  of  contest,  and 
find  new  modes  of  expression  and  activity. 

Since  the  close  of  the  war,  a  newspaper  published  by  Vir 
ginians  in  Virginia  has  thus  attempted  to  state  the  issues  it 
decided : 

"  We  accept  the  verdict ;  we  renounce  our  theory  of  the 
Federal  compact ;  we  abandon  our  ideas  of  State  sovereignty ; 
we  abjure  our  faith  in  the  right  of  secession.  Henceforth,  in 
our  conception,  the  Federal  Government  is  supreme." 


589     ^  SOUTHEKN    HISTOBY    OF    THE    WAR. 

The  declaration  is  gratuitous ;  it  is  not  even  demanded  by 
the  enemy;  it  is  the  passing  and -ephemeral  incense  of  weak 
minds  to  the  Yankee.  We  shall  tind  in  another  instance  a 
truer  indication  of  the  future  of  the  South,  arid  a  better  ex 
pression  of  what  remains  of  its  spirit.  When  Jefferson  Davis, 
the  President  of  the  Confederate  States,  was  seeking  safety  in 
flight,  a  fellow  traveller  remarked  to  him  that  the  cause  of  the 
Confederates  was  lost.  He  replied  : 

"  It  appears  so.  But  the  principle  for  which  we  contended 
is  lound  to  reassert  itself,  though  it  may  le  at  another  time  and 
in  anothwform" 


CONSTITUTION" 


OF   THE 


CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 


WE,  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States,  each  State  acting  in 
its  sovereign  and  independent  character,  in  order  to  form  a  per 
manent  federal  government,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tran 
quillity,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity — invoking  the  favor  and  guidance  of  Almighty  God — do 
ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the  Confederate  States 
of  America. 

ARTICLE   I. 

SECTION  1. 

All  legislative  powers  herein  delegated  shall  be  vested  in  a  Con 
gress  of  the  Confederate  States,  which  shall  consist  of  a  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives. 

SECTION  2. 

1.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  be  composed  of  members 
chosen  every  second  year  by  the  people  of  the  several  States ;  and 
the  electors  in  each  State  shall  be  citizens  of  the  Confederate  States, 
and  have  the  qualifications  requisite  for  electors  of  the  most  numer 
ous  branch  of  the  State  Legislature;  but  no  person  of  foreign  birth, 
not  a  citizen  of  the  Confederate  States,  shall  be  allowed  to  vote  for 
any  officer,  civil  or  political,  State  or  Federal. 

2.  No  person   shall  be  a  Representative   who   shall    not    have 
attained  the  age  of  twenty-five  years,  and  be  a  citizen  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  and  who  shall  not,  when  elected,  be  an  inhabitant 
of  that  Stnte  in  which  he  shall  be  chosen. 


584  CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

3.  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned  among 
the  several  States  which  may  be  included  within  this  Confederacy, 
according  to  their  respective  numbers,  which  shall  be  determined 
by  adding  to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons,  including  those 
bound  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians  not 
taxed,  three-fifths  of  all  slaves.     The  actual   enumeration  shall  be 
made  within  three  years  after  the  first  meeting  of  the  Congress  o* 
the  Confederate  States,  and  within  every  subsequent  term  of  ten 
years,  in  such  manner  as  they  shall  by  law  direct.     The  number  of 
Representatives  shall  not  exceed  one  for  every  fifty  thousand ;  but 
each  State  shall  have  at  least  one  Representative ;  and  until  such 
enumeration  shall   be  made,  the  State  of  South  Carolina  shall  be 
entitled  to  choose  six  ;  the  State  of  Georgia  ten ;  the  State  of  Ala 
bama  nine ;  the  State  of  Florida  two ;  the  State  of  Mississippi  seven  ; 
the  State  of  Louisiana  six  ;  and  the  State  of  Texas  six. 

4.  When  vacancies  happen  in  the  representation  from  any  State, 
the  Executive  authority  thereof  shall  issue  writs  of  election  to  fill 
such  vacancies. 

5.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall  choose  their  Speaker  and 
other  officers ;  and  shall  have  the  sole  power  of  impeachment ;  except 
that  any  judicial  or  other  federal  officer  resident  and  acting  solely 
within  the  limits  of  any  State,  may  be  impeached  by  a  vote  of  two- 
thirds  of  both  branches  of  the  Legislature  thereof. 

SECTION  3. 

1.  The  Senate  of  the  Confederate  States  shall  be  composed  of 
two  Senators  from  each  State,  chosen  for  six  years  by  the  Legis 
lature  thereof,  at  the  regular  session  next  immediately  preceding  the 
commencement  of  the  term  of  service  ;  and  each  Senator  shall  have 
one  vote. 

2.  Immediately  after  they  shall  be  assembled,  in  consequence  of 
the  first  election,  they  shall  be  divided  as  equally  as  may  be  into 
three  classes.     The  seats  of  the  Senators  of  the  first  class  shall  be 
vacated  at  the  expiration  of  the  second  year;  of  the  second  class, 
at  the  expiration  of  the  fourth  year,  and  of  the  third  class,  at  the 
expiration  of  the  sixth  year ;  so  that  one-third  may  be  chosen  every 
second  year ;  and  if  vacancies  happen,  by  resignation  or  otherwise, 
during  the  recess  of  the  Legislature  of  any  State,  the  Executive, 
thereof  may  make  temporary  appointments  until  the  next  meeting 
of  the  Legislature,  which  shall  then  fill  such  vacancies. 

3.  1STO  person  shall  be  a  Senator  who  shall  not  have  attained  the 
o^e  of  thirty  years,  and  be  a  citizen  of  the  Confederate  States;  and 


CONFEDERATE    STATES.  585 

who  shall  not,  when  elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  State  for  which 
he  shall  be  chosen. 

4.  The  Vice-president  of  the  Confederate  States  shall  be  President 
of  the  Senate,  but  shall  have  no  vote  unless  they  be  equally  divided. 

5.  The  Senate  shall  choose  their  other  officers,  and  also  a  Presi 
dent  pro  tempore,  in  the  absence  of  the  Vice-president,  or  when  he 
ehall  exercise  the  office  of  President  of  the  Confederate  States. 

6.  The  Senate  shall  have  the  sole  power  to  try  all  impeachments. 
When  sitting  for  that  purpose  they  shall  be  on  oath  or  affirmation. 
When  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States  is  tried,  the  Chief- 
justice  shall  preside;  and  no  person  shall  be  convicted  without  the 
concurrence  of  two-thirds  of  the  members  present. 

7.  Judgment  in  cases  of  impeachment  shall  not  extend  further 
than  removal  from  office,  and  disqualification  to  hold  and  enjoy  any 
office  of  honor,  trust,  or  profit  under  the  Confederate  States ;  but 
the  party  convicted  shall,  nevertheless,  be  liable  and  subject  to  in 
dictment,  trial,  judgment,  and  punishment,  according  to  law. 

SECTION  4. 

1.  The  times,  places,  and  manner  of  holding  elections  for  Senators 
and  Representatives,  shall  be  prescribed  in  each  State  by  the  Legis 
lature  thereof,  subject  to  the  provisions  of  this  Constitution ;  but  the 
Congress  may,  at  any  time,  by  law,  make  or  alter  such  regulations, 
except  as  to  the  times  and  places  of  choosing  Senators. 

2.  The  Congress  shall  assemble  at  least  once  in  every  year;  and 
such  meeting  shall  be  on  the  first  Monday  in  December,  unless  they 
shall,  by  law,  appoint  a  different  day. 

SECTION  5. 

1.  Each  House  shall  be  the  judge  of  the  elections,  returns,  and 
qualifications  of  its  own  members,  and  a  majority  of  each  shall  con 
stitute  a  quorum  to  do  business  ;  but  a  smaller  number  may  adjourn 
from  day  to  day,  and  may  be  authorized  to  compel  the  attendance 
of  absent  members,  in  such  manner  and  under  such  penalties  as  each 
House  may  provide. 

2.  Each  House  may  determine  the  rules  of  its  proceedings,  pun 
ish  its  members  for  disorderly  behavior,  and,  with  the  concurrence 
of  two-thirds  of  the  whole  number,  expel  a  member. 

3.  Each  House  shall  keep  a  journal  of  its  proceedings,  and,  from 
time  to  time,  publish  the  same,  excepting  such  parts  as  may  in  its 
judgment  require  secrecy,  and  the  ayes  and  nays  of  the  members  oi 


586  CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

either  House,  on  any  question,  shall,  at  the  desire  of  one-fifth  of 
those  present,  be  entered  on  the  journal. 

4.  Neither  House,  during  the  session  of  Congress,  shall,  without 
the  consent  of  the  other,  adjourn  for  more  than  three  days,  nor  to 
any  other  place  than  that  in  which  the  two  Houses  shall  be  sitting. 

SECTION  6. 

1.  The  Senators  and  Representatives  shall  receive  a  compensation 
for  their  services,  to  be  ascertained  by  law,  and  paid  out  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  Confederate  States.     They  shall,  in  all  cases  except 
treason  and  breach  of  the  peace,  be  privileged  from  arrest  during 
their  attendance  at  the  session  of  their  respective  Houses,  and  in 
going  to  and  returning  from  the  same ;  and  for  any  speech  or  debate 
in  either  House,  they  shall  not  be  questioned  in  any  other  place. 

2.  No  Senator  or  Representative  shall,  during  the  time  for  which 
he  was  elected,  be  appointed  to  any  civil  office  under  the  authority 
of  the    Confederate  States,  which  shall  have  been  created,  or  the 
emoluments  whereof  shall  have  been  increased  during  such  time ; 
and  no  person  holding  any  office  under  the  Confederate  States  shall 
be  a  member  of  either  House  during  his  continuance  in  office.     But 
Congress  may,  by  law,  grant  to  the  principal  Officer  in  each  of  the 
Executive  Departments  a  seat  upon  the  floor  of  either  House,  with 
the  privilege  of  discussing  any  measure  appertaining  to  his  depart 
ment. 

SECTION  7. 

1.  All  bills  for  raising  revenue  shall  originate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives ;   but  the  Senate   may   propose   or   concur  with 
amendments  as  on  other  bills. 

2.  Every  bill  which  shall  have  passed  both  Houses,  shall,  before 
it  becomes  a  law,  be  presented  to  the  President  of  the  Confederate 
States  ;  if  he  approve,  he  shall  sign  it ;  but  if  not,  he  shall  return  it 
with  his  objections  to  that  House  in  which  it  shall  have  originated, 
who  shall  enter  the  objections  at  large  on  their  journal,  and  proceed 
to  reconsider  it.     If,  after  such  reconsideration,  two-thirds  of  that 
House  shall  agree  to  pass  the  bill,  it  shall  be  sent,  together  with 
the  objections,  to  the  other  House,  by  which  it  shall  likewise  be  recon 
sidered,  and  if  approved  by  two-thirds  of  that  House,  it  shall  become 
a  law.     But  in  all  such  cases,  the  votes  of  both  Houses  shall  be 
determined  by  yeas  and  nays,  and  the  names  ;>f  the  persons  voting 
for  and  against  the  bill  shall  be  entered  on  the  journal  of  each  House 
respectively.     If  any  bill  shall   not  be  returned  by  the  President 
within  ten  days  (Sundays  excepted)  after  it  shall  have  been  pre 


CONFEDERATE    STATES.  587 

sented  to  him,  the  same  shall  be  a  law  in  like  manner  as  if  he  had 
signed  it,  unless  the  Congress,  by  their  adjournment,  prevent  its 
return  ;  in  which  ease  it  shail  not  be  a  law.  The  President  may 
approve  any  appropriation  and  disapprove  any  other  appropriation 
in  the  same  bill.  In  such  case  he  shall,  in  signing  the  bill,  designate 
the  appropriations  disapproved  ;  and  shall  return  a  copy  of  such 
appropriations,  with  his  objections,  to  the  House  in  which  the  bill 
shall  have  originated  ;  and  the  same  proceedings  shall  then  be  had 
as  in  case  of  other  bills  disapproved  by  the  President. 

3.  Every  order,  resolution,  or  vote,  to  which  the  concurrence  of 
both  Houses  may  be  necessary  (except  on  questions  of  adjournment) 
shall  be  presented  to  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States ;  and 
before  the  same  shall  take  effect  shall  be  approved  by  him ;  or  being 
disapproved  by  him,  may  be  repassed  by  two-thirds  of  both  Houses, 
according  to  the  rules  and  limitations  prescribed  in  case  of  a  bill. 

SECTION  8. 

The  Congress  shall  have  power — 

1.  To  lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,   imposts,   and   excises,   for 
revenue   necessary   to   pay   the   debts,    provide   for   the   common 
defence,  and  carry  on  the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States; 
but  no  bounties  shall  be  granted  from  the  Treasury  ;  nor  shall  any 
duties  or  taxes  on  importations  from   foreign  nations  be  laid  to 
promote  or  foster  any  branch  of  industry ;  and  all  duties,  imposts, 
and  excises  shall  be  uniform  throughout,  the  Confederate  States. 

2.  To  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  Confederate  States. 

3.  To  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and  among  the 
several  States,  and  with  the  Indian  tribes;  but  neither  this,  nor  any 
other  clause  contained   in  the  Constitution,  shall  be  construed  to 
delegate  the  power  to  Congress  to  appropriate  money  for  any  inter 
nal  improvement  intended  to  facilitate  commerce ;  except  for  the 
purpose  of  furnishing  lights,  beacons,  and  buoys,  and  other  aids  to 
navigation  upon  the  coasts,  and  the  improvement  of  harbors,  and 
the  removing  of  obstructions  in  river  navigation,  in  all  which  cases 
such  duties  shall  be  laid  on  the  navigation  facilitated  thereby  as  may 
be  necessary  to  pay  the  costs  and  expenses  thereof. 

4.  To  establish  uniform  laws  of  naturalization,  and  uniform  laws 
on  the  subject  of  bankruptcies  throughout  the  Confederate  States, 
but  no  law  of  Congress  shall  discharge  any  debt  contracted  before 
the  passage  of  the  same. 

5.  To  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof,  and  of  foreign  coin, 
and  fix  the  standard  oi  weights  and  measures. 


588  CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

6.  To  provide  for  the  punishment  of  counterfeiting  the  securities 
and  current  coin  of  the  Confederate  States. 

7.  To  establish  post-offices  and  post-routes ;  but  the  expenses  of 
the  Post-office  Department,  after  the  first  day  of  March,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-three,  shall  be  paid  out  of 
its  own  revenues. 

8.  To  promote  the  progress  of  science  and  useful  arts,  by  secur 
ing,  for  limited  times,  to  authors  and  inventors,  the  exclusive  right 
to  their  respective  writings  and  discoveries. 

9.  To  constitute  tribunals  inferior  to  the  Supreme  Court. 

10.  To  define  and  punish  piracies  and  felonies  committed  on  the 
high  seas,  and  offences  against  the  law  of  nations. 

11.  To  declare  war,  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  and 
make  rules  concerning  captures  on  land  and  water. 

12.  To  raise  and  support  armies;  but  no  appropriation  of  money 
to  that  use  shall  be  for  a  longer  term  than  two  years. 

13.  To  provide  and  maintain  a  navy. 

14.  To  make  rules  for  the  government  and  regulation  of  the  land 
and  naval  forces. 

15.  To  provide  for  calling  forth  the  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of 
the  Confederate  States,  suppress  insurrections,  and  repel  invasions. 

16.  To  provide  for  organizing,  arming,  and  disciplining  the  mili 
tia,  and  for  governing  such  part  of  them  as  may  be  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  Confederate  States,  reserving  to  the  States  respectively 
the  appointment  of  the  officers,  and  the  authority  of  training  the 
militia  according  to  the  discipline  prescribed  by  Congress. 

17.  To  exercise  exclusive  legislation,  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  over 
such  district  (not  exceeding  ten  miles  square)  as  may,  by  cession  oi 
one  or  more  States,  and  the  acceptance  of  Congress,  become  the 
seat  of  the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States;  and  to  exercise 
like  authority  over  all  places  purchased  by  the  consent  of  the  legis 
lature  of  the  State  in  which  the  same  shall  be,  for  the  erection  of 
forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  and  other  needful  buildings, 
and 

1 8.  To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  car- 
rying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  powers 
vested,  by  this  Constitution,  in  the  Government  of  the  Confederate 
States,  or  in  any  department  or  officer  thereof. 

SECTION.  9 

1.  The  importation  of  negroes  of  the  African  race,  from  an} 
foreign  country,  other  than  the  slaveholding  States  or  Territories  o* 


CONFEDERATE    STATES.  589 

tne  United  States  of  America,  is  hereby  forbidden,  and  Congress  is 
required  to  pass  such  laws  as  shall  effectually  prevent  the  same. 

2.  Congress  shall  also  have  power  to  prohibit  the  introduction  01 
slaves  from  any  State  not  a  member  of,  or  Territory  not  belonging 
to,  this  Confederacy. 

3.  The  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  sus 
pended,  unless  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public 
safety  may  require  it. 

4.  No  bill  of  attainder,  or  ex  post  facto  law,  or  law  denying  or 
impairing  the  right  of  property  in  negro  slaves,  shall  be  passed. 

5.  No  capitation  or  other  direct  tax  shall  be  laid,  unless  in  pro 
portion  to  the  census  or  enumeration  hereinbefore  directed  to  be 

*ken. 

6.  No  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  on  articles  exported  from  any 
State,  except  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  both  Houses. 

7.  No  preference  shall  be  given,  by  any  regulation  of  commerce 
or  revenue,  to  the  ports  of  one  State  over  those  of  another. 

8.  No  money  shall  be  drawn  from  the  Treasury  but  in  con 
sequence  of  appropriations  made  by  law ;  and  a  regular  statement 
and  account  of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  all  public  money 
shall  be  published  from  time  to  time. 

9.  Congress  shall  appropriate  no  money  from  the  treasury  except 
by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  both  Houses,  taken  by  yeas  and  nays, 
unless  it  be  asked  and  estimated  for  by  some  one  of  the  heads  oi 
departments,  and  submitted  to  Congress  by  the  President ;  or  for 
the  purpose  of  paying  its  own  expenses  and  contingencies ;  or  for 
the  payment  of  claims  against  the  Confederate  States,  the  justice  of 
which  shall  have  been  judicially  declared  by  a  tribunal   for  the 
investigation  of  claims  against  the  government,  which  it  is  hereby 
made  the  duty  of  Congress  to  establish. 

10.  All  bills  appropriating  money  shall  specify  in  federal  currency 
the  exact  amount  of  each  appropriation,  and  the  purposes  for  which 
it  is  made  ;  and  Congress  shall  grant  no  extra  compensation  to  any 
public  contractor,  officer,  agent,  or  servant,  after  such  contract  shall 
have  been  made  or  such  service  rendered. 

11.  No  title  of  nobility  shall   be   granted  by  the  Confederate 
States ;  and  no  person  holding  any  office  of  profit  or  trust  under 
them  shall,  without  the  consent  of  the  Congress,  accept  of  any 
present,  emolument,  office,  or  title  of  any  kind  whatever,  from  any 
king,  prince,  or  foreign  state. 

12.  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an  establishment  d 
itiligion,  or  orohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof;  or  abridging  the 


590  CONSTITUTION     OF    THE 

freedom  of  speech  or  of  the  press ;  or  the  right  of  the  people 
peaceably  to  assemble  and  petition  the  Government  for  a  redress  oi 
grievances. 

13.  A  well-regulated  militia  being  necessary  to  the  security  of  a 
free  State,  the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear  arms  shall  not 
be  infringed. 

14.  No  soldier  shall,  in  time  of  peace,  be  quartered  in  any  house 
without  the  consent  of  the  owner ;  nor  in  time  of  war,  but  in  a 
manner  prescribed  by  law. 

15.  The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in  their  persons,  houses, 
papers,  and  effects  against  unreasonable  searches  and  seizures,  shall 
not  be  violated ;  and  no  warrant  shall  issue  but  upon  probable  cause, 
supported  by  oath  or  affirmation,  and  particularly  describing  tho 
place  to  be  searched,  and  the  person  or  things  to  be  seized. 

16.  No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital  or  otherwise 
infamous  crime,  unless  on  a  presentment  or  indictment  of  a  grand 
jury,  except  in  cases  arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the 
militia,  when  in  actual  service,  in  time  of  war,  or  public  danger;  nor 
shall  any  person  be  subject  for  the  same  offence  to  be  twice  put  in 
jeopardy  of  life  or  limb;  nor  be  compelled  in  any  criminal  case  to 
be  a  witness  against  himself;  nor  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or 
property,  without  due  process  of  law;  nor  shall  private  property  be 
taken  for  public  use  without  just  compensation. 

17.  In  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the  right 
to  a,  speedy  and  public  trial,  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the  State  and 
district  wherein  the  crime  shall  have  been  committed,  which  district 
shall  have  been  previously  ascertained  by  law,  and  to  be  informed 
of  the  nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation ;  to  be  confronted  with 
the  witnesses  against  him;  to  have  compulsory  process  for  obtaining 
witnesses  in  his  favor;  and  to  have  the  assistance  of  counsel  for  his 
defence. 

18.  In   suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value   in    controversy 
shall  exceed  twenty  dollars,  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  shall  be  pre 
served  ;  and  no  fact  so  tried  by  a  jury  shall  be  otherwise  re-examined 
in  any  court  of  the  Confederacy  than  according  to  the  rules  of  the 
common  law. 

19.  Excessive  bail  shall  not  be  required,  nor  excessive  fines  im 
posed,  nor  cruel  or  unusual  punishments  inflicted. 

20.  Every   law,    or   resolution    having   the   force   of  law,   shall 
relate    to   but   one   subject,  and   that   shall    be   expressed  in  the 
title. 


CONFEDERATE    STATES. 

SECTION  10. 

1    No  State  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance,  or  confederation 
£rant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal ;  coin  money ;  make  any  thing 
but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment  of  debts ;  pass  any 
oill  of  attainder,  or  ex  post  facto  law,  or  law  impairing  the  obliga 
tion  of  contracts;  or  grant  any  title  of  nobility. 

2.  No  State  shall,  without  the  consent  of  Congress,  lay  any  im 
posts  or  duties  on  imports  or  exports,  except  what  may  be  absolutely 
necessary  for  executir  ^  its  inspection  laws ;  and  the  net  produce  of 
all  duties  and  imposts  laid  by  any  State  on  imports  or  exports,  shall 
be  for  the  use  of  the  Treasury  of  the  Confederate  States ;  and  all 
such  laws  shall  be  subject  to  the  revision  and  control  of  Congress. 

3.  No  State  shall,  without  the  consent  of  Congress,  lay  any  duty 
of  tonnage,  except  on  sea-going  vessels,  for  the  improvement  of  its 
rivers  and  harbors  navigated  by  the  said  vessels ;  but  such  duties 
shall  not  conflict  with  any  treaties  of  the  Confederate  States  with 
foreign  nations;  and  any  surplus  of  revenue  thus  derived,  shall, 
ifter  making  such  improvement,  be  paid  into  the  common  treasury; 
nor  shall  any  State  keep  troops  or  ships  of  war  in  time  of  peace, 
enter  into  any  agreement  or  compact  with  another  State,  or  with  a 
foreign  power,  or  engage  in  war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such 
imminent  danger  as  will  not  admit  of  delay.     But  when  any  river 
divides  or  flows  through  two  or  more  States,  they  may  enter  into 
compacts  with  each  other  to  improve  the  navigation  thereof. 

ARTICLE    II. 

SECTION  1. 

1.  The  Executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  a  President  of  the 
Confederate  States  of  America.     He  and  the  Vice-president  shall 
hold  their  offices  for  the  terra  of  six  years ;  but  the  President  shall 
not   be   re-eligible.     The   President   and   Vice-president   shall   be 
elected  as  follows: 

2.  Each  State  shall  appoint,  in  such  manner  as  the  Legislature 
thereof  may  direct,  a  number  of  electors  equal  to  the  whole  number 
of  Senators  and  Representatives  to  which  the  State  maybe  entitled 
in  Congress ;  but  no  Senator  or  Representative,  or  person  holding 
an  office  of  trust  or  profit  under  the  Confederate  States,  shall  be 
appointed  an  elector. 

3.  The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective  States  and  vote  by 
ballot  for  President  and  Vice-president,  one  of  whom,  at  least,  shaU 


592  CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

not  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  same  State  with  themselves;  they  slab 
name  in  their  ballots  the  person  voted  for  as  President,  and  in  tlis 
tinct  ballots  the  person  voted  for  as  Vice-president,  and  they  shall 
make  distinct  lists  of  all  persons  voted  for  as  President,  and  of  all 
persons  voted  for  as  Vice-president,  and  of  the  number  of  votes  for 
each  ;  which  list  they  shall  sign,  and  certify,  and  transmit,  sealed, 
to  the  Government  of  the  Confederate  States,  directed  to  the  Pre 
sident  of  the  Senate.  The  President  of  the  Senate  shall,  in  the 
presence  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  open  all  the 
certificates,  and  the  votes  shall  then  be  counted ;  the  person  having 
the  greatest  number  of  votes  for  President  shall  be  the  President, 
if  such  number  be  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  electors  ap 
pointed  ;  and  if  no  person  have  such  majority,  then,  from  the  per 
sons  having  the  highest  numbers,  not  exceeding  three,  on  the  list  of 
those  voted  for  as  President,  the  House  of  Representatives  shall 
choose  immediately,  by  ballot,  the  President.  But,  in  choosing  the 
President,  the  votes  shall  be  taken  by  States,  the  representation 
from  each  State  having  one  vote ;  a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall 
consist  of  a  member  or  members  from  two-thirds  of  the  States,  and 
a  majority  of  all  the  States  shall  be  necessary  to  a  choice.  And  if 
the  House  of  Representatives  shall  not  choose  a  President,  whenever 
the  right  of  choice  shall  devolve  upon  them,  before  the  fourth  day 
of  March  next  following,  then  the  Vice-president  shall  act  as  Presi 
dent,  as  in  case  of  the  death  or  other  constitutional  disability  of  the 
President. 

4.  The  person  having  the  greatest  number  of  votes  as  Vice-presi 
dent  shall  be  the  Vice-president,  if  such  number  be  a  majority  of  the 
whole  number  of  electors   appointed ;    and   if  no   person   have  a 
majority,  then,  from  the  two  highest  numbers  on  the  list,  the  Senate 
shall  choose  the  Vice-president;  a  quorum  for  the  purpose  shall  con 
sist  of  two-thirds  of  the  whole  number  of  Senators,  and  a  majority 
of  the  whole  number  shall  be  necessary  for  a  choice. 

5.  But  no  person  constitutionally  ineligible  to  the  office  ot  Presi 
dent  shall  be  eligible  to  that  of  Vice-president  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

G.  The  Congress  may  determine  the  time  of  choosing  the  electors, 
and  the  day  on  which  they  shall  give  their  votes ;  which  day  shall 
be  the  same  throughout  the  Confederate  States. 

7.  No  person  except  a  natural  born  citizen  of  the  Confederate 
States,  or  a  citizen  thereof  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  this  Con- 
ptitution,  or  a  citizen  thereof  born  in  the  United  States  prior  to  the 
20th  December,  1860,  shall  be  eligible  to  the  office  of  President 


CONFEDERATE    STATES.  593 

neither  shall  any  person  be  eligible  to  that  office  who  shall  not  have 
attained  the  ago  of  thirty-five  years,  and  been  fourteen  years  a  resi- 
dent  within  the  limits  of  the  Confederate  States,  as  they  may  exist 
at  the  time  of  his  election. 

8.  In  case  of  the  removal  of  the  President  from  office,  or  of  hi8 
death,  resignation,  or  inability  to  discharge  the  powers  and  duties 
of  the  said  office,  the  same  shall  devolve  on  the  Vice-president;  and 
the  Congress  may,  by  law,  provide  for  the  case  of  the  removal, 
death,  resignation,  or  inability,  both  of  the  President  and  Vice-pre 
sident,  declaring  what  officer  shall  then  act  as  President,  and  such 
officer  shall   act   accordingly  until  the  disability  be  removed,  or  a 
President  shall  be  elected. 

9.  The  President  shall,  at  stated  times,  receive  for  his  services  a 
compensation,  which    shall   neither  be  increased   nor   diminished 
during  the  period  for  which  he  shall  have  been  elected;  and  he 
shall  not  receive  within  that  period  any  other  emolument  from  the 
Confederate  States,  or  any  of  them. 

10.  Before  he  enters  on  the  execution  of  the  duties  of  his  office, 
lie  shall  take  the  following  oath  or  affirmation  : 

*ll  do  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  faithfully  execute  the 
office  of  President  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  will,  to  the  best 
of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect,  arid  defend  the  Constitution  thereof.'* 

k 

SECTION  2. 

1.  The  President  shall  be  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
navy  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  of  the  militia  of  the  several 
States,   when    called   into   the    actual   service  of  the  Confederate 
States;  he  may  require  the  opinion,  in  writing,  of  the  principal 
officer  in  each  of  the  Executive  Departments,   upon  any  subject 
relating  to  the  duties  of  their  respecting  offices.;  and  he  shall  have 
power  to  grant  reprieves  and  pardons  for  offences  against  the  Con 
federate  States,  except  in  cases  of  impeachment. 

2.  He  shall  have  power,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  Senate,  to  make  treaties,  provided  two-thirds  of  the  Senators 
present  concur  ;  and  he  shall  nominate,  and,  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate,  shall  appoint  ambassadors,  other  publ  o 
ministers,  and  consuls,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  all  oth'-r 
officers  of  the  Confederate   States,   whose  appointments    are   n»«t 
herein  otherwise  provided  for,  and  which  shall  be   established  ly 
law  ;  but  the  Congress  may  by  law  vest  the  appointment  of  siu  it 
inferior  officers,  as  they  think  proper,  in  the  President  'ilouo,  ir  M* 
courts  of  law,  or  in  the  haads  of  departments. 


694:  CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

3.  The  principal  officer  in  each  of  the  Executive  Departments, 
and   all  persons  connected  with  the  diplomatic   service,   may  be 
removed  from  office   at   the  pleasure  of  the  President.     All  other 
civil  officers  of  the  Executive  Department  may  be  removed  at  any 
time  by  the  President,  or  other  appointing  power,  when  their  ser 
vices  are  unnecessary,  or  for  dishonesty,  incapacity,   inefficiency, 
misconduct,  or  neglect  of  duty ;  and  when  so  removed,  the  re- 
moval  shall  be  reported  to  the  Senate,  together  with  the  reasons 
therefor. 

4.  The  President  shall  have  power  to  fill  all  vacancies  that  may 
happen  during  the  recess  of  the  Senate,  by  granting  commissiona 
which  shall  expire  at  the  end  of  their  next  session ;  but  no  person 
rejected  by  the  Senate  shall  be  reappointed  to  the  same  office  during 
their  ensuing  recess. 

SECTION  3. 

The  President  shall,  from  time  to  time,  give  to  the  Congress  in- 
formation  of  the  state  of  the  Confederacy,  and  recommend  to  their 
consideration  such  measures  as  he  shall  judgo  necessary  and  ex 
pedient;  he  may,  on  extraordinary  occasions,  convene  both  Houses, 
or  either  of  them  ;  and,  in  case  of  disagreement  between  them,  with 
respect  to  the  time  of  adjournment,  he  may  adjourn  them  to  such 
time  as  he  shall  think  proper;  he  shall  receive  ambassadors  and 
other  public  ministers  ;  he  shall  take  care  that  the  laws  be  faithfully 
executed,  and  shall  commission  all  the  officers  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

SECTION  4. 

The  President,  Vice-president,  and  all  civil  officers  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  shall  be  removed  from  office  on  impeachment  for, 
and  conviction  of,  treason,  bribery,  or  other  high  crimes  and  mis 
demeanors. 

ARTICLE    III. 
SECTION  1. 

The  judicial  power  of  the  Confederate  States  shall  be  vested  in 
one  Superior  Court,  and  in  such  inferior  courts  as  the  Congress 
may  from  time  to  time  ordain  and  establish.  The  judges,  both  of 
the  Supreme  and  inferior  courts,  shall  hold  their  offices  during  good 
behavior,  and  shall,  at  stated  times,  receive  for  their  services  a  com 
pcnsation,  which  shall  not  be  diminished  during  their  continuance 
in  office. 


CONFEDERATE    STATES.  595 

SECTION  2. 

1.  The  judicial  power  shall  extend  to  all  cases  arising  under  this 
Constitution,  the  laws  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  treaties  made 
or  which  shall  be  made  under  their  authority  ;  to  all  cases  affecting 
ambassadors,  other  public  ministers,  and  consuls ;  to  all  cases  of  ad- 
mirality  and  maritime  jurisdiction  ;  to  controversies  to  which  the 
Confederate  States  shall  be  a  party ;  to  controversies  between  two 
or  more  States;  between  a  State  and   citizens  of  another  State, 
where  the  State  is  plaintiff;  between  citizens  claiming  lands  under 
grants  of  different  States,  and  between  a  State  or  the  citizens  there 
of,  and  foreign  States,  citizens,  or  subjects;  but  no  State  shall  be 
sued  by  a  citizen  or  subject  of  any  foreign  State. 

2.  In  all  cases  affecting  ambassadors,  other  public  ministers,  and 
consuls,  and  those  in  which  a  State  shall  be  a  party,  the  Supreme 
Court  shall  have  original  jurisdiction.     In  all  the  other  cases  before 
mentioned,  the  Supreme  Court  shall  have  appellate  jurisdiction,  both 
as  to  law  and  fact,  with  such  exceptions  and  under  such  regulations 
as  the  Congress  shall  make. 

3.  The  trial  of  all  crimes,  except  in  cases  of  impeachment,  shall 
be  by  jury,  and  such  trial  shall  be  held  in  the  State  where  the  said 
crimes  shall  have  been  committed ;  but  when  not  committed  within 
any  State,  the  trial  shall  be  at  such  place  or  places  as  the  Congress 
Diay  by  law  have  directed. 

SECTION  3. 

1.  Treason  against  the  Confederate  States  shall  consist  only  m 
levying  war  against  them,  or  in  adhering  to  their  enemies,  giving 
itheni  aid  and  comfort.     No  person  shall  be   convicted  of  treason 
unless  on  the  testimony  of  two  witnesses  to  the  same  overt  act,  or 
im  confession  in  open  court. 

2.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  declare  the  punishment  of 
treason,  but  no  attainder  of  treason  shall  work  corruption  of  blood, 
or  forfeiture,  except  during  the  life  of  the  person  attainted. 

ARTICLE    IV. 

SECTION  1. 

Full  faith  and  credit  shall  be  given  in  each  State  to  the  public 
lets,  records,  and  judicial  proceedings  of  every  other  State.  And 
the  Congress  may,  by  general  laws,  prescribe  the  manner  in  which 
tucli  acts,  records,  and  proceedings  shall  be  proved,  and  the  effect 


596  CONSTITUTION    OF    THE 

SECTION  2. 

1.  The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges 
arid  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  several  States,  and  shall  have  the 
right  of  transit  and  sojourn  in  any  State  of  this  confederacy,  -\vith 
their  slaves  and  other  property ;  and  the  right  of  property  in  said 
slaves  shall  not  be  thereby  impaired. 

2.  A  person  charged  in  any  State  with  treason,  felony,  or  other 
crime  against  the  laws  of  such  State,  who  shall  flee  from  jastice, 
and  be  found  in  another  State,  shall,  on  demand  of  the  Executive 
authority  of  the  State  from  which   he  fled,  be  delivered  up  to  be 
removed  to  the  State  having  jurisdiction  of  the  crime. 

3.  No  slave  or  other  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  any  State 
or  Territory  of  the   Confederate   States,  under  the  laws  thereof 
escaping  or  unlawfully  carried  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  oi 
any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or 
labor ;  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on   claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  slave  belongs,  or  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due. 

N  3. 

1.  Other  States  may  be  admitted  into  this  Confederacy  by  a  vote 
of  two-thirds  of  the  whole  House  of  Representatives,  and  two-thirds 
of  the  Senate,  the  Senate  voting  by  States;  but  no  new  State  shall 
be  formed  or  erected  within  the  jurisdiction  of  any  other  State ;  nor 
any  State  be  formed  by  the  junction  of  two  or  more  States,  or  parts 
of  States,  without  the  consent  of  the  Legislatures  of  the  States  con 
cerned  as  well  as  of  the  Congress. 

2.  The  Congress  shall   have  power  to  dispose  of  and  make  aU 
needful  rules  and  regulations  concerning  the  property  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  including  the  lands  thereof. 

3.  The  Confederate  States  may  acquire  new  territory ;  and  Con 
gress  shall  have  power  to  legislate  and  provide  governments  for  the 
inhabitants  of  all  territory   belonging   to  the   Confederate  States, 
lying  without  the  limits  of  the  several  States,  and  may  permit  them, 
at  such  times,  and   in   such   manner  as  it  may  by  law  provide,  to 
form  States  to  be  admitted  into  the  Confederacy.     In  all  such  terri 
tory,  the  institution  of  negro  slavery,  as  it  now  exists  in  the  Con 
federate  States,  shall  be  recognized  and  protected  by  Congress  and 
by  the  territorial  government;  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  several 
Confederate  States  and  Territories  shall  have  the  right  to  take  to 
such  territory  any  slaves  lawfully  held  by  them  in  any  of  the  States 
or  Territories  of  the  Confederate  States. 


CONFEDERATE    STATES.  597 

4.  The  Confederate  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  that 
now  is  or  hereafter  may  become  a  member  of  this  Confederacy,  a 
republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  protect  each  of  them 
against  invasion  ;  and  on  application  of  the  Legislature  (or  of  the 
Executive  when  the  Legislature  is  not  in  session,)  against  domestic 
/iolenoe. 

ARTICLE    V 
SECTION  1. 

Upon  the  demand  of  any  three  States,  legally  assembled  in  their 
several  Conventions,  the  Congress  shall  summon  a  Convention  of  all 
the  States,  to  take  into  consideration  such  amendments  to  the  Con 
stitution  as  the  said  States  shall  concur  in  suggesting  at  the  time 
when  the  said  demand  is  made;  and  should  any  of  the  proposed 
amendments  to  the  Constitution  be  agreed  on  by  the  said  Conven 
tion — voting  by  States—  and  the  same  be  ratified  by  the  Legislatures 
of  two-thirds  of  the  several  States,  or  by  Conventions  in  two-thirds 
thereof — as  the  one  or  the  other  mode  of  ratification  may  be  pro 
posed  by  the  general  Convention — they  shall  thenceforward  form  a 
part  of  this  Constitution.  But  no  State  shall,  without  its  consent 
be  deprived  of  its  equal  representation  in  the  Senate. 

ARTICLE    VI. 

SECTION  1. 

1.  The  Government  established  by  this  Constitution  is  the  suc 
cessor  of  the  Provisional  Government  of  the  Confederate  States  of 
America,  and  all  the  laws  passed  by  the  latter  shall  continue  in  force 
until  the  same  shall  be  repealed  or  modified  ;  and  all  the  officers 
appointed  by  the  same  shall   remain  in  office  until  their  successors 
are  appointed  and  qualified,  or  the  offices  abolished. 

2.  All  debts  contracted  and  engagements  entered  into  before  the 
adoption  of  this  Constitution,  shall  be  as  valid  against  the  Con 
federate  States  under  this  Constitution  as  under  the  Provisional 
Government. 

3.  This  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the  Confederate  States  made 
in  pursuance  thereof;  and  all  treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made 
under  the  authority  of  the  Confederate  States,  shall  he  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land,  and  the  judges  in  every  State  shall  be  bound  thereby, 
any  thing  in*  the  Constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to  the  crutrary 
notwithstanding. 


598         CONSTITUTION    OF    THE    CONFEDERATE    STATES. 

4.  The  Senators  and  Representatives  before  mentioned,  and  the 
members  of  the  several  State  Legislatures,  and  all  executive  and 
judicial  officers,  both  of  the  Confederate  States  and  of  the  several 
States,  shall  be  bound,  by  oath  or  affirmation,  to  support  this  Con 
stitution  ;  but  no  religious  test  shall  ever  be  required  as  a  qualifica 
tion  to  any  office  of  public  trust  under  the  Confedeiate  States. 

5.  The  enumeration,  in  the  Constitution,  of  certain  rights,  shall 
not  be  construed  to  deny  or  disparage  others  retained  by  the  people 
of  the  several  States. 

6.  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  Confederate  States  by  the 
Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the 
States  respectively,  or  to  the  people  thereof. 


ARTICLE    VII. 

SECTION  1. 

1.  The  ratification  of  the  Conventions  of  five  States  shall  be  suf 
ficient  for  the  establishment  of  this  Constitution  between  the  States 
so  ratifying  the  same. 

When  five  States  shall  have  ratified  this  Constitution  in  the  man- 
ner  before  specified,  the  Congress,  under  the  provisional  Constitu 
tion,  shall  prescribe  the  time  for  holding  the  election  of  President 
and  Vice-president,  and  for  the  meeting  of  the  electoral  college,  and 
for  counting  the  votes  and  inaugurating  the  President.  They  shall 
also  prescribe  the  time  for  holding  the  first  election  of  members  oi 
Congress  under  this  Constitution,  and  the  time  for  assembling  the 
same.  Until  the  assembling  of  such  Congress,  the  Congress  under 
the  provisional  Constitution  shall  continue  to  exercise  the  legislative 
powers  granted  them;  not  extending  beyond  the  time  limited  by 
the  Constitution  of  the  Provisional  Government. 

Adopted  unanimously,  March  11,  1861, 

AT   MONTGOMEEY,     ALABAMA. 


EERATA. 


THE  attention  of  the  author  was  directed  to  Borne  particulars  of  his  work, 
which  required  some  correction  or  explanation,  at  the  time  when  it  was  pass 
ing  through  the  press.  It  was  then  too  late  to  modify  the  passages  referred  to, 
unless  in  the  form  of  a  postscript  or  appendix.  The  author  congratulates  hinv 
s«lf  that  he  has  found  real  occasion  for  so  few  corrections  or  explanations. 

Page  42. — The  date  of  Anderson's  evacuation  of  Fort  Moultrie  should  be  th« 
26th  of  December  instead  of  the  20th ;  the  error  occurred  through  a  mistake  of 
ihe  digit  6  for  0  in  the  rough  notes  of  the  author. 

Page  183. — In  noticing  the  expedition  of  our  cavalry  to  Guyandotte,  wi 
should  have  associated  with  this  bold  enterprise  the  name  of  Col.  Clarkson 
who  originated  it  and  was  intrusted  with  its  execution  by  Gen.  Floyd.  Th* 
services  of  Col.  Clarkson  on  this  and  other  enterprises,  and  his  intrepidity  on 
some  of  the  most  critical  occasions  in  the  western  Virginia  campaign,  deserve 
mention,  and  we  regret  that  we  can  give  it  no  further  within  the  limits  of  this 
postscript,  than  to  supply  the  omission  of  credit  justly  due  him  in  connection 
with  the  famous  expedition  of  our  cavalry  to  the  Ohio. 

Page  253. — The  circumstances  in  which  Governor  Harris  left  Nashville 
were  imperfectly  known  at  the  time ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  some 
injustice  was  done  to  one  of  the  most  ardent  and  courageous  patriots  of  the 
South,  in  attributing  his  conduct  on  this  occasion  to  panic  or  embarrassment. 
The  circumstances  in  which  he  acted  have  been  ascertained  from  unquestion 
able  sources  of  testimony,  and  may  be  briefly  narrated  here :  On  the  morning 
of  Sunday,  the  IGth  of  February,  at  ten  minutes  after  4  o'clock,  a  messenger 
arrived  at  Gen.  Johnston's  head-quarters  at  Edgefield,  opposite  Nashville,  with 
a  dispatch  announcing  the  fall  of  Donelson.  Orders  were  at  once  issued  to 
push  the  army  forward  acrons  the  river  as  soon  as  possible.  The  city  papers 
or  extras  of  that  morning  published  dispatches  announcing  a  "  glorious  vic 
tory."  The  city  was  wild  with  joy.  About  the  time  the  people  were  assem 
bling  at  the  churches,  it  was  announced  by  later  extras  that  "  Donelson  had 
fallen."  The  revulsion  was  great.  Governor  Harris,  however,  had  been 
informed  of  the  fact  early  in  the  morning,  and  had  proceeded  to  Gen.  John 
ston's  head-quarters  to  advise  with  him  as  to  the  best  course  to  adopt  under 
the  altered  circumstances.  The  action  of  the  State  authorities  would,  ot 
course,  be  greatly  influenced  by  the  course  Gen.  Johnston  intended  to  adopt 
vrih  the  army.  The  general  told  the  governor  that  Nashville  was  utterly 


1258  ERRATA. 

indefensible,  that  the  arny  would  pass  right  through  the  city;  that  any 
attempt  to  defend  it  with  the  means  at  his  command  would  result,  in  disaster 
to  the  army  and  the  destruction  of  the  city  ;  that  the  first  and  highest  duty 
of  the  governor  was  to  the  public  trusts  in  his  hands,  and  he  thought,  to  dis 
charge  them  properly,  he  should  at  once  remove  the  archives  and  public  rec 
ords  to  some  safer  place,  and  call  the  Legislature  together  elsewhere  than  a 
Nashville.  Governor  Harris  did  all  this  quietly,  energetically,  and  patriotic- 
lly.  Just  as  soon  as  he  had  deposited  these  papers,  he  returned  to  Nashville 
The  confusion  at  Nashville  did  not  reach  its  height  until  a  humane  attrrnp 
was  made  to  distribute  among  the  poor  a  portion  of  the  public  stores  which 
could  not  be  removed.  The  lowest  passions  seemed  to  have  been  aroused  in  a 
large  mass  of  men  and  women,  and  the  city  appeared  as  if  it  was  in  the  hands 
of  a  mob.  The  military  authority,  however  (Gen.  Floyd  having  been  put  in 
command  by  Gen.  Johnston),  asserted  its  supremacy,  and  comparative  order 
was  restored.  During  these  excitements  it  became  publicly  known,  for  the 
first  time,  that  Governor  Harris  was  out  of  the  city,  but  few  really  knowing 
that  he  had  quietly  gone  away  in  the  discharge  of  a  public  duty.  His  absence 
was  wholly  misunderstood,  and,  of  course,  misrepresented.  There  is  no  doubt 
but  that,  in  the  course  of  these  misrepresentations  in  the  newspapers,  injustice 
was  done  to  a  man  who  illustrated  his  devotion  to  the  South  by  distinguished 
courage  on  the  battle-field,  and  who,  from  the  moment  that  he- first  rebuffed 
the  Washington  government  in  his  famous  defiance  to  Lincoln's  call  for 
troops,  down  to  recent  periods  in  the  history  of  the  revolution,  had  given  the 
most  constant  and  honorable  proofs  of  his  attachment  to  the  liberties  and 
fortunes  of  the  South. 


A   CO3\I3?LH:T3i:   SOUTHERN'   HISTORY  ! 


SOUTHERN  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAR: 


By   EDWARD    A.. 

Late  Editor  of  the  Richmond  Examiner. 

One  Volume  8vo.  1258  Pages, 
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Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee,  Gen.  P.  G.  T.  Beauregard,  Gen.  W.  J.  Hardee, 

.    Gen.  Jos.  E.  Johnston,  Gen.  Braxton  Bragg,  Gen.  John  Morgan, 

Gen.  T.  J.  Jackson,  Gen  R.  S.  Ewell,  Gen.  Samuel  Cooper, 

Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  Gen.  E.  Kirby  Smith,  Jefferson  Davis, 

Gen.  James  Longstreet.  Gen.  Sterling  Price,  Alex.  H.  Stephens, 

Gen.  A.  P.  Hiil,  Gen.  Wade  Hampton,  Edward  A.  Po!Iard. 

Gen.  John  B.  Hood,  Gen.  Leonidas  Polk, 


Mr.  Pollard's  editorial  position  during  the  War  placed  at  his  disposal  a  vast 
amount  of  ofH'3ial  ani  authentic  information  in  regard  to  the  events  then 
transpiring,  and  it  is  one  of  the  chief  excallences  of  this  History  that,  being 
written  while  the  intense  interest  of  its  great  subject  was  unabated,  it  has  all 
the  vividness  and  graphicness  of  such  contemporary  writing.  No  work  writ 
ten  at  a  later  date  can  have  this  charm  of  life-like  vividness ;  and  the  prepara 
tion  of  an  elaborate-,  scientific  History,  is  the  work  of  many  years,  and  cannot 
yet  be  attempted. 

The  excellence  and  value  of  this  History  consist  largely  in  the  fact  that  it 
daguerreotypes  the  swiftly  occuring  events  of  the  hour — speaks  of  them  as 
they  were  thought  of  at  the  time — describes  them  as  they  seemed  to  the  actors 
in  them — and  brings  back  to  mind  with  their  early  freshness  and  interest  the 
Changing  impulses  and  feelings  of  the  past  time. 

This  History  alons  has  this  interest  and  excellence,  and  the  public  are  cau- 
tionod  against  expecting  such  merit  in  any  subsequently  written  works.  Intelli 
gent  readers  desire  to  know  what  was  thought  at  ih&  Urns  of  their  occurrence  of 
the  great  events  of  History. 

Tiie  completeness  and  cheapness  of  this  work  make  it  most  desirable.  It  is 
a  comprehensive  and  fully  detailed  History  of  the  momentous  four  years  dur 
ing  which  Secession  was  fought  for  and  lost.  It  begins  with  the  causes  leading 
to  the  War — describes  carefully  and  vividly  all  the  brilliant  and  extraordinary 
campaigns  of  the  long  conflict— points  out  the  political  relations  of  events — 
describes  picturesquely  and  graphically  the  fall  of  Eichmond— and  closes  with 
the  surrender  of  the  several  Confederate  armies,  and  the  consequent  end  of 
the  War  ; — while  its  very  low  price  makes  it  the 

CHEAPEST  HISTORY  NOW  PUBLISHED! 

It  is  one-half  larger  than  any  other  work  of  its  kind,  and  its  twenty  finely 
engraved,  full  page,  steel  portraits  are  alone  worth  the  entire  cost  of  the  book. 

The  almost  unanimous  commendation  of  the  press— the  approval  of  the 
Confederate  loaders — and  the  immense  sale  of  the  book  everywhere,  aro  suffi 
cient  proofs  of  its  great  value. 

RICHARDSON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

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LEE  AND  HIS  GENERALS: 


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One  Volume  8vo.,  500  Pages. 
Cloth $3.50  |  Half  calf,  library  style 

WITH    SPLENDID    STEEL    PORTRAITS    OF 

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Gen.  T.  J.  Jackson,  Gen.  Wade  Hampton,  Gen.  Sterling  Price, 

Gen.  P.  G.  T.  Bsauregard,  Gen.  James  Longstreet,  Gen.  W.  J.  Hardee, 

Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  Gen.  A.  P.  Hill,  Gen.  John  Morgan. 

Gen.  Braxton  Bragg,  Gen.  Samuel  Cooper, 

And  an  Engraving  of  Gen.  Lee's  Ancestral  Home  in  Virginia. 


No  book  more  excellent  than  this  as  regards  its  treatment  of  its  subjects, 
its  beauty  of  appearance,  and  its  universal  popularity,  is  now  offered  to  the 
public.  No  expense  lias  been  spared  to  secure  excellence  in  all  its  features, 
and  the  Author,  by  the  most  pains-taking  care  and  diligent  research,  has, 
prepared  a 

VOLUME  OF  HEROIC  BIOGRAPHIES, 

which  will  be  of  lasting  value  and  interest.  These  renowned  Generals  were 
the  life  of  the  Southern  Armies,  and  these  graphic  and  complete  sketches  of 
their  lives  and  campaigns,  form  really  a 

BIOGRAPHICAL   HISTORY   OF   THE  WAR. 

Such  records  of  personal  adventure  and  accomplishment  form  the  most 
intensely  interesting  history ;  they  have  a  direct  and  absorbing  attraction,  pos 
sessed  by  no  other  style  of  writing.  The  first  desire  of  each  one  in  regard  to 
every  prominent  man,  is  to  know  more  intimately  his  personal  life  and  doings, 
to  become  acquainted  with  the  man  himself. 

This  information  can  rarely  be  obtained  in  elaborate  Histories ;  but  is  dis 
tinctively  the  province  of  such  a  work  as  "  Lee  and  his  Generals  " 

The  finely  engraved  full  page  steel  Portraits  are  a  distinguishing  feature  in  the 
book.  They  are  the  finest  portraits  yet  issued,  and  are  alone  worth  the  entire 
cost  of  the  work.  The  immense  sale  of  the  book  in  every  section  of  the 
country,  assures  us  that  our  estimate  of  its  excellence,  is  in  no  way  too  high. 

RICHARDSON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

54O  Broadway,  New  Yor?& 


A  BOOK  FOR  EVERY  SOUTHERN  HOME 


OF  THE  SOUTH 


Edited  by  W.  GILMORE  SIMMS,  L  L.  D. 

OF  SOUTH    CAROLINA. 
Ono    "Volume    ISmo-,    488    3?ages. 

Cloth $2.50      Morocco  Cloth  extra,  Gilt  Edges,  $3,5O 


The  Publishers  take  great  pleasure  in  issuing  a  volume  of  Southern  Poetry, 
occasioned  by  the  late  War,  such  as,  it  is  believed,  will  happily  vindicate 
the  taste  and  talent  of  the  Southern  people.  The  collection  has  been  made 
by  an  author  whose  reputation  is  general  throughout  all  the  States.  He  has 
thus  enjoyed  the  greatest  advantages  in  making  the  collection ;  contributions 
having  been  freely  sent  him  from  all  parts  of  the  late  Confederacy. 
The  various  pieces  will  be  found  to  represent  all  classes  of  people;  all 
aspects  of  popular  feeling;  the  enthusiasm  which  glows  with  triumph;  thfl 
dispondency  which  mourns  over  defeat ;  the  pride  which  exults  in  the  hero ; 
and  the  despair  which  sees  ruin  in  his  fall.  Here  is  the  lyric  which  times  thf* 
march  to  battle ;  the  slogan  which  inspires  the  charge ;  the  rally  which  re- 
inspires  after  reverse ;  and  the  elegy  which  recites  the  virtues  of  the  beloved 
one  • the  subdued  sorrow  of  the  palace,  and  the  unmeasured  wail  of  the  cot 
tage.  Every  home  in  the  South,  every  affection,  feeling  and  sympathy  here 
finds  its  illustrative  record  in  melodious  verse.  In  every  home  this  volume  will 
prove  a  family  book,  to  be  fondly  pored  over,  with  various  recollections,  and 
fondly  and  frequently  referred  to,  as  embodying  a  record  precious  to  the  grow 
ing  generations.  It  is  a  grateful,  though  melancholy  record,  and  although  it 
tell?  of  defeat  and  overthrow,  and  the  forfeiture  of  confident  hopes,  and  of 
proud  anticipations,  it  is  still  a  monument  of  pride,  as  it  tells  of  heroic  struggle 
to  the  last,  arid  of  a  sublime  resignation,  even  after  the  defeat  of  every  hope. 
Many  of  these  poems  are  from  pens  already  well  known  and  honored  in  the 
literature  of  the  nation.  Others  from  less  known  and  humbler  sources  are  yet 
not  unworthy  of  their  association.  The  whole  constitutes  a  memorial  at 
once  to  the  patriotism  and  the  genius  of  the  Southern  people.  It  would  be 
invidious  were  we  to  refer  to  particular  names,  and  to  invite  attention^  to  par 
ticular  pieces,  for  the  whole  will  be  read  with  respect  and  a  great  portion  with 
highest  admiration.  There  will  be  found,  we  trust,  no  small  number  of  these 
pieces  quite  worthy  of  a  place  in  any  collection  of  American  and  patriotic 
Poetry.  The  volume  well  merits  to  become 

A   FASVilLY    BOOK    IN    EVERY   SOUTHERM    HOME. 

Agents  will  find  this  admirable  and  interesting  bock  received  with  enthusi- 
everywhere,  and  its  sale  universal. 

RICHARDSON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

Broadivay,  New  York 


JUST     PUBLISHED! 
Ax*.    Elegant    arid.    Ch.airm.ing    Boole, 


WOMEN    OF    THE   SOUTH: 

DISTINGUISHED  IN  LITERATUEE. 

1  Vol.  8ro.;    511  Pages. 

ILLUSTRATED  WITH   SPLENDID   PORTRAITS,    ON   STtEL,    FROM   LIFE,   OF 


MME.  OCTAVIA  WALTON  LE  VERT, 
Miss  MARIA  J.  McIxTOSn, 
MKS.  ROSA  VERTNER  JOHNSON, 


Mus.  ANNA  CORA  RITCHIE, 
Miss  AUGUSTA  J.  EVANS, 
MRS.  L.  VIRGINIA  FRENCH, 


MARION  HARLAND. 
And  containing  FULL  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES  ant  specimen  extracts  from  the  most 

celebrated  writings  in  prose  and  versa,  of 
33    DISTINGUISHED    LITERAHY    ««  WO3IBX    OP    THE    SOUTH." 

This  charming  book  has  bean  prepared  with  the  utmost  care,  and  at  very  great 
expense,  and  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  interesting  works  yet  issued.  It  is 
a  storehouse  of  the  best  productions  of  this  large  number  of  our  most  talented 
and  popular  Female  Writers,  and  is 

A  LIBRARY  OF  ELEGAHT  LITERATURE  1$  ITSELF, 

Many  of  the  writers  in  this  brilliant  company  have  achieved  a  world-wide  repu 
tation,  and  among  the  extra2ts  from  their  writings  gathered  into  the  volume,  are 
many  of  the  most  celebrated  productions  in  our  American  Literature. 

Tfye  Portrait*  alone  are  worth  more  than  the  cost  of  tlte  Volume. 

The  book  is  beautifully  printed  on  fine  paper,  and  neatly  bound  in  cloth. 
Price  $3.50.  An  extra  Library  edition — Morocco  cloth,  Gilt  Edges,  $4.50. 


LIFE,  SEEVICES  AND  CAMPAIGNS 

OP 

STONEWALL    JACKSON: 

BY  A  VIRGINIAN. 

1  Volume,  12mo;  325  pages;  $1.50. 

"With  Authentic  Portraits  of 

JACKSON,  and  his  Successor  EWELL,  on  Steel. 


STONEWALL  JACKSON  has  made  so  profound  and  lasting  an  impression  on  the 
public  mind  that  an  authentic  biography  is  sought  after  with  the  greatest  avidity. 
This  is  a  life  written  by  a  Confederate  Officer,  who  knew  him  well,  served  under 
him  in  his  brilliant  career,  was  assisted  in  the  work  by  Mrs.  JACKSON,  and  had 
access  to  all  his  papers. 

It  contains  the  only  authentic  portrait  of  JACKSON — being  the  one  taken  from 
life;  shortly  before  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  for  Mrs.  JACKSOJT. 


iN"  O  V  IS  IL,  T 


G-AME    OF    BATTLE 


The  subscriber  has  tho  pleasure  cf  presenting  to  the  public  a  new  and  beautiful  Game, 
invented  during  the  war  by  Col.  Charles  Richardson,  of  the  Artillery  of  General  Lee's  Army, 
and  pronounced  by  distinguished  military  critics  and  chess-players,  one  of  the  most  attractive 
find  "ingenious  Games  of  strategy  yet  offered  to  the  public.  It  is  a  game  of  the  highest 
interest  and  morifc. 

War-Chess,  or  tho  Game  of  Enltlp,  is  phycd  by  two  persons  with  figures  representing 
Soldiers  (Cavalry,  Artillery,  and  Infantry),  forming  two  antagonistic  armies,  operating  on  a 
board — as  seen  above.  The  board  represents  a  comparatively  level  country  traversed  by  a 
river,  passable  at  three  points  only,  viz. :  the  bridge  and  two  fords. 

On  one  side  of  tho  river  there  is  a  figure  repiesenting  a  City  which  is  to  bo  defended,  and 
if  captured,  the  player  of  that  side  loses  tho  game.  On  the  other  side  is  a  figure  representing 
a  Wagon — "  tho  supply  train"  of  that  Army — which  must  be  carefully  guarded,  as  its  loss 
is  the  defeat  of  the  pluycr  of  tl.o  side  To»wLich  it  belongs. 

The  figures  (representing  tho  different  arms  of  tho  military  service)  have  different  powers 
and  capacities,  as  in  actual  warfare,  and  the  game  is  thus  inado  to  resemble  uud  illustrate  a 
real  conflict. 

A  book  of  explanations  accompanies  cnch  copy  of  the  Game,  giving  its  composition,  rules 
for  playing,  suggestions  to  players,  remarks  illustrating  the  po\ver  of  the  figures  as  compared 
with  that  of  the"  troops  represented;  plates  illustrating  certain  moves,  &c.,  and  indeed  ex 
plicitly  showing  how  the  game  is  to  be  played. 

Price  $5.00.  The  figures  silvered  and  bronzed,  and  the  board  very  tastefully  lithographed. 
We  prepare  a  finer  edition,  also,  the  figures  full  length  (as  in  cut),  silvered  and  bronzed, 
the  board  coverc;  1  wUh  fine  morocco,  and  every  detail  finished  in  the  most  elegant  manner. 
Price  $20.00.  This  set  makes  an  elegant  parlor  ornament.  Carefully  packed  and  sent  by 
express,  upon  receipt  of  price.  The  Trade  supphod  upon  liberal  terms. 

C.   B.   RICHARDSON,  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

54=0    Jlroaclwa.y*  Wow 


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